Carter Diallo can fix anything.

Even a broken heart?

Lawyer and businessman Carter Diallo solves problems for his powerful family’s corporation, from broken contracts to sex scandals. But when his influential powers fail him, the Diallos bring in PR wizard—and ex-lover—Jade Tremaine. Ten years ago, Carter left Jade emotionally devastated. Now the man known as The Magic Man must prove he’s genuine and win back Jade’s trust...

LINDSAY EVANS was born in Jamaica and currently lives and writes in Atlanta, Georgia, where she’s constantly on the hunt for inspiration, club in hand. She loves good food and romance and would happily travel to the ends of the earth for both. Find out more at www.lindsayevanswrites.com.

Also By Lindsay Evans

Pleasure Under the Sun

Sultry Pleasure

Snowy Mountain Nights

Affair of Pleasure

Untamed Love

Bare Pleasures

The Pleasure of His Company

On-Air Passion

Her Perfect Pleasure

Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk

Her Perfect Pleasure

Lindsay Evans

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-08632-5

HER PERFECT PLEASURE

© 2018 Lindsay Evans

Published in Great Britain 2018

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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Version: 2020-03-02

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“I’ll be in touch,” Jade said, heading for the open door. She deftly avoided shaking Carter’s hand again.

As he moved up behind her, smoky desire woke in her belly, twining its way between her legs, then up through her breasts, her throat, her very fingertips. Jade quivered from the familiar longing.

Dammit. She needed to get out of this building. Fast.

“Before you leave, let’s have a quick talk in my office,” he rumbled in his deep voice.

Do we have to? If this were any other man, Jade would tell him where to shove his offer of a conversation. But this wasn’t any man; this was Carter, and he was now a client.

She followed him, trying her best to keep her eyes at shoulder level. But with her gaze on his back, she saw clearly just how well he had filled out since college. His shoulders were so very broad and his hips narrow.

After ten years, she didn’t think his presence would affect her so strongly. Her body’s traitorous response triggered a hot flush of fury.

Dear Reader,

It was exciting to write the latest book in the Miami Strong series. Carter Diallo is a reliable and confident hero, always ready to solve any problem in his family’s business. But Carter has one issue he hasn’t been able to resolve—losing the love of Jade Tremaine when they were in college.

When Jade reappears in his life, Carter knows he’s been given a second chance. But Jade will show him that forgiveness does not come easy, and he will need to work hard to win her heart.

I hope you enjoy reading Carter and Jade’s story, and are inspired to always believe in love—even when the odds are stacked against you.

Best,

Lindsay

For my readers. Thank you so much for picking up my books and continuing to read them year after year! It means the world.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

About the Author

Booklist

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Dear Reader

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Extract

About the Publisher

Chapter 1

Carter climbed out of the glittering turquoise pool, water dripping down his bare chest, chiseled abs, and the swimsuit clinging to his narrow hips and trunk-like thighs. The warm desert breeze brushed over him like a caress, leaving pleasurable goose bumps in its wake.

It was a damn nice day.

He ran a hand over his close-cut hair and squinted against the glare of the afternoon Las Vegas sunshine. His arms and back ached from the laps he’d swum in the Olympic-sized pool separated from the wading pool by a stylized velvet rope, and his chest rose and fell with his regulated breath.

He should’ve been more relaxed. Hell, he should’ve been a limp noodle after the fruit-heavy tropical breakfast, hour-long massage and strenuous swim he started his day with. But the dream was still riding him. Somehow, it had seemed worse than usual last night.

So instead of feeling tranquil after a long morning and afternoon of food, pampering and winning at blackjack, Carter was tense. His whole body was a mass of coiled muscle. He barely managed not to look over his shoulder, searching for a familiar pair of brown eyes, curved lips, a sweet face that begged for promises he’d never been able to keep.

At nearly three in the afternoon on a Tuesday, the hotel pool was as crowded as a Saturday night at a regular spot. But in Vegas, people didn’t keep regular hours. Every night was a party. Every day was a vacation.

At his lounge chair, he scooped up his towel and roughly scrubbed it over his head, neck and chest. People watched him. Women, specifically. He could feel the burn of their eyes. Their gazes roamed his body, hard and muscled from a rigid routine in the gym, greedy and admiring.

He was used to all that and so just shrugged it off.

“Can I get you anything else, Mr. Diallo?” A poolside concierge paused by his chair, her white uniform shining in the sun while she held an empty tray at her side. She looked ready to get him just about anything he wanted.

“Just another mineral water, please.”

The woman nodded and quickly flitted away to get him what he asked for.

Carter had had a whiskey sour earlier but quickly switched to water after he got a call that the reason for his Vegas trip was set to go down in just a few hours. Alcohol never really affected him, but he didn’t take the chance while he was on the job. When he was at work, he was at work.

As the head of his own security company he built from scratch, personally taking care of many of the situations his high-end clients demanded with discretion, he was always very careful to separate business from pleasure. One careless slip could mean losing everything for his client, and even for himself. Carter Diallo never slipped.

When he’d come in the day before, anticipating that the work part of his trip wouldn’t start for another twenty-four hours, he took full advantage of the perks of being in Vegas. He hit a couple of the casinos, indulged in a long evening at the late-night spa before sitting down to a solitary meal in the hotel’s rooftop restaurant. Views of the strip had been the ideal accompaniment to his perfectly cooked steak and creamy rosemary potatoes. He had slept well last night. Long and deep. Until the dream swept over him, that is.

A tone chimed on his phone. Three fifteen.

Carter sighed, his massive chest rising up and down with the breath.

Time for him to get to work.

* * *

“Did anyone ever tell you, blackmail isn’t a very safe hobby?” Carter crossed his arms over his chest and loomed over the skinny guy cringing back in the hotel bed.

“I didn’t do anything, man!”

The guy, no older than twenty-five at best, did his best to melt into the headboard, his stupid hipster beard quivering like a weed in the storm.

When would these boys stop thinking growing big beards on their baby faces was a good substitute for actually being a man?

Carter didn’t back down. He towered over the young man and deliberately used his tall and burly frame to intimidate the guy who’d dared try to blackmail his sister. His dark gray suit, worth more money than the dude could spend in a week, only added to the intimidating picture. Carter made sure of it.

“I swear, it wasn’t me! Alice is lying!” The kid was trying to practically climb over the headboard and into the wall now, his skinny legs bared in some ridiculous underwear with a string that crawled between his butt cheeks.

What did Alice ever see in this guy?

“So this isn’t you I see using the prepaid ATM card you demanded she send you to this post office box?” Carter showed him a picture on his cell phone.

It was undoubtedly him, despite the low-drawn hoodie and shoulders hunched away from the cameras. But the idiot wore the same shoes he’d somehow convinced Alice to buy for him, limited-edition two-thousand-dollar kicks that had only come out a few days before the photo was taken.

In the blackmail note, the kid demanded money and shoes. Greedy for everything he wouldn’t get now that Alice had seen through his crap for what it was and broken up with him.

Anger boiled in Carter, a low and violent rage. But, as usual, he kept a tight grip on it, another aspect of his personality that secured him the title as the most placid Diallo brother, if also the most dangerous.

Calmly, Carter scrolled to another picture on the phone. A blown-up version of the one the boy sent to Alice’s email address. In the photo, two people were obviously in an intimate situation, the boy with Alice despite what he’d amateurishly done to try and hide his face.

“Are you going to tell me this isn’t you too?” Another pair of men’s string underwear and expensive shoes were just within the frame.

