"Let's end things there for today," Professor Costa said from his spot in front of the room. Not to mention, directly in front of Harper. She tried to hold back the silly grin that was threatening to overtake her face.

She'd done it. She didn't take her usual spot in the far back corner. Today when she'd gotten to class, she breathed in deeply and stepped to the front of the room, taking the seat directly in front of Professor Costa.

Not only that, about half way through the lecture, he mentioned something about gene XXX that caught her attention. It was an area that interested her in her reading, so she'd done a little more research on it online. At that moment, she was bursting to share some of the information she'd read, but at the same time completely nauseous at the thought of raising her hand and speaking in front of all of the people she'd imagined had been talking behind her back the last two years.

But it was that kind of thinking that kept her off of Professor Costa's radar before now. That kind of thinking that was keeping her from living her dream. She wanted the spot in the mentorship program too badly not to take every opportunity to get there.

She'd raised her hand when her teacher paused for a moment. And spent the next five minutes in a lively debate over the future of genetic XXX before Professor Costa moved onto the next teaching point.

"Miss Warden." Professor Costa's voice pulled her out of her thoughts to find him staring at her where she still sat at her desk.

"Yes?"

"Nice work."

She allowed a small smile to escape. "Thank you. To be honest, I've been dying to talk to someone about that since I read about it the other night."

He nodded. "I'm happy you decided to act on the impulse. It was a point worth mentioning, and I had forgotten to add it to my lecture notes."

Her stomach turned in a happy, fluttery somersault. His knowing smile told her he knew exactly why she was making the extra effort. But who cared? The important thing was he noticed her in a positive way.

"Happy I could help." She slid out of her seat and carefully zipped her laptop into its case before tucking it into her messenger bag. Slipping the strap over her shoulder, she turned toward the door.

And her grin widened when she caught sight of Declan walking towards her.

"Hi," she greeted when he reached her.

He leaned down and dropped a quick kiss on her mouth. The brief contact made her toes curl.

"Hi," he said, his eyes dancing. Of course he knew exactly the effect he had on her. She'd all but blurted it out during their...lingering...good-bye at the door two nights ago after their amazing date. All her worries about his choice of Marcello's had faded as he plied her with some of the best Chicken Parmigania she'd ever tasted and they'd talked like people who'd known each other forever.

All of that before he'd brought her home and made good on his promise of a lingering goodnight at her door. After the make out session to end all make out sessions, he'd left her with promises to call her in the morning.

And he had. And since then he'd had several more chances to test exactly how she reacted to all different kinds of kisses. They had a quick late lunch together at the coffee shop by her apartment the day after their date. And yesterday they'd spent a few hours in the library stacks doing research for his proposal for Professor Costa.

She'd been pleasantly surprised by his easy affection. He always seemed to be touching her in some way or another--holding her hand, giving her a quick kiss, wrapping a strand of her hair around his finger. And both times he'd left her only after taking his time to kiss the breath from her.

He'd told her he was stopping by at the end of class to give Professor Costa his proposal. But even with his words and his reassuring behavior, she couldn't help the surge of happiness that went through her at his public display of affection. Several of the students streaming from the room had to have seen him kiss her hello.

A quick glance around confirmed her suspicions. There were more than a couple of her classmates eyeballing them, mostly females.

"Do you have another class after this?"

His question brought her attention back to him. "No. This is my last class of the day. I don't have anything until I have to get to work later."

"Good." He ran a hand over her shoulder, down her arm and eased her hand into his. "Let me just run this by Professor Costa and then we can grab some lunch before my next class.”

"Sounds good." She pulled her hand from his and gestured to their teacher. "But I think you should do this part by yourself."

He nodded and headed over to where Professor Costa stood behind the desk, packing up the last of his things.

