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PROLOGUE

CALEB MARTIN LEANED against the Fresco Club bar, watching as Shay White celebrated being old enough as of today to dance the night away at the over-eighteen hot spot Trying his best not to notice the way her red, silky dress accented her tiny waist and each sultry ht, watching her dance with soed those hips and her heart-shaped backside in a far too seductive way And when said “boy” slid his hand to her waist and sidled up close to her, Caleb tightened his hand on the beer he held until he thought he heard glass crack

“Should I go take care of that, or do you want to?” asked Kent White, Shay’s big brother and Caleb’s best friend since grade school The fast pop tune changed to a slow, sultry tune, and the boy’s hand slipped to Shay’s backside

Kent set his beer down so hard it splattered “Oh, hell, no” He charged toward the dance floor, and silently, Caleb cheered hi blond hair over her shoulder and shoved her hands onto her hips to square off with Kent

Caleb had wanted that hand off Shay’s butt and noas, thankfully—and if he was honest with hi that desire when it should have been After all, the Whites had taken Caleb in six years before, and treated hiression at the ripe young age of fifteen He felt like family, too Heck, in a family filled with fair hair and eyes, he even looked like fareen eyes

But for the past two years, since about the ti with hih to know nineteen was too old for a sixteen-year-old, regardless of the fact that she was like a sister to hied her advances

Tonight though, her teasing looks and purposeful smiles, when combined with that dress—that sexy-as-hell dress—had thewhat she would taste like, what she would feel like in his arms

As if she sensed what Caleb was thinking, her gaze whipped to hiroin Oh, yeah, he would have been a fool to believe he was going to resist Shay when she joined hi Caleb Martin was not—was a fool Thus why he’din a week And not to head back to campus She just didn’t know it yet She was the only one who didn’t know He’d sworn the family to secrecy until after she’d celebrated her birthday He’d just found out his enlist to ruin her party, or the bond he had with her or the family And the temptation that was Shay White was a one-way ticket in that direction and he knew it He had to say goodbye

Eaze from hers With a scrub of his face, Caleb sat his beer down and headed to the bathroom Tomorrow he beca another soldier’s life It was the right decision for Caleb, one that had called to hi

It was several minutes later, when he exited the bathroo the wooden floor, that he found Shay waiting for him

“The Ar for hi to tell me?”

“Thanks, Kent,” heto tell you, Shay Just not on your birthday, and Kent knew that”

“Don’t,” she said, and flung herself into his arms, all soft and warm and emotional “Don’t leave” Her chin tilted upward, her eyes filled with tears “I can’t bear the idea of so to you”