“I’m telling you, man! I didn’t do anything...” An obvious lie. The kid tried to fend Carter off with his skinny arms, but Carter wasn’t about to get himself dirty by touching the little slimeball.

Instead, he growled and the kid jerked violently back into the wall, nearly giving himself a concussion. Carter held up the phone and deliberately deleted the dirty pictures of his sister though it was a mostly symbolic gesture. He’d already wiped the copies from the cloud—along with every piece of information the idiot punk stored on it—and already tracked down all the other digital and hard copies of the photos themselves. Carter darkened the phone and tucked it away in his inside jacket pocket.

Alice needed better taste in men.

“If I hear from you again or find out you’re trying this crap with other women, I’ll be back. And I won’t be so nice next time.”

The prepaid Visa card the kid had demanded from Alice was long empty, appearing filled with cash long enough for him to think the money—one freakin’ million dollars—was there before it drained out. With his face calm and emotionless, Carter let him know that fact too.

“What? You—you can’t do that!” More terrified by the loss of the money he’d stolen from Alice, he grabbed his phone, swiped and tapped the screen a few times. Carter gave him a couple of seconds to check his accounts and verify that Carter Diallo didn’t make threats. Only promises.

Frantic eyes grew wider when he saw what was on the screen. “Please! I swear, I didn’t mean anything by it.” The phone dropped to the wrinkled sheets that smelled of sweat. Yelling and pleading, the boy grabbed for Carter’s suit jacket but Carter stepped neatly back, avoiding his hands.

He was big, but fast when it counted.

“Yes, you’re wiped out,” Carter said. “You can move in with your mama, get a job at a fast food joint. Whatever it is, you better not try this aga—”

Just then his phone rang. It was a particular ring tone. Each of his siblings and parents had their own. It was Kingsley, his oldest brother and CEO of the Diallo Corporation calling.

“Carter,” he answered although his brother obviously knew who he’d dialed.

Or at least he hoped he did. The last thing he wanted was to get another naked-butt dial from his brother who was crazy in love—and lust—with his fiancée and bride-to-be, Adah.

Kingsley, a former member of the workaholics club except when he escaped to Aruba once a year to windsurf or whatever, was making it work with Adah. She lived in Atlanta and already had a business of her own there. Nothing she could easily relocate to Miami. At least not according to Kingsley. But Carter could clearly see the solution to that “problem.”

“We have a situation,” Kingsley said. “How soon can you get back to Miami?”

“That sounds serious.”

“With the pending IPO, everything is serious now.”

“Right.” The decision to go public with their family’s multibillion-dollar beauty corporation wasn’t one that all the involved siblings and board members were crazy about, Carter included. But it was what most of them wanted so he’d gotten on board. “What’s the problem?”

Turned out that their brother Jaxon, a local Miami celebrity and member of the corporation’s board of directors, had gotten into trouble. Again. Normally it would be nothing but a blip in the Miami papers, another way for their notorious brother to impress women and get more of them into bed. But—and this was a big but that Carter didn’t agree with and was only going along with to keep the family peace—with the pending IPO, the public scrutiny from Jaxon’s increasingly stupid antics could bring ruin to the company’s stock as soon as it was offered.

Carter grunted. “That damn kid...” Jaxon was eleven years younger than him.

“Yeah. I keep telling Mom to ship him off someplace—”

“Right. Like anyplace could keep him secure, much less out of trouble.”

“Like I was saying...” Then Kingsley laughed, rueful and irritated at the same time. “...she basically told me the same thing you did. And I agree.” They’d all like for that not to be the case, but Jaxon was his own brand of stubborn. And reckless.

“We’ll deal with it. Just tell me the rest.”

While his brother filled his ear with the latest problem he had to deal with as the company’s “fixer,” he brought up his messenger app and let his assistant know he needed an earlier flight back to Miami. By the time he had all the details of the latest Diallo disaster, he had a plane ticket already downloaded to his phone.

He’d already checked out of his hotel, figuring it would be easier to take care of business first before heading back to the Las Vegas airport.

“All right, I’ll jump on the first available flight and meet you in the office.” He shrugged back the sleeve of his suit jacket to glance at his watch. It was almost six. “My assistant will let you know my ETA.”

“All right, sounds good.” Kingsley sounded relieved.

“You just gonna stand in my hotel room all day?” the kid interrupted. The fear was leaching fast out of his little rodent-like face.

Carter knew just how to fix that. “The room is all paid up until tomorrow. But I had the receipt mailed to your house so you can know just how much you owe the Diallo family.” That’s right, kid. I know where you live. Carter tipped his head to the boy who was now visibly trembling. “Enjoy the pool here. It’s no Ritz but the water is nice and warm.”

He opened the door.

“Don’t hang around this place too long, Trey,” Carter said.

Then he closed the door behind him and headed down the stairs to the rental Benz he’d left in the nearby parking lot.

* * *

On the way to the airport in the car, he read the email Kingsley sent him about his brother’s latest mess. And damn, it was a big one.

He sent Kingsley a quick message:

Not sure this is something I can handle but I’ll have some ideas by the time I get there.

At the airport, he quickly made his way through the line and to his first-class seat. Ignoring the woman dressed in head-to-toe Balmain trying to get his attention with idle chatter, he scoured his brain for solutions his brother and the rest of the family could work with.

When the woman angled her immense cleavage toward him, he got an idea, reached for his phone and sent Kingsley a message.

This looks beyond my scope. If I fix this the way I want, things might backfire and blow back on the business. A buddy of mine used a firm in Cali for something similar a while back. The work was good and discreet. Here is the info to consider.

He sent the name of the firm plus his contact there just in time for the final warning from the flight attendant. He gave her his most charming smile and sat back to be a good boy.

“That’s a gorgeous watch you’re wearing.” The woman reactivated her flirtation and stroked her long fingers along the armrest. A breath of air from the wake of her hand gave the unpleasant illusion that she’d touched him.

But he kept his hand right where it was.

“Thanks,” he said. “It was a gift.”

She raised a thoughtful eyebrow, obviously reevaluating him. The Tom Ford suit. Meticulous manicure. And of course, the Vacheron Constantin watch.

A faint smile twitched the corner of his mouth. He imagined that in her mind, he just went from rich boyfriend, husband or Mile High Club prospect to kept man. Or boy toy. It didn’t matter what she thought, though. He wasn’t interested in her right now.

Normally, he’d give maybe a tenth of his attention to flirting with a woman like her. From the faded ring-finger tan line, he could tell she was divorced. Obviously on the hunt for a new lover or husband. The sex would probably be good. Uninhibited. Maybe even a little bit kinky.

But Carter was still in work mode. Not even an impressive set of newly divorced...assets could pull his attention from where it needed to be. He’d always been a “business before pleasure” kind of guy. Even when the pleasure promised to be very pleasurable indeed.

“Whoever gave the watch to you has good taste,” the woman said, her voice trailing off as obviously as her interest in Carter. No boy toy for her, then.

“Thanks.” He tipped his head her way.

He wasn’t like Kingsley, Jaxon or any of his brothers who had the kind of looks that made women stop in their tracks then offer up their life savings for a night or two between the sheets.

No, he wasn’t as handsome as his brothers. He was, however, big and intimidating. And he was smart. The one who put his native skill set and law degree to good use to keep the family successful and thriving.

Yes, if he’d been one of his brothers, the woman would’ve probably still kept trying to get into his pants, figuring that although there was no money, being close to beauty like theirs for even a short time was worth any effort. But he wasn’t one of the pretty ones, and that was okay.

