I snap myself to reality when I realize I have started trailing off into memories I have tagged forbidden. this"So, what do you want now, stepfather?"

I hear his light chuckle, and I can't help the flutter in my chest from absorbing the rich sound. I can almost smell him. I remember what he smelled like. God! it's imprinted in my brain.

It is embarrassing, but I can admit that I look for that scent in every man I have gone out with since, but to no success. It belonged to Linc Tanner alone. Just like my stupid, stupid heart. Mint, dark coffee, something dark and mysterious thrown in the mix and a whiff of something floral and yet overwhelmingly masculine.

I used to smell him in the house before he even got to the room I was in, with my mom on his arm, dark onyx eyes seeking mine like a storm.

"I kind of prefer Mr. Tanner to that stepfather title. Makes me feel old, and the way you say it adds a perverted undertone to it," he says after a moment. His tone is light; it is a rebuff he has used several times before when I used to call him that as a sort of childish rebellion to the dismay of my mother who insisted I call him by his name or worse, dad.

"Whatever," I snap. I hate having to think about my mother or the period during that summer before I left for college when I had to stay with them, and it was low-key the worst few weeks of my life in that house.

"Still that temper. It is good to know you haven't changed much, Ames darling," Linc says with a light chuckle.

But he is wrong. At least I hope so. I hope I have changed enough.

But with the way my heart flutters every time he calls me that nickname in that rich baritone of his, I can't be sure I have changed much, and it is embarrassing.

"I need you to tell me why you have called, Linc. Cut the whole thing about you worrying about me and all that bullshit. I know you have eyes on me. I have seen her. What do you want?" My anger comes back to shield my foolish heart; it wraps around my chest like a vice.

Whatever he has been paying the woman following me for the past three years should be halved. She is terrible at her job. She doesn't even try to be hidden.

"Okay. Okay. Sheathe your claws, tigress," Linc says. There is no chuckling this time. He doesn't even try to deny it. It makes me angrier, but I bite my tongue. Once I hear what he is calling for, we will talk about that damn female bodyguard.

"I need you to come back home for your break tomorrow. Your plane tickets are ready, everything is set in place," Linc says, his voice dangerously set and rigid, my mouth opens and closes.

Again, I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out. I am beyond dumbfounded. Not at the fact that he knows the exact timing of my summer break, but the finality and air of authority of his tone.

"What!" Finally, I scream into the phone.

"What the fuck are you talking about?! I am not coming back! You better say you're joking right now!" I scream into the phone. Courtesy be damned. I don't care if Ashley can hear me. I don't care if I am being rude.

He has lost his mind if he thinks he can just command me to come back to New York out of the blue like this. After three whole years of no contact! Though I was the one that initiated the no-contact rule, that is beside the point.

"You are and you will," Linc says and the calmness in his voice threatens to push me to the edge. He has no rights! Have I not made this clear enough!

"I don't know how to say this nicely, Mr. Tanner, but I genuinely do not want anything to do with you. My mother is dead. She is not here anymore. I am not obligated to feel related to you because we are not related. I am not coming back to New York, and that is final," I say, breathing heavily.

My eyes narrow on the floral pattern of my quilt, and I feel like I could go crazy with the way my heart is racing, flashes of forbidden memories running through my mind.

Mental snapshots of Linc walking out of the luxurious infinity pool on the rooftop of his mansion and his immaculate figure, toned wide shoulders, long muscular legs like tree trunks, chiseled torso, me hiding behind the lounge door, watching him like a creep, the water dripping down his hairy chest, snaking into his navel, down his briefs with that noticeable bulge, and his dark eyes catching mine immediately like he knew I was there all along, watching him.

"Amelia. Listen to me," Linc's domineering voice cuts into me, and I rip my focus away from those damn memories.

That summer is cursed. I can't think of that time without feeling a heap of guilt and the sense of awakening into something bigger than myself, in those stolen glances, fantasies, and sleepless nights where I imagined what it would be