Prologue

Julian

If she were smart, she wouldn’t give my sorry ass another shot.

But Kaia is too smart for her own good and mine as well. She’ll give me another chance, though I don’t deserve it.

There are people who come into your life and make such a profound impact, you’ll never forget them. You may not talk to them anymore. Hell, you may not even be cool with those people. But you’ll never forget them. You’ll never forget how they made you feel. You’ll never forget how you made them feel. Good, bad, ugly, beautiful. It’s a part of life.

Kaia McCrae was the best thing that ever happened to me.

I don’t believe in love, at least for myself. It’s not that I don’t like love or I’m some anti-love asshole. I just never had time for love. Once women find out how much money you’re worth, and the connections you have, that tends to dry up the dating pool really fucking quickly. While I can never say I’ve been lonely, I’ve spent more time alone than I should’ve.

Then I met her.

It was a company rule: no fraternization.

Being in the music industry, it was a ridiculously impossible rule to enforce, and I think it was just there for shits and giggles. Artists date each other all of the time. Executives date the artists as well. Some of the relationships are real. Some are strictly for PR purposes, because we need to promote and sell albums. Trust me, it happens a lot more than you think.

With Kaia, though, it was real. Too real. Me dio un flechazo. Cupid gave me an arrow wound.

It’s like she breathed life into my soul and her love blanketed me. It was like licking honey off a thorn, as that old saying goes. Everything I knew before her was nothing. Everything I’ve known since her has been worthless. I’ve never been in love until I met her. It was weird, painful, awkward, yet beautiful.

And I blew it. I completely, fucking blew it.

I miss us. I miss the people we were before everything happened. I miss lying in bed with her, smelling her vanilla and mango-scented hair as I wrapped my legs around hers and pulled her close. Now, we can’t even look at each other without some sadness in our eyes, more anger in hers.

I have one more shot to get it right, to get us right. If I don’t, that’s it. She’ll never trust me again, and I will deserve every last bit of misery that comes my way.