Liz’s back arched off of the hard ground as he drove forward into her forcefully enough to scoot her backward. All pretenses of taking her slowly were gone, and he was demanding all of her. And she was giving it back.

Her body spasmed with climax as he pushed into her once more. He pumped a few more times before grunting and coming with her.

“Fuck, Lizzie,” he murmured against her neck.

“That was amazing.” The words were wispy and she suddenly felt as if she was floating on a cloud.

Hayden collapsed on the earth next to her and she buried her head into his chest. Their breathing began to slow as they lay there recovering from the intensity of what had just occurred. Liz tried to wrap her mind around what she had just felt and experienced.

She had been giving Hayden everything she had for a month now. She knew that wasn’t a very long time, but she was glad that at least she had figured it out. She had wasted too much time obsessing about something that was never going to happen, never going to go the way she wanted. When the thing she had wanted for two years, the person who had been giving her everything for months and months, was right in front of her. And to be honest, the last month had been better than all the others combined. She felt them grow and mature with each other in a relationship . . . in a healthy and sane way.

And she knew what this feeling meant that was bubbling up inside of her. She had known for a while, but it was never clearer than now, when she was lying in a secluded area in Hawaii, surrounded by nature, listening to the beat of Hayden’s heart and the sound of the waterfall splashing.

“Hayden,” she breathed, sitting up on her elbow and staring down into his hazel eyes. They were practically gold in the sunlight, and it made her shiver at the sight.

“Yeah, gorgeous?” he asked, pushing her hair off of her face for her.

“You know I love you, right?”

He smiled that brilliant smile up at her and nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’m glad you finally figured it out.”

Chapter 14

EDITOR

Liz spent the majority of her summer in Hayden’s new one-bedroom apartment in Charlotte. She wasn’t taking any classes, and the paper practically ran itself; Hayden had been absent all last summer and it had still continued just fine. She knew that once school started she wouldn’t have as much free time to come see him, so she wanted to spend as much time as she could with him now.

Right before the summer ended, Liz met with Professor Mires and her scholarship advisement committee to determine how she was going to spend her scholarship intern hours. Liz had been planning to work with the Raleigh News reporting staff that she had contacts with, but Dr. Mires had something else in mind. She had gotten in touch with her colleague Nancy from the New York Times and had secured Liz a spot working with their team on a political journalism reporting portfolio. It included some travel to and from New York City to meet with the team and perfect on-site reporting skills.

Liz was floored that Dr. Mires had gone to that much trouble for her. Dr. Mires insisted that Liz had earned such a position. Nancy had been so impressed with her work on the colloquium in the spring that it had made it an easy choice. Liz would be flying up to New York at the beginning of September for her first meeting.

Fall rolled around all too soon and she kissed Hayden good-bye and returned to Chapel Hill for her senior year of college. She had a busy year ahead of her. It made her a bit dizzy to think about it: editor, internship with the New York Times, research hours with Dr. Mires, not to mention that she was still taking a full load of classes, had a boyfriend, and had tried to keep up with regular tennis lessons. She wasn’t sure she was going to have any time to breathe, let alone think. Of course, she couldn’t complain; she had basically gotten everything that she wanted.

Liz walked into the newspaper office on the second floor of the Union on campus. It felt a bit surreal to have spent so much time away from the place over the summer. She had practically lived there the three years prior.

It was the first week back to school for her senior year. The paper had already gone out and only division leaders had to be in the office that afternoon. They had the full meeting for everyone interested in working on the paper that evening. Liz had prepared for it best she could. She just hoped she had half of Hayden’s charisma.

She walked into her new editorial office and sighed. It was one of the few offices in the building that had a door and a lock that actually worked. It felt a bit surreal to be in here again; she had commandeered the office last summer while Hayden had been away.

She ran her hands along the desk that she knew she would never be able to keep as clean and meticulous as Hayden did. She had helped him move his stuff out of the office this summer, and it had barely taken any time, even though he had occupied the space for a year and a half. By the end of the first week, she knew it would be a mess that she would never be able to get back under control.

A knock on the door jolted her from her thoughts. “You’re early,” Savannah said with a smile.

Liz checked her watch. Still thirty minutes before the meeting. “I’m editor. I’m supposed to be early. What are you doing here?”

“I just got out of class. You’ve had Professor Mires before, right?”

“She’s my advisor,” Liz told her.

“Is she as difficult as everyone says she is? Her classes are always packed, but I know a bunch of people who want to drop because she grades unfairly.”

Liz snorted. “She just makes you earn your grade. It’s worth it to be on her good side. She helped get me an internship with the New York Times for this year.”

“Nice. It’s who you know, not what you know,” Savannah said with that knowing Maxwell glint in her eye.

“Usually,” Liz confirmed with a shrug. If anyone had connections it was Savannah Maxwell. “How was your summer?”

She shrugged, but had an unmistakable giddy smirk across her face. “Pretty good.”

“And what’s his name?” Liz asked, leaning back against the desk.

“I mean, I’m talking to this guy named Forrest,” she said, the look disappearing.

Uh-huh. That clearly wasn’t who had caused her to get all flustered.

“Forrest and Savannah. Not getting much more Southern than that,” Liz joked, wondering if she should push for the real story.

“It’s not serious or anything. He’s just a guy I met at the gym.”