Damn it.

Nick shouldn’t have gone to that party last night. Now he was paying the price with the mother of all headaches and a hangover.

It served him right. Just the other day he’d firmly decided that he was going to fold over a new leaf and focus on his career. But no, look at him this morning, waking up after a crazy night with his friends where they’d partied like they were still back in college and their world was filled with fun and women.

Jesus. He knew it was still that air of freedom that was making him make all these crazy choices, and these incidents came about when his inner child reminded him that he’d been a serious Marine for just over fourteen years.

Lieutenant Nicholas Wylder.

He grinned to himself as he took his time going down the stairs. He always had to take a moment to think whenever he remembered that he’d actually served in the Marine RECON and didn’t just serve like it was a job, it was his life and he did all sorts of memorable things. Things his father would have been proud of.

This was why he had to get his act together.

He was in the next phase of his life. Being a Marine was great. It was an eye opener that challenged him to be more than he was. It made him disciplined and focused, always on the ball with everything he had to do because he knew that one wrong move could cost him either his life or someone else’s.

It was a strict way to be, which was probably why he’d gone wild since leaving and getting back to civilian life. He’d been back for two years now. Free of time, free of responsibility.

The freedom had gone to his head.

He dragged his feet into the kitchen where Glenn was making coffee. The smell itself woke him up and he knew he was going to need the whole pot to do the trick. Coffee and a ten-mile run, even though it looked like it was going to rain outside. It had that murky feel he hated. A prelude to a storm.

Glenn laughed when he saw him and tossed him an apple.

Nick caught it, pulled out one of the barstool chairs, and slumped against the granite work top.

Glenn laughed some more and shook his head. “You look like shit.”

“I feel like shit. No more parties, Glenn,” Nick growled, focusing on his friend. Glenn looked wide awake and fresh faced like he’d had a good night’s sleep and hadn’t been at the same party as Nick.

He guessed, though, that Glenn hadn’t gone as wild as Nick had by accepting the stupid drinking challenge, which saw him finishing two bowls of punch and only God knew how much beer.

“Come on, man. What’s life if you don’t have some fun?” Glenn nodded and his large brown eyes sparkled with mischief.

“No, you are going to be the death of me.” Nick smirked. He took the cup of coffee Glenn handed him and started drinking immediately.

“Or, I could be the guy that reminds you you’re a civilian, a normal person who can run free and go wild.”

“Bro, you’ve been doing that for the last two years,” Nick chuckled.

“We’ve had fun, haven’t we?” Glenn laughed a deep, hearty laugh.

Nick smiled at him and couldn’t deny that they had had fun. Too much fun.

They’d been friends forever. Family. That was the best way to describe their friendship, and they lived together as such. The house was Glenn’s family home with far too many rooms, but it was home, so Nick had no qualms about hanging there.

They met back in junior high when Nick and his family moved to Chicago from L.A. It was an immediate connection. They both loved the same things and were completely crazy together, chasing girls and getting up to no good.

That getting up to no good part was actually more Nick than Glenn. Glenn knew how to have a good time, but he was always the responsible one. The more mature one. Life changed for Nick drastically after his father was killed, but Glenn really stepped up and was there for him. He helped bring him out of the darkness that threatened to swallow him whole and suck the life out of him.

The memory of his father’s death would always pain Nick to his soul. It took years to come to terms with what happened, especially since he couldn’t profess to being the son his father deserved. It was only when he was in the height of his career as a Marine that he started to feel at peace with himself.

His father had served too, and had been an amazing soldier. He’d always spoke of Nick joining, so he knew his father would have been proud of the man he’d become. He just wished he could have made him proud when he was still alive.

“One more party. Tonight,” Glenn said, bringing Nick out of his thoughts. Glenn nodded with enthusiasm and ran a hand through his spiky blonde hair. “It’s at work.”

“Fuck that. I’m a complete mess. There’s no way in hell that I’m going to one of your work parties,” Nick complained. Glenn was a renowned litigation lawyer who was an associate at a prestigious law firm in the city. By day they were all professional, up-tight lawyers who could serve you your own ass in court on any given day. But come night time, they turned into wild animals. It was unbelievable. Last time Nick went to one of Glenn’s parties he’d woken up the next day with his head shaved and a permanent-ink mustache drawn all over his face. And he couldn’t remember any of what had happened.

That was early last year, and he’d been evading invites ever since.

Glenn burst out laughing. “Nick, it’s gonna be fun. We’re going to get strippers.”

“I don’t care about strippers. Glenn, it’s Wednesday. Why are you having a party on a work night?”

“You’re starting to sound old,” Glenn complained.

“No. I have things to do. So no, and no more parties for a while.”

God, at least until he sorted his business out. Then he could have his own party to celebrate that.

He’d gone wild when he got back home, but did manage to put the ball in motion for his private investigation firm. He’d set up shop last summer and rented a small office near the docks. It was quaint and quiet, and he loved it. He just needed to roll it all out properly. He’d gotten the necessary training while he was in the Marines and his PI licenses prior to setting up, and now it was time to organize things properly and start doing some serious work.

