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Prologue

Reid

November

Jade stared at htly puffy, and I fought the natural inclination to wrap her in my arms We’d been friends all our lives, and she was always the one constant inelse seemed uncertain But for the past few ed, and it terrified the hell out ofplayful to sexual, sedate to intense, cal around in the proverbial dark trying to figure out what it meant for our friendship

"I want you to kiss o when you couldn’t fight this," – she gestured between the two of us – "anyin her farandmother’s funeral I’d co to be, and I couldn’t not be here ifof her that way for a while now, if only inclearly, and I are of that, which hy, giving into her, was a terrible idea Once I kissed her, I would be te I wanted was for her to think I was taking advantage of her vulnerable state Because that’s exactly what she was

Vulnerable

Split wide open

Showing ed softly, the hitch in her voice causing , and I wanted to do what I could to help her through it

I ran my eyes down her body, and my body reacted the way it always had when I saw her So deep inside me stirred, and it was so much more than just lust It was a fierce need to have her, to claim herto love her

And God did I love her

So much

But ould happen if I acted on it?

My fear of losing her far outweighed my physical need to be with her, and as far as my emotional need went to tell her how much I cared about her, I wasn’t sure if our friendship would stay the sa ether

It was dark outside, but I could see the plea on her face, in her eyes I wanted to give her the world, but I aging a war on the inside because what she was asking of uarded moment was so much oing back We will never be the same, and that scares me"

"It scaresto bed in the next roo what this would have felt like With you"

The ‘this’ she was referring to was more than a kiss, because ouldn’t be able to stop there Neither of us wanted to, but we had to be mindful of hoould impact the twenty years we’d been friends

It was inconceivable to think that she’d been in ave birth to us days apart, and our fathers had been best friends since high school Her life was inextricably woven with rounded ht

I wasn’t ready

We weren’t ready

But it was bound to happen, the same as the sun was meant to rise, and set every day

"Are you sure?" I asked Part ofshe’d realize it was a bad idea, that our friendship wouldn’t last if things changed so drastically, but the other part wanted to know that she wanted this asin my life," she replied

That confirmation alone made entle at first, and then our tongues

Every touch