Chapter ONE

PROLOGUE: MEREDITH

“Ha! You’re the one who walked out, and I was left to pick up the pieces.”

I regretted my outburst immediately.

I shouldn’t have said all that. But I just couldn’t believe my eyes.

After all this time, I was sitting in the same room with him.

Josef Aziz.

The man who broke my heart. Only, he wasn’t the same man I knew.

This Josef looked harder, older, a little scary, to be honest.

His thick hair was the same rich mahogany color I remembered. He wore it shaved on the sides and long on top, carefully combed away from his chiseled face. The full beard was new.

Meticulously trimmed and combed, it did nothing to detract from his appearance. No other man affected me the way he did.

I wonder if it is as soft as it looks. I wonder if he’ll let me touch it.

Oh my god! Stop it.

Fifteen years ago, Josef Aziz was the most mesmerizing man I’d ever met. Larger than life, he’d exuded a confidence I could only have ever dreamed of possessing.