Harper shifted the strap of her messenger bag over her shoulder and leaned against one of the desks closest to the door. She kept her eyes trained on Declan and Professor Costa, ignoring the looks from the last of her classmates as they straggled out the door. She was starting to wonder why she'd ever argued with Declan about going public. Maybe being his secret girlfriend would have had some benefits.

She shrugged. Too late now. And if she were being completely honest, she'd admit to feeling a little thrill over the looks she'd gotten from a few of the female students the last day or so. Word must have gotten out on their small campus.

"Miss Warden." Professor Costa's voice broke into her thoughts, and she realized she'd been so lost in them that even with her eyes trained on the two men, she'd missed him beckoning her over to the desk.

She moved forward, stopping at Declan's side. She nibbled on her lower lip, waiting to hear why he called her over.

"Miss Warden, Mr. Cooper has just explained the details of his experiment. Am I to understand that you had no hand in helping him write this proposal?" He shook the typed pages he held, presumably Declan's proposal.

She shook her head. "I asked him a few questions about the material he'd missed and what you were covering now. And I directed him to a few journals in the library to give him an idea of some of the current research in those areas. But the hypothesis and experimental design was all Declan."

"So you haven't seen this?" He moved the pages closer to her.

She took the pages to look them over and skimmed through them quickly before shaking her head. "No, I hadn't seen these before now. Declan told me his idea, that's all." She looked at one of part of the page again. "Actually, Delcan, I wish you would have shown this to me. There's a problem with part E. You're going to need to revise this in order for your experiment to definitely prove or disprove your hypothesis."

She turned her head and found him grinning at her. "I guess I should have."

She wrinkled her nose at him. She'd have thought someone who was just told he'd need to rewrite part of his research proposal would look a little less chipper. She turned back to Professor Costa and found him actually equally as odd. He was looking at her over the black frames of his glasses, a small smile playing over his lips.

"Is everything okay?" She clutched the strap of her bag, pulling it out from her shoulder.

"Everything is fine," Professor Costa said. "How do you suggest Mr. Cooper change his proposal?"

She handed the page back to him and pointed to the paragraph that caused her concern. "I'd adjust this and make the research pool larger."

Professor Costa nodded. "And what is your role in the experiment going out from here?"

She lifted her hands, palms facing out. "I'm strictly hands-off from here. I mean, if Declan has a question I can help with, I'd answer it. But I wasn't planning on doing anything with his experiment."

"Mr. Cooper, was that you're plan?"

Declan shrugged. "I hadn't really thought about it, but I didn't have any plans to include Harper in the experiment."

"I think you'd be foolish to overlook this kind of asset." Professor Costa gestured to Harper. "Her input could save you a great deal of time trying to backtrack if you make a mistake somewhere along the way."

"I would love Harper's help. We just didn't think you'd want her working on this with me. In fact, you all but accused her of..."

Harper leaned into Declan and lightly stepped on his toes, breaking into the conversation at the same time. "I'd be more than happy to supervise Declan's experiment, Professor. Of course, only in a completely supervisory role. I wouldn't do the work for him."

Professor Costa stared at her for a long moment. "No, I don't think you would. I think you'll make him work for it."

"If you only knew," Declan muttered under his breath.

Harper leaned more of her weight onto the foot still resting on his toes and sent him a narrow-eyed glance before turning back to Professor Costa. "He'll do all the work. I promise. But if you think I can help in any capacity, I'm happy to do it."

Professor Costa nodded. "I think supervising him would be good. And if you want to take a few notes of your own as you...supervise...I'd like to take a look at them."

A warm glow started inside Harper and she fought the urge to pinch herself. Could this day get any better? Professor Costa actually trusted her not to cheat and now he seemed genuinely interested in seeing her work.

She had trouble opening her mouth and getting words past her suddenly dry throat. But she finally managed to croak out her appreciation. "Thank you so much. I'll be sure to pass you my notes."

