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Chapter One

The birthday party had wound down, and only family and a few close friends remained in the private room where the celebration had been held Olivia didn’t feel any older, only … more jaded Was it any wonder? It was her twenty-seventh birthday, and she was surrounded by friends and family—if you excluded her ard father Of course he hadn’t been able toimportant in her life?

She leaned against the bar on both elbows and closed her eyes for a few seconds to gather herself before packing up the presents and heading home

“Happy birthday, Olivia,” a familiar masculine voice drawled in her ear She shivered at the sound, all her senses prickling with awareness as Dylan Rhodes’s warm breath heated her skin

She turned to find him close Too close, and her pulse picked up speed Sexy chocolate-brown eyes gazed at her And his close-cut goatee teased her with its nearness In her dreaainst her bared flesh

Jesus, Olivia, get a grip

“Thanks for co to the party” Her voice ca, but Dylan always had this kind of effect on her He was the travel director with the Miami Thunder, her co-worker, and the man she’d lusted after from the day they’d met

“I’lad your sister invited me”

She wished Avery hadn’t insisted on throwing her a party, but now that it was nearly over, Olivia had had a wonderful tis, half and full, cared enough to attend the event Friends and co-workers too

Especially Dylan

He studied her beneath his hooded gaze “I wouldn’t miss your celebration” He tucked a ard strand of hair behind her ear, his fingers trailing a path over her cheek in as a deliberate, lingering touch

She shivered; her traitorous nipples puckered at his light caress This wasdance they normally did There was intent in his coffee-colored stare

She shouldn’t be surprised Until recently, a sense of corporate responsibility had kept them as co-workers only And then Olivia’s brother, Ian, had fallen for his noife, Riley, and given her a job with the Thunder Next, her half brother, Alex, had hooked up with his noife, Madison, and they, too, worked with the teaaness to ht to pursue her She’d ed to hold out so far, but she kneas only a ave in

What are you fighting, Liv? she asked herself Tooinsides and the liquid desire pulsing through her veins told her she was going to take the dive and deal with the repercussions later

“I asked if you wanted your present?” Dylan’s voice brought her out of her own head

Sheinside her “Sure I love gifts”

A grin appeared at the corners of his mouth, and he treated her to those irresistible dimples He was raw, intense, and kept his e over

Although she didn’t coround, she could relate to the need to hold things close A father who’d betrayed his entire family in a way only soap operas saw and a first love who had walked ahen she needed hiht her hard-won lessons Hell, she was still learning them Hadn’t she believed her father would come? He hadn’t even called to say he wouldn’t be able to attend He’d sent a e with her half brother, Alex She sed hard The confident, tough Olivia people saw on the outside was far different than the sensitive, hurt girl that lived inside her