“You’re not saying anything.” He leaned on the wall to get out of a patron’s way, putting us closer together. His finger reached out and traced a line across my cheek. “I know this look. You’re worried.” He paused, his brow wrinkling. “Colby?”

And I heard it then, the slight slur in his voice, the smell of alcohol on his breath.

My heart stuttered. I reared back. “You’ve been drinking?”

“I’m twenty-one. Would you like one?” He held up a bottle of dark beer, and I felt stupid I hadn’t even noticed. I’d been too busy taking in the rest of him.

“I don’t like it,” I snapped.

“Good thing I’m not with you then.” He tipped it up to take a sip.

We stared at each other as the seconds ticked by, that familiar zing between us tugging at my heart. I closed my eyes so I wouldn’t want him so much. Even knowing he’d been drinking— I didn’t care!

“I came to your apartment tonight, but you weren’t home. There was something I wanted to give you.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “You ready for round two already? I didn’t think you did that, you being strictly a one-time shagging kind of girl.”

My chest rose. “Don’t be a jerk. Don’t you think I’m hurting? I’m going crazy thinking about you—”

Blake and Shelley stepped inside the door, laughing as they came over to us. Blake gave me a gentle hug and sent Declan a glare.

Declan sent me a conflicted look as if he had more to say, but then he straightened up from the wall, his muscles rippling and flexing. “Good to see you. I need to get back to my friends.”

Such cool politeness.

And then he stalked away to join the boisterous group at the back. As I watched, Lorna immediately got on one side of him and another girl on the other, both of them vying for his attention.

See, people are never who you really think they are. He’s just like all the rest, the rules girl said in my head.

“You okay?” Shelley asked, her voice tentative.

I shook my head. My chest felt like it was caving in. We weren’t even friends anymore. “I can’t stay here and watch him.”

Blake nodded. “I agree. Let’s go back to your apartment and order in pizza. My treat.”

I nodded and glanced down at my pink dress. I wanted to get it off as soon as possible. “Just get me out of here.”

I WASN’T A pussy. If she didn’t want me, I’d just forget about her , I told myself as I sat back down and took one of the tequila shots sitting on the table.

Dax sent me a wary look. “You’ve had enough.”

“It’s enough when she’s out of my head.” I nudged my head at Elizabeth, who stood at the door, a wounded expression on her face.

As a rule, drinking was something I rarely indulged in, but over the past few days, I’d worked on pushing Elizabeth out of my head. Or I’d tried to. Drinking dulled the pain briefly, but it was never enough.

I let her go the only way a guy knows how. I focused on girls who wanted me.

There’s no point in chasing a dream if it doesn’t want you back.

And I couldn’t stop the thought that maybe she was really in love with Blake but was denying it to herself. Maybe I was completely wrong about her feelings for me.

Since she’d told me to stay away, I’d seen them together everywhere. In the student center. On the quad. At her place.

I hated him for no reason other than he had her attention and I didn’t.

I lifted my beer and took a drink.

One particularly bad day after realizing Blake was in her apartment, I’d called Lorna to come over to my flat. My head had been all twisty, and I hadn’t cared who I was with, my body jonesing for a release to make me forget about Elizabeth.

I’d kissed Lorna and eventually we’d ended up on my bed, but my heart hadn’t been into it, and before long I stopped us.

Being with Lorna had been wrong. And I don’t even know why.

I didn’t owe Elizabeth anything.

But …

The clarity hit me. I wasn’t just falling in love with Elizabeth; I’d gone completely over the edge as if someone had shoved me off a skyscraper and I was freefalling toward the concrete.

She was my queen and I wanted to be her king. I wanted to sit at the throne of her body and love her forever, but it wasn’t just about sex, although that had been over the fucking moon. No, with us it was about two broken people who looked deep into the eyes of the other person and just—meshed. Call it fate or destiny or just plain old karma, but whatever it was, the moment I watched her dance in the rain, my heart had known, only it had taken my head a while to catch up.