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PROLOGUE

MAEL

She was beautiful.

And completely oblivious.

You would think that being the daughter of one of the most abhorrent men in the entire state of New York would afford her more caution.

I stood in the dark corner and watched as she moved around the huge room in nothing but a flimsy bathrobe that would have done nothing to protect her from me.

What a sweet little lamb.

She went to the connected bathroom, the shower turning on just moments later before she moved back out into the room and stood in front of the full-length mirror in the corner.

She ran those delicate little fingers through the long locks of her brown hair, brushing away all the tangles before untying the sash holding the robe in place.

I held my breath as she pushed the fabric off her shoulders, letting it pool around her feet before she kicked it away, revealing her naked body to my gaze for the first time.

Fuck me.

It wasn’t the first time I’d seen a woman naked, but it was the first time I felt mesmerized by the fucking sight alone.

Pale, unblemished skin encased over a thin body, small but fucking perky tits, brown pert nipples—either from the cold or something else, I didn’t know—down to her small waist and a nearly bald pussy.

I licked my lips.

Fuck me.

She took herself in with critical eyes, frowning a bit, as if she didn’t like what she saw in the mirror, or hell, saw things that needed improvement, which made me angry.

My fists clenched by my side.

She was fucking perfect.

And if she were mine, I would have reddened that perfect round ass of hers for even thinking otherwise.

She could be mine.

I shook my head.

No, I was here on a job. One I couldn’t do, considering my target had rushed out of the city just hours before I broke into his home, and I was now watching his daughter. Feeling my cock harden at the sight of the skin she showed, I nearly fucking came.

She could be mine.

Like a fucking migraine that wouldn’t go away, the thought bounced around in my head until that was all I could focus on.

She could be mine.

She could be mine.

She let out a small sigh and walked to the bathroom. I heard the curtain pull back before the water’s rhythm cascading down the tub changed, indicating she had gotten inside.

She could be mine.

All of her.

Every single inch that I would covet as mine and no one else’s.

I could make sure of it—I would make sure of it.

I never had another person belong to me so fucking wholly. She would be the first. The only .

I would make her want me. Love me. Need me.

How unfortunate for Lia Whitlock to have visited her childhood home tonight, of all nights.

How unfortunate for her to have crossed my path.

She will be mine.