Chapter 2

The moment I stepped into the hotel suite, a large hand caught me around the waist and pinned me against the wall. His body pressed flush against mine, tall and solid, and his mouth sealed over mine before I could breathe.

He was shirtless. His heat poured straight through the thin fabric of my blouse. I couldn't catch a breath.

He caught my hands and pressed them to his chest. Under my palms I could feel his heartbeat, the cut lines of muscle, and whatever was left of my resolve went out from under me.

Ethan Harrington. International supermodel. And, for the last year, the man I'd been sleeping with behind my husband's back.

A long, lean build, a knife-edge V, eight-pack abs, a face that sold magazine covers. He had everything a man could possibly have, and then some. I couldn't really blame myself for losing my head.

We came from the same orphanage. We'd known each other since we were small.

The woman who'd switched me out of the Ashford family hadn't fared well afterward, so she did the simplest thing. She dumped me on the steps of Saint Clare's Home for Children.

Back then I was still a small child who clung instinctively to the idea of a mother, and I used to cry myself to sleep at night.

Ethan, also small, would pat my shoulder with clumsy hands and tell me that if I missed home so much, I could just pretend he was my mother.

We'd even made a promise once: we'd stay with each other forever. We'd never be apart.

And then he was adopted, and not long after, the Ashfords came and took me back, and we lost each other just like that.

Until last year, at a runway show, when he spotted me in the audience. The moment the show ended, he came straight over. His first line to me had been:

"That man doesn't deserve you. Be with me. I'll be your secret. I don't care if no one ever knows."

A rough kiss pulled me out of the memory. In the blur of it, Ethan leaned down to my ear, voice gone husky.

"Baby. When are you divorcing him? When do I get to replace him?"

I thought of what Lucas had said this morning and paused.

"Soon," I said. "Within the week, I think."