“Why are you dressed like… um…”

“You?”

“I suppose.” He looked entirely too conformable in what people like him wouldn’t be caught in.

“Why are you dressed normally?”

“Are playing with me?”

“You don’t have to answer to everything with hostility you know.”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re friends with him.”

“Him?”

“Keiran Masters.” His eyes narrowed and his lip curled with disdain completely transforming his features into someone unrecognizable. I was stumped by his fierce expression given their relationship.

“What do you have to do with Keiran?”

“You know what.”

His hands snatched away from my waist as he took a step back and growled, “You fucked him.”

“What? No! I’d rather die.”

“Those are strong words. Then what do I know?”

“He’s a bully.”

“I see… and he has bullied you?” I faltered at the anger in eyes but also the recognition.

“If he had?”

“I would have to speak with him.”

“Why?”

“Because he hurt you.”

“He hasn’t… not directly.”

“You’re speaking in riddles.”

“You mean you really don’t know?” For the first time, he was silent without something witty, smart, or charming to say. He actually appeared to be fighting for words.

“No.” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know.”

“How can you be best friends with him and not know about the one person he actually hates?”

“I don’t want to talk about what’s back in Six Forks or Keiran. What I want is to take you on a date, but first, I want to give you a gift.”

“A gift? For what?”

He ignored my questioning and took my arm in his hand. He placed a kiss on the inside of my wrist and then clasped a thin, platinum bracelet around my wrist. I pulled my arm away to inspect the bracelet.

It was simple yet elegant, breathtaking, and nothing like I expected.

Transparent purple stones adorned the platinum chain. It was a beautiful, unexpected sight. I fingered the bracelet and admired the angel wings. Beside it was the letters ‘D’ and ‘W’. The right arm of the W was hooked around the curve of the D.

“I don’t know what—um… why?”

“I saw this and thought it was something you should have. I had it personalized with our initials.”

Our initials.

The phrase sounded like a commitment, but I knew better than to read too much into it with someone like Dash. He could have anyone he wanted so the reality of him settling for me would never be anything more than fantasy.

I looked up from the bracelet in time to see the flush on his cheeks. “Why, Dash, I do believe you’re blushing,” I cooed in an imitation of a southern belle.

“I will only ever blush for you.”

“And what about acts that would make me blush?”

“Are those only for me as well?” I laughed at my joke but was cut short by the look of promise in his eyes.

“You should know better by now.” His voice had deepened further with lust.

“And what should I know?”

“Everything I am is only for you.”

“I wish I could believe that, but it’s too powerful a promise for two strangers.”

“We aren’t strangers.”

“We barely know each other.”

“You know me better than most.”

“How is that?”

“Because I trust you. Being the son of one of the richest men in the country doesn’t afford me the ability to trust easily.”

I thought about the question nagging in the back of my mind since he approached me on campus three weeks ago. “Should I trust you?”

“No.”

I swallowed past the thick apprehension in my throat. “Why?”

“Because I don’t have good intentions when it comes to you.”

“What are your intentions?”

“If I were trustworthy, I wouldn’t tell you exactly what was on my mind and exactly what I wanted from you.”

“Even if I wanted you to?”

“One of us has to know better.”

“Or we could do the wrong thing together.”

He reared back in surprise. “Am I seducing you or are you seducing me?”