When his father retired from the Marines, he’d joined the police and became an amazing captain. Nick was going to do this. It felt suitable for him with his love for investigation.

He was thirty-eight now and didn’t want to go backwards by indulging on wild parties and loose women. He wanted to move forwards, and keep on the career path.

“I’m going to work today,” Nick declared with a firm nod.

“Work? You’re still calling that work?” Glenn frowned.

Nick slumped his shoulders. “Oh, thanks for the vote of confidence. I have my licenses, Glenn, and you know I help Sawyer out big time.”

Sawyer was a close friend who was a detective with the Chicago PD. They met back in the Marines and were comrades, went on the same missions and had each other’s backs in life-or-death situations. Sawyer had left the Marines five years before Nick, but they kept in touch.

“You freelance, Nick, and that’s so ad hoc I’m not sure you can call it work.” Glenn shook his head and laughed.

“I’m calling it work. It’s going to be work. I need to fix the office up and set things up properly to take on clients.” Sawyer had been bugging him on a daily basis now to take a fulltime job with the police, but Nick preferred to work on a contractual basis with them. That freed him up to work with other agencies and associations.

He wanted to specialize on criminal cases. That’s why working with Sawyer was perfect, he was a direct contact for him.

“Okay, I get it, but you gotta come, man,” Glenn insisted with an excited nod.

“Why?” Nick grimaced.

“Because it’s fun, and…” Glenn’s eyes widened even more.

Nick frowned, he should have guessed there was more with this insistence.

“And what, Glenn?”

“Alice will be there.” Glenn looked at him like he was offering him a million dollars.

“No.” Nick didn’t even bother to think about that one. Alice was crazy. She was one of Glenn’s colleagues that Nick wished he didn’t know. Unfortunately, last year he made the mistake of sleeping with her and regretted it ever since. The woman stalked him for months on end and he only had some peace when she went on a secondment to Dubai for the firm.

“Nick, if you don’t come she won’t bring her sister.”

“That might not be a bad thing, Glenn. She could be crazy, too,” Nick said, reaching for his dog tags and rubbing them together.

“Alice isn’t crazy. Nick, you’re the problem.”

“She sent me a box of love hearts and teddy bears for Christmas,” Nick pointed out. “And she came to my office dressed in nothing but her coat. You know the story.” Nick remembered the horror of it. He’d had a meeting with a potential client who wanted some help with a fraud investigation. In came Alice in the middle of the meeting. She burst through the door believing he was by himself, practically jumping inside, and dropped her coat, revealing her naked body.

Any normal person would have knocked first, especially since she knew it was his office.

Of course he lost the client. They didn’t think he was professional enough. Then what was worse was Alice didn’t think anything of it.

“That was an accident. Come on, Nick. I have to see her sister again.”

“Then find another way, because I’m not going, man.”

“You are such a prick, you know that? And a damn wet blanket.” Glenn foolishly punched Nick’s arm and flinched back in pain. “Shit, I keep forgetting not to do that.”

Nick raised his brows and chuckled. “Yes, Glenn, you do keep forgetting that these arms are made of steel,” Nick laughed.

He’d probably lost a bit of the heavy muscle mass he used to have when he was on duty, but he was still huge in comparison to the average guy. He was a six-foot-six-inch tall, 220-pound machine who was always ready for action. Definitely not to be messed with. The sight alone with all his tribal tattoos was enough to warn people, but poor Glenn most likely still saw him as the tall lanky guy he met when they were younger.

“You seriously won’t come? What if I set you up with Bella? You like Bella.”

Nick wouldn’t lie, Bella was hot, with a great body and super-model looks. The offer was tempting, Glenn knew it was, but not tempting enough to deviate from today’s plans.

“No, Glenn, I’m serious. No more parties, and no women. I have shit to sort out.”

The doorbell rang, interrupting Glenn’s next words.

“You expecting company at this time?” he asked, narrowing his gaze.

“No, definitely not.” It was 9:30. No one he knew would come here at this time. Except in some kind of emergency, and he doubted they would go to him. Maybe his mom would, but she would have called first.

When Glenn moved to go and answer the door, Nick grabbed more coffee and downed it. Good, it was working. That sharp clarity coffee always brought with it was hitting him. It zinged straight to his brain and made his skin tingle. He was waking up now. He’d go for that run and head out to the office where he’d stay until it looked like an office.

He started walking over to the fridge but stopped when he suddenly heard crying. A woman was crying and it was one of those hysteric, heart-wrenching cries of pain that got your immediate attention.

Who was that?

And what could have happened to make her cry like that?

Nick decided to venture into the hall where the sound was coming from. The minute he turned the corner by the stairs he froze, wishing he’d stayed in the kitchen.

Just like always his eyes glued to her perfect form.

