I am Not as Good as You Think

One of the boys yelped, outrage bubbling up as if he had been wronged. Leon felt not a shred of remorse. If anything, the flash of fear in their eyes fed something dark and deliberate inside him.

"You should really watch your mouths. The filth you think and spit out in public makes me sick. Got it?" His voice rose from the chest, rough and steady, and for a moment he looked less like the calm lecturer he was and more like a lion driven past patience. "And you will learn to respect women. Especially my female students. Understand?"

The two exchanged a panicked glance. They looked like rats caught under a hawk’s shadow, trembling as they nodded with wide, glassy eyes. The sight almost amused Leon. Their fear lightened his mood in a strange and fleeting way.

"Good." He released their collars. "I do not want to hear trash like that from you again. If I see you and you are still talking that way, you might end up tasting my fist."

"Y—yeah sir. Sorry. Really sorry," one of them stammered.

"Sorry sir," the other echoed.

"Get out of here. You are disgusting me."

They bolted. Leon watched their clumsy retreat with a predator’s satisfaction simmering beneath his skin.

Then came a voice he knew too well.

"Oh wow. No one has ever been man enough to defend my honor like that. Guess I could get used to it."

Leon turned. Silvana stood a few paces away with that sweet, maddening smile she wore like perfume. Hands on her hips, eyes glittering with the confidence of someone who knew precisely how striking she was. She flipped her long hair over her shoulder, and something inside him twisted.

For a heartbeat Leon went still. Old fantasies he had tried to bury stirred like flies in the warm air. Get a grip Leon. She is your student.

"By the way thanks Sir Leon," she said, sincere beneath the teasing.

"Umm yeah well…" Leon managed, his voice cracking like a teenage boy.

Perfect. Now he was acting like someone her age, flushed and awkward, as if puberty had come back for a second round. He cleared his throat and turned slightly, as though her gaze were too bright to meet head on.

"I just did what felt right. I know you. It would be weird to stand there while those idiots turned you into an object."

Silvana let out a soft giggle, a sound light enough to stir the warm night air.

"Alright then. I think what you did was actually pretty bold. I like that," she said with unbothered ease. Her gaze slid past Leon’s shoulder, checking to see whether the two boys had truly vanished. "They thought they could just walk up to me like that. But not everyone gets access, you know? So… what were they saying about me earlier?"

"Ah that," Leon muttered. He cleared his throat once more and reached for another cigarette, as if nicotine could straighten the tangled wires inside him. "I think you already know without me saying it. Just the usual gross things guys talk about."

He lit the cigarette and inhaled, but his composure was a thin veneer. Silvana’s eyes followed the movement, lingering on the cigarette resting between his lips. Then a grin blossomed across her face, all mischief and dangerous charm.

"Oh really?"

She leaned in closer, eyes wide with curiosity, so close he could count the flecks of gold in her irises. Something hot and unwelcome flickered in his mind again. For the second time tonight he had to wrestle with thoughts he had no business indulging.

"So what kind of gross things do guys usually talk about?" she asked. "And do you ever feel guilty about it?"

Leon let out a stiff laugh. The question was too sharp, almost surgical in how it poked at the truth he never intended to voice. Yes, of course he had indulged in such fantasies. And yes, on more than one shameful night, Silvana had been the center of them. But admitting such a thing would be madness.

Luck favored him in small, clumsy ways. He felt calmer now, the cigarette settling his nerves just enough for words to form.

"Never," he answered jokingly. "You should go home soon. It’s not safe for you to wander around this late wearing that."

Silvana raised a brow. "Oh come on, don’t change the topic like that. And we both know you’re lying."

Leon lifted his brows at her, a small sound of annoyance slipping through his throat. Silvana only grinned wider. She knew the power she carried, the way a little effort from her could warp the air around her into something ripe and dangerous.

She stepped closer, close enough that any passerby would mistake her for a coquette rather than a bright college student. She did not seem to care. "So what kind of things were you guys talking about, Sir Leon?" she asked. Her eyes flicked to his mouth again, hungry with curiosity. "Were you talking about what you would do to them? Or what you would do to the girls who like you?"

Leon removed the cigarette from his lips, releasing smoke that curled into the night like a spell. He exhaled slowly, his voice a shade lower. "There is no way I would expose that to girls. Especially not to a good girl like you."

Silvana said nothing. Her gaze lingered, tracing the smoke that wreathed around him. The nicotine haze framed him like the subject of a painting, something carved from shadows and arrogance. He looked back at her, and for a heartbeat both of them were caught staring.

In Leon’s mind, Silvana was a vision dipped in gold. City light brushed her cheekbones, made her features sharp and luminous. Her blonde hair caught the glow, turning it richer, almost molten. The shape of her body was defined with casual cruelty, as if the world itself conspired to make her more beautiful.

Silvana lifted her chin, lips curving as if she had just decided on a secret. "You know, Sir Leon, I am not as good as you think. I actually did something earlier that most other students would never do. Something you probably would not imagine."