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“Hey, Hannah Banana.” Shit. That was not what I meant to say. So not how I wanted to greet her after all this time. Man, she was more beautiful than I remembered. Her dark eyes, wavy midnight hair, and womanly curves no high school girl had a right to possess had haunted me for years. Still did.

I should have been able to suppress my nerves at seeing her. For the last decade, I’d been the best at convincing criminal masterminds and wannabes who wanted to do harm to America that I was on their side. I’d been cool and calm under pressure during an untold number of high-stakes situations overseas, and yet I couldn’t hold it together when faced with Hannah Masters.

The urge to tease her had leapt out of nowhere. Old habits, I guess. She’d been my best, well, really my only, target in high school simply because she was my best friend’s sister. Shy when I first met her, then off-limits years later when she started high school and my interest did a one-eighty.

Her shyness had disappeared. Her beauty knocked me out, but the real clincher for me was when she handed me my ass in front of my classmates and her brother the first day of her freshman year.

And instead of turning me off, her sharp tongue made me burn hotter.

For her.

Only her.

Hannah had been the itch I could never scratch, always out of reach. The one girl I couldn’t have no matter how many times I tried to puzzle it out. Jett’s friendship back then had meant everything to me. Still did. But now I was prepared to deal with the outcome. Because one of the reasons I was back, was to finally take my shot with the woman haunting my dreams all these years.

“Really, Ross?” Hannah’s nostrils flared. Her expressive eyes narrowed as she continued, “After all these years. That’s the best you’ve got?”

And there it was. The fire I’d missed. The fire no other woman stirred within me to care enough to tease. And I wanted more. Craved it like a man dying of thirst who refused to settle for anything but his favorite drink. Because she was real sugar Coca-Cola, where every other woman I’d been with had always left me with the bitter aftertaste of an imitation.

“Sorry. Old habits die hard. I’m sorry. Let me start over.” I flashed her a grin. Then, along with what I’d hoped was a spark of heat in my gaze so that there would be no doubt of how I really felt. I held out my hand and waited. And when she placed her smaller, softer hand in mine, I said, “It’s great to see you again. How are you, Hannah?”

Hannah’s eyes widened, an answering spark in her gaze before she quickly masked her reaction. But it was enough. The connection instant. She tugged, but I held on for a couple of beats longer before slowly sliding my fingers along her tender flesh.

She cleared her throat, and my gaze zeroed on her delicate neck where her pulse point pulsated. Yeah, she felt it too. And I couldn’t wait when it would just be the two of us, no audience to witness my planned groveling.

“Oh, you know a bit of this and that. Uh, welcome home, Ross.” She obviously wanted to be anywhere except near me. Which I understood, but I was set on doing everything in my power to change her opinion of me. I wanted more than anything to prove to her I wasn’t the asshole I had been to her all those years ago.

“Oh, I um...I forgot.” Hannah dramatically looked at her phone, pushed her chair back, stood, then turned toward Jett. “I’ve got to get back. The floor guys are meeting me in like less than ten minutes. Gotta go, bye.” Hannah tugged her purse over her shoulder, brushed a kiss on Jett’s cheek and, without looking at me, took off out of the deli.

Jett shook his head. “Subtlety is not one of her strong points. Sorry about that.”

I kept my eye on Hannah’s tempting backside as she breezed out through the glass door. And I waited. It didn’t take long for what I was hoping to see. Hannah looked over her shoulder. Our gazes collided, and heat blasted through my chest.

Caught looking, she swiftly looked away. But not fast enough for me not to notice the eye roll.

And just like that, I was transported back to high school.

And just like then, my heart rate increased, my dick twitched, and I was forced to act unfazed under the scrutiny of my best friend. The brother of the woman who’d always got under my skin while simultaneously making me as hard as titanium.

Before Jett could see the evidence of my out-of-control hormones, I willed a picture of my hated bootcamp CO into my head to tame my dick before asking, “Hey, join us?” I nodded toward my brothers, Kane and Chase. “We have time for a quick beer before we need to head back.” My voice held no sign of my lust-filled thoughts, thank fuck, but Jett looked at me long and hard. A question in his gaze that was probably long overdue on his part.

Dammit. Now was not the time to confess my feelings for his sister, especially after not seeing each other for years. And definitely not with my brothers in attendance. I wasn’t sure I could count on them to cover my ass, or cheer Jett on if he decided I wasn’t good enough for his sister.

So I waited him out and deal with whatever he was thinking later. The Jett I’d grown up with wasn’t a fan of confrontation. He rubbed the back of his neck, then punched me in the shoulder. Hard. It was all I was going to get from him. For now.

“Wish I could. We were almost done with lunch anyway. Besides, I need to get back. I have an appointment, and if I don’t leave now, my crew is going to have a very upset grandma on their hands. She’s getting a tattoo with the name of her new grandbaby added to a design I did for her a few years back. I’ll see you later.” Jett grabbed his tray and headed to the front of the deli and emptied it into the trash.

With a relieved sigh, I watched him greet my brothers before leaving. Yeah, later was going to be interesting. Then, as if on cue, my brother Kane’s name was called, and we picked up the boxes of food to take back to the Triple R and to the mountain I called my temporary home.

I had plans. So many plans, but the first one I needed to implement concerned the sexy Hannah Masters.

CHAPTER 3

ROSS

Later that day after dropping off the sandwiches for the lodge’s guests, I found myself back in Pineville, this time we were at O’Malley’s Pub. We were waiting for the rest of the retired Rangers who ran the Triple R to meet up with us for some beers, swap lies and war stories.

Kane and Chase had been waiting to grill me about why I’d decided to move back home. And how I knew was that they’d been trying to loosen my tongue with inane conversation about how much the area had changed since I’d been gone.