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Derek Kane

Hottest guy I’ve ever seen Not to mention charismatic, smart, and funny to boot

I e freshman and he annabe rock star

We had a sweet, ill-fated roo reunite with my boyfriend of three years

Horrible, horrible mistake

Over the years, I’ve lain awake thinking about it for hts than I care to admit

Should I have stayed? I should have stayed I should have thrown out all my plans, broken up with Kevin and stayed with Derek, and then everything would have been perfect

Those sorts of thoughts just naturally drift into What if we ain where we left off?

If only we could have a second chance…

But I never contacted hiood and sufficient reasons And he never contacted me

And that was that

Except I got a second chance

…sort of

The wannabe grew up into a bonafide Rock God who refused to talk to the press

I grew up into a struggling journalist who couldn’t get an article published to save her life

ThenStone, and the Rube Goldberg machine that is Fate was set into reat deal of agonizing, I agreed to azine

And so the Rock Star and the Girl From His Past were reunited, and they lived Happily Ever After, right?

Nope

Not even close

The story has a happy ending, though not the one you’re expecting

And the moral of the story is this:

Be careful what you wish for

Because you et it

2

I had just gotten off a plane in Los Angeles, walked into a luxury hotel called the Dubai, and been told by the concierge that Derek Kane himself had requested – nay, dee

And so it was, after four years of never hearing from him, that I stood at his table in the back of a direen eyes that had once captivated my heart

“Kaitlyn,” he said in that sexy, lol of his “I’ve been waiting a long, long time for this”

I slid into the booth and tried to cae how nervous I ith a bit of attitude “You could have picked up a phone if you didn’t want to wait so long”

He grinned at me

God, I’d forgotten how beautiful his smile was

“What, no ‘hi, hello, nice to see you’?” he asked, acting vaguely injured

“Hi Hello Nice to see you,” I said coolly, even though

He stretched out his arner t-shirt strain against his chiseled chest

Unnnnhhh

“I’ood-naturedly

“Not hostility Just… guardedness”

“Guardedness? Against what?”

Against having ain

“I don’t know,” I fibbed, and searched for a better lie “You’re not real fond of journalists”

“Other journalists I’m very fond of you”

My heart fluttered the tiniest bit, but I kept my outward cool

I think

“Hence the guardedness,” I said

He leaned forward Besides noticing that his arer and more muscular than the last time I’d seen them (double unnnhhh), I could smell the alcohol on his breath

Bourbon

I iood stuff

“What exactly do you think is going to happen here?” he asked

You’re going to try to seduce me And finally put a notch on the bedpost in that one blank spot that’s been annoying you for years

“I’ to write an article It’s going to get published” Hopefully “Why, what do you think is going to happen?”

His eyes searched ht be able to talk”

“That’s typically what people do in interviews”

“No – I mean, talk”

“What do you want to talk about?”

“How about why you’re being like this?”

I stared into his eyes He seeenuinely puzzled “Do you really have to ask that question?”

“Yeah, I really do – because I have no idea why you’re doing the whole ice queen thing You weren’t this cold four years ago, not even e met the first time”

I paused for a long, long ti about my next move