It was a one-time thing, that night with Dane Badd. Or, at least, that was the idea. Brain-melting, earth-shaking, life-changing sex. The kind of sex you dream about for weeks and months after. The kind of sex that ruins you for anyone else.
And guess what this trauma-riddled dumpster-fire of a woman did during said sex to ruin it entirely? I had the mother of all panic attacks…my specialty.
He didn’t deserve it; he didn’t deserve any of my crazy….which is a lot. Sure, I have my reasons, and good ones, but it’s not the kind of thing you can just explain to people.
No, it’s better this way—he’s better off without me.
Which is why I left.
I wish I could be what he wants, but I can’t. I’m not. I don’t think I ever can be.
Dane Badd, however, has other ideas.
* * *
Lindsey Snelling. She’s gorgeous, wickedly funny, and bitingly sarcastic—if you know anything about the Badd family, you know we love us some sarcasm. But beneath the snarky sarcasm, witty banter, inappropriate humor, and show-stopping curves, she’s shut down and closed off. She’s got walls a hundred miles high and a hundred miles thick. Nothing—no one—gets in or out.
That night, though? The one night we shared? Yeah, the sex was beyond incredible…until she flipped out on me for no reason I can figure out. A hysterical meltdown of epic proportions…and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. I couldn’t help. She wouldn’t talk to me beyond screaming at me to leave; it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I left.
I just can’t stay away. I try. God, I try. Weeks pass. She attends Duncan and Rune’s wedding and flips out on me again later that night. This time, she leaves, and no one knows where she went.
I have to find her.
I love her.
I’ll do anything it takes to earn her trust, to be the safe place she needs.
I’ll do anything it takes to earn her love.
