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“No, I’m not. Yesterday wasn’t that bad, I’ll give you that, but let’s not make a habit of spending too much time together. It wouldn’t be good for your health. I don’t want to have to poison you again.”

My lips twitched. “Funny.”

“Thanks, I try. Now, get the fuck out of my room.”

I leaned down to bring my face close to hers. “No.”

“Brody!” she exclaimed, then cut off abruptly when I caught her wrist.

Before she could protest, I straightened her arm and turned it over to see the dressing I’d put on the other night.

It was still there and looking a little grimy.

“This needs changing.”

Selena had gone completely silent.

“I’m taking it off,” I continued, barely giving her a second to prepare. I tugged it.

She didn’t flinch as the tape ripped at her skin and came off.

The three precise cuts were scabbing over, healing well.

“Don’t cover it for a while. It needs to dry out.”

“I don’t need you to tell me how to heal a cut, thanks,” she muttered, finding her voice. She tugged her arm from my fingers. “I have plenty of experience.”

I clenched my jaw, feeling an irrational spurt of anger at her words.

“I can tell,” I murmured quietly and waited to see if she’d feel inclined to elaborate.

Her breath caught, and, despite her fighting words and blazing eyes, she seemed so delicate. A pulse pounded in her slender neck, revealing her secrets.

Before she could say anything, she dropped my burning gaze and stepped back.

“Fine, whatever. Let’s run. If it will get you off my back.” Her cheeks had turned a pretty rosy-pink color.

Where else does she get that beautiful blush? Is that the same shade as her nipples?What the fuck? Where had those thoughts come from?

I stepped back farther, turning away before I got a hard-on arguing with the most irritating, messy woman I’d ever met.

“See you outside in ten minutes,” I told her curtly and left.

Hours later, I sat in my management class, listening to the professor droning on about recruitment policy, trying to erase the image of Selena pulling her baggy sweatshirt off after the run and dragging her T-shirt up at the same time. Her fucking belly button was haunting me.

There was something wrong with me. I felt fevered, the back of my neck prickling with heat. Was I getting sick? I never got sick. I didn’t have time to get sick.

The professor assigned a project that would require ample library time. That afternoon I was going downtown to work. My father insisted that to be ready to take on significant responsibility at the company, I needed to be able to hit the ground running. That meant finishing my degree faster than the rest of my class and working part-time in a Sinclair Industries office. He’d established a regional one in Hade Harbor just for that purpose. He usually worked out of the New York one, which put the Hade Harbor office under my management. My father had no qualms about setting up an office just to give his son work experience. The wordnepotismhad no power over him. He didn’t give a single fuck.

I filed out of the lecture hall as a girl fell into step beside me.

“Brody, did you get the homework assignment?” she asked.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I have?” She looked vaguely familiar. “Aren’t you the TA?”

She nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. “Guilty as charged. I wanted to check that you got the assignment notesand know what to do. If not, I could give you a hand later, at the library, or I don’t know, a bar or something.”

“Wow, you seriously go around and offer everyone help? You’re very dedicated to your position,” I said flatly. I didn’t have time for this right now. I needed to get downtown.