The One Who Got Away Read Online Free PDF

passing so slowly they felt like hours. Sleep eluded him—due, to a large degree, to his preoccupation with Taylor.
    The connection was still there after all these years. He hadn’t expected that. She’d been so young back then, and had he had an ounce of decency in him, he’d be ashamed that he’d taken advantage of her youth. Yeah, she’d come on to him, but a stronger man would have said no. When it came to Taylor, however, he wasn’t the least bit strong.
    Not that he’d always felt that way about her. Back when he and Steve had first started hanging out, Taylor had been a nuisance. She’d followed them everywhere in the tradition of baby sisters, always running to her mother when they’d shut her out of their “big kid” adventures. So they’d had to drag her along when it would have been a lot more fun without her.He hadn’t minded too much. As an only child, he’d always wondered what it would be like to have a sibling. He would have voted for a brother, however. A girl was too foreign. Too girly. And he’d wanted to be the toughest kid in town.
    Steve had always protected the little brat, no matter what, even though he’d complained about her presence. Then protecting Taylor had become a part of him, too. He’d kept the older kids from picking on the tall, skinny tomboy.
    After he’d graduated high school, he’d pretty much forgotten about her. Until he’d come home that last week, just after she’d turned eighteen.
    His folks were gone on a trip he’d bought them. He’d liked the quiet and the peace, the time to study. He’d been taking night classes, studying forensics. During the day, he’d been a beat cop, and the toll had been heavy. The week away had been a blessing.
    When Taylor had dropped by, making it awkwardly, painfully clear that she’d wanted him to take her, he’d hesitated, sure, but finally, he’d given in.
    They’d stayed in bed for damn near three days. Doing everything they could think of, and by God the girl had an amazing imagination. She’d been wild, free, unafraid. The first time she’d taken him in her mouth, he’d nearly had a heart attack. And he could still remember her cries when he’d showed her the pleasure of his mouth on her.
    She’d cried when they said goodbye, and he’d felt bad, but he’d explained to her that he was only in town for a short visit. The letters she’d sent him had come frequently at first, always with an invitation fora return visit, but he’d only answered one. There was no future for the two of them. Even if she had ended up at a college in New York, he couldn’t have kept up a relationship.
    His career had been his whole focus for a long, long time. Back then, he’d wanted to be a homicide detective, and he’d accepted every lousy assignment, volunteered for all the crap no one else wanted to do. He’d eventually gotten his master’s degree in forensic science.
    But he’d still made it out to California most years to go fishing with Steve. He’d heard about Taylor’s adventures at Berkeley, her first apartment, her job as a paralegal.
    Steve had also told her that Taylor wanted to marry, to have kids, to have the kind of life that demanded the suburbs. Not Manhattan. Not with a cop.
    But this week wasn’t about marriage and kids, at least not for them. It was Vegas, after all. Sin City. They were here to have a good time, to be there for Steve, although not in the way Steve imagined.
    Ben turned over, thinking about his friend, what had gotten into him. Lisa represented everything Steve had avoided in his life. His love of his fishing boats, and his freedom, were so important to Steve, and anyone who knew him saw that from the get-go. So what had happened? Why the radical shift?
    Lisa seemed nice enough, but there was no way in hell she was going to make Steve forget about