With the woman suddenly intent on getting more champagne from the flight attendant, Carter settled down to enjoy the ride. He turned to face the window with its view of the clouds and, far away, another passenger plane flying at a lower altitude. His eyelids grew heavy. Then a familiar dream took him.

* * *

Birds chirped loud and cheerful outside his fifth-floor window and sunlight flooded into his single college room. The hard lines of a wooden chair pressed along his back, butt and thighs, and in front of him on the desk sat his half-finished homework.

Why hadn’t he finished his homework yet? Class was in just a few hours.

While vague thoughts of getting back to the homework floated through his mind, his room door burst open. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen rushed through it.

Jade Tremaine. She looked like the sweet girl next door. Permed hair down to the middle of her back, a gorgeous face completely free of makeup. Her body, slender yet curvy, had a thick booty that usually starred in his juicier fantasies.

“Carter!” She was crying.

“Jade, baby, what’s wrong?”

The sadness on her face carved a hole straight through Carter. If she let him, he would move the world to get rid of her tears. Her smiles made him happy. Her laughter made him laugh too. Everyone around them noticed Carter’s obsession and assumed they were more than friends. But Jade already had a boyfriend, and she wasn’t a cheater.

“Carter!” Jade fell into his arms, still sobbing.

This was a dream. After more than ten years of living with it, Carter knew every move he would make while trapped inside its illusion. And he knew how different it was from the real event that happened between them years ago.

Jade’s slender body heaved against his.

“He cheated on me...” Her voice had wounds in it, large enough for wailing sobs to break through. “I can’t believe it. I really trusted him.”

Anxiety turned him inside out at the sight of her obvious pain. He would do anything to make things right for her. “Tell me,” he practically begged. “Tell me what I can do.”

But Jade kept sobbing on him, the same words falling from her trembling lips again and again.

“Just hold me. Please.” She trembled like a leaf caught in a hurricane. “Carter...” Her body felt cool and delicate against his.

“Please, don’t cry.” His voice sounded hoarse and desperate to his own ears. He needed to make everything okay for her. Carter’s mind was in tatters, nothing like the logic and control that usually ruled his day-to-day life. “I’ll fix whatever you want.”

Slowly, the need to help her became tainted with lust and inconvenient desire. His hands wrapped around her slender arms and her skin felt like silk. “Jade, let me help you.”

“Yes, yes.” And she lifted her mouth toward his.

And with that, Carter knew how to help. His body and his love were what she needed.

Happiness surged in him.

Yes. This he could do.

He pressed his lips to her damp cheek and tasted her tears. A soft whimper left her parted lips and curled around his sex, hardening him. She cried out again and gripped the front of his shirt. Her sharp nails sank into his skin, deep and agonizing, but Carter moved into the pain.

“It’ll be okay,” he said. “I’ll take care of everything.”

“Yes,” she whispered and her breath was like perfume.

They fell into his bed. A California king with sheets that brushed soft as sin against his suddenly naked skin. Carter throbbed with want to protect her and to possess her. Both impulses burned through him and scorched away every piece of reluctance he might have had before.

Her bare skin was a balm to everything that hurt; her kisses tasted of the most sacred of elixirs. With each touch of his hands on her skin, poetic nonsense invaded Carter’s head. He couldn’t think, could only feel.

He should stop. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t what she needed.

But she writhed against him, the most sensual and passionate woman he’d ever been with. “Yes, Carter...” Her tight body welcomed him. “Yes. Love me. Make everything else go away.”

Yes. God, yes.

Jade panted into his open mouth. Her legs wrapped around his waist.

Her agonized sobs turned into cries of pleasure. She moaned his name. “You’re perfect...Carter. So perfect.” Her hand settled on his chest, over his heart, as they moved together. She threw her head back, baring her long throat. A smile curved her lips. “Yes!”

Yes, their pleasure was perfect.

His body moving firm and hot inside her, Carter reached for Jade’s face. But his hand passed through her cheek.

Her smile fell away. “Carter?”

Suddenly, he couldn’t feel her around his sex anymore. He could see her, but couldn’t touch. She kept disappearing, piece after piece. “No!” she sobbed out.

“Jade!”

As she disappeared around him, Carter’d never felt so helpless in his life.

He screamed out his frustration, grabbing desperately for her but his hand passed through her body again and again. He was losing everything.

Jade’s sobs got louder. She trembled like she was ready to fall apart, but Carter couldn’t touch her, couldn’t comfort her anymore.

“Jade! Stay!”

But she didn’t. Her body faded away until only her sobs lingered in the air, ripping into his ears like knives.

* * *

The jolt of the plane hitting the runway yanked Carter from the dream.

He hissed and jerked upright, opened his eyes in time to see the woman next to him give him a faintly worried glance. The pain faded. Sound drained away. But his body remained on edge and faintly aroused.

Just like always.

Ten years of having the dream and it was still as powerful as ever. The panic and regret that came with it were things he could happily live without. But he didn’t know how to get rid of the dream, or those feelings.

A deep breath in. A deep breath out.

Okay. Enough of this. His body still felt heavy and in need of sleep, but that was too bad. He had work to do.

Carter’s phone vibrated when he turned it on. A single message from Kingsley had come in during the five-hour flight.

Got in touch with the firm you suggested. We got lucky they took our call outside office hours. Their chief strategist will be in my office when you get here.

His brother didn’t waste any time...

Other than that, only one new business emergency had come up. Plus, an update from Kingsley’s fiancée about the engagement party the whole family was expected to attend. He sent his assistant the details so she could keep him on track.

As soon as the aircraft door opened and he was free to go, Carter nodded to his neighbor and left with his single piece of carry-on luggage. The patience to wait for bags to arrive at the luggage carousal just wasn’t in him. Not to mention, he wasn’t often anywhere long enough to need more than a change of clothes, his laptop and cell phone.

He wound his way through the airport to the curbside. A scant three minutes later, a black town car pulled up and the driver slid down the passenger-side window.

“Mr. Diallo?”

He nodded and barely moved toward the car before the driver leaped out, a woman in a crisp dark uniform, and opened the door for him.

“Thank you,” he said, but she was already back in the driver’s seat and pulling away from the curb.

During the drive, he checked his messages again. His assistant, who was worth her weight in gold and rubies, scheduled the meeting with Kingsley in the early afternoon. This gave Carter enough time to head home, shower, change and take care of some urgent business for his own firm. The situation with Jaxon was urgent but no one was about to keel over.

While he took care of these basic things, the chauffeur waited.

They made good time to the office and Carter offered the woman a tip, which she respectfully refused before driving away from the thirty-story Miami high-rise that housed the Diallo Corporation and a few other interests the family owned.

When he walked into the building, it felt like home. More so than the three-thousand-square-foot house he’d recently bought on Hibiscus Island.

He’d been coming to the building since he was a kid, always eager to see what magical things the lab came up with or find out firsthand what kept his parents away from home so much. Now that he knew the ins and outs of the business that kept five of the thirteen Diallo siblings employed, he half wished he hadn’t been so eager to throw his childhood away just to satisfy his curiosity.

His parents had taken that curiosity for interest in running the family business, and once it had been established that he had no interest in arm wrestling the title and pain in the butt of being CEO away from Kingsley, they’d slotted him into the next best or possibly worst job. Company fixer aka CSO, chief security officer. A title he was convinced they’d made up.