Professor Costa gave her a short nod and then turned to Declan. "Then consider this my approval. I want you to rewrite the proposal with the change recommended by Miss Warden and submit it to her. Once she approves it, you can begin the experiment. Talk to my T.A. to see the best place for you to set up."

"Thanks, Professor." Declan slid his arm over Harper's shoulders and grinned down at her. "Guess this makes you like my boss."

She snorted. "Like that's anything new."

He just squeezed her more tightly to his side.

Her inner eight-year-old was jumping up and down with glee at the way this afternoon had gone. Could things get any better than this?

She was still giddy as they sat down to lunch twenty minutes later.

"I can't believe Professor Costa trusts me to supervise you." She leaned forward and snitched a French fry from Declan's plate and swirled it through the mound of ketchup on the plate between them. "Hell, I can't believe Professor Costa remembers my name."

His lips twitched into a smirk. "Why wouldn't he know who you are? You've been going out of your way to prove yourself and I'm sure Professor XXX put a good word in for you."

She shrugged and munched thoughtfully on her patty melt. "I'm just happy it feels like everything is finally, FINALLY moving in the right direction."

He nodded. "I think you have a good shot at getting into his program."

Her stomach flip flopped at his sweet reassurance. "I hope so. I've had this planned since I was about fourteen years old."

"Going to medical school, you mean?"

"Medical school by way of Warren College and the mentorship program here."

"You were looking into the mentorship program when you were fourteen?" He shook his head. "I think the only thing I was thinking about when I was fourteen was how to play DIFFICULT SONG on the guitar."

"You play guitar?"

"Since I could remember. But I didn't get serious about it until later."

"How come I've never seen you on campus with your guitar?" She could easily imagine the crowd he'd draw if he sat down with his guitar in hand. The panties might just melt off any woman in a ten mile radius.

He gave her a level look. "All I need is for some photographer to catch me with a guitar in my lap and a crowd around me. There would be all kinds of headlines about how I'm following in my father's footsteps."

"Well, if you're into playing like it sounds you are, you must have thought about following in your dad's footsteps?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"My father would shit a brick if he thought I had any plan to go into his industry."

"Seriously? Why?"

Declan took a long pull on his soda before looking back up at her. "Let's just say, my dear old dad has certain expectations where I'm concerned. He struggled his whole life to get away from the trailer park he grew up in. He doesn't see music as a particularly respectable way to make a living. More a way to raise himself out of where he was. Since I was born, he's had his own ideas about turning me into a respectable citizen. He has visions of me on Wall Street or going to law school or something like that."

"Cause working on Wall Street or being a lawyer is so respectable?" She shook her head and couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Is that why you're majoring in business?"

"Pretty much. The only way my old man would foot the bill for college is if I went to a school he approved of and chose a major he approved of."

"And you wanted to go to college?"

"I don't want to live off my father for the rest of my life." His voice was sharp, brittle.

She held her hands palm out in front of her. "Hey, you don't have to convince me. I get it." Her thoughts strayed to her own desire to make her own way in the world and pay back her aunt so she could get out from under her aunt's thumb. "What are you going to do when you graduate?"

His shoulders eased and he leaned back in his seat, shaking the ice around the bottom of his cup. He laughed without the slightest bit of humor. "Hell if I know. My dad's been emailing me applications for law school and business school. That's why it's so important I keep my grades up."

"Ah, so I'm guessing the college fund would go away if you're grades fell, too?" She leaned over and ran a hand soothingly up and down his arm.

“Yeah.” He shook his head. "How did we get on this topic? Weren't we talking about the plans you made for medical school?"

She snitched another one of his fries, taking the time to eat it before answering. "My dad died when I was twelve and I went to live with my aunt. She did her best, but I guess..." She tried to think of the best way to explain her relationship with her aunt and sighed before she went on. "I guess my aunt hadn't really planned on having a kid, let alone the added expenses that came along with it. She did her best, but...."

"But...," he prompted.

