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been anyone else, she would have, but
his words stung with the precision of an arrow piercing her heart.
    It wasn’t until she’d slammed his door and
stepped on to the elevator that she allowed herself to succumb to regret. Of
all the men she could have slept with tonight, she had to give herself to the
one man who seemed determined to convince her she was nothing special.

Chapter One
     
    Mike Cooper stormed into his father’s office. “What the hell is so
important that you had to pull me away from the weekly poker game with the
guys? I was up two hundred bucks.”
     “Have a seat,” Josh said, gesturing to one of the armchairs across
from his desk. “I have a proposition for you.”
    “What kind of proposition?”
    “We have a situation.”
    When Josh sighed and scraped his hands over his face, for the first
time in a long time, Mike noticed his dad looked stressed and dog-tired. “Hey,
what’s goin’ on?” Mike leaned forward. There’s nothing he wouldn’t do to ease
his father’s burden. This was the man who taught him how to be a man. If he
needed help, of course his son intended to be there for him. “Is it Lexi… or
one of the kids?”
    “No, the family’s good. Work is the problem.”
    Josh was the head of security for Titan Records, Luc Spencer’s
label, and he was responsible for co-ordinating the security teams for all of
their artists and tours, including Trey Turner, Ty McCall, Nikki Spencer, and Tori
Warner.
    “Okay, so let’s hear it. What’s goin’ on at work, and how can I
help?”
    “Derek told me you’ve been bankin’ a lot of overtime, not to mention
unused vacation time. According to him, you could afford to take at least
twelve weeks right about now.”
    Derek was Mike’s stepfather and his boss. “Where’re you goin’ with
this, Dad? I don’t wanna take any time off work. I’m in the middle—”
    Josh held his hand up. “Just hear me out. I wouldn’t ask if it
wasn’t important.”
    “Fine, let’s have it.”
    “It’s about Tori.”
    Every time he heard her name or saw her picture, he still felt it
like a blow to the gut. He knew he’d practically kicked her out the door after
their night together, but she’d retaliated by treating him like a complete
stranger the dozens of times they’d seen each other since that night.
    Mike stood up. “I gotta go. I’m not interested in hearin’ anything
you have to say about that girl.”
    “Someone’s out to get her.”
    If Mike thought the mere sound of her name was enough to send him
reeling, that was nothing compared to the news that she was in serious trouble.
He sank back into the chair, not trusting his legs to support him. “What the
hell are you talkin’ about?”
    “She has a stalker.”
    “Shit,” Mike muttered. He didn’t want to know the details, he didn’t
even want to get involved, but if something happened to her, he would never be
able to live with himself. “Okay, fill me in.”
    “It’s personal, real personal.”
    “What the hell does that mean?”
    “This person has knowledge about intimate details of her life, stuff
no one could know unless…”
    Mike didn’t need his father to draw him a picture. “You’re sayin’
this is someone she’s slept with?”
    “Looks that way.”
    “Son of a bitch.” Mike clenched his fist. There was no way he could
investigate every man Tori had ever slept with without going slowly out of his
mind. Just trying to get her out of his head after their one-night stand had
been hard enough, but what his father was asking of him would be torture. He
couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t do it. “I’m sorry, Dad. I wish I could help you,
but I can’t.”
    “Listen, we both know I’ve never asked you for a damned thing. You
think I’d be comin’ to you with this now if I wasn’t desperate?”
     Mike dropped his head into his hands. “You don’t know what you’re
askin’ of me.”
    “Did somethin’ happen between you and Tori? Somethin’ I