She gave him a look. “What do you think? I’m studying.”

He scowled. He hated the way she talked back to him. She was supposed to just…be there. Silently. “Like what? How to be a dorkface?”

She wrinkled her nose and turned back to her notes. “Not worth my time.”

That dismissal, delivered with a careless shrug, punched him in the gut. His heart rate spiked, blood rushing through him with a furious roar. Snotty bitch. Nobody dismissed him like that. Nobody!

“For god’s sake. Shane, can’t you have Al take care of that? I have other obligations,” came his father’s annoyed voice. “Or if you must, ask your mother.” Then he added under his breath, “She’s the one who wanted all these children, not me.”

Shane wasn’t sure if his father meant for him to hear the last comment. He never gave a shit about anything or anybody. It was obvious he hated every minute he had to waste on Shane.

He lunged to his feet and slammed his fists against her desk so hard it rattled. The camera shook, then toppled over the edge, smashing against the hard floor. The outer casing cracked. Ginger cried out and picked it up, but it was too late. Something inside rattled as she turned it in her hands.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she yelled. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Nobody ignores me. I’m not some accident nobody wants!”

“I never said you were. For god’s sake!” Tears trickled down her cheeks, and she wiped them away. “You’re such a jerk, you know that? You think you’re something special because you have money, but you’re an asshat. You wouldn’t like yourself if you could just see what you’re like.”

“Handsome and rich and got everything in the world?”

She shoved her camera into her backpack and looped the straps around her shoulders, her motions jerky. She hadn’t even zipped her bag right, and some stuff fell out. Before he could tell her, she spun on her heel and left.

He clenched his jaw. Maybe he shouldn’t have reacted so violently and damaged her camera. But whatever. She was the one who’d said he wasn’t “worth it.”

Glancing down at the papers she’d dropped, he realized they were pictures. Jeez. Who the hell printed photos anymore?

He reached down and picked up the pictures on the floor. As he was about to dump them into the trashcan, he blinked, stopping. He pulled them closer, studying his face.

His eyes were bright in the photo, but not with smug satisfaction. They were full of anger and derision. His lips were twisted into an ugly, cynical line. Maybe it was because he was having a crappy day when she’d taken the picture. Then he realized that wasn’t the case. The picture had been taken when he’d been hanging out with his friends after school.

His insides going cold, he flipped to the next one. It was the same. He wasn’t even close to “handsome, rich and got everything in the world.” He looked like an angry, pissed off brat with an attitude problem…just like his oldest brother Dane always said.

And he hated it. He hated that he was exactly as Dane had described. Entitled. Foolish. Not worth the hassle. His gut twisted, and he curled his nose as bile rose up his throat.

“Shane?”

He blinked. Ginger was looking up at him, a frown creasing her forehead. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” He shook his head. “Hey…you remember the camera I broke?”

“What camera?”

“You know, the one in high school.”

She inhaled sharply. “You remember?”

“Did I replace it?” He wrapped his hand around her upper arm, suddenly needing the touch. Say yes.

“Yeah. The next day. Actually you bought me one that was a lot better than the one I had.” A wistful smile ghosted over her lips. “It was…unexpected.”

“Why? Was I that bad?”

She laughed softly. “It’s not that. I was pretty abrupt with you when the camera fell on the floor. I mean you nudged it over when you hit my desk, but I shouldn’t have put it so close to the edge either.”

He didn’t know how she could laugh about that when he felt like a total dickhead for what he’d done. What kind of an idiot had he been? “Did I apologize?”

“When you gave me the new camera, yeah. You were sort of stiff.” She peered up at him. “So. Your turn. How much do you remember?”

He shrugged, rolling on the balls of his feet. “Just…that. Nothing much.”

“I see. Well, still, it’s good that you remember a little bit. Even if it’s unpleasant, your past has made you who you are today.” She put a hand on his arm. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. The camera was old anyway. It was about time I got a new one.”

He didn’t think so. There hadn’t been any reason for her to buy another. It did something funny to his insides to hear her say things to make him feel better when he didn’t deserve it. And what kind of insensitive clod was he that he hadn’t noticed her sweetness…hadn’t even tried? When he’d seen her at the hotel, he’d thought she was a damn fine woman. He thought she’d look great naked in his bed.

How shallow he’d been.

As he gazed into her eyes, he saw her beauty wasn’t just on the surface. She glowed from within her soul.

And he wanted to hold onto her, be surrounded by her light. He cupped her cheeks. The contact seemed to warm even the coldest corner of his heart. “Ginger…”

Her eyes drifted shut, the long, dark eyelashes resting on her cheeks like butterflies. He kissed her. She tasted as sweet as the ripest strawberries of the season. He deepened the kiss, flickering his tongue against hers in a sensual invitation to pleasure each other.

She moaned softly, her body relaxing like heated wax. She pressed into him, and he let her in. Her hands tunneled into his wind-mussed hair and tightened around his scalp.

Desire surged fast, his cock going rigid. The previous encounter had left him sexually frustrated, and kissing her like this under the sun only intensified his need for her.

He pulled her closer until she could feel his cock against her. “You have no idea how beautiful you are, how much I want you.”

Rose colored her cheeks, and she looked away.

“Don’t. You’re perfect. I wish I could show you what I see when I look at you.”

“There’s the camera,” she rasped.

“I can’t capture it.”

“Sure you can.” She licked the column of his throat. “You’re one of the best photographers I know.”

He dropped to his knees and buried his face in her navel, his mouth against her hot skin. “It can never properly record the way you radiate with light. Or your gentle soul.” And how much he wanted to possess and protect her. He groaned. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

“Neither do you,” she said shakily. “I know we shouldn’t, but I can’t think straight whenever you’re around.”

“Don’t pull back.” He tightened his arms around her legs. “If you want me to grovel for the shitty things I said to you in South Africa, I will. If you want me to promise to call you every day, I’ll do that too.”

“Oh, Shane.” She fell to her knees and looked into his eyes. “I don’t want you to do any of that. The situation’s just—we’re just—too complicated.”

“Why? We’re engaged. We’re sexually compatible—I don’t have to have sex with you to know that, since I can’t imagine us staying together that long if we weren’t—and we obviously care for each other. You can’t even say that money’s the problem in our relationship because I have more than plenty. What more does a relationship need?” he said.