It didn’t matter to them that he already had his own security firm, his own employees. They were Jamaican. For them, it was perfectly normal, even expected, to have more than one job.

The elevator doors chimed and slid open.

Carter took it to the top floor and walked into his brother’s office after knocking once and waiting a few seconds past the “Come in.” He’d accidentally barged into enough sex-at-the-office scenarios by various members of his family with their significant others to last him a lifetime.

“You work fast, Kingsley.” He closed the door behind him with a click.

God, he was tired. But sleep would have to wait.

“We don’t have time to waste.” Kingsley greeted Carter with a grin despite the seriousness of what they needed to discuss. After a few quick keystrokes, Kingsley stood up and hugged Carter, gave him the manly slap on the back.

“Trust me. I understand,” Carter said.

He was so focused on his brother that he didn’t notice the other figure in the large office until he caught movement from the corner of his eye.

Right. The head of the California-based PR firm. Damn, he must have been more tired than he thought.

Carter turned with his hand held out to shake. “Carter Diallo,” he said automatically, expecting a middle-aged white man. But he froze as a slender hand clasped his.

“We’ve already met,” the PR chief said in a particularly expressionless voice. The corners of a familiar pair of lips curved up in a humorless smile. “Jade Tremaine, in case you’ve forgotten.”

Chapter 2

Carter Diallo was huge.

His shoulders easily filled the doorway of his brother’s office, and his presence was immense and intimidating. The impression of overwhelming strength was only made even more so by his expressionless face. He looked more like an enforcer than the CSO Jade knew he was. Thick muscles were apparent even under the sleek Tom Ford suit; his hair was perfectly and precisely cut—he was the very embodiment of class and power.

His face was still the same, though. At least his eyes were: that peculiar mix of hyperconfidence and authority that hadn’t seemed to match the slender boy Jade knew in college but now seemed perfect for the giant who just walked through Kingsley Diallo’s door.

No, this wasn’t the man she knew in college. His effect on her equilibrium was worse. She swallowed and barreled ahead on the course she’d chosen when she first found out they would be doing business together.

“Jade Tremaine, in case you’ve forgotten,” she said, carefully shielding her emotions from him.

His eyebrow, dark and perfectly sculpted, rose as he clasped her hand in a perfectly respectable handshake.

For such a muscled, hypermacho-looking man, he was incredibly well-groomed. His brows manicured, skin smooth and exfoliated. She couldn’t remember if that was all natural or if he took as much care with his looks as she did with hers.

Looking at him, her nerves jangled all over the place. Although she’d prepared herself for Carter Diallo, just seeing him in the flesh after ten years obliterated everything from her memory except the taste of his lips.

She’d seen Carter’s last name on everything, from the first email contact to the massive sign and logo on top of the building his family owned, even the transfer of her agency’s fee in their account. But somehow she’d thought—hoped!—it was all a coincidence.

Until Carter walked in the door, older and even more gorgeous than ever.

She hated herself for noticing.

Kingsley had a large glassed-in office. Anyone inside could see out but no one could see in. So she saw Carter coming in from the elevator, watched him exchange a few words with Kingsley’s assistant before striding with a confident, bow-legged stride toward the door. Though she’d been in the middle of a conversation with the older Diallo, Jade had turned away, flustered, to root around in her briefcase on some pretense or other. When Carter came in, he didn’t see her face right away. She made sure of it.

And now...

“Not at all,” he said in response to her ridiculous statement, and she immediately saw his brother take note, a shifting of the expression on his face.

But, ever the professional that Jade had known him to be in the few hours they’d known each other, Kingsley said nothing.

Carter unbuttoned his suit jacket and took a seat at the oval conference table at the far end of the spacious office like he was the one who’d called the meeting. In a way, he had, she supposed.

“Did Kingsley tell you what this is about?” He glanced briefly at his brother which was Kingsley’s cue to join him at the table, apparently.

Kingsley gestured toward a seat at the table and waited for Jade to sit down before sinking into one of the sinfully comfortable leather chairs.

“Yes, he gave me the details.” She put the folder she’d pulled from her briefcase on the table and tapped it with a long mocha-lacquered fingernail. “Your little brother hasn’t been acting in the best interests of the company lately. His behavior will negatively impact the IPO offering.” Jade pulled a few key sheets of paper from the folder and passed them to the two men. “Here’s all the information I put together on him.”

When Corrie, her assistant and the one handling the day-to-day workings of the firm while she was in Miami, called her and said Diallo Corporation was looking for a professional fixer, she’d been shocked. But jumped on it right away. Diallo was big business and it was only luck—bad or good, she wasn’t sure yet—that had her in Miami this week.

Her parents’ sudden deaths in a car accident yanked her from the safety and distance of her San Diego home back to Miami where she’d been mostly miserable. Or too ignorant to realize she’d been miserable. She hadn’t talked to her parents in years and although her first impulse was to hand everything over to a professional to deal with, Corrie had cornered her the afternoon after she found out about the accident and basically guilted her into jumping on a plane.

Jade arrived in Miami in time for the meticulously planned funeral—her parents had been so thorough with their own arrangements, she’d hardly had to do anything—and hadn’t been at all surprised by the service’s sparse attendance. The ten or so people gathered around the caskets seemed more intent on avoiding each other’s eyes than mourning Isaac and Abigail Tremaine.

Jade included.

Resentment was too strong a word for what she felt for her parents. It had mostly been apathy, especially after the way they’d treated her when she was in college. Even with Corrie bullying her, Jade didn’t want to deal with her parents’ funeral, their estate, the murky pool of unsorted emotion in her chest. She didn’t want to deal with any of it.

So, it had been a blessing, she thought, when she got the call about the Diallo Corporation’s interest. Sitting in front of the lawyer and painfully discussing her parents’ last wishes, she’d practically jumped for joy when her cell phone rang. Now she wasn’t so sure if any of this could be called a blessing.

With her escape from the lawyer’s office at the forefront of her mind, she’d done the quick research on the problem—boy genius Jaxon Diallo’s general tactlessness and extremely bad taste in women—printed the information she thought she would need for the quickly arranged meeting and just shown up.

Now she wasn’t sure what was worse. Dealing with the lawyer telling her that her parents had always wished for her to forgive them and return home, or facing the man who’d shattered her heart into a million pieces ten years ago.

A tough choice.

“Damn, I wish Jaxon would learn a little more discretion,” Kingsley said, dragging Jade’s mind back from the past. “Pillow talk doesn’t have to include your idea for a million-dollar app your casual screw can later blackmail you about.”

“This isn’t exactly blackmail,” she pointed out. “This girl just wants to ruin him, no compensation necessary.”

Across the table, Carter flipped through the papers Jade had passed to him, frown lines creasing his brow.

“This is blatant bull,” Carter said drily. “Jaxon is a lot of things, but he’s not a thief. The first app he created made millions. It’s doing better than the one this girl claims to have had the idea for.”

“Unfortunately, in this instance, truth doesn’t matter. This girl—” Jade flipped through the file for her name “—Nessa Bannon, looks great on camera and has something to say about the so-called rich playboy who stole her idea and just plain took advantage of her. The world is practically salivating to get more of her story.”

Within a matter of hours, social media had latched on to the few details Nessa Bannon tossed out there. The fires were being lit to roast Jaxon Diallo alive, and his family’s reputation along with him. Not good news as far as the IPO was concerned.

