Prologue

Four Years Ago

"You nervous, sweetheart?" I ask, breaking the tense silence as my seventeen-year-old daughter, Tahani McPherson, flits around her dorm room like a hummingbird, fluttering from task to task without accomplishing anything.

The furrow between her brows deepens as she furiously chews on her bottom lip, lost in thought. "No." She stops abruptly and looks up at me, her expression a mix of anxiety and determination. "Yes. What if she doesn"t like me?"

"Your roommate will love you." Cool confidence rings in my tone. It"s hard not to love my daughter. She"s full of life and bursting with energy. She"s never still for long, never content unless she"s doing something. She"s a fiercely loyal people person, and she goes out of her way to do things for others. Whoever her roommate is, she"s gaining a friend for life.

"What if you"re wrong?"

"I"m never wrong."

Tahani huffs at me, rolling her eyes. I can"t help but laugh at her, amused by how much she takes after me. When we met for the first time, I was fucking terrified that she"d think I was a piece of shit for not being around for the first thirteen years of her life, even though it was out of my control. Thanks to her mother, I didn"t even know she existed until the day she called to tell me that she was my daughter. But she never held it against me and never questioned my love for her.

Shit. She knows me better than anyone, sometimes better than I know myself. And I know her like the back of my hand. She"s a pint-sized replica of me, attitude and all. She"s just a helluva lot nicer.

I have no doubt that her new roommate will adore her.

"What"s her name?" I ask, trying to distract her from her worries.

"Mila Lawson."

"Is she starting college early too?"

The fact that my daughter will be living on campus at seventeen drives me up the fucking wall. She"s still so young and innocent, too fragile to be living on her own. But underneath my fear, I"m fucking proud of her for graduating early. My kid is brilliant. She could have gone to school anywhere, but she"s happy close to home. And Berkeley is a damn good school.

"No, she"s eighteen."

"What"s her major?"

"English, I think." Tahani scrunches up her face. She"s never been a fan of the subject. As far as she"s concerned, speaking it is good enough. "I guess they put us together since we"re both scholarship students and we"re both in the College of Letters and Sciences. Her packet said she grew up in Modesto. She seemed really nice in her email."

"Then see? You"re worrying about nothing." I toss a pillow at her.

She catches it, sticking her tongue out at me.

"If she"s terrible or has weird fucking habits or something, you can always request a new room assignment."

Tahani looks at me and then glances around the room with big, dramatic eyes. "There"s no way I"m moving to a different room. Moving all this stuff in was hard enough!"

I don"t remind her that she didn"t even have to carry all of her shit in. I did it for her while she fluttered around, telling me what to do. For someone so small, she"s fierce and strong-willed. I"m happy as hell that she"s her own person and knows her own mind. It"s the only reason I"m not completely losing my fucking mind at the thought of her being surrounded by boys twenty-four hours a day for the next four years.

"I"m going to get the rest of your shit out of the truck. Stop worrying. Mila is going to love you." I drop a kiss on top of her head and then head out to grab the last couple of bags out of the truck. I think she packed everything she owns. Her relationship with her mom is…complicated.

Tahani harbors a lot of resentment over Lucinda keeping us apart for the first half of her life. I thought things would improve as time went on, but Tahani is too much like me. She"s stubborn as all hell and slow to forgive. The kid can hold a grudge like no other.

It doesn"t help that Lucinda is forever criticizing me in front of her. She doesn"t like that I"m a cop. She doesn"t like that Tahani adores me. She doesn"t like me, period. I make the most of it for Tahani"s sake, but frankly, her mother is a stuck-up, self-absorbed cunt. But when you"re sixteen and horny, pussy is pussy. I don"t regret sleeping with Lucinda because it gave me Tahani. Fuck her, though, for real.

As I jog down the stairs, I notice a group of girls lounging on the furniture in front of a massive TV. They look bored, their bodies draped across the couches, eyes flickering to different people in the room.

One of them, a petite blonde, turns to her friend as I walk by.

"Who is he?" she whispers.

"He"s here with a freshman. I guess he"s her dad."

"He"s fucking hot," the first girl whispers, giggling. "I"d totally call him daddy."

"Jesus Christ," I mutter, shaking my head when the entire group collapses into a fit of giggles. I"m far from a saint, but I"m not nearly stupid enough to go after a teenager…especially when I have one of my own upstairs. And I would fucking kill a man for trying to get with my daughter.

Christ. Is it too late to forbid her from going to a school with men?

I grab her last two bags from the truck and sling them over my shoulder before heading back inside. Thankfully, the group in the lounge is preoccupied by a group of frat boys bragging about some party, so I make it through without being ogled this time.

By the time I make it back to Tahani"s dorm, she"s hanging shit up in the closet.

"Here." I drop the last two bags on her bed and then recline against the desk, watching her. "You sure you"re going to be all right here, Hani?"

"Daddy, I"m seventeen," she says, rolling her eyes like I"m annoying her. "I"m going to be fine. I"ll probably be completely boring and spend all my time studying. My course load is crazy heavy."

"Try to have some fun," I mutter, even though I really want to tell her to stay her ass in her room and away from every boy—and party—here. "Just…don"t be stupid, okay? You"re too smart to do half the dumb shit I did when I was your age."

"Like what?" she asks, hanging a dress in the closet before grabbing another. Her eyes meet mine, mischief lurking in the depths. "I thought you said you were boring and respectable when you were my age."

"I lied like a motherfucker," I grunt. "I didn"t pull my head out of my ass until your grandfather was shot and killed." It took losing my dad in the line of duty to make me grow the fuck up and realize that I was headed down a dark path.

Everything changed when we lost him. I realized that I wanted to be one of the good guys in life, not another asshole like the one who murdered him. There are terrible people in this world. I will never let myself be one of them.

I"ll never let my daughter know them, either. My goal in life is to keep her young and innocent for as long as humanly possible. She knows I"m an ATF agent and that I work undercover, but I refuse to divulge details to her. The less she knows about what I do and the people I deal with, the better.

"I wish I could have met him and Grandma," Tahani says, her voice soft and sad. That kills me. My dad died when I was eighteen. My mom followed when I was twenty-three. They never knew I had a daughter and never got to meet her. I will never be okay with the fact that Lucinda stole that experience from them as much as she stole it from me and Tahani. It fucking kills me that my daughter will always long to meet her grandparents.

"I already know they love you, kid," I tell her, trying to make it hurt a little less for her. Hell, for me, too. "Your grandfather is probably looking down at you right now, bitching to your grandma about you going to college at seventeen. And she"s probably shushing him, telling him that you"re a good girl who doesn"t need him hovering. And for God"s sake, put that gun away right this instant."

Tahani throws her head back and laughs loudly, which is all I want. But if there is a heaven, I imagine it"s going down exactly like that right now. My parents met when my mom moved here from Mexico when she was fifteen. They were inseparable from the moment they met. My father worshipped the ground she walked on. She ran the house, and he fucking loved it.

Something thumps against the door, and then it flies open, making Tahani jump. She spins toward it, her eyes wide.

I move my head slowly in that direction…and damn near come in my pants when I catch sight of the blonde stumbling into the room. My cock roars to life, pressing insistently against the zipper of my jeans as I stare at the girl.

She can"t be much older than Tahani, but she"s the prettiest little thing I"ve ever seen. Her blonde hair is up in a loose bun, accentuating her pink cheeks. The gleam in her emerald green eyes and the confidence in the way she carries herself is alluring as hell. She looks like a fucking pinup model.

She"s short and curvy, with thick thighs, a round belly, and creamy skin begging to be touched. Her tiny tank top barely contains her tits. And her simple black skirt makes her long legs look fucking amazing.

She"s…fuck me. She"s sexy as hell.

"Mila?" Tahani asks, hurrying across the room to her.

"Tahani?" Mila"s gaze darts from me to my daughter and then back to me again.

"It"s so nice to meet you!" Tahani flings her arms around the girl, hugging her hard.

Mila stands frozen for a split second and then hugs Tahani back. Her gaze tangles with mine over my daughter"s head, sucking me in. Jesus Christ. She"s stunning. My heart actually pounds against my ribcage, my dick pulsing in my jeans. Her gaze sweeps down my body and then back up, her green eyes turning dark as if she likes what she sees.

Tahani releases her after a second and grabs her bag off her arm, tossing it toward her bed before practically dragging her the rest of the way into the room. I rise to my full height and then have to rub my hands on my pants because my palms are fucking sweating like I"m the teenager here.

"Mila, this is my dad, Roman Gregory. Daddy, this is my roommate, Mila Lawson." Tahani presents her to me like she"s presenting me with a gift, practically pushing her in front of me.

Mila tilts her head back, her gaze climbing up my body. I feel it like a physical touch. Her teeth sink into her plump bottom lip. The desire in her eyes is obvious. I think she sees the same thing in mine because she gives me this sassy little smile that damn near knocks me on my ass and then holds out her hand to me. She smells like peaches and sunshine.

"Hi, Mr. Gregory," she says, her voice so soft and sweet I damn near lose it completely. There"s a teasing note to it, though, like she"s fucking with me. "It"s nice to meet you."

I hesitate for a split second before reaching for her hand. As soon as I touch her, my cock throbs again, leaking precum into my boxers. I grit my teeth and quickly release her hand, taking a step back in a desperate bid to rein myself in.

She"s too fucking young for me...my damn daughter"s age. And I"m guessing she and Tahani are going to be thick as thieves in about two minutes flat.

Getting close to her has bad idea written all over it...but I want to do it anyway. Want to know what she was thinking about when she bit her lip.

I want to bite her lip.

Jesus Christ.

"Nice to meet you," I mutter, taking another step back.

Tahani snags Mila"s attention, allowing me to take a much-needed breath. I can still smell her. I rake a hand through my hair, trying to get my shit together. It doesn"t matter how gorgeous she is or what she was thinking about when she bit her lip…she"s off-limits.

I live my life by a carefully constructed set of rules. They keep me alive, keep my daughter safe, and help ensure my team makes it home at the end of the day. It"s been five years since I added a rule to that list, but I"m adding one now. Stay the fuck away from Tahani"s friends, specifically the sexy little blonde standing not three feet away, talking to my daughter like they"ve known each other their entire lives.

"Is someone bringing your shit up?" I blurt out.

Mila and Tahani both turn to look at me.

"Do you need help bringing your stuff up, or are your parents bringing it up?"

"Oh, um…" Something close to sorrow flits through her expression before her teeth sink into that bottom lip again. "It"s just me. My parents aren"t here. Um, my mom is dead."

I want to ask her about her dad, but instinct honed from years of use tells me not to push, that he isn"t a good memory for her, nor is he something she wants to talk about right now. I want to know, though. Because I"m almost certain that look in her eyes wasn"t just because her mom is dead. She"s too goddamn young and innocent to be alone in this world, but I already know she is.

I also know by the dismayed little gasp from my daughter that Mila just became family.

Fuck. My. Life.