I cleared my throat. “My dearest Elizabeth, your eyes are the most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen, like the color of the Blue Man Group. Let me count the ways I love them. I love them more than fish and chips. I love them more than Dr. Feldman’s class. I could …”

She slapped me playfully on the arm. “Okay, that’s enough with the cheesy poetry.”

I kept my face blank. “Too bad you’ll never know now how much better it could have got.”

She paused, stopping her laughter with her hands. “Wait. You are teasing me, aren’t you? ’Cause that was crap.”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Ugh, I hate it when you do that noncommittal shrug. I can’t figure you out.”

I grinned. “Good.”

I rolled her onto her back and kissed her again, this time more insistent, my hands cupping her face. She craned upward, wanting more, her hands sliding and rubbing my lower back, her nails digging into my arse.

I flipped us over and rolled her on top of me.

“What are you doing?” she breathed down at me.

“This.” I spread her apart and seated her on my now fully erect cock.

She tossed her head back and moaned as I held on to her hips and shoved up, twisting around in her pussy.

“Ride me,” I said.

She rode me like a horse, bouncing and gyrating. Her tits bounced with each thrust, their nipples straining toward me. I couldn’t let them go unattended. I squeezed them together and divided my time between them both, my tongue tasting her sweat, my nose inhaling her skin.

I plowed into her sweetness, letting her take control, her body jerking up and down. We worked each other, my cock sliding nearly all the way out and then back in. She panted, her long hair sticking to her face as she ground herself against me.

She cried out when I started pumping harder, getting deeper, wanting every single inch to be encased by her. Everything faded away, and all my eyes could see were her.

Her, her.

It was intense and crazy and wild and soul-wrenchingly good.

I wanted to go slower this time. I did. I wanted to savor the sweetness of us. But I couldn’t. My need was too sharp, too fucking primitive.

She seemed to sense the same urgency, as if this moment might be our last.

“Lean over me,” I told her after a while. “Let me do the work.”

She moved over me, and I took over, my cock jerking in and out of her, needing to be the one she wanted, the only one she ever wanted.

We moved together like we’d made love a million times. I captured her breasts and sucked hard, my free hand finding her tender nub and coaxing it. Stroking her to the rhythm of my cock.

She screamed my name and came, her muscles clenching around me.

She collapsed on top of me, but I wasn’t done, pounding into her, skin on skin, chest to chest.

It was electric and hot as hell.

I threw my head back against the mat and yelled as I came, my hands holding her tight.

So tight.

Never let her fucking go.

THE NEXT DAY was Saturday, and my cell phone rang at exactly eight o’clock in the morning.

Who on earth would call this early?

“Hello?” I managed as I sat up in bed. Last night had been wild, and my body was still reverberating with little aftershocks.

“Miss Bennett?” a crisp female tone said.

I cleared my throat. “Yes?”

“This is Sylvia Myers with Myers’ Jewelry Store.” She paused as if waiting for me to reply, as if she were returning my call.

“Hi?”

Myers’ was one of the premier jewelry stores in the Raleigh-Durham area. I’d been in there a few times to window shop and get ideas, but their prices were way out of my league.

“I’m calling you about the images you emailed our office? We’d like for you to come in and meet with us next week to discuss perhaps purchasing some of your designs.”

Images? I hadn’t sent anyone pics.

I sat up straighter in bed, brain racing. “I see. Which ones were you interested in, Ms. Myers?”

A shuffling sound of papers came through the phone. “Your personal assistant, Shelley, sent over several drawings, but the ones that caught my eye were the silver pieces, the butterfly ring in particular and the scroll bracelet. We have a shop in Asheville where your artisan type of jewelry would sell quite nicely. Would Wednesday at nine be okay to meet?”

Shelley!

Just when I thought she was full of crap and as empty-headed as a balloon, she’d gone and done something so incredibly … sweet.

But why would they want my designs?

Because they’re beautiful, a small part of my heart whispered. At one time, youbelieved in yourself. Do it again!

I scrambled around for a pen and a notebook I kept on the nightstand. “I have classes all morning, and I’m not done until one and then I have to work … but I can probably get off. Would three o’clock be okay?”

God, what was I doing? I hadn’t designed anything new in years. All I had was the old stuff. And how the hell had Shelley even gotten ahold of my old designs?

“I didn’t realize you were a college student, Miss Bennett. I assumed you were a professional designer with experience. Your logo on your email says you own a company called Darcy Designs.”

Darcy? Nice name. Props to Shelley for remembering Pride and Prejudice.

“Yes, that’s right.”

“How old are you? You sound rather young on the phone and honestly we’re looking for dependable artisans at the moment, not young college students.” I heard her tapping something, and I imagined her sitting behind a big desk in an office, regretting calling me.

I sighed. “I am a full-time college student.”

“I see.” But I could still hear the uncertainty in her voice. She seemed to come to some kind of decision and cleared her throat. “Okay. I’ll see you Wednesday afternoon at three at our main jewelry store in Raleigh.” She rattled off the address. “Good day, Miss Bennett.” She hung up.

I sprang out of bed like a scalded cat.

I’d gotten an interview for my designs. Holy cow. Exhilaration filled me along with a good dose of fear. I could do this, right? I had to try. Because existing like I had been wasn’t working.

And then thoughts of Colby seeped into my brain. I hadn’t seen or heard from him in two weeks, but somehow I knew he was out there. Lurking. Waiting for me.

I shuddered and pushed those morbid scenarios away and raced out to my balcony. I wanted to see Declan. When we’d gotten home from the gym last night I’d given him an awkward kiss goodnight at my door then I’d come in to crash. But, he hadn’t been far from my mind all night.

I leaned over the railing. “Wake up, you sleepy-headed Englishman, I have big news!” I called over to him. “Huge!”

I counted ten seconds and he suddenly appeared, his hair standing straight up and eyes blinking in the morning sun.

I nearly clapped, but stopped just in time.

“What’s going on?” He scrubbed the dark shadows on his chiseled jawline, looking like a million bucks. No man had the right to look that good this early.

And, of course, he slept in the nude. Gloriously. Fantastically.

“Declan! You’re flashing the whole complex.” I tore my eyes off his perfect body.

“I thought something was wrong with you,” he half shouted as he went back inside his bedroom and then came back out wearing a pair of tight black boxers. “This do, madam?”

I ran my eyes over the snug lines. Not by a long shot. I could see exactly how monstrously large he was. And hard.

His eyes went to half-mast. “You’re looking a little too hard, Elizabeth. Focus on my face, not my body.”