“We need to shut all that down. Fast.” Kingsley steepled his fingers. “Which is why we’re here this afternoon—”

“Instead of in Las Vegas, enjoying the showgirls and casinos,” Carter grumbled.

“Is that what we pulled you away from?” Kingsley didn’t sound sorry, showing instead a brotherly lack of care about the relaxation he’d taken Carter away from.

Not that Jade cared that much either but neither one was her brother.

“That damn kid...” Carter muttered across from her. The tightness at the corners of his eyes betrayed his worry.

For what, Jade couldn’t tell. The IPO? The scorned woman lashing out at a man she thought betrayed her? His lost all-you-can-eat Vegas buffet?

“I’m sure you’ve had your share of romantic roadkill from back in your younger days.” She arched an eyebrow at him. Jade didn’t have any proof but she mentally put a point on her side of the game when Carter flinched.

But he didn’t stay down for long. “You already have the details of our planned IPO offering and about Jaxon and this mess. Do you think you can help us? Be honest. If it’s too much, let us know and we’ll find someone else.”

It was like he’d thrown down a gauntlet, and the glint in his eyes told Jade he knew exactly what he was doing. But what he asked wasn’t impossible. Of course, she could help them.

The situation had the potential to be an easy fix but she could also see why Carter had lobbed this potential bomb into her lap. The last thing the Diallo family wanted to do was seem like they were covering for an opportunist who stole from a girl trying to do better for herself.

Nessa Bannon was raised poor, was now working to pay her own way through college, and had an Instagram account filled with gorgeous selfies and intimate details of her everyday life, including her desire to get into fashion one day. Obviously, a beautiful and driven girl.

Jaxon, at barely nineteen years old, was a proven genius and already one of the leading minds in tech. A young and very attractive member of the superrich Diallo family of Miami, he had every advantage growing up. Good schools, resources, people paving the way for his success.

Which of these nineteen-year-olds was more likely to have come up with the idea for the million-dollar app in question? The answer was clear.

But news bites were everything. The right set of headlines read by the right people could crush the Diallos’ dreams of taking their company public at a profit.

Jade wouldn’t let that happen, though.

She closed the manila in front of her. “Yes, I can take care of this.”

Kingsley leaned back with a relieved smile. “That’s usually Carter’s line. But I’m glad you have the same amount of confidence as my brother.” He flicked a smile Carter’s way.

Oh really? Jade flashed both of them her teeth. “More,” she said. “I have much more confidence than Carter. After all, you guys came to me, right?”

“Lord, not another one!” Kingsley rolled his eyes but he was smiling. “At least when you two get this thing sorted out, I can save myself the trouble and just thank you both at the same time.”

What? “Both?”

“Yes. It’s your call how you handle this but I need you to work closely with Carter on it. He knows what the company is doing. And he knows the family. He’ll be your shadow while you handle this.”

Just great. She clenched her teeth but managed a smile. “Sounds good.”

“Perfect!” Kingsley glanced at his watch then clapped his hands once. “Now, I need my office back. I have a very important lunch date in about five minutes.”

Just then, the intercom buzzed on his desk phone. “Ms. Palmer-Mitchell is here to see you, Mr. Diallo.”

“Ah, she’s early.” His face lit up like the sun.

If this was a business meeting, Jade would eat her blue Manolo Blahniks. She lazily swung her foot, wearing said shoe, and watched the door to see who would come in.

“Send her right in, Charmaine.” Like a kid expecting Santa Claus, Kingsley hopped up from the conference table and opened the door in time for a slender woman with wide eyes and amazing skin to walk through it. She carried a picnic basket.

“Am I early?” she asked.

“No. You are exactly on time.” Kingsley pressed a kiss to her cheek, just within breathing distance of her lush mouth, and although it should have been chaste and sweet, the passion between the two of them practically scorched Jade where she stood.

Okay then. Time to make her own exit.

“I’ll leave you two to your lunch meeting,” Carter said with fond laughter in his voice while Jade held herself back from making any sort of comment. After all, she’d just met Kingsley.

“I’ll be in touch,” she said, briefcase in hand, and headed for the open door. She deftly avoided shaking Carter’s hand again, walking the long way around the conference table just so she wouldn’t have to.

She knew she’d made a mistake when she saw Carter move up behind her. With every breath, she was aware of him following her.

For such a big man, his footsteps were light, nearly silent. Her shoulders prickled and smoky desire woke in her belly, twining its way between her legs then up through her breasts, her throat, her very fingertips. Jade quivered from the familiar longing.

Dammit. And she’d only been in the same room with him for an hour. She needed to get out of this building. Fast.

“Before you leave, let’s have a quick talk in my office,” he rumbled in his deep voice and she could practically feel his breath at the back of her neck.

Do we have to? She shoved down that whiny part of herself and clasped both hands tight around the handle of the briefcase. If this were any other man, Jade would tell him where to shove his offer of a conversation. But this wasn’t any man, this was Carter, and he was now a client.

“Lead the way.”

Outside the door, she paused for him to walk ahead of her.

“My office is just down there to the left,” he said, voice bland. “My name is on the door.”

Jade almost rolled her eyes. Of course it was.

He stepped ahead of her and she followed him, trying her best to keep her eyes at shoulder level, or at least on his back. But with her eyes on his back she saw clearly just how well he had filled out since college. His shoulders were so very broad, and his hips narrow.

Although she had never fooled herself into thinking she was over him the minute he walked out the door and left her ten years ago, she didn’t realize his presence would affect her so strongly, or so soon. Her body’s traitorous response triggered a hot flush of fury.

Ahead of her, he opened a door identical to the one that guarded Kingsley’s office. His assistant, a capable woman with purple hair and multiple piercings, greeted him with words Jade didn’t pay much attention to. After a few moments of conversation, he left his assistant behind and guided Jade deeper into the space that was obviously all his.

He closed the door behind them. For all of its magnificent view of Miami, the glittering water of Biscayne Bay, the amazing blue skyline littered with white puffy clouds, the office was very plain. He obviously didn’t spend much time there.

A spotless and bare mahogany desk sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The leather chair in front of it seemed comfortable and brand-new. The long conference table identical to Kingsley’s looked unused. And that was all.

Jade spent a few precious seconds wondering where he spent his time before common sense came back to her. Then she let her anger handle the rest.

With the door closed between them and the rest of the world, she stopped being polite.

“What do you want, Carter?”

At first he didn’t say anything. He just leaned back against his desk and watched her. His look was intent and hawkish, like he was just eating her up with his eyes. It was unnerving, and unexpected. Only years of doing business with some of the most frightening people in the world stopped Jade from squirming.

“It’s good to see you again, Jade,” he said in his basement-deep voice.

I will not react, she told herself. I will not react.

But it was useless. Back in college, she’d always been surprised by the low voice coming from such a skinny guy. The depth of his voice definitely matched his personality. Even then, he had been stable, reliable and so sure of himself. He handled every situation that came at him with a maturity surprising for someone that young.

At least that was what Jade realized now.

Most twenty-year-old guys didn’t possess the maturity to get other college students to calm down and keep the situation peaceful. They didn’t know how to effortlessly get girls to trust them and not take advantage of that trust by taking them to bed.

It’s good to see you again, Jade, Carter had said. Did he really think so?

“I don’t see anything good about this, Carter.”

At least she didn’t want to. Ten years should’ve been long enough for her to forget about what happened between them and move on. But apparently, she was as stuck in the past as her parents had been.

“I came back to Berkeley and you were gone,” he said, immediately facing the elephant between them.