Even with her tear-stained, red, puffy face and dark circles under her eyes she still looked perfect.

Mia always did. He saw her as perfection and everything a man could ever desire all rolled into one. It was all there, from the radiance that beamed from her long blonde hair flowing about her elbows; to her petite frame, which was enhanced by her fully rounded breasts; to her tiny waist that invited him to touch her; and her firm behind that looked great in the tight blue jeans she wore.

Perfect. Nick wished he could take back the day when he started thinking that. Especially since he knew Glenn would skin him alive if he ever knew Nick had any thought whatsoever for his baby sister.

The parties he could swear off easily, that wouldn’t be a problem, but it was a hard thing for a man to swear off women when the one he wanted was standing paces away from him.

The one he wanted, and could never have.

Nick knew that no matter what he felt, Mia was completely off limits to him. So off limits that she may as well have a sign stamped on her. But, even with the knowledge of that, he found it difficult to keep the warning at the forefront of his mind whenever he was around her.

Jesus, he’d taken every step he could to avoid her. For him, avoidance was always the best tactic when faced with uncertainty. It meant that he could keep control.

Control was something he lost just from the sight of her. His mind would leave him, it would abandon rational thought and go with his raging hormones that took over his damn body.

It would have been easier if he didn’t suspect that she felt the same.

She was four when he first met her. He was twelve and saw her as Glenn’s super-cute baby sister with her white-blonde hair her mother always placed in pigtails. And when it wasn’t in pigtails it was in ringlets. She looked like a living doll and her mother dressed her as such.

Things were easy then. She was a child. The only feeling he had for her then was adoration. She was the little kid who used to follow him around with huge doe eyes, wanting him to come to her doll’s tea parties and see the new toys she got.

It was still easy to see her as a child when she was sixteen. He was twenty-four and, while he was still aware that the huge doe eyes had now turned to starry eyes, he just thought it was cute and adorable. He put it down to a phase she’d grow out of.

Things changed, though, when she turned twenty. She changed into this gorgeous, hot babe and suddenly he couldn’t use the age excuse anymore. Suddenly they were in their twenties and it was a massive, massive difference.

It felt like someone switched on a light in his head and shone it straight at her. To say he was attracted to her was putting it mildly, and the fact that he knew he couldn’t have her made it worse.

She was temptation, not Bella or any of the other would-bes that Glenn tried to set him up with. Mia was the real deal who could lure him into doing anything if she wanted.

She was also the one thing Glenn was completely protective of.

Nick last saw her five years ago, and there was a reason why he hadn’t since. He had an inkling before that he shouldn’t dare venture on the path to her, with her being his best friend’s sister and the eight-year age difference—which seriously was nothing—but Glenn had told him outright to stay away from her and stop giving her the wrong idea.

Nick, of course, backed off because Glenn was his best friend, and he would never do anything to piss him off like that. They’d been through much as friends, and great as the temptation was, it would be wrong to cross him that way.

Nick watched Mia cry, bringing her hands up to her cheeks. “My business is gone and he stole our inheritance.”

“What the fuck do you mean?” Glenn roared.

“He stole it,” she cried, nodding. Strands of her golden hair broke free from her pony tail and she brushed it behind her ear. “Everything is gone.”

“How did that happen, Mia?” Glenn balked.

Nick looked at him. He always hated when Glenn spoke to her like that.

Glenn’s overpowering, big-brother senses made him go over the top sometimes. Completely over, and it was unnerving to watch. Nick knew he was just trying to look out for her, but sometimes it was too much and he would come across as intimidating, obnoxious even, and like he was trying to discipline a child.

Mia hadn’t been a child in years; she was thirty now and shouldn’t have to be treated like that, regardless of what had happened.

“Mia, God damn it, answer me! I’m so sick of you and your shit!” Glenn was shouting now and looked like he was going to lose his temper and hit something.

“Hey man, cool it!” Nick cut in. He couldn’t help it. He had to say something because Mia was crying so much she was shaking.

The interjection made them both turn to look at him.

Glenn was seething, annoyed that he was interrupted. Nick could deal with that just fine. He was used to Glenn and his ever-changing moods.

But Mia…

Despite her tears, when she looked at him with those sea green eyes it felt like she was staring straight into his soul. He watched realization fill them and her eyes sparkled as she gazed at him. Then, damn him, he felt that twinge of attraction for her he knew he shouldn’t.

“Nick?” She breathed in a soft voice. “When did you—”

“This is not the time for reunions,” Glenn interjected abruptly, staring daggers at him.

Nick watched him take hold of Mia’s arm and pull her away towards the study. She looked back at Nick, her eyes still taking him in and assessing, as if she was trying to work out if he was really there.

Nick stared after her, too, knowing Glenn wanted her away from him so he could speak to her in private without the interruption.

Wow, what a start to the day.

Somehow he knew he wasn’t going to be taking that run outside or going to sort anything out at the office, because the one person that could change his plans had suddenly walked back into his life.

He just wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.