Page 1 of Craved

Prologue

For years, there was only him. The boy I’d loved with his shining blue eyes and a laugh that could brighten the darkest of days.

We were one, he and I. Two halves of a whole.

That’s what he’d always said.

That’s what I’d always believed.

Together, our childhood days had been marked with laughter and sunshine. Our teenage nights with heat and hunger, the days with plans and promises, caresses and kisses.

We’d shared our dreams. Our hopes. Our bodies.

We discovered passion in each other’s arms. There was trust. There was love.

And there was betrayal.

That’s when my world tilted without warning. He was gone, with only a scribbled note as proof he’d existed at all. His absence like a wound upon my soul.

I thought I’d never see him again. The boy who’d once been mine. The man who’d disappeared, taking my broken heart with him.

But now he’s back, swathed in a cloud of danger and betrayal, tied up in a conspiracy that could destroy everything I hold dear. Cold where once he was warm. Hard where once he was soft.

Deceitful. Dangerous.

Desirable.

I want to hate him. I want to hurt him as he hurt me. And yet the bond we shared still tugs at my soul, and all I can do is hope that I have the strength to hold fast to my mission. To fight the man he has become…and not lose myself in the memories of the man I wish he was.

Chapter One

“No,” I say, waving the dossier as I pace in front of my boss’s desk. “This can’t be right.”

Behind the desk, Ryan Hunter leans back, watching me. With his chestnut hair and sky-blue eyes, he could almost be Maxim’s twin. Honestly, that was the hardest thing about coming to work for Stark Security. Because every time I looked at my boss, it was as if someone had thrust a knife straight through my heart.

But time heals the pain from even the vilest betrayals. Within a few weeks, I could talk to Ryan without wanting to curl up into a ball of self-pity. Within a few months, we could carry on an entire conversation without me thinking of Maxim even once.

The day I realized that was the day I knew I was finally healed.

How wrong I was.

I draw a breath and stand even straighter in front of Ryan’s desk. “You can’t ask me to take this assignment.”

For a moment he just sits like that, hands behind his head, his chair tilted as he studies me. I’m well above average at reading people. Their posture, their eyes, the subtle motions of their fingers. Even the smallest thing can help tell the story of a person’s life. Their wants and desires. Their plans. Their secrets.

But I can’t read Ryan Hunter. I’ve never been able to. Even so, I trust him with my life.

Right now, I wish I didn’t respect him so much. Because that respect is the only thing keeping me from turning around, storming out of his office, and slamming the door behind me.

Instead, I slam the dossier down on his desk, so that the red-stamped Confidential: PGU Clearance Only is face up. “You can’t possibly expect me to take this assignment.”

“Actually, I can,” he says. “Because you’re the best person for the job, Cami, and you know it.”

I do, of course. Ryan Hunter has one of the best tactical minds I’ve ever run across, so he’s usually right about such things. But that doesn’t mean I have to like this particular reality.

With a grimace, I flop down onto one of his guest chairs. “When I joined Stark Security, I thought I’d be getting away from giant save-the-world missions.”

He chuckles. “Did you remember to mention that to the bad guys?”