“Funny. I dropped by your room the day after we had sex and you were gone.” She tipped an eyebrow at him. “A little difference there.” If he wanted to talk, then dammit, they would talk. She took a seat in the sofa and put her briefcase next to her. “When did you come back to campus? A few days later? A week?” She knew the answer was neither because, fool that she had been, she waited even longer to hear from him.

He shifted against the desk, recrossing his arms. “About two weeks,” he admitted after a round of jaw flexing.

“Yeah...” She pursed her lips and found to her annoyance that his eyes latched instantly to them. He was such a man. “Did you expect me to sit there and wait for you to decide...whatever?”

“I didn’t think you’d just disappear from school, just like that,” Carter said, a touch of...something in his voice. “And then I couldn’t find you.”

Just how well did you look? But she wasn’t getting into that game with him. After he disappeared, she’d taken it stupidly hard, running back to her parents and seeking a shelter with them that she’d absolutely not found. It hadn’t been a game of hide and come seek. She’d been deadly serious and thought she’d left everything to do with Carter far behind her. Except for that one important thing.

And now he was here. They were here together, dancing around something that was dead and should’ve been long buried.

Jade needed it to be in the ground. Maybe then, it wouldn’t hurt so much.

“There was no reason to find me, Carter. That afternoon, I was stupid. I was just shocked I read Hudson wrong, that’s all. I didn’t know he and I were in an open relationship. Believe me, after I walked in on him and my replacement, I knew.”

Jade hadn’t always had a boyfriend in college. She’d gotten there single and naive and fallen immediately in love with Carter. But after nearly two years of pining after him, she agreed to be Hudson’s girlfriend.

Worst. Decision. Ever.

That disaster lasted until their senior year when Hudson cheated on her, using the excuse that Jade never put out so he’d needed to get his sex fix from somewhere else.

“You knew, huh? What exactly did you know?” Carter adjusted his stance against the desk. A tall mountain of a man with blazing brown eyes. Watching her.

“I knew I was better off with my boyfriend. Yeah, he was with another girl, but I was just angry. I was jealous. I wanted to get back at him and show him I could have some fun somewhere else too.”

“Somewhere else?” His look sharpened.

God, she wished she knew what he was thinking. But that transparent boy had vanished out of her life ten years ago never to be seen again.

“Yes. Somewhere else. I’m sorry I made it seem like more than what it was. I just wanted to see how different it could be with another guy. You were protective and it felt good to touch somebody who was...” Tender. Always good to me. “...just different in bed.”

Part of that was true, at least. Carter had been tender with her that afternoon in his sun-drenched dorm room. He’d kissed the tears from her face, licked her all over and touched every part of her that could give pleasure.

He’d been nothing like Hudson. Carter had gotten much further with his gentle touches and kisses than Hudson ever got with his threats of telling everyone how frigid she was. In the end, though, Carter had been just as bad. Worse.

That day, she’d been furious with her cheating boyfriend, and miserable. She only wanted comfort from Carter, the one person who showed her consistent kindness and understanding. But he used her body and discarded her, left her feeling worse than when she’d walked into his room.

Jade would never let him know that, though.

“I was just using you, Carter,” she snapped, finally stating it bluntly since he didn’t seem to get it when she used nicer words. “I just wanted a different man in bed for a change. Don’t think if you’d come back any sooner there could’ve been anything between us.”

Anticipating an angry reaction, maybe even something physical, Jade clenched her teeth and braced herself, hands curling around the edge of the couch.

But Carter only gave her that same devouring stare. His expression gave nothing away.

What the hell was she even doing?

This was stupid, trying to get a rise out of him. And why?

Jade sighed and trailed fingers through her low-cut hair. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. All that is in the past and we’re working together now so that’s that.”

“What if I don’t want that to be it?”

“I don’t care what you want,” Jade said.

Growling low in his throat, he pushed himself off the desk and moved toward her, but before he could reach where she sat, Jade jumped up from the sofa and grabbed her briefcase. Finally, a reaction out of him. But maybe not something she was ready for.

Carter slid himself between her and the door, a halfway-there obstacle to her freedom. “Wait,” he said.

“No. I did that when I was a dumb kid but that’s not my style anymore.”

His Adam’s apple slid up and down as he swallowed. “How long did you wait for me?”

An emotion moved across his face. Hope? Whatever it was looked out of place. This placid and nearly emotionless version of him would take some getting used to. At least until it was time for her to finish up in Miami and leave again.

If the handle of her briefcase were a neck, she would’ve strangled it by now. Why were they even talking about this? Yes, she was still mad, but it was nothing a strong glass of whiskey and another ten years couldn’t cure.

Jade released a slow breath. “You know what? It doesn’t matter.”

Suddenly feeling hollowed out, she twisted away from his infuriatingly calm face and headed for the door. She couldn’t look at him another second.

“Where are you going?” he called after her. “We still have to talk.” Carter hesitated. “About your work with the Diallo Corporation.”

“We don’t have anything else to talk about. Your troublemaking brother and I, though, he and I need to have a conversation sometime soon. Preferably in the next one to two days.” She gripped the door handle and wrenched it open. “Now, if you have nothing else to say, I’m going to go earn the ridiculous amount of money your company is paying mine.”

Without looking back, she walked out. The secretary didn’t look up from her computer when Jade walked past, the height of professionalism. How many pissed-off women had she seen walking out of Carter’s office over the years?

Not that it mattered to her. None of it did.

She just had to do this job then get the hell out of Miami and back to San Diego where she belonged.

Carter Diallo was a heartbreaker. He’d pummeled hers to bits before and she didn’t have a spare to offer him for a repeat performance. No matter how good he looked in a suit.

Chapter 3

Someone once told Jade she wasn’t the forgiving type.

It wasn’t true. She forgave plenty.

She just never forgot or gave people the chance to screw her over again.

Jade didn’t want to be that person, but she could only be who her parents raised her to be.

With her head swimming from their conversation, she left Carter’s office. Her exact destination was unclear as hell, but who needed a destination when getting out of his presence had been the only priority?

In the Diallo Corporation parking lot, she climbed into the silver Aston Martin Vanquish she’d had shipped ahead from San Diego so she could drive it while in Miami. It was an expense. Too much, really. But her parents had raised her to be cheap and thrifty and now, these days, she wanted to throw all of that away. So the Aston Martin it was.

Sleek, seductive and sexy. Basically, the car was everything she wished she was.

And it was what she’d felt like in Carter’s arms the one time they’d been in bed together. Despite the tears and her anger at Hudson, that afternoon with Carter had been a revelation. For once, she’d allowed herself to...just be. No fears, no expectations, simply pleasure and a heart-opening recklessness.

She’d never felt that way with anyone again.

Jade breathed in a deep lungful of the Miami autumn air and started the car. The Vanquish came to life with a sensual growl she could never get enough of.

“Hey!”

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw a girl standing next to the car. The girl had appeared there like a ghost. Skinny and big-eyed, waiting there in cutoff shorts and an electric-blue tube top that showed off more slender limbs, daggers masquerading as collarbones, a fierce look in her wide brown eyes.

“Can I get a ride?”

“What?” Jade didn’t know this girl from Eve, and there was no way she was going to let a scrawny stranger into her car. She could be a crackhead for all Jade knew.

“No. Not from me,” Jade said with a shake of her head.

“Hey, whatever happened to the kindness of strangers?”

If she didn’t know better, she could swear the girl was making fun of her.