Harper shook her head. She didn't want his pity. "No. Nothing. She did her best. It just wouldn't have been her first choice to take on someone else's kid. So it didn't take me long to decide I needed to find a way to take care of myself."

"And what made you decide medical school was the way to go?"

She tilted her head to the side, her patty melt halfway to her mouth. After a full minute she said, "You know, I don't really know. I mean other than knowing you can make a good living so I'd have no problem taking care of myself, I don't know what started me thinking it was what I wanted to do."

Harper took a bite of her burger and chewed thoughtfully as she searched her memories. When she was fourteen, after two years of living under her aunt's roof, she knew she needed a way out. She closed her eyes trying to remember what exactly put the idea of being a doctor in there, but nothing came to mind.

She shrugged and looked up at Declan. "I guess it's just what I always wanted to do."

"You're lucky." He reached over and swiped at her bottom lip and then sucked the bit of ketchup he'd cleared away off his thumb.

Harper tried to keep her attention on the conversation they were having and not on the fact his intimate gesture made her throat go dry, her heart speed up, and heat to start moving through her starting somewhere down low in her abdomen.

"L-lucky?" she managed to get out.

He nodded as he sipped his soda, his amused smirking grin telling her he knew exactly the reaction he'd started in her.

She rolled her eyes and tucked back into her lunch.

A low chuckle left him before he answered her question. "Lucky. I wish I knew what I wanted to do after college. I'm a little jealous that you have it all mapped out."

"Fat lot of good my plan is doing me." She impatiently tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "My plan is completely stalled unless I convince Costa to let me into the mentorship program. I don't know if that's better or worse than not knowing what you want to do."

"Come on," Declan said and ran a hand up and down her thigh, "you know you can do this. I have no doubt that whether or not you get into Costa's program, you'll find a way to get yourself through medical school."

She wasn't sure if it was his confidence in her or the hand he moved over her thigh or a combination of the two, but a slow warmth started to unfurl inside of her. She stared at him, lips slightly parted, enjoying his touch and wishing they were someplace far more private.

"You okay?" His hand slid off her thigh as he snatched up a French fry.

She gave herself a mental shake hoping her expression didn't look like a devoted puppy's ready to do its master's bidding.

"I'm fine." She sipped her soda and resisted the urge to rub the cold cup against her overheated cheeks. "Just thinking about how else I could manage medical school if Costa doesn't change his mind."

He shrugged. "Between your grades and the recommendations you'll get, I've no doubt you can get into any school you want."

"I'd have to start looking at bulking up my resume. I was sort of relying on the experiences I'd get through the mentorship to help fill in some of the blanks on my application. But even if I get accepted to medical school without the program, how on earth would I pay for it?"

"What do most people do? Student loans? Work study?"

"Student loans are exactly what I've been trying to avoid." Her stomach churned at the thought and she dropped the remainder of her burger on the paper plate in front of her. Her plan was to get through school with as little debt as possible and then to make enough money to pay off the balance of her aunt's mortgage. Surely that would allow her to call things even and sever all ties with her aunt.

"Hopefully our plan will work and financing medical school won't be an issue."

"Speaking of our plan, I had an idea to run past you."

"Lay it on me," she said, sending up a silent prayer for the opportunity to change the subject. As much as Harper loved sharing her dreams with him, she wasn't ready to go into the complicated relationship she and her aunt shared.

"There's a dinner coming up for the science department faculty and--"

"Ugh, another faculty event? Please tell me it's not black tie."

"Well," he said, on a laugh, "you might end up wearing a black tie...."

She raised an eyebrow at him.

He looked down sheepishly and then raised his eyes to meet her gaze. "We wouldn't exactly be attending as guests."

She wrinkled her nose. "What would we be attending as?"

"Hired help?"

"What?"

He sighed. "Every year my fraternity volunteers our pledge class to work as waitstaff at a few of the faculty parties."

