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A link in the chains around her heart gave way “This apartht and alarht I’m safe here”

“Rachel,” was all he said, in that deep ru tone he used solely for her name

“Whatever” She threw up her hands in surrender “Sleep on the right if that makes you happy”

After flipping the door’s lock, which she never used, Harvard threw back the bedspread and cli on the black sheets, the perfect embodi grow short But it wasn’t from fear Harvard would never threaten her It was from awe

He was beautiful It was the only word to describe hith aze He was everything she tried to avoid in a man, because she wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to resist him

And he was in her bed

Sing nervously, Rachel toyed with the necklace she only took off for sleeping The locket that had been passed down through the ferandiven it to Rachel when she turned eighteen

The locket was empty Her mother had told her, “When you find your future, this is where you’ll keep it Over your heart”

Why she’d thought about that while staring at Harvard, in her bed, where no man had ever been, she didn’t know It had to be nerves Or anxiety Or fear All things she never allowed herself to feel

Never again

With pure detere as she slipped off her robe and unfastened her necklace, which she gently placed on her dresser—beside the ring he’d given her

“Pretty,” he rumbled, his eyes on her body “Do you wear stuff like that every night?”

“Yes But don’t expect to see this again Tonight is a onetime deal” Without hesitation, she rounded the bed and cli sure to keep so in bed with so she’d ever done, well not since she’d had pajama parties with her cousin Sa like Samantha

Rachel lifted the remote from her bedside table and switched off the lamps dotted around the roo from the pool above them

“Do you need me to draw the shutters over the pool?” Auto slid out to hide the pool