“What?” I ask, glancing down to realize my movements have opened the front of my robe, exposing the lace I’m wearing underneath. I re-knot the scrap of silk holding the robe shut.

Jace doesn’t say anything; he just rubs a hand across his face. I turn out the lamp on the bedside table before I climb on top of the bed next to him. Electricity hums between us.

“What do you want to watch?” I ask, grabbing the remote to flip through the options.

“What were you really asking me earlier?” Jace asks abruptly, instead of answering my question.

“What do you mean?” I reply, only half-listening as I scroll through the movies.

“At the pool. When you asked about other girls.”

That catches my full attention. I lower the remote. “You know what I was asking.”

“If I’ve fucked anyone?”

I cringe at his crude choice of words but answer truthfully. “Yes.”

“What about you and your fiancé? Have you fucked him?” Jace asks belligerently.

My short temper flares. “How could you ask me that?”

“Have you?” Jace presses.

“It’s none of your business,” I retort.

It’s a weak argument, but I don’t want to reveal to Jace how empty my relationship with Charles really is. How I’m barely friendly toward him most days, never mind how far I am from being a doting fiancé. That I’ve barely let him touch me, much less be as intimate as Jace is suggesting.

I don’t want Jace to realize how much I still mean the three words I finally told him at the hospital.

His gray eyes are tempestuous. “None of my business? Are you kidding me? I—”

“Fine, no, I haven’t!” I snap. “I haven’t even kissed him! We held hands for the engagement photos, and that’s the only time I’ve even touched him. Are you happy now?”

“Yeah, that makes me pretty happy,” Jace says, his voice back at a normal volume. The calm after the storm.

“What about you?” My voice is hesitant, small. I’m not certain if I want to know the answer.

“I haven’t been with anyone else since you bumped into me the first day of the semester,” Jace admits.

I look over at him, completely floored by this new revelation. “What?”

“I told myself it was because it was my last season at Lincoln, and I needed to focus on that. Finally winning the championship. Getting drafted. But I’m pretty sure it’s actually because I fell in love with you when you told me you were out of cocktails.”

I freeze. I’ve told him twice now, but Jace has never said it to me before.

“You love me?” My voice breaks on the last syllable.

Jace’s smile is bittersweet. “You know I do. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t.”

“I wasn’t sure…after the hospital. It seemed like you might not care anymore.”

“How the hell could you think that, Viv? I only asked you to leave because it hurt too much to see you again. And it only hurt that much because there hasn’t been a day that’s gone by since you left Lincoln that I haven’t thought about you.”