After replicating the finished set of notes, Amber closed her binder with a shake of satisfaction and rubbed her eyes, tender from struggling to unravel the fine print on the whiteboard. She had to squint from her seat just to see the instructor’s writing as small as it was. Just imagine how tedious it was for the students in the rear of the classroom?

It was eleven-thirty by the time class concluded, and Amber was famished enough to devour an entire chicken by herself. Thanks to the macchiato coffee and her reliable old water bottle, her belly remained quiet for as long as it did. Not for much longer, however; Amber needed food in the next half hour or so, or else her belly was going to object, and she’d have no voice in it.

Gradually, students began tidying up and straggling out of their desks, one by one.

Amber wasn’t one of them. While she preferred getting in early, she usually loitered around after to evade the stream of students sprinting towards the exit. Unless she needed to be someplace at a specific time, there was no reason to be the first person out the door. Now, Amber lingered, rising to stretch her tired muscles from sitting too long. She intertwined her fingers and bent them outwards, palms first while observing the last flurry of departed students.

The current foundation’s course was only two days a week. The downside? A two-and-a-half-hour-long session without breaks, per the professor. But students could come and go so long as they kept disruptions to a minimum.

“So, not as eager to get me out of your sight today?” the male voice next to her was rough and teasing.

Amber had forgotten he was even here.

Okay, she pretended to forget that he was still here.

So much for presuming he’d overlook their lunch date. After cracking her knuckles, Amber bent sideways, muscles protesting. She considered her new friend from an angle without speaking.

“Fascinating,” he injected, eyes tracking the rise and fall of her breasts, now at the forefront. “If you’re trying to entice me, it’s working.” Amber ignored the lazy, magnetic drawl in his voice, refused to acknowledge how much quicker her heart chimed with him around, including the images his voice conjured. Of hidden corners and tangled hands, and mouths, and–

Amber straightened. Stretching around Hunter was a bad idea. A very bad idea. “Don’t you have somewhere you’re supposed to be?”

She snagged her backpack and started filing away the binder, books, pen, and water bottle, now empty. Note to self, stop by the water fountain for a refill before the next class.

She’d never been in a guy’s company this long. Knew no one other than Liam that preferred her company for this long. Most of the time, everybody avoided her. Either that or they approach, hoping to be pals, simply to be turned away. Amber was cordial, but not a fool. There was only one thing they were after, and it had nothing to do with her but everything to do with her family fortune.

Hunter’s smile was gradual and heart-stopping and tugged at the corner of her heartstrings. As if to say there was nowhere else he would rather be than here. “Nope. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

“You know who I am, right?” With the last items assembled, Amber zipped and dangled her backpack over her shoulder. She shifted to face Hunter with her arms crossed. It was either that or run her fingers through those red curls of his. “If you want money or fame, you won’t get it here.”

“True.” Hunter also swung his briefcase over his shoulder before pushing both their chairs back against the table. “Although, I will admit you’re not at all what the magazines say.”

Amber ambled towards the door, with Hunter filing next to her. This she could do. This friendly, safe conversation zone, she could handle. “Really? What do they say?”

She was also curious.

Not to what the magazines say, but his interpretation of their words.

“Something along the lines of rich, spoiled, and very selfish,” he chuckled, quite amused as if those were noble traits to have. “Gotta love the media for already portraying a picture of who you are just by one or two photographs.”

Amber eyed him doubtfully. He spoke like someone who knew what it was like in the spotlight, yet… her eyes drifted to his plain dark t-shirt and jeans. Hunter dressed without a care in the world about what people thought of him or how he presented himself. Never had she been so tempted to use her skills to investigate his background. Maybe she’ll use that software from her parent’s company to do a bit of digging? After all, he already checked into her, so turnabout was fair play.

“Didn’t actually think I was telling the truth?” Hunter asked when Amber didn’t respond.

