Chapter One
Before
No. Absolutely not.Sadie, don’t do it.
A million gazillion and one. That’s how many reasons Sadie Howard had to slip her tush off the tailgate of the truck, toss her red plastic cup into the nearest bin, track down her brother, and get her butt home.
Roman Dvornakov stalked—yes, oh yes—he stalked her way. Roman didn’t walk. He didn’t run. He didn’t mosey. No, Roman stalked. A muscled man always on a mission.
His mission at the moment? Given the way his gaze bore into hers? Yeah. That.
Do. Not. Do. It.
The last thing she needed was to dive into anything too distracting before she started law school in three weeks.
Three weeks and she would be totally engrossed in all things legal.
He grinned.
Shit. She was toast. Not just toast, but toast with butter and grape jelly.
Totally distracted grape-jellied toast.
“It’s Sadie, yeah?” Roman asked.
Her heart was torn between doing a happy dance that he had remembered her name and a sad-panda waltz because he had to confirm it.
Which really meant that he didn’t remember her name. But rather, he probably remembered that his friend Eli, her brother, had a sister named Sadie and he assumed that was probably her.
“Yes. Sadie.” She futzed with the plastic cup she held between her palms. The beer had warmed a while back. She was better at people-watching at these sorts of desert parties than actually getting the soles of her shoes dirty and socializing.
“The attorney.” Roman’s tongue rolled against his bottom lip while he turned his matching cup in his hands.
“Soon to be. Not yet.”
Another tongue roll and…oh dear, that time? That tongue roll? It did interesting things to her insides. Fluttery things.
He remembered she was going to law school. That was something.
“Roman Dvornakov.” She stared straight ahead as she spoke, afraid that she’d spontaneously combust if she stared at him too long. “Photographer. Military.”
Last she’d heard, he was on a mission that had taken him away from Denver and he hadn’t been back in years. Not that she’d been keeping tabs. She’d been busy as hell getting her degree and working two jobs to help pay for it.
“This seat taken?” His voice wasn’t smooth. It wasn’t gravelly. It was Roman. And it could likely get a girl to drop her panties in two-point-five seconds.
He nodded to the empty space on the tailgate where she sat.
She was sototallygonna let him distract her before classes started.
Any thoughts of saying no vanished, and she scooted to her right to make room for him on the tailgate. Roman, however, didn’t sit. No, he leaned against the tailgate—more like he propped himself there, crossing his ankles with an air of total relaxation.
“If you’d rather, I can find another seat.” Roman gave her a look like finding another seat was not high up on his list of desires.
Wait. What?
“Why?” Sadie asked.
“I asked if this seat is taken and you didn’t say anything. I can jet if you’d rather be alone.”
