PROLOGUE
LUCAS PORTER
I walked through the hallway without bumping into anyone, moving to the front door then working the key as if I lived there. When the door opened, a trickle of something tantalizing I couldn’t exactly name sparked inside me. I stepped into the darkness of her place and let the door shut behind me.
Excitement prickled at my nerve endings as I stepped further into her home. Past the small foyer behind the front door and straight into the living room. The pads of my fingers skimmed over the plush oversized couch in the shocking color of teal. The material was cool and soft under my touch. I quickly took in the TV and a couple of pieces of wall art carefully hung up on the wall yet didn’t soak in every detail of her home. It might be my first time inside her place, but I’m here for a reason. I have a mission to accomplish. Once that’s done, it will give me the freedom to soak in every detail whenever I want. All at a click of a button.
But I have one place in mind where I am going to start.
I walk straight into the hallway that leads to the two bedrooms. Even though I’d never been here, I knew my way around. How couldn’t I when my own condo had the same floorplan a floor below hers?
Literally.
I glanced down at the hardwood floors and smiled.
How many times had I paced my own hall thinking about this moment? Wondering what her place would be like? I noted the couple of photos hung up in the hall, stopping at one. The Grand Canyon.Interesting.My feet moved, and I passed the bathroom and the second bedroom, which I glanced at. It wasn’t a guest room like my own but a home office.Intriguing.A desk, a couple of plants, and a pole right in the middle.
But what wasn’t alluring about the woman who had all but captivated and tossed me for a loop I could have never seen coming?
I stopped a step away from her bedroom door, a door she’d left slightly open. I breathed in slowly. Deep inhales that soaked in every little bit of the scent that lingered in the air. A scent I knew was hers.Jade’s room. I was finally in her space.
Jade Whitlock.
A wolfish smile grew on my face as her name danced through my mind. My girl’s name was pretty as hell. My hand pressed against the cool wood of her bedroom door, and I pushed it open slowly before taking a step inside. When I peeked into the dark master bedroom, something inside of me started to relax, like a weight slowly being lifted off my shoulders.
All by simply being in her space.
It was evident Jade liked her sleep. Her work schedule, even if I didn’t like it, made her need to sleep through the day, and her space was more than the proof of it. Heavy Venetian blinds with blackout curtains made sure no sunshine would disrupt her much-needed rest.Not that she gets enough of it.I shook the thought away and tried to steady my breathing, but fuck, it was close to impossible.
The space was clearly hers.
Bright and messy. A unique kind of chaos. She was like my very own hurricane. One consisting of nothing but bold colors and frenzied jubilant energy. My girl wasn’t just bubbly. She was effervescent.
And mine. All mine. Only mine,the thing that had awakened a month ago when I’d first laid eyes on her growled. It was possessive and obsessed to a level I never knew could exist. The only thing that eased my mind was the fact that by pure coincidence, we’d actually lived in the same building for the last year.
A whole year of living a floor below an angel that roamed among mere mortals, controlled by some invisible string that told me we were fated regardless of my brain chemistry seeming to have been irrevocably changed the night I’d stepped into my foster brother Jonas’ strip club.
My cock started to come to life, the half-stiff fucker growing behind the denim of my pants at the memory.
It had been like any other fucking day. Nothing had stood out to me. There wasn’t a clue in sight that my life would never be the same. I’d been sitting in a booth, sipping the aged scotch my brothers and I had ordered to celebrate Jonas’ new business venture. A strip club of all things. Not that it surprised any of the five of us. Why would it? Shit, up until that moment, I would have sworn there was nothing that could have ever made me blink.
Until her.
Jade.
One look, and I was a goner. Not that I approached her or even spoke to her. All I could do that first night was watch her. I couldn’t tear my eyes off her curvy figure and those eyes that made my heart stall inside my chest and change its beat. Even my brothers, who knew better than to mention the change in me,had noticed it immediately. All but Jonas, but I soon found out he’d been more than distracted by his own little dancer.
I didn’t leave the Velvet Leopard until I knew she was safe and sound in her car. I hadn’t planned on following her, but when her car just so happened to go the same way, I thought it was destiny that we happened to live in the same high-rise condominium.Meant to be.
We would have met eventually,the thing inside me whispered, snapping me out of my thoughts as I stepped further into her space. Everything inside me instantly warmed. My blood thickened in my veins, and my lungs ached to breathe her in once again.I’m here. Finally.That sweet, fruity scent I’d noticed clung to not only her but the air that surrounded her and was stronger in her space. Notes I recognized from the times we’d been in the elevator at the same time or when I followed her through an aisle of the grocery store without her noticing me.
My eyes shifted from her floor and fixated on her bed. The place where my beauty slept. My lips twitched upward at the sight. Unmade bed. Sheets strewn about. Pillows tossed all over the place, some even on the floor. Fuck, even her messiness was adorable to me. I could picture her waking up and moving around the mess, not worried about having to pick it up. With me, she would never have to worry about that. I’d pick it up for her or hire someone.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, the silent alarm reminding me I didn’t have time to waste.
Not yet.
I had snuck into her condo for a reason.
