“Well…yeah. It was great. But I didn’t mean to do it at all.”

“Why not? We both wanted it.”

“But you… I didn’t want it like this with you. I shouldn’t have done it.”

“You’re the Wolfe of Manhattan,” she said, looking down. “It’s what you do.”

“Not with you,” I countered, more harshly than I meant to.

She looked up, her eyes glassy, sad. “I’m no different than any other woman.”

“Yes, you are.”

“I’m not. Do you think other women don’t have pasts?”

“Not like yours.”

“Maybe not exactly like mine, but you’d be surprised. You should see the bruising and scarring I see on some of my cast mates. And Reid, some scars aren’t visible.”

“You’re different, though. My father—”

She placed her hand over my mouth harshly. “Don’t go there. I didn’t.”

No, she hadn’t. If she had, none of this would have happened.

“Part of me will always go there,” I said. “Do you think it’s been easy for me? You’re beautiful. I promised my sister I wouldn’t touch you.”

“Your sister? What does she have to do with this?”

“She… Well, all of us were victims of our father, but not like you were.”

“I try not to dwell on it. Some days are better than others, but for the most part I’ve put it in the past.” She took the second towel I handed her and swept her wet hair into a turban.

“And today?” I asked.

She smiled shyly. “Today was the most amazing day of my life.”

29

Zee

My words rang so true.

I’d steered clear of relationships—clear of men, honestly—because I didn’t imagine myself ever being so attracted to a man to become intimate.

I had a boyfriend when I was a teenager. I was homeschooled by a tutor, but he went to the local high school. We met through a local church group. He took my virginity, and then, once we broke up, I had a one-nighter at a party—one of the only parties I attended at that age—with a jock from the local high school. Both were enjoyable, but neither was anything close to my experience with Reid Wolfe.

After the hunt—I could say it now —I was a mess. I turned to drugs, and after I struck a deal with Derek Wolfe to pay off my rehab bills and finance a new start, I still wasn’t interested in men. I was clean, I had a good job that kept me in great physical shape, and I didn’t have to worry about anyone except myself.

It wasn’t exactly heaven, but it was good. As good as I figured things would ever get for me.

Then Reid Wolfe catapulted into my life, asking me to be his date for his family’s double wedding in Las Vegas.