“This is the big city, stranger. And this is the year two thousand and whatever.” Jade waved off the actual year as unimportant. “No one is kind for free.”

“So what are you gonna charge me? I need a ride.”

You have to be kidding me. This girl had to be crazy.

Or maybe you’re the crazy one, still parked and talking to this girl when you could’ve easily pulled off and left her in a cloud of dust.

The voice inside her head could be a bitch sometimes.

But she was still vibrating from the conversation with Carter. Willing herself to think about business, and nothing else. Certainly not about the way his dark and spicy cologne had smelled good enough to lick. And the way it made her remember...everything.

Jade didn’t want to face herself yet. And that self was the only thing waiting for her back in her hotel room, or even back with her parents’ lawyer.

Jade reached over and opened the passenger-side door. “Where do you want to go?”

The girl threw her a grin and slid into the car, long bare legs flashing in her high-waisted denim shorts, red Converse sneakers the same bright shade as her lipstick.

“Wherever you’re heading is good,” the girl said. She looked around the car and gave an impressed whistle. “This is a sweet ride.”

“I thought you said you need a ride somewhere.”

“I do. Just out of here. Where you’re going is good. As long as I don’t have to be here.”

Jade should’ve kicked her out of the car then. But the careless way the way the girl spoke, like she didn’t really care where they went and just wanted an escape, spoke to exactly what she was feeling.

She put the car in gear and took off.

The girl giggled and threw her head back in the seat. “This is some monster you got. I bet you get in trouble speeding all the time.”

I wish. The truth is nothing so interesting.

“Not really. I brought it with me here from San Diego but I probably won’t drive it much.”

“What do you mean? Miami is Flashy-car Town, USA. We probably passed a couple of million-dollar rides pulling out of the building.”

The building’s parking garage hadn’t been all that impressive when Jade arrived. All she’d wanted to do aside from make sure no one hit her baby, was to get into the building and get the job done. Now she was too keyed up to notice more than this random girl begging a ride.

“You know you shouldn’t jump in strangers’ cars like this. You never know where they’ll take you.”

“I can take care of myself,” the girl said, settling more comfortably into the black leather seat. She pulled a pair of sunglasses from on top of her head and slid them over her eyes. “The last thing you’d ever have to worry about is me,” she said with a quick sideways grin.

Something about that smile and arrogant tilt of her nose struck Jade as familiar, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“Where are we going, anyway?” the girl asked.

Really, what the hell was she doing hitching a ride in the parking lot of Diallo Corporation? Had she just wandered off the main road and decided to check it out? There were definitely more interesting places out there. This was Miami after all.

Jade flicked on her turn signal and changed lanes close to a slow-moving black Mercedes. “I’m driving to a place up north, near Boca Raton.”

The declaration jumped from her lips, unsummoned.

Okay. I guess we’re going to my parents’ house.

She’d told Carter she needed to work on his PR crisis but truthfully, she needed to get up to her parents’ house and take a look at it. She’d been putting it off for far too long. Three days in Miami and all she’d seen were the inside of the lawyer’s office, her hotel room and the car.

Looking at the house and deciding what to do with her parents’ things was the reason she was here. Being a coward usually wasn’t her way. But she was breaking a lot of new ground this week.

She cringed, remembering how she’d practically run out of Carter’s office with her tail between her legs.

“Boca...” The girl leaned over to mess with the dual temperature control. Cool air gushed from the vents on her side. “Where the old folks are, huh? Thinking of buying a place up there?”

God, that sounded like a nightmare.

“No, not really,” Jade muttered, barely resisting a shudder of distaste.

“Good.” The girl fiddled with the radio, scrolled through a few stations before plucking her phone from her back pocket and pairing it with the car’s Bluetooth. “If I ever bought a place, I’d stick to Miami. It’s pretty boring up there.”

If she ever bought a place... Jade eyed the girl. Nothing about her stuck out as particularly poor. The little cloth fanny pack around her waist looked like any you could pick up for a couple of dollars at the fair, her Chucks were clean and seemed relatively new, and the rest of her was clean too. She smelled like fresh oranges.

“My parents lived up there,” Jade finally said after giving up on guessing what was up with the girl.

“That sounds about right. What, they realized they’d die of boredom if they stayed up there?”

“No, they just died.”

She felt the girl’s eyes on her, like she was checking to see if Jade was lying. “That’s rough,” she finally said. “Sorry.”

Jade was still trying to figure out if she was sorry. “It’s fine. We weren’t close.”

“Seriously? I can’t imagine not being close to my family. Even when they’re being asses.”

“That’s good. It means you love them.”

“Yeah, I do...” She turned a brilliant smile to Jade then leaned back in her seat, tapping her feet to the music, sexy and hard-driving reggaeton Jade had never heard in her life. The woman on the track rapped about a man who’d done her wrong on the dance floor. And she planned on doing the same to him. Repeatedly. The song sounded good though, so she didn’t complain.

The girl chattered on about the specs of the car, obviously excited. All these things Jade knew about it; after all, those were the reasons she bought the car in the first place. “And it must be custom. I’ve never seen one like this at the car shows.” She touched the buttons and the gleaming surfaces, clearly appreciative, but not at all covetous. It was interesting to watch. Refreshing.

Then she took a series of selfies with the car’s controls in the background.

“So,” the girl said when she’d finished her photo shoot. Her impish smile showed itself again along with the ultrasharp-looking canines that made her look both wild and oddly childlike. “My name is Dee, what’s yours?”

Names. Right. Asking the young stranger’s name probably would’ve been the sensible thing to do before she even got into the car.

Jade tilted a look at the girl but kept an eye on the road. Dee, huh?

She was tempted to tell her J and see what the girl would make of it, getting a fake name in exchange for a fake name. Whatever her name was, that was a crap attempt at subterfuge. Why, though? It wasn’t like Jade was interested enough in the girl to try to find out her real name. No reason at all to do that. Although young, she seemed over eighteen. If she had parents that she had run away from, the girl had her reasons. Although from what she’d said earlier, her family meant the world to her.

“My name’s Jade.”

The girl cracked a laugh. “Was your mom a fan of China or something?”

Jade shrugged. “No. That was the name my father’s favorite girlfriend went by.” Probably wasn’t even her real name.

Dee stared at her, wide-eyed. “For real?”

Jade shrugged again. It was one of those things she’d grown up knowing, something her mother had thrown at her father during one of their arguments that Jade never forgot. She didn’t even know if they’d been aware she was there, twelve years old and shocked.

Not just that her parents were having an argument—one of the two she remembered—but that her mother had allowed it. Hearing that revelation, she realized then at twelve why her mother very rarely called her by her name. It was “honey” or “sweetie” or something along those lines. Only when her mother was mad did she become “Jade.”

“It’s just life,” she said to Dee. “Some facts are pretty, some aren’t.”

“God... I’m sticking my foot real deep in it every five seconds with you.” Dee slumped back in the seat, the corners of her lips drooping down. She stopped tapping her feet to the music. “Damn.”

Jade’s mouth twitched and she clenched her hand on the gearshift to stop herself from patting the girl in reassurance. It was her tragedy after all, not Dee’s.

The silence from anything but the music felt almost oppressive and Jade bit her lip to stop herself from filling it with her own pointless rambling. This was what waited for her in her hotel room. This and the trying to forget.

But was going to her parents’ house any better?

The side street to her hotel was coming up fast. She eyed it, then watched it pass by. The car rumbled as she shifted and passed a pair of white Priuses in a blur. She needed to get off the major streets. The fastest way to get a cop on her butt was to speed around here. She raced toward the highway, up the on-ramp and darted into the car pool lane, flying fast.

