“I don’t know, Will. A few months ago, I was a target, not a girlfriend. I have no experience, but I always knew he’d be right there.” For fuck’s sake… why was I talking as if we’d broken up instead of had a fight?

“He needs a stiff kick in the dick.”

I didn’t want to laugh, but I did. I held my sides as I bent over from the hard laugh that shook my body. It wasn’t what she said but the level of frustration on her face as she said it. Her brow was pulled so tight she could have had a unibrow.

“Girls?” my aunt called as she approached with a fresh bottle of water. “It’s time to board.”

I took one last look around the busy parking garage and gave up the hope that he would change his mind and rescue my breaking heart.

Ten minutes later, I was waving goodbye to my aunt. Willow and I found our seats. She immediately pulled out a sketchpad, and I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

When a loud shout and an even louder commotion erupted from the front of the plane, I was saved from the shame of a major breakdown by one Keiran Masters.

“Sir! Sir, you cannot board this plane without a ticket. Sir!”

Willow turned wide eyes on me at the same moment.

“No,” she groaned with disbelief and slammed her head against the headrest.

I swallowed hard and fought hard not to smile. She read my emotions immediately and shot me a look that said I was crazed. Maybe I was, but I knew in my gut who was the cause of the havoc.

My suspicions were confirmed when he rounded the corner at the exact moment my heavy heart picked up its beat again.

His hair was disheveled and his eyes crazed as he wildly searched the cabin. His chest moved up and down as if he’d just run a race. When his eyes were finally connected to mine, he froze. His expression quickly morphed from desperate to unsure and then to possessive. I never even realized he was moving until he was right in front of me and on his knees.

“Lake.”

“The next words out of your mouth better be in the form of begging,” Willow grumbled next to me. Her eyes were closed and her face finally relaxed as if his presence was as much a healing balm for her as it was for me.

“If she’ll listen, then yes.” I searched his eyes as he held mine. “I want to beg, baby.”

* * *

ONE MONTH LATER

I bounced from one foot to the other, waiting for Willow to collect her colorful pens. Some things never change.

Since we were freshmen and taking general courses, we were able to take three out of five courses together. I didn’t know what I would do if I had to start my first year of college thirteen hundred miles away from my boyfriend and without my best friend, too.

“Willow, hurry, will you?”

“Ugh. God, Lake. As if he wouldn’t wait or call you a million times if you’re even a minute late for your Skype date.”

“He’s not that bad.”

“Oh, yes he is. But it’s kind of cute, I guess.”

Keiran had always been possessive, but the distance separating us had brought a vulnerable side to him that I never thought I’d see.

Sheldon said it was normal for guys who think something or someone belongs to them. He had already marked his territory but was now unable to defend it, which is the reason he’d become agitated. 

Those were her words.

I didn’t know whether to take her advice as the truth or if it was a result of pregnancy hormones talking. I still couldn’t believe she was going to have a baby and my crazy fuck of a boyfriend was the one to convince her to go through with it when she wanted to terminate.

If possible, I fell in love with him even more because he had. He’s grown up knowing only death. I never thought he would value life in any way other than living.

She finally finished packing her stuff and met me at the door.

“Sorry, I can’t do lunch today. I have a test in my next class, and I need all the studying I can get.”

“Nerd,” I teased.

“Whatever. You’d be the same if you weren’t so stuck up Keiran’s as—”

“Hey.”

Willow and I both jumped at the sudden sound of Keiran’s deep rumble. He stood across the expansive hallway with his hands shoved in his jeans wearing a pleased grin.

“Hi, Willow,” he taunted. It was evident he caught her remark.

She rolled her eyes and wiggled her fingers dismissively. He knew her well enough by now not to be offended by her pissy attitude. Willow was hurting. We all knew it, and so did she.

His eyes finally shifted to me and instant heat assaulted me. We stood frozen on opposite sides of the hallway, content to drink one another in. “Hey, you.”