"You left, you fucking left me Maya. You were my lifeline and when you left me, I drowned so don't stand there and pretend that everything is okay."Elijah yelled his fists clenched in anger, his jaw ticking as he tried to reign in his emotions.
"Joey, please..." I begged remembering the sweet nickname I used to call him when we were kids.
"No! You don't get to call me that anymore. Why are you even here? Shouldn't you be in Nigeria buried in some cemetery somewhere. I mourned for you Maya so seeing you back here is just too painful to bear. Please just leave me alone."He spat spitefully.
"I came here to see you Jo.. Sorry.. I'm here for you Elijah, for my best friend. I know I messed up when I left and didn't keep in touch but I've missed you and I want to fix things."I pleaded.
"No!"He gritted out without even giving a second thought to my plea.
"No?"I mumbled already seeing the rejection coming.
"Yes, No! You don't get to come back and pick up where we left off."Elijah demanded.
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Maya comes back to the United States after eight years away. She's hopeful to pick up from where she left off with her childhood best friend Elijah but he doesn't want anything to do with her. A lot of things have changed but she is determined to show him that they can still salvage their relationship. Especially since their bond goes beyond friendship to something more sacred.
Emory Hart is a simple woman. She loves her family, enjoys her trips to the book store and to the coffee shop and she can never turn down her best friend when it comes to random nights full of chaos. She's content. All it takes is one run in with the one person she never seemed to win over and a surprise visit from her brother to shift Emory's whole world on its axis.
After two years of successfully avoiding him, Emory's "simple" and "content" are about to morph into something a bit more frustrating and confusing and it comes in the form of her brothers best friend.
Adrian Harley is a man of control. He's easy going and has charmed his way into the hearts of the entire Hart family. Emory has always been his biggest challenge. It's not because he can't win her over with the same easy going routine he uses with everyone else. It is simply because he can't find himself wanting to. No, what Adrian seeks from Emory is something much more intense. Darker. It's only because of his relationship with her brother that he swallows all of those urges for the sake of his closest friend and his own sanity.
When Adrian offers his guest room to his best friend, he comes face to face with the one thing he can't have and his self control begins to snap. Adrian finds himself crossing the one line that was silently drawn when befriending the Harts. The line that leads to the one woman he isn't allowed to want.
He's unleashed. Obsessed even.
And she thinks he hates her.