Chapter One

Reece

She’s standing here as if she didn’t shatter my entire world six years ago.

Blinking my eyes against what I’m sure is a mirage, or maybe too much Scotch, I address the gorgeous woman standing demurely before me. “Macey?”

I’d recognize her anywhere, but this isn’t the girl I remember. I haven’t seen her in years, and she’s grown up. A lot. Her features are sharper, and she’s lost the childlike roundness to her face. Her hair is longer, lighter, and her makeup is perfectly applied. I don’t recall her ever wearing makeup. But mostly it’s the look in her eyes that’s different—as if she’s seen too much of the world and had to cut her own path through it. She’s harder, edgier, wiser . . . but she’s still Macey. And my heart is beating like a fucking drum at the sight of her.

“Hi, Reece.” Her tone is confident, but her body language doesn’t match it. Her eyes are guarded, and her gaze drifts to the floor at my feet.

I fell in love with her when I was nineteen and she was sixteen. I knew it was wrong; she was my best friend’s little sister. But when she lost her parents in a plane crash that year, I was the one she turned to for comfort, and our friendship evolved from there.

Of course, my best friend, Hale, doesn’t know any of this because it ended when she went away to college. It had to. Macey was always destined for more, and leaving was exactly what she needed, even if she took a part of me with her.

Despite the fact that we’re standing in the busy lounge of my BDSM club, Crave, I’m immediately transported back to her quiet, dim bedroom six years ago. I was twenty, with all the wants and needs of a man, and she was just an inexperienced girl of seventeen . . .

• • •

Macey’s panties were wet, and her chest heaved up and down with her quick, shallow breaths.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked her.

“I’m sure,” she said, her voice small but steady.

Her white cotton underwear left little to the imagination, since the now-damp fabric clung to the inviting pink skin beneath. I’d been rubbing her clit through her panties, unwilling to undress her completely because I knew what would happen once I did. Her knees were spread apart, her thin tank top unable to conceal the firm peaks of her nipples. She was beautiful—a lesson in contradictions. Shy but uninhibited; inexperienced yet eager.

She was close, whimpering softly as my fingers worked on her. My cock was so hard it ached, and all the blood pumping south clouded my judgment. Continuing to caress her, I used my free hand to release my belt and open my pants. Taking myself in my hand, I pumped my cock up and down, needing a release so fucking badly it hurt.

Macey and I both released a shuddering breath at the same moment. Her gaze was glued to my jerky movements, and I could feel all her muscles trembling.

“Do you have a condom?” she asked, a slight tremor to her words.

I had two condoms in my wallet, and as much as I wanted her, I was also scared out of my mind. I’d never slept with a woman I loved. Up until this moment, sex had been a meaningless physical act meant to quiet the need raging inside me, nothing more than joyless weekend hookups with girls whose names I wouldn’t recall in the morning.

But Macey wasn’t just the girl I’d grown to love, she was also my best friend’s little sister and a virgin—a combination that was completely off-limits. So why was I in her bed with my cock in my hand?

I didn’t answer her about the condom—not because I couldn’t—but because in that moment, the only thing I wanted was to watch her come. To see her beautiful features as she lost control completely.

As I leaned down to take her mouth, her greedy tongue met mine, sucking hard as she lifted her hips slightly off the bed, pressing herself into my touch. My hand slid up and down my shaft, and I knew I was going to come soon. I kissed a path down her neck to her collarbone, making my way down her body past the dip in her belly until I settled between her thighs.

Lifting the fabric of her panties to the side, I exposed her delicate pink flesh. She was beautiful. I’d always insisted that her panties stay on while we fooled around. It was my one nonnegotiable rule, a small thing to ease my guilt. Macey opened her mouth to protest until she felt my tongue lap at her clit, and then she gave a short whimper and buried her hands in my hair, tugging me closer as her head dropped back on the pillow.

I chuckled against her skin, loving the taste of her. She tasted even better than I could have imagined. And her cunt smelled so fucking good, I wanted to bury myself inside it.

My mouth was everywhere at once, all over her sweetness, lapping up the honey of her virgin pussy, nipping at her clit gently with my teeth, licking her in a steady rhythm over and over as I squeezed the base of my cock so I wouldn’t come . . .

• • •

“Reece?” she asks, drawing me back to the moment.

Fuck.

I want to ask her a million questions. How did she find me? Why is she here? What does she want?

But I’m unable to stop myself from studying her. Her skin looks so soft. I wonder if it’s still lightly perfumed with lavender and honey like I remember. I want to lean close and taste her, but I don’t. Control is everything to me now; it’s all I have. Still, I continue to study her, amazed at the beautiful woman she’s become. Long dark hair flows over her shoulders, leading to a trim waist and the gentle curve of well-rounded hips. Dressed in skinny jeans and tall boots, her shapely legs seem to go on forever.