“Cool! This car can really take off!” Dee giggled, her good mood returning with the car’s speed.

Who the hell was this girl?

Hell, who was Jade in this moment?

This woman who ran from her problems wasn’t the real her. Ever since her parents left her to fend for herself, she’d faced everything head-on, convinced that nothing but more pain lay the way of postponing the inevitable.

So far, the only thing she’d been wrong about was the direction of the pain. It wasn’t a single arrow shooting into you once your feet turned in the wrong direction. Instead, it was an ocean, spreading out on all sides, deep and overwhelming. This pain was one of life’s certainties.

“It’s one of the reasons I got it,” Jade said with a twist of her lips. “I thought it would help me run away from my problems.”

Dee chortled. “You’re over twenty-five so you must know better by now.”

Jade looked the slight girl up and down. “Are you over twenty-five?”

The girl rolled her eyes. “Obviously you’re making a joke. I’m just mature for my age.” She took another selfie, this one with duck lips, her bright red mouth pointed at the camera like a weapon.

All too soon, they got to the house Jade had been avoiding for days.

“This place is nice.” Dee stepped out of the car and onto the driveway.

Jade firmly closed the driver’s side door, staring up at the two-story colonial-style house she grew up in. “Yeah, it is.”

As a kid, she hadn’t thought they had that much money. Enough to keep her in the latest random stuff she wanted, finance a vacation for the three of them someplace in the Caribbean twice a year and pay the mortgage on the house.

Through the eyes of an adult, she saw that they had been solidly upper middle class, her father a family lawyer and her mother an accountant who mostly worked from home. From what the lawyer’s documents said, the house, three blocks from the lake in a respectable Hollywood neighborhood, was now worth a little over eight hundred thousand dollars. Or a million, if you rounded up.

Jade took the keys out of her pocket and began the walk up the long driveway.

“Why are we here anyway? It looks deserted.” Dee shoved her phone in the back pocket of her tiny shorts and hiked toward the front door at Jade’s side.

At nearly five o’clock in the afternoon, the house did look deserted. No cars in the driveway but Jade’s. Sensor lights clicking on above the door although it wasn’t dark enough for them do any work. The lawn was neatly cut. Immaculate. But the yard and house felt completely empty. And they hadn’t even gotten inside yet.

“I’m here because I need to sell it,” Jade said with a wry twist of her lips. Already, she could feel a tide of something unpleasant pushing at her from her house. Sadness, most likely. Memories. “I’m not sure why you’re here.”

Which was a bit of a lie. She was there as Jade’s distraction. Or a messed-up idea of moral support. Depending on how truthful she was being with herself at the moment.

“Don’t be mean,” Dee said with a tiny frown. She took a quick picture of the house then shoved her phone back into her pocket.

With a twist of the key, Jade unlocked the door. Immediately, the alarm began to wail.

Her parents always had the alarm on, even when they were home. It always made Jade feel trapped. Even leaving her room to get a glass of juice in the middle of the night filled her with dread.

Damn motion sensors. Damn her parents.

Her father had been a controlling hypocrite and the worst of liars. He had a mistress, always quoted the Bible, forbade Jade from knowing anything about birth control and made sure she went to college as innocent as a lamb being led to slaughter. And her mother had let it all happen.

Heart pounding, Jade put in the code the lawyer had given her to silence the screaming alarm and stepped into the house she hadn’t been inside for years. She flicked on the light switch in the hallway.

“Wow...”

Yeah. Wow was right.

The inside of the house looked nothing like the old and antiquated place she remembered. Reddish hardwoods, maybe bamboo, gleamed in the entranceway. A pretty, modern chandelier glittered above their heads. And, as they walked down the hallway and through the rooms, Jade saw that the furniture was all very current, very vibrant.

The house felt so empty. Like they’d renovated it just before they died and never got to enjoy it before the car crash stole their lives.

Staring at everything she saw, Dee went one way in the house and Jade went another. It was as beautiful throughout as it was at the entryway. Elegant, updated, contemporary. What had once been a massive living room had been transformed into a large bedroom suite—bedroom, sitting room, giant walk-in closet—looking out over the pool. The king-size bed was made up with what looked and smelled like brand-new sheets. Even the very air of the room, of the whole house, smelled crisp and untouched. Like Dee said, deserted.

In the kitchen, Jade found stainless steel appliances, a ceramic cooktop and harlequin-tiled floors. Nothing of the dark and kitschy setup she remembered.

This was a home for a modern couple. Which her parents had definitely not been.

“Oh my God!” Dee’s voice came from upstairs.

Jade ran up there to see what Dee was freaking out about. In the hallway, she froze. Or at least what had once been the hallway leading to the other three bedrooms upstairs. All that had been gutted and renovated and turned into...nothing.

“This is amazing!” Dee twirled in the center of the large space.

It was all one big room with a bathroom on each end, tall and gleaming columns of wood breaking up the monotony of the oversize room, like they had been load bearing and couldn’t be removed.

The wall and doors that had once stood between the upstairs patio and two of the bedrooms was now a screen of sliding glass doors looking down to the pool, the rest of the pristine backyard, a garden and the lake.

Nothing was like Jade remembered. Her parents had basically torn out every trace of what the house was.

Dark. Oppressive. And old, but not in a cool way.

Now it felt like a completely different house.

Jade didn’t realize she’d been spinning in disoriented circles, trying to take it all in until she stumbled into one of the columns. She slammed into the textured wood hard enough to bruise. She gasped on a breath of pain.

“Are you okay?” Dee appeared at her side.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Nothing here was what she had expected. Yes, she’d felt the roll of familiar anxiety when she stood outside the door, but all that was gone now. She might as well have been standing in a stranger’s home.

In some ways, maybe that was what it was.

Jade took a breath, then swept her gaze around the entire top floor. Yes, she could easily sell this. With the way the real estate market was right now, if she listed the house at even a decent asking price, it would probably get an offer in less than a week. Then it would be out of her life for good. Just like her parents.

She took another breath. “You ready?”

Dee looked confused. “Sure. But that’s it? That’s all you wanted to do? Literally just look around?”

“Of course. And now I’m finished.” She rattled the keys in her hand. “Let’s go.”

For a moment, Dee looked like she was going to ask more questions, but she just huffed and stomped down the stairs while Jade followed her on more silent feet.

This was the house her parents left behind. Now gutted and rearranged and looking like something Jade had never seen before.

This was all that was left of them. This was all that was left of the life she’d lived with them. Just a giant empty space. She swallowed hard.

A sharp pain spasmed under her breastbone and Jade rubbed over the spot. No, she was not sad. It was all just finally over.

She got into the car and started the powerful engine while Dee huffed some more in the passenger seat. “That was so lame,” the girl said.

“Probably. I didn’t promise you any excitement on this outing.”

I don’t even recall inviting you along, Jade thought but kept that last bit to herself.

“So true.” Dee buckled herself in. “Fine.” Her phone beeped and she reached into her back pocket for it. Staring at the phone, she made a happy noise. Her eyes gleamed when she looked up at Jade. “You wanna go someplace I want now?”

What was the alternative? Head back to the hotel and work? Drive herself crazy wondering why her parents gutted the house they loved so much? Try not to think about Carter and all the ways he effortlessly destroyed her peace of mind?

Jade shrugged and gave Dee her most carefree smile. “Sure.”

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