They made their way down the stairs to floor one before taking the nearest rear door exit. It led to the grassy, peaceful backyard of the building with cemented paths diverging into three different routes—one path wrapped around to the front. The second veered off to the right towards a parking lot, while the third tracked across the field, descending the hill to the main sidewalk.

Amber and Hunter took the third route, disappearing down the slope where students were coming and going. The path reduced their time in half with the Dining Hall to the east, but they’d have to share the sidewalk.

“There’s been so little published… just marveling at how well-read you are,” Amber finally answered, suspicion not all abated. “I wonder where you get your sources?”

There were a lot of magazines that rarely made mention of Cyber Consulting, much less include pictures of her parents or even Amber in them. If it did, the market targeted were those whose net worth topped more than a million or even billions. Not to say that a couple of online or printed newspapers wouldn’t publish a story now and then about the Blacks.

“Are you thinking back to what those hyenas said about me?” And there was that tilted, perplexing smile of his again, one that lit up his entire face. Sucker punching, eye-catching… a distinctive sort of fixation that prompted Amber to misjudge her stride. Her toe wedged into the empty space between the grass and asphalt, and she began plunging headfirst towards the concrete.

Hunter reacted so swiftly she barely had time to blink, diving in front and attaching his hands against her shoulders, steadying her. Amber raised her arms up in response only to deposit her fingers against Hunter’s chest after he intercepted her fall. Up close, his shoulders were hard, infinite, and highly intoxicating. Amber couldn’t get enough of his scent. Not of expensive cologne but fresh outdoors. Wild and clean, and tangible. If she moved her fingers up just a little bit, she’d be touching his skin–

“As much as I love having you in my arms, people are staring,” he murmured next to her ear, his lips barely skimming her flesh. “I, however, have no complaints.”

Amber straightened and pushed back a few inches, reminding herself to breathe while frantically wondering if Hunter could hear her heart thundering just as blatantly as she could. What was wrong with her acting like a girl out with her first crush? And she wasn’t even crushing on him!

As for spectators? Those were the least of her problems right now.

“Amber? Are you okay?” Hunter said her name for the first time since they met, and Amber felt her insides coil. The way he stressed A before drifting into a soft murmur after the last syllabus generated butterflies in her heart. Underneath her clothes where his hands grazed, her skin heated and prickled like a thousand needles pressed against her flesh.

Before Amber could react, steady arms slipped around her shoulders, draping her from behind and drawing her backward, backpack bumping against a solid frame, dousing her senses like a bucket of ice water.

Amber caught a hint of the cologne first before her eyes identified the cuffs encompassing the sleeves.

“Hey buddy, what are you doing?” The familiar male voice echoed behind her. “This is my girl.”

Every marrow in her body stiffened. Never once did it cross her mind these two would meet one day or how she would introduce them. With Hunter, Amber completely forgot about the existence of Liam and what he meant to her. Liam shouldn’t even be here! Not that she could stop him. It was a public college, after all.

Her eyes collided with Hunter, contemplating how he was taking the unexpected twist. Did his research come up with this as well? Or is it news to him? A small part of her felt miserable, even regretful, that he had found out this way. That it was this way, but she dismissed the feelings. Amber had done nothing wrong and there was nothing to feel guilty of other than the images in her head.

Impervious, Hunter casually straightened. Then, idly, he planted his hands inside his pockets, green eyes still locked with onyx ones. Amber could have sworn she detected a glimmer of irritation across his features, but she couldn’t be too sure.

“Really? I don’t see a ring.” Hunter didn’t even seem at all surprised by the news.

It took mere seconds before Amber caught his meaning. Hunter may have answered Liam, but he directed the remark at her, disputing the claim for both of them.

Daring her to accept or elaborate further.

Amber couldn’t come up with a response—didn’t know how to. Yes, she wore no ring on her left hand, but that didn’t mean it didn’t exist. Things were just... complicated, is all.

“Really!” Liam frowned, not used to being questioned. “Ring or no ring, they promised this one to me since birth.”

