I gasped in pleasure and arched my back to get closer to his body, ignoring the fear that pricked at the surface.

The rules girl in my head stamped her foot and yelled at me. I ignored her.

But even if I wanted to stop right now, I couldn’t. My tongue tangled wildly with his, my hands pulled at his hair, spurring him on, his hand palming my breast and then tugging. Sharp sensations of need went straight to my core.

“Is this what you want? Something quick where we just take what we want and forget each other the next day?”

No. Not that. Not like the way he said it, like it was something dirty.

“Yes, like that,” I whispered against his shoulder, my mouth on his skin, tasting him as my teeth bit down. I pressed against him and rocked. Friction. More .

He grunted and hoisted me up until my legs looped around his hips, his shorts and the hard length inside pulsating against my skin. He moved sinuously, his long legs supporting my weight as I squirmed to get his body closer to the place I wanted.

I clung to him, a fire building under my skin, in my blood. I rocked wildly and reached around to grab his ass and shove him against me.

Take me.

Make me forget. Make me feel good.

“Elizabeth, you’re so hot,” he said hoarsely. “I can’t stop, love.”

We’d passed the point of no return. He was hungry for me, just as much as I wanted him.

His mouth skated down with his hands as he took my nipple between his lips and sucked.

I groaned, the sound primitive and loud in the quiet apartment.

Hot fingers slipped under the waist of my panties, finding my wet core and massaging the wetness.

“Yes,” I whispered, gripping his arm and moving him faster, showing him what I wanted. More, more.

“Slow down, love,” he whispered and played me effortlessly with his fingers, dipping in and then out, finding the sensitive nub and flicking it and then teasing me by darting away.

But I didn’t want to go slow. I wanted fast and hard and rough before I changed my mind.

“Declan.” I bit his neck, making him grunt. “Make me come.”

He kissed me harder, his tongue fucking my mouth like I wanted his cock to. “I want you so bad I can’t think straight,” he whispered between kisses.

“Me too.”

I’d gone over the edge when it came to him.

I’d lost all sense of where I was … who he was … my past .

Yet …

Darkness inched in bit by bit. This wasn’t some guy from my calculus class I could control. This wasn’t some nerdy guy who’d thought he’d won the lottery when I propositioned him.

This was Whitman University’s Sexiest Man on Campus.

He was part of the beautiful people—just like Colby.

He was everything I shouldn’t want but did.

Suddenly there was space between us, and I realized I’d been the one to shove him off me. He obliged readily, I acknowledged thankfully as he panted from a few feet away, his face red, fists clenched tight at his sides.

My own chest heaved and I looked down at my nightgown, its straps pushed down, exposing my bare breasts still rosy from his ministrations.

God. Things had gone too far.

I gazed back at him, but he was already in the kitchen pouring a glass of water and chugging it with his back to me. I studied the taut lines of his shoulders and the tightness in his stance, recognizing he’d let go when I asked.

No matter who he was, he wasn’t Colby.

Yet how could I have been so stupid? He was a dangerous fighter with enough sex appeal to blow up a building. He was entirely wrong for me.

Tension escalated as he still didn’t turn around, but his voice came out rough, like it had been dragged over gravel. “Get out of here, Elizabeth.”

I sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m sorry—”

“Go!” His body heaved.

I turned, bolted out the door, and slammed it behind me.

“WHERE’S NADIA? SHE’S usually here with you,” my father said as I stepped into the study where he and Dax already sat in leather club chairs. My stepmum Clara and my stepsister Blythe played on the floor with a puzzle.

I shrugged noncommittally at my father, knowing it drove him bonkers.

We’d just finished a five-course dinner with rather stilted conversation in the dining room, where my father had talked about his business projects and the various vacations he and my stepmother, Clara, planned to take in the coming year. My four-year-old stepsister, Blythe, had been fed by the nanny in the kitchen while the adults chatted.

My family lived a prestigious life, which I guess wasn’t surprising considering he came from a long line of privileged military men and she was the daughter of a real estate mogul.