AGAIN: A SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE

Prologue

I recalled the feeling of his hands on my skin, soft and stroking and loving. The way he had looked into my eyes as he pushed into me, his hardness making me cry out, first in pain and then, an instant later, in wonder.

I had melted in his arms and afterward, after our slow, sweet passion was spent, I had wept with the beauty of it all.

He was my first man.

Maddox Jefferson. Handsome, funny, rugged. The first man in my life and the one who had taken my heart along with everything else I had to offer at the time.

Then, for some reason, he’d left. I guessed it had been natural. That’s how my mom had made me see it, anyway. Natural and logical. We were sixteen at the time and of course, she said, things were not going to last between us. When he walked away without contacting me, she made it seem like I was foolish to expect anything else. Except that it hadn’t ever faded away…not for me.

“Ms. Trent?”

“Mm?” I blinked up at my secretary as she came into the office.

“Papers for you to sign.”

“Oh. Thank you, Jess. If you could just leave them there?”

“Yes, Ms. Trent.”

I sighed and focused on the print as I lifted a page to my eyes, trying to think straight. Somehow, my mind was full of Maddox today. I looked out of the window: the sky was a delicate blue, springtime visiting the city again. I suppose that was it. It was a season where the heart naturally thinks of loving. And it was five days before Valentine’s. That must be it.

“And here I am, in Trent Incorporated, signing…um…forms for the customs bureau?”

I put my signature to the papers, put my elbows on the desk and rested my head in my hands.

I was twenty-six, and my life felt so empty.

It was actually quite full. My father was the CEO of Trent Incorporated—a massive international freight company—and I was all set to take over from him. Running a big business empire should have made me excited. As daddy’s daughter, I would have expected it to. I was very like him in some ways, or so mom always said. And dad was leaving me in charge this week while he jetted off to Singapore for talks there.

I knew I had a full life. But it was only three months since I split from my ex-boyfriend and I still felt all the trauma after that as well. He had been a critical, belittling and undermining guy, always telling me that I fell short or implying I wasn’t quite good enough for him. It had only been when it became clear he had met someone else that I finally had the courage to step away. Now that I was free of him and his small cruelties, I should feel so much happier. Oddly enough, though, I didn’t.

I’m just being silly.

My phone rang. I glanced at the clock—1:15 p.m. Weird.

I didn’t expect that phone to ring—very few people have my personal number. My dad. Mom. Harper, my best friend. And Valery, when he was my boyfriend. Now he’s blocked.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Macy!” It was Harper. I smiled.

“What’s up? Listen, it’s the end of lunch hour—I haven’t got time now…” I began quickly.

“It’s nothing. Just wait! Listen! I’m having a Valentine’s party. I wanted to invite, you know, all my friends. I wanted to invite you most, of course.”

I smiled. Harper was a wildly enthusiastic type, the sort who got hyped about everything. A party at her place would be fun. “Sure,” I said. “Count me in.”

“Great! I’ll chat later. We can plan more then.”

“Okay,” I said cheerfully. “Chat later then. Bye!”

“Bye.”

After I hung up, I leaned back, feeling much happier.

It was only after I’d thought about it for a bit that I realized that Harper, in her own special way, was probably planning to set me up with someone. I wasn’t sure I wanted that. Not now.

There was only one guy I’d ever really loved, I thought sadly. I sighed.

He was not for me. For so many reasons. But even so, he was on my mind a lot at the moment. Maddox Jefferson.

It was, I decided ruthlessly, about time I stopped thinking like that. I was twenty-six years old, and I should have grown past these rare stabs of nostalgia in which I missed Maddox. The times when I thought of him and wondered what had happened all those years before when he had, so abruptly and without any reasoning, ended our relationship.

It was time I got over him and opened myself out to someone new and special who would sweep me off my feet.

The thought made me smile. Maybe there was a guy like that out there for me. Someone sweet and funny and kind who would fall for me as much as I fell for him. Another guy. Maddox had been the first. But who was to say there wouldn’t be others. It had happened once, after all. And now it seemed like I had a chance to find out if something that lucky could happen to one person, twice.

A party for Valentine’s, organized with Harper Hampton’s special flair for a party. Who knew what might happen?

I put my phone back in my Calvin Klein handbag, feeling better than I had for a while.