Girls swooned. Literally. I could hear them, melting in their seats as his softly rounded vowels washed over them.

I wasn’t too far behind them. Heck, I’d already pictured us lying in a pile of old books, stark naked and smoking a satisfying cigarette after boinking each other’s brains out.

Lorna clapped daintily, her eyes enraptured by Declan’s question-answering skills. I rolled my eyes.

“So awesome ,” she whispered to him. “I’ll have to read it for sure now.”

Feldman studied him, and I thought I detected a little bit of swoon in her expression too. “I look forward to calling on you again. Please be seated.”

After class finished, I turned to a glum Blake, whose hair was standing up everywhere from raking his hands through it. “Shit, this class is killer. There’s no way I can do it.”

“You’re dropping my dream class?” I patted his hair down, some of the earlier weirdness fading.

He sighed and stood. “Yep. I’m heading over to the registrar’s to take care of it. See you at lunch?” He fidgeted, waiting for me to reply.

“Sure.” I couldn’t say no.

We made plans to meet later, and he headed down the stairs and out the door.

I gathered my notebook and pens with a grin. Even though Feldman was tough as nails, I was excited about digging into this class.

Plus Declan was here. But he’s trouble, remember? a voice in my head reminded me.

“You’re a weird chick. You act like this class was fun,” Dax said as he watched me gather my things.

“True,” I said.

He laughed, and with Declan and Lorna trailing behind us, we headed for the exit.

We all came to a rather odd standstill outside the auditorium. No one seemed to know what to say next except for Lorna, who apparently knew both brothers well and kept the conversation going.

She looped her arm with Declan’s. “You wanna go back to your place and study later?”

She may have liked Blake at one point, but I got the distinct impression she’d switched over to Declan.

“ Study is apparently code for let’s have sex ,” I whispered to Dax, who smirked.

“You look awesome today, by the way,” Lorna said, continuing her flattery of Declan as she reached up to brush imaginary lint off his shirt.

Ugh. Enough.

I didn’t want to watch this, and I came to a rapid decision.

I turned to Dax. “I’m going to grab some lunch at the Student Center at noon with Blake. You want to come?”

His eyes lit up. “Sure.” He looked over his shoulder. “Hey, you guys want to join us on our date?”

“Date?” Declan came to attention, and his eyes bounced from me to Dax.

He nodded. “It appears Miss Bennett has forgiven me for trying to kiss her and has invited me to lunch. Want to join us or do you have awesome plans with Lorna?”

Declan cracked his neck and stared at us both, his gaze intense as if measuring the situation. “That’s okay. Maybe next time,” he said curtly and stalked off with Lorna half running beside him like a little puppy.

Pfft.

Dax watched her ass swing from side to side. “Guess he had plans.”

“Uh-huh.”

He snorted. “You have to admit. She’s bloody awesome .”

He looped an arm around me and walked me to my next class.

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, I fought a uni boy from Duke called Snake. Matches with Duke boys were packed events since we both had local fans. When I’d come in the warehouse, I’d also noticed a few more suits in the crowd this time, and I figured they were scouting me out for the Yeti fight in a few weeks.

I took a punch to the gut from him and gasped. People leaned back to get away from me as I stumbled around the warehouse. Some girl yelled in my face for me to get my act together.

I shook it off and rolled my neck.

Time to end this fight and start thinking about the next one.

I rushed at him, my palm strike clipping his shoulder, not the chest like I’d aimed for, yet the hit had enough force that he fell to the ground. He jumped up and barreled back at me, his legs maneuvering a jumping reverse roundhouse kick that I recognized as a Shotokan technique.

Bam! It was a hell of a move that got me right in the side. I staggered back.

He grinned as he bounced away from me. “Third degree black belt, asshole.”

“I’m better, arsehole .”

Sure, he’d landed a few good hits—the blood that had spurted out of my nose a few punches ago could attest to that. But I had motivation and drive to win, my dream of the gym keeping me swinging.