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Just then, a large, warm hand curled around Serena’s waist Her breath whooshed out in surprise as she was spun around, but when she looked up at the guy as holding on to her, she ot about the need to breathe at all

Because he had the reen eyes she’d ever seen

She knew she probably should have told the stranger to take his hands off her And she should already have been pushing out of his arms, too But when he smiled down at her and said, "Hi," she was so drawn by his incredible netism that she simply echoed him

"Hi"

"Damn," he said in a low voice that rippled up her spine, then down to her toes, "you’re beautiful"

For all the ti the course of hercareer, it had never ht then, fro her in his arms

Maybe that hy her reply ain, his sone That hen she belatedly realized that neither smile had reached his eyes And when she looked reen depths, the twisted-up tor her hand to his cheek

"Whatever happened," she said softly, so close to his lips that she could alh his eyes before a brutal sound tore from his throat, pain so intense that she swore she could feel it herself The next thing she knew, hisher lips in a way no one ever had as he pulled her closer against hiain, she’d read books about passion so deep that the characters would throay everything in their lives for it Only, no matter how skilled the author, she’d never really understood it So even though her mother had warned her over and over, all the way back to when she was a very little girl, that she should never, ever let herself be seduced and enthralled by a man’s pretty words or caresses, Serena hadn’t worried about it Not when it had always felt like any passion, any heat, she gave off for the cameras was all for show Inside, she’d worried that she’d always feel frozen

But this--the thrill buue instinctively licked out to stroke his, the perfect fit of her curves and softness against his th--this was the kind of passion people threay perfectly good lives for And it was no wonder, when just kissing hi froood it felt to be in his ar up her body And as he showed her the passion, the wild heat, and the wonder that she’d been seeking for so long, instead of stopping hi hihs and twined her fingers into his soft, dark hair to keep his roan, he captured her mouth more deeply For a few perfect mo and she wasn’t following They were both si to each other exactly what they needed

A break from the cold

A reminder of what it was to feel alive, coet what they each needed to forget

For herself, all she wanted was to forget that her life had never been hers, not until she’d set foot on this campus And for him? Well, it was obvious that whatever it was that he needed to forget had wounded hiainst her lips as he spoke startled her for aher?