“Is that so?” Hunter only raised a questioning brow, never taking his green eyes off her. His subsequent remarks were quiet, lulling… suggestive. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

Lady? Which lady? Was Hunter making a play at her or at Liam? Did Hunter mean she didn’t object enough or that Liam was complaining too much?

Silence stretched.

The air amplified.

Energized.

Amber and Hunter regarded one another, evaluating each other’s responses and body language. Amber’s tongue came out to wet her lips and Hunter’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Hunter leaned back against the soles of his heels and Amber held her breath. Neither moved nor spoke. Both refused to shatter the link between them, the magic that lingered in the atmosphere around them. For them, no one else existed.

No one else mattered.

“What are you saying?” Liam interrupted, the meaning ultimately going over his head. “Amber is not protesting at all. Tell him, Amber.”

The spell broken, the connection shattered, Amber pushed out of Liam’s arms and moved away. She re-adjusted her bag and steadied herself before swinging around to face them both. Instead of answering Liam, however, she demanded, “What are you doing here?”

“Why do you make it sound like I have no right to be here with you?!” Liam professed to be hurt, but she knew better. “And who is he? How come I’ve never seen him before?”

That was news to her. So Liam knew nothing of Hunter? Her thoughts meandered to the dark-haired young man with glasses. The one assigned to spy on her, speculating if secrets were being kept from Liam.

“I didn’t realize I have to give you the names of everyone I hang out with.” Amber turned to Hunter. “I apologize, Hunter. This is Liam. Liam, meet Hunter.”

“I don’t need everyone’s name,” Liam retorted. “Just the names of every guy you’re with.”

Amber couldn’t even find it in herself to be angry. If she was angry, it meant she genuinely cared about how he felt. She didn’t. Perhaps, once, a long time ago, but not anymore. Theirs was a business transaction only.

And a crowd was gathering.

If it was one thing Amber hated, it was the spotlight or the talk of the town—in this case—the campus. And she was confident there would be gossip if she continued to stand there and argued with Liam.

“Quit being so rude,” Amber started walking, knowing Hunter would follow because he wasn’t the type to make a scene.

Liam also followed. “And you’re insensitive. Why are you not introducing me as your fiancé to him? Are you two dating?”

The nerve of the man! Especially after last night when he had his arms wrapped around two attractive ladies for all the world to see!

Amber spun around in her tracks.

Hunter stepped in front of her.

“Aren’t you the Liam Riley, heir to Cyber Consulting?” Hunter’s eyes grew as if he’d just realized it for the first time.

Liam also stopped, puffing out his chest. “I am. In case you weren’t watching, I was on the news yesterday!”

Amber eyed Hunter’s back. What game are you playing?

“Indeed!” Hunter exclaimed, his voice carrying for miles. “You had both arms wrapped around two impressive models, from what I saw. Are you sleeping with them?”

Liam choked back words as his face turned a slight shade of red.

Internally, Amber wanted to suffocate them both. And she was wrong. Apparently, Hunter was the type to make a scene after all, despite understanding why he was doing it. While Amber appreciated the help, she didn’t need it, not with her fiancé. She’d been fighting this battle herself for twenty years.

“Liam? Did I hear him? Did he say that was Liam?” The surrounding observers shouted. Girls all around halted in their tracks.

“That’s Liam from yesterday’s news!”

“Quick! Get his autograph!”

“I want a picture!”

“Oh, my gosh! Liam!! Liam!! We love you!”

The crowd began rallying nearby, more females than males, and they pushed Amber and Hunter out of the way. As for Liam, the color on his face was already returning, his anger quickly evaporating. He presented the crowd with a stunning smile, showing a solid jawline and white teeth as girls pushed one another to get in front of him.

Amber stood there, dismayed. How did Liam get this far without being recognized? Could he be disguising himself, and if so, why?

Before she could take the thoughts any further, though, firm hands clasped her wrist and dragged her away.