Prologue
Iwasn’t taking “no” for an answer.
Not anymore.
He’d shut me out one too many times, pretended this meant nothing, when it meant everything to me.
I knew absolutely nothing about how to please men. There never seemed a time in my busy schedule to learn things like that. I had worked multiple jobs since I was old enough to apply for them. Anything to pay off my father’s medical bills, to keep a roof over our heads.
Anything to keep my mother from worrying about the fact that our lives would never be the same again.
My father was gone. And the house would soon be too if I didn’t pull myself together and find a way to make ends meet for the both of us.
Now, it was time for me to take control of my own life. To do something for myself for once.
I deserved it. I deserved to be happy, to fall in love.
To have passionate, mind-blowing sex with a man who drove me wild.
I didn’t want to stay a virgin my whole life. I didn’t even want to wait another day. I knew he was the one for me. From the moment his lips first touched mine, casting a spell over me with a hypnotic haze, no other man would ever do.
His touch awakened sensations and feelings I shoved down into the depths of my soul long ago. Things I thought I could live without all these years.
Until I met him.
My villainous memory recalled every path his hands took, feathering across my breasts, dipping between my thighs, and giving me a pleasure I never even imagined existed.
And his mouth. Good, God. The things his mouth did to the most intimate parts of my body should definitely be illegal.
I wanted more.
I wanted him there, between my thighs, my legs wrapped around him. I wanted to quiver beneath his touch with the same intense ecstasy as before.
Only this time would be different. This time, I would be his completely.
His forever.
It didn’t matter that I was risking everything. The apprenticeship, my degree, my future. It didn’t matter that I was about to throw myself at a man who could quite possibly never return my affections. He could toss me out of his office, remind me how forbidden a relationship like our was.
Because I was not the only one risking everything to be with him.
Still, there was no way I had imagined this whole romance between us. A man did not kiss a woman like that, he didn’t almost make love to her the way he did, and feel absolutely nothing for her in return.
What I lack in powers of seduction, I make up for in sheer determination.
And what I want is the one man who can ruin my career forever.
Chapter One
Aly
“It’s official,” I say, glaring back at my twin in the mirror.
The one wearing the same old uniform from Home Depot and looking just as ridiculous as the day I put it on four years ago. “I hate the color orange.”
It’s unfortunate, really.
I will probably be buried in this hideous orange apron. A testament to the fact that I’ve had to work at least two jobs since I turned seventeen, just to help my mother pay for the medical bills that piled up after my father’s death. A reminder that I will likely continue down this path, now that my dreams of being a groundbreaking therapist have been dashed long before they even took flight.