"Four coffees; two black, one with just sugar, and one with cream and sugar," Livy said as she delivered the drinks to main office of the local university's Science department.

"A life saver, that's what you are!" Hadley Linton, a small elfin creature with a pixie haircut fell on the hot drinks. Livy had gone to high school with Hadley, and she was the main reason that she had her new job with the department.

Declan had been gone for four months, and as soon as he left Livy had decided to take his advice and not sit around the house all day. She had re-enrolled at the local university where she had attended classes prior to her father's illness. She had only managed to complete two years, so she still had a few core classes to complete before she had to declare a major.

When she had attended college before she had been an art student, but she wasn't sure if that was the route she wanted to go again. It had been her passion once, but she realized, that in the real world it wasn't exactly a major that would offer her a lot of support. Declan was right when he had mentioned her interest interior design, but she had chosen the interest to primarily upset her father.

Her father had hoped that she would go to school and earn a business degree. She had shown a natural aptitude for numbers and had even been accepted into Harvard's business program, but she had decided not to even mention it to her father out of fear that the choice of art school would have been taken away from her.

Now, it all seemed so pointless. If she had been wiser then, she would have jumped at the chance to attended Harvard. It was a local school and she could have her pick of jobs, then she wouldn't need her father's money at all.

Still, she was interested in interior design and Livy had looked into the new program, and when she had read that it was headed by Theodora Styles it had left her with mixed feelings. She signed up for a class, hoping she could attend the program and keep a low profile because it would allow her to study the woman without being beholden to her. But it hadn't worked. Theodora had recognized her on the first day of class and had drawn everyone's attention when she had mentioned that it was nice to see her again.

She kept telling herself that the only reason she cared about knowing more about the woman was to save face. If she was going to marry Declan, which she honestly had her doubts about, she need to know the lay of land, learn what sort of woman interested him so that she would be prepared, but prepared for what exactly, she wasn't sure about.

She had started school a few weeks earlier and she had wanted something else to keep her busy and hold the loneliness at bay so she applied for and got a job with the Science department. They had needed an office assistant and it sounded like it was a general go-for job, but she was willing to do it. It would be her first real job, and she was amazed that they had even hired her with her limited experience. She had a feeling it was because Hadley was a teaching-assistant in the department and had pulled a few strings with the office.

"Excellent!" Landon Nixon, a grad student, said as he reached for his coffee. Landon was handsome in an awkward boy next door way. He was outrageously tall and unbelievably shy, but he was incredibly funny once he warmed up to a person.

"Drink up guys, we don't have time to waste," Dr. Nelson Taft said with a grin. Dr. Taft was every girl's dream. He was tall and handsome with blond hair and soft brown eyes. When he looked at a girl and smiled it felt as if she was the only one that existed. Livy would be lying if she said she wasn't interested. She had a full-blown crush. She could feel her heart speed up and her face turn red every time he entered a room.

At first Livy had thought there was something between him and Hadley but she had insisted that he wasn't her type. Livy was trying to play it cool, but Hadley loved to tease her about it.

Landon had caught her at it one day and had told her to lay off as Livy had gotten increasingly embarrassed. Hadley had apologized and had eased off some and she still let the occasional comment slip, but so far never in front of Dr. Taft.

Livy looked at her watch and then smiled at everyone as she grabbed her bag. "I have a class, I'll see you all later?" She had invited them to the house for dinner and Raoul was so excited that she was having guests, and that he had something to do for a change, that he was pulling out all of the stops.

"Sure, we're looking forward to it," Dr. Taft said as he threw his arm across her shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze.

Livy smiled shyly up at him before she looked up at the clock and darted away.

The class was Theodora's and she couldn't be late. She knew that if she was it would be reported back to Declan. She had thought about dropping the class when Theodora had recognized her, but she didn't want that to get back to Declan either.

He had said he didn't care what she did but she didn't want him to think she was a quitter.

She entered the class with a minute to spare and slid into a seat in the back.

Her eyes were immediately drawn to Theodora as her presencs filled the room. Livy had to admit that she had a very warm and welcoming personality and that her sense of humor had the class laughing in an instant.

Livy couldn't help but wonder what she and Declan had in common. When she tried to imagine them together she couldn't. They didn't fit in her mind. For as beautiful and elegant as Theodora was, that was as rough and hard as Declan was. It wasn't that Declan couldn't command a room or a situation, she knew he could, he just wasn't as polished as Theodora.

The class was interesting and went quickly. They had a presentation due in two weeks and there were a lot of questions, which took the second half of the class to answer.

"Olivia, do you have a moment?" Theodora called as the class exited the room.

Livy couldn't miss the curious glances that were directed at her as her fellow classmates filed out of the room.

"Are you enjoying the class?" Theodora asked as she approached Livy where she stood at the back of the classroom.

"I am, it's very interesting," she answered honestly.

"Good, let me know if it gets boring. This is only my second-year teaching so it's still kind of new to me."

Livy nodded, not believing her insecurity for a minute.

"Have you heard from Declan recently?" she asked casually as she leaned against a desk.

"No, have you?" she knew she sounded catty but she couldn't help it.

When Theodora seemed mildly amused by her comeback it only incensed Livy further.

"Me? Why should I have heard from him? I'm not the one living with him, in fact I don't think he has ever had a woman live with him before. It must be serious between the two of you?" She watched Livy's reaction closely.

Livy only smiled. There really wasn't a comment she could make. She could say that it wasn't serious, that he was just helping out a friend, but when they became engaged it would make that statement look like a lie, and if she said it was serious and it fell through it would look like a lie as well.

"You're just a secretive as he is, aren't you?"

"Is he secretive?"

Theodora laughed as she stood. "Put your claws away sweetie, Declan and I have never been more than good friends, and I would like to be your friend too, if you ever need one." Her smile faded. "I have a feeling with Declan you will need one. Declan has more than his fair share of secrets and good luck to you at getting more than one of them out of him. He never shared them with me." Theodora looked at Livy, taking in her youthful innocence. "Be careful. He's loyal but commitment has never been his strong suit, at least not where women are concerned."

"I know Declan well enough," Livy insisted.

"No, no one knows Declan well enough, that's my point. You only know the parts of Declan that he wants you to know. One day someone will come along and he will share all of himself, and who knows maybe you're the one, but if you're not he'll crush you. He'll be sorry to do it, but he will do it."

Theodora gave her one last smile that was tinged with worry and then she left without another word.

Livy was perplexed by the entire conversation. Why would Theodora worry about her? Especially if she and Declan had a past relationship. Had Declan crushed her? Somehow, Livy didn't think so.

However, Declan was the least of her current worries. Right now, she had a dinner to prepare for and she was hoping that it was a success. Her goal was to impress Dr. Taft, and make him see her as an ideal woman and hostess.

The fact that her mind wandered slowly away from Dr. Taft and back onto Declan and what his possible secrets could be was lost on Livy. She had to laugh at the thought of boring Declan having secrets. The only secrets he had were the numbers to his offshore bank accounts.

Secrets indeed. He sounded almost interesting.