Her breath froze in her chest. "My last experience with your frat brothers didn't exactly leave me wanting to spend more time with them."

He grimaced, obviously recalling Drew calling her a whore. "I know. But I promise I'd never put you in that kind of position. This is just us and the pledges. And none of them would dare say a word about my girlfriend." His tone left no question in her mind that anyone who stepped out of line would live to regret it.

Holy shit, I'm turning into one of those girls I hate. That was the only excuse she could think of for the jolt of joy that went through her at hearing him refer to her as his girlfriend. She knew they'd already sort of agreed to be exclusive, but they'd never had the conversation to define their relationship in any other way. She took a deep breath. I need to get a grip.

"So why are you involved if it's just for pledges?"

"Usually one of the older brothers goes along to make sure things run smoothly."

"And this year, that's your job?"

"Yeah."

Something in his tone gave her pause. "Is there something else going on?"

"Not really. I got into a stupid fight with one of the brothers and the other guy wanted me brought up on charges."

She wrinkled her nose. "Like, arrested?"

"No, just within the fraternity. If someone has a complaint, they have a hearing and decide if any action is necessary."

"Action like being waitstaff at a faculty party?"

He shrugged. "If they decide someone is really out of line, they can be kicked out or punished, depending on how serious the infraction."

"So in your case, the fight wasn't enough to get you kicked out?"

He met her gaze and seemed to be having an internal struggle before he finally said, "In my case, the brothers thought there was bad behavior on both sides, but nothing worth kicking anyone out over. We both got community service."

She snorted. "Weird. So who did you get into a fight with?"

He pressed his mouth into a flat line, but stayed silent. She watched him closely, her spidey senses telling her she was missing something here. She replayed the conversation over in her head before the truth finally dawned on her.

"The fight had something to do with me?"

His shoulders sagged. "You were mentioned."

She continued to stare at him, eyes narrowed as she tried to figure out why he'd be fighting with one of his frat brothers over her.

"Drew," she said flatly.

He leaned back in his seat, but kept the eye contact. As annoyed as she felt knowing Drew must have said something about her that pissed Declan off enough to start a fight, his honesty warmed her. He obviously didn't want to tell her about it, but when she asked him flat out, he didn't try to lie or hide anything. She couldn't help but smile at him.

A smirk replaced his dark look. "You're smiling over me getting into a fight?"

She laughed. "No. And I'm not too thrilled to hear that Drew was running his mouth again. Or that you felt the need to settle things with your fists." She gave him a quick, hard look, but couldn't help the smile that broke through again. "But I do appreciate the fact you're being honest with me. Not trying to hide it when I asked you about it."

He leaned forward and moved his hand over hers, scissoring their fingers together in a strangely intimate gesture. He pulled her hand into his lap, and rested their clasped hands on his thigh. "I don't want us to keep secrets from each other. And I want you to trust me. Lying about what happened doesn't seem like the best way to get your trust."

Her heart melted, along with several other internal organs. She offered him a soft smile. "I wish we were sitting in my living room instead of in the middle of a crowded restaurant."

He leaned closer and his arrogant smirk appeared.

"You and me both, baby," he whispered before brushing his lips lightly over hers.

Her eyes drifted closed and she titled her chin to offer him better access to her mouth.

"Gross. People are eating here, you know."

A thud coming from the chair next to her made Harper jump away from Declan. She blinked and found Jamie sliding into the fourth chair at the table.

"Amazing timing, as usual," Declan grumbled.

Jamie grinned. "I aim to please."

Harper ran a hand over her hair, pushing a long strand behind her ear. As much as she enjoyed the kiss, she had to admit, she wasn't that displeased with Jamie's timing. She would never have thought she'd get into public displays of affection, but one more minute of Declan's mouth teasing hers, and she wouldn't be surprised to find herself climbing into his lap. How did he have this affect on her?

