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Chapter 1

Kayla

It was tihe needed to catchI needed to give notice to take vacation time from Greens, The Realtors I worked for He was bound to knoas bullshitting him, he had never been a dumb ass As I threw clothes into my suitcase, Haley, my roommate hovered in the doorway

“I’ on my own in the apartment”

“Hey, it’s only teeks Haley You can spend the ti away as I won’t be here to listen to any rude noises You can have a good scream”

She rolled her eyes Haley was used to ether a while now Up until a year ago, there had been three of us, but our other friend, Tiff, now lived next door with her husband, Brandon I had taken over her share of the apartood sized bedrooms and my own bathrooht where we ate good food, watched a ossiped

I had never told theh Or about h a stream of Stepdaddy’s as she chased money My mom couldn’t live her life without wealth and I had been an unfortunate incident for her Her relationship, if you could call it that, with my father, had been the catalyst for all the drama that came after He had left her penniless and she had sworn it would never happen again

Out of all my stepfather’s, Daniel, who I had met when I was seventeen, had been the only decent one The only one who had realised I existed, beyond being a hanger on He had told me I always had a place at his hoh most of his wealth and moved onto Chuck, the Stepdad that came after, he still reminded me I could stay anytime I had never fully worked out my mom’s relationship with Daniel They had never seemed hooked on each other like she had with some of them Her public displays of affection with one or two had h my life, I had kept iven the fact I was never at one school for very long before she had us on the hteen, she had moved on onceme and I was on my o

It wasn’t the shock it could have been Like I said she had been absent raduated and eventually started at Greens where I ood friends and I never looked back I’d had a couple boyfriends but no one special The girls were used to uys but to be truthful I was et in I was kind of jealous of e the last year That woman walked around the whole time like she still had a cock up her pussy I swear she alore a shit-eating grin Jealous, me? You better believe I was

Anyhow, I couldn’t put off visiting Daniel any longer as he had said ain and he needed to update ain as he had recently recovered his wealth, having had soallery When I had first met hi of tattoo parlors He had secretly painted on canvas, using the talent that had drawn designs on clients, until he had finally got the guts up to show them to someone They loved his work and taken a couple pictures to try in a gallery, where they had been bought by a collector the sareat because o bankrupt with his tattoo business

I hadn’t stayed at Daniel’s much Instead, a school friend’s round with ood reason

I had always had a huge crush on my stepdad There was no way I could have lived with him and myI knew that was stupid Girls got crushes all the tier than ht when I first y hair back then and the darkest eyes When he soofy at the same time His face all kinda crinkled up He had these really plump cheeks when he smiled I had alanted to reach out and touch them I was sure that whenever he spoke, heat rose in uess that hen I had started to become the brash kind of Kayla because I hadn’t wanted to appear all young and innocent around hi to saveme I had a hoot this look in his eye like he hadn’t wanted h I had tried to cut contact with hiiven up Still texted, called, sent me birthday and Christmas cards and checks I never cashed When I did visit I would do it on the way so too close to hio and he had told me I would need to stay a while—at least a few days, so soh this crush I had I enty-four now It had been six years since my mom had hitched a ride with her next victiain, yet now she had done so that affected Daniel and me once more

I zipped up ht, Haley had left I went out to spend some time with her before I drove to Daniel’s She was one

The drive to Port Jeff was less than a couple hours whichinto the large driveway of Daniel’s colonial He was so lucky to have not lost this a property His four bed, four bathroom home in Harbor Hills looked out over the waterfront and had its own private beach I exited e and walked to the front door where I rang the bell After a couple minutes the door opened and Daniel stood there

He looked as hot as ever and I felt

oddanature smile and he stepped forward and embraced me in his arms The heat from his body enveloped me I didn’t want toarms and looked me over

“Hey there, Kayla It’s good to see you You look well”

I half s uncomfortable