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Never again, she vowed as the dark heat of shame crawled over her skin This was the last tiuilt, filial duty, or even the need for peace goad her into playing politics for her father

Maybe if she’d been bornup But Garn Prescott had never shown hter And now that she was here, all he wanted was to use her To hell with him

Curling her toes over the tiled edge, she knifed into the pool The water closed over her, cool, dark, and welcoliness in the world She swae to breathe Was this how it had felt to Mike when he—

But sheon the memory would only send her into another doard spiral She couldn’t let it happen again She had to move on

Like a fighter pilot pulling out of a dive, she kicked for the surface Breaking free, she filled her lungs with air and stretched out to float on her back High overhead, framed by an ocean of stars, the Milky Way spilled across the heavens Starlight gleamed on her breasts where they rose above the water Chilled by the deep dive, her nipples were darkly swollen, like ripe blackberries

She i her body with hypnotic hands as gentle as water The thought lingered, triggering delicious twinges of memory

If she were to make a list of reasons she should stay away fro one And Sky’s list of reasons to avoid her would be even longer

They’d grown up in different worlds She was a city girl Sky edded to his life on the ranch with the horses he loved

She was an heiress who loved designer clothes, gours Sky’s wealth lay in his utter lack of need for s

She was in li she couldn’t even name Sky knew exactly who he was and what he expected from life She was an eranite boulder

If discovered, their relationship would send her father into a screae Lauren couldn’t care less But she knehat the Tylers thought of Garn Prescott A liaison with Prescott’s daughter was a complication Sky didn’t need—and wouldn’t want

Red flags and roadblocks all the way Cons But how could she, when she craved Sky’s arms around her the way she’d craved air when she was underwater, holding her breath?

Would she see him tomorrohen she went to the Tylers’, or would he find reasons to avoid her? They hadn’t exactly parted on good ter earlier when they’d ridden away fro Then, when Hardesty had shown up at the ranch house, she’d not only stood there and let the man treat Sky like a co him with an order to put away her horse

What had she been thinking? Had she wanted to avoid a shon? Protect Sky? Protect herself? Any way you looked at it, she’d handled the situation like a jerk Sky was a proud ive her?

Early the next , when Sky stopped by the house to talk with Will and Beau, the brothers were gone He found Bernice in the kitchen, spooning pancake batter onto a cast iron griddle for Erin’s breakfast