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"The generalfor you on line one," Amy finished

Unease shivered through Julie Even though her office was just blocks froone to an Outlaws gaest mistake was the team's star quarterback

The latte curdled in her stomach with a sick premonition She'd have had to be blind to miss Ty's failures with the media

Julie stood beneath the safety of her door fra cover from an earthquake, unable to think, to move

She could only reht of her life

It was high school graduation night, and Julie's teachers had all congratulated her on being honored as valedictorian She would be attending Stanford University in the fall; and even though she'd be less than two hours froet away, to become someone new

So really kissed Sure, a drunk guy at a party had once slobbered all over her before she shoved him away, but that didn't count

No one would believe her if she confessed the truth Not that she'd do that, of course What was the point of carefully constructing her i to blow it by announcing to the world that she couldn't attract a guy if her life depended on it?

Especially not a super-hot guy like Ty Calhoun, she thought as she stood on the fringes of the out-of control graduation party and sipped the slightly sour punch For four years they'd passed each other in the halls, but she'd never spoken to him She was in honors classes, while he barely scraped by with tutors The best high school football player in the county, Ty was constantly surrounded by his teae And she'd bet her trust fund that he'd done it with every one of those girls

She could hear hi as he danced in a circle of fellow students There was an edge to his laughter that went down her spine and then sat in the pit of her belly Julie wasn't a social outcast, but she'd never been comfortable at wild parties, never had a taste for alcohol, never been tearettes

She didn't intend to lose hold of the control that she'd built her life around If her tongue grew loose fros, who knehat she'd say? What she'd admit to? Too quickly, the house of cards that was her life could co would be ruined

Still, she was impossibly, horribly tempted by Ty, a bad boy with a capital B

Fortunately, the sinful teue If there was such a thing as a babe h school boy should be that tall, have shoulders that broad, or dark eyes so wicked

But she wasn't going to spend her last night in high school drooling at so as Ty did the burind with some slutty classmates It was too pathetic She found the nearest exit and pushed through it

Mere seconds after the door shut behind her, she heard it open again A chill ran up her spine that had nothing to do with the breeze ripping across the Bay She whirled away fro into the deck's ainst her overheated skin, she watched the boy she longed for stalk her, slowly, steadily

She'd fantasized about this moment so many times The one where Ty finally noticed her, where he asked her to be his girlfriend, where he said he couldn't live without her anyraph it

But now that he was standing in front of her, now that she was looking into his incredible brown eyes, close enough to touch his arm if she wanted to, she didn't know up from down, black from white, could hardly even remember her own name

"I'm Ty," he said, and she nodded stupidly

"I know"

His gorgeous lips turned up in a perfect curve He was even od come to life

"You're Julie," he said and she said, "I know," again, sounding like a complete moron

"Do you knohat I want to do, Julie?" he asked, and she could only stare at hi to hear what he was going to say His eyes held her captive and her longing was just short of desperation

"I want to kiss you" His voice fell to a whisper "Actually, I want you to kiss me"

She blinked at him, suddenly afraid She didn't kno to kiss What if he laughed at her? She'd die if he laughed at her

"Don't you want to kiss me, Julie?"

His voice was silky and hot and she forgot everything except how badly she wanted him