The Deeper the Passion.... Jennifer Lewis

the heat of it through her pants. The salt air filled her lungs and made her giddy.

      “I don’t know what exactly is different.” His eyes rested on her face—her cheek, to be precise, because she was avoiding his gaze by staring at the horizon. “Something big, though.”

      She shrank a little under his inquisitive look. She was quite a different person than the brash, confident and empty-headed girl who’d partied and had sex on the beach with him that summer. Then she’d thought the world was hers for the taking and she was taking a vacation before seizing it. The years since had taught her that the world wasn’t too interested in whether she wanted it and that the foundation of her life—the privilege and wealth afforded by her proud family—had been built on the shifting sands of illusion.

      She certainly didn’t intend for him to find out about that. No, they could laugh about that later once she’d made a name for herself and didn’t need to rest on anyone else’s laurels. Right now, though, she was hanging in thin air, and she intended to keep that a secret.

      Which might be interesting, because she’d already committed to sharing a bed with him. Hopefully she wouldn’t talk in her sleep.