Before Harper had a chance to dwell on it, the too perky waitress, who seemed to feel the need to stick her too perky boobs in Declan's face, bounced over to see if Jamie wanted to order. Of course, it was hard to tell she was asking Jamie since her eyes were firmly planted on Declan. Harper turned to see Declan's reaction. She didn't know if she gratified or annoyed that his attention was firmly planted on her, the annoying part being the lip twitch. He was totally onto her.

She narrowed her eyes at him and then shook her head.

"Ahem." Jamie raised an eyebrow when they both turned their attention on her. "Was I interrupting something here?"

It took every ounce of mental fortitude Harper possessed not to fidget in her seat. Part of her wanted to tell Jamie that yes, she was interrupting. That was the part of her that was becoming addicted to having Declan's attention, not to mention several other things of his, firmly on her.

“No, Jamie, you weren’t interrupting anything.”

“Excuse me?” Declan’s voice dripped with feigned outrage. “We are so in the middle of something here.”

She waved him off with a quick flick of her fingers. “Then we needed to be interrupted before…” She waved her hand again, unwilling to fill in the blanks on that sentence.

The grin her flashed her made her sink her teeth into her bottom lip. His grin turned predatory and suddenly she wanted his lips back on hers with a desire that shocked her.

"Okay, settle down you two." Jamie passed a hand between Declan and Harper, breaking their stare down. "Someone's going to get a bucket of cold water if you two keep this up."

Harper shook her head. Jeez. She was so under his spell. He squeezed the hand he still held in his lap and grazed his thumb over her knuckles. She shivered and looked at him and smiled. Worse than being under his spell. She was quite willingly giving herself over to whatever this was between them. She had no control when it came to Declan. And other than not wanting to put on a show in the middle of the coffee shop, she was shocked to find she had no desire to control what was going on with him.

Jamie cleared her throat. Harper looked at her friend to find her rolling her eyes. Jamie reached over and stole one of Declan's fries and Harper had to hide her smile. Jamie still wasn't totally on board with the whole Declan thing. She didn't trust him and Harper knew Jamie was waiting for the other shoe to drop. But sitting here with Jamie teasing them about their PDAs and stealing one of Declan's fries made it feel like a giant step toward normal. For the first time, Harper allowed herself to feel a smidgen of hope that this relationship could work out. Maybe. Just maybe. Declan was her prize for all the bad years that came before now.

"So, your aunt called the house and left a message."

Jamie's words screeched through Harper's mind like the needle of a record player scratching across a record. Her gaze darted to Declan and back to Jamie. Her friend's wrinkled nose told her the message was not one of the loving family variety. No, the last one of those kinds of messages Harper got came before her dad died a decade ago. She definitely didn't want to share all the details of her relationship with her aunt in front of Declan.

She dealt Jamie a swift kick under the table and effected a breezy voice, "Oh, I forgot to return her calls. I'll just call her back later." She turned her head just enough that Declan couldn't see her face and bugged her eyes out at her roommate. "I'm sure it's no big deal."

Jamie's gaze darted from Harper's face to Declan and back again before she narrowed her eyes.

Shit. Jamie wasn't going to drop it. She could only imagine what her aunt must have been spewing. But she didn't need Jamie spewing it back out in front of Declan. Her eyes roamed the room looking for a way to distract Jamie from the conversation Harper knew she wanted to have. When her gaze lit on the clock over the counter in the back, she almost said a prayer of thanks.

She gave Declan's hand a tug and pointed to the clock. "Hey, aren't you going to be late for class?"

Declan checked the clock. "Shit, yeah." He jumped up and snatched up his backpack, leaning in to give Harper a quick, hard kiss on the lips. "I'll call you later, baby. Think about Friday."

"I will." She watched him stride out of the coffee shop before turning to find Jamie's eyes narrowed on her.

"So, do we want to start this conversation with a question about why you don't want me to bring up your aunt or what your plans are for Friday?" Jamie asked.

Pretty much none of the above. Shit.