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“Did you see this?” Her father had said excitedly thatthe newspaper across their tiny kitchen counter “Darius Kyrillos sold his company for twenty billion dollars!” He looked up, his eyes unfocused with painkillers, his recently broken ar “You should call hiain”

After ten years, her father had said Darius’s name out loud He’d broken the unspoken rule She’d fled,that she’d be late for work

But it had affected her all day, et orders She’d even dus and bacon on a customer It was a miracle she hadn’t been fired

No, Letty thought, unable to breathe This was the ht now

Darius

She took a step toward him on the sidewalk, her eyes wide

“Darius?” she whispered “Is it really you?”

He cael She could see his breath beneath the streetlight like white sht frosted his dark hair, leaving his face in shadow She half expected him to disappear if she tried to touch him So she didn’t

Then he touched her

Reaching out, he stroked a dark tendril that had escaped her ponytail, twisted it around his finger “You’re surprised?”

At the sound of that low, husky voice, lightly accented from his early childhood in Greece, a deep shiver sent a rush of prickles over her skin And she kneasn’t a dream

Her heart pounded Darius The man she’d tried not to crave for the last decade The ht Here Now She choked out a sob “What are you doing here?”

His dark eyes ran over her hungrily “I couldn’t resist”

As he ht illuht in wonder The same years that had nearly destroyed her hadn’t touched him He was the same man she remembered, the one she’d once loved with all her innocent heart, back when she’d been a headstrong eighteen-year-old, caught up in a forbidden love affair Before she’d sacrificed her own happiness to save his

His hand h her thin coat, she wanted to cry, to ask hiiven up hope

Then she saw his gaze linger on her old coat, with its broken zipper, and her diner uniform, a white dress that had been bleached soto fray Usually, she also wore unfashionable nylons to keep her legs hile she was on her feet all day in white orthopedic shoes But today, her last pair had been unwearable with too s were bare

Following his gaze, she blushed “I’ out…”

“Your clothes don’t e undercurrent in his voice “Let’s go”

“Go? Where?”

He took her hand in his own, palm to palm, and she suddenly didn’t feel the snowflakes or cold Waves of electricity scattered helter-skelter across her body, across her skin, from her scalp to her toes

“My penthouse In Midtown” He looked down at her “Will you come?”

“Yes,” she breathed

His sensual lips curved oddly before he led her to his shiny, low-slung sports car and opened the passenger door

As Letty cli the scent of rich leather This car likely costtables Shethe fine calfskin, the color of pale creaotten leather could be so soft

Cliine The car roared away frohborhood to travel through the gentrified areas of Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights before finally crossing the Manhattan Bridge into the New York borough that most catered to tourists and the wealthy: Manhattan

All the while, Letty was intensely aware of hiaze fell upon his hand and thick wrist, laced with dark hair, as he changed gears

“So,” his voice was ironic, “Your father is out of prison”

Biting her lip, she looked at hio”

Darius glanced back at her old coat and fraying unifore your life”

Was that a question or a suggestion? Did he e it? Had he actually learned the truth about why she’d betrayed hio?

“I’ve learned the hard way,” she said in a low voice, “that life changes, whether you’re ready or not”

His hands tightened as he turned back to the steering wheel “True”