Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109783 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Fyfe Moray raised himself. His only real family is his best friend, Lewis Adair. For that reason, Lewis’s sister Eilidh is totally off-limits. Fyfe is in deep denial about their intense attraction. Thankfully, Eilidh is a famous actor living in London while he runs his cyber security company from the Highlands. They’re worlds apart. Until one day, Eilidh reaches out asking for a lifeline and Fyfe can’t bring himself to turn her away.
Acting isn’t what Eilidh Adair expected. As a kid, she wanted to be just like her famous uncles. But the double-edged sword of fame cuts deeper than expected. Afraid to admit she’s made a mistake, Eilidh is spiraling. The only person who knows the truth is Fyfe, but her childhood crush has developed into a love he won’t return. Yet when she comes home intent on starting over, Fyfe can’t seem to stay away. His confused feelings might just be the end of them. Until a woman from Fyfe’s past abandons the baby daughter he never knew he had.
Now a single father, Fyfe needs support. He just never expected Eilidh to be the one he needed most. Fyfe can’t believe how quickly he falls for his child and how rapidly his world view changes. He’s ready to admit the truth: he’s madly in love with his best friend’s sister. And Fyfe’s done wasting time.
But someone else believes Eilidh belongs to them. Someone who has been watching her far longer than she realizes. Just when she thinks she might have everything she wants, Eilidh finds herself caught in the crosshairs of a person intent on destroying everything she holds dear.
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Prologue
FYFE
Eleven years ago
Ardnoch, Scotland
It wasn’t unusual for me to wake up and find my mum passed out on the kitchen floor. Well … it didn’t happen all the time because she was hardly ever home, but when she was, it usually ended up with her passed out.
I took her in for a second. Face down, limbs sprawled, taking up all the space in our tiny kitchen. Her nose was pressed against the peeling linoleum and loud snores escaped her mouth as it opened and closed in sleep.
Years ago, Mum had been pretty. I’d seen photos. But for as long as I could remember, her skin was dry, wrinkled before her time, and a dull gray. Her hair had also thinned. Brown like mine, but greasy and limply draped across her sharp cheekbone. That’s what more than your fair share of alcohol did. And drugs. Whatever she could get her hands on.
Her slight frame took up so much space in the kitchen because it was a tiny room and she was tall. Her thin top had risen, flashing her bra. Her skirt or jeans or whatever she’d been wearing was gone. She was in nothing but a pair of ratty knickers, and she only had on one of a pair of cheap heels.
Sometimes I felt so fucking weary and old, right down to my bones.
I lifted my glasses off my nose to rub the sleep out of my eyes. When I pushed the frames back into place, I glanced at the clock. If Mum didn’t give me any trouble, I could get her sorted before I had to leave for school. I couldn’t miss school. Not for her, not for anyone. I’d realized a long time ago that I was going to use my brains and education to get me the fuck out of Ardnoch. To get me away from … this.
It was hard to call which way this would go. Sometimes Mum fought like a tiger when you tried to rouse her. In rare moments, she was quiet and pitiful.
Hoping for the latter, I moved into the room and got my arms underneath her. This year I’d started to shoot up in height, so with her slight weight, it was easy enough to haul her into my arms.
My heart started to race when she grumbled under her breath, but she merely reached for me in her sleep and slung her arms around my neck to hold on. I carried her to the bed she rarely slept in.
As I was pulling the covers over her, she spoke. “Thank you.”
I looked up and found her red-rimmed eyes on me. I got everything from my mum. Hair and eye color, height, and though no one would believe it, my intelligence. Mum had gotten into St. Andrews University and was studying to be an engineer when she fell pregnant. She told me bitterly (and often) that it happened on a drunken night out with some random bloke whose name she couldn’t even remember. Her mum had insisted she come home and have me, and that was the worst thing that ever happened to my mother.