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CHAPTER ONE

CAN I get aith it?

It was harder than you’d think to take a picture of yourself in a s back the giggle, Mya Campbell peered at her latest effort The flash had created a big white space over at least half the screen, obscuring most of her reflection, and what you could see was lam

With a hter—she deleted it and twisted in front of thefor another Her teeth pinched her lower lip as she glanced at the result—maybe the skinny-straps scarlet number was a step too far?

‘Is everything okay?’ the clearly suspicious sales assistant called through the curtain, her iced tone snootier than her brittle perfect appearance

‘Fine, thanks’ Mya fu another snap before the woet it away before being—ah—busted

Both she and the assistant knew she couldn’t afford any of these astrono-suppressed i and if she were to have such a thing as a summer holiday, then she’d really love one of these little, very little things …

Giggles erupted as she tried to send the text Her fingertips slipped she shook so hard She was such an idiot Typos abounded and she tapped faster as she heard the assistant return

‘Are you sure you don’t need any help?’

She needed help all right Professional help from those people in white coats Too late now, the soft whooshing sound confirone And she couldn’t afford this scrap of spandex anyway

‘Thanks, but no, I don’t think this style is really me’ Of course it wasn’t She tossed the phone into her open bag on the floor and began the contortions required to get out of the tiny bikini She caught a glimpse of herself bent double and at that point she blushed The bikini was basically indecent Would she never learn that bodies like hers were not built for tiny two pieces? She’d bend to pull off her shoes at the beach and instantly fall out of a top like this Not re She’d have to lie still and pose, and that just wasn’t her Mind you, a summer holiday wasn’t for her this year either

And never in a million years would she send such a picture to anyone other than her best friend and all-around pain in the butt, Lauren Davenport But Lauren would understand—and Mya didn’t need her answer now It was a ‘no’ already

Brad Davenport looked at his watch and stifled the growl of frustration He’d had back-to-back cases in court all day, followed by thisHe watched the bitterness between the parents, watched eleven-year-old Gage Simmons seated next to him shrivel into a smaller and smaller ball as accusations were hurled from either side of the roo pieces out of each other and blocking each other instead of thinking about what endary patience snapped

‘I think we can leave this for now,’ he interrupted abruptly ‘My client needs a break We’ll reschedule for later in the week’

He glanced around the roolanced at the kid, as looking at the floor with a blank-slate expression He’d seen it , not showing anyone how much you hurt inside

Yeah, it wasn’t only his client who needed a break But Brad’s burden was his own fault He’d taken on toono

Twentyfull of files out to his car and considered the evening ahead He needed a blowout—soht now the arguments still circled in his head Questions he needed to ask and answer lit up like blindingly bright signs; every iteaphone-style Yeah, his head hurt He reached for his phone and took it off ht—so, wild and happy to walk ahen the fun was done

There were a couple of voiceone with an attachnise He tapped it

Can I get aith it?

He absorbed that accoe by a weird kind of osmosis, because the picture itself consumed all his attention He could see only the side of her face, only half her smile, but that didn’t matter—he was a man and there were curves in the centre of the screen Creamy, plump breasts pushed up out of the do-me-now-or-die scarlet bra she’d squeezed into Brad swore in a all over in immediate response The picture cut off beneath her belly button—damn it—but he really couldn’t co—lush curves that made him think … think … Actually no, he’d lost all ability to think

Can I get aith it?

This doll could get aith anything she wanted

Startled, but happily so, he slid his fingers across the screen to zoo it so it was her partially exposed face he focused on now She was s b

ack the sexiest of laughs

Brad stilled, his heart hiccupping as disbelief stole a beat There was only one person in the world with a smile like that Slowly he traced her lips Her upper lip was sensual—widening, just as the bone structure of her face widened to those sharp, high cheekbones and wide-set green eyes while her lower lip was as full, but shorter; it had to be to fit with that narrow little chin And between those slightly ap between her two front teeth It had never been fixed Her whole body was untainted by cosmetic procedures, indeed any kind of cosmetics

Mya Campbell Best friend of his ard sister, Lauren, and persona non grata at the Davenport residence

In that est stretch of ties froh his head Glih, but who’d hidden ahenever he or his parents were ho and patronising Which of course had made Lauren push the friendship all the more And Mya had come across as less than impressed with those in authority and less than interested in abiding by any of the normal social rules The two of them had looked like absolute terrors And the irony was that Mya was the eek beneath the attitude and the outrageous outfits That hy she was at the school; she was the scholarship kid

He’d only ever seen her dressed up ‘properly’ the once She’d still looked sullen, exuding a kind of ‘cooler-than-you’ arrogance, and frankly at the tiirl But now he saw the all-grown-up sensuality Now he saw the huh but never been privy to—never been interested enough to want to be privy to Now he sahat she’d been hiding all this tiroin in a stab so severe he flinched And she’d sent him …?

No He laughed aloud at the ridiculous thought Mya Campbell had not just sent him a sexy summons She didn’t even know he existed—other than as her best friend’s big, distant brother Hell, he hadn’t seen her in, what, at least three years? He tapped the screen to bring it back to nor—view No, this playful pose wasn’t for hienius Mya Campbell had actuallyto do about it? Crucially, where was Mya now?

Questions pounded his head again, but this time they caused anticipation rather than a headache He tossed the phone onto the passenger seat of his convertible, ignoring every other one, and fired the engine Now the night beckoned with a very aue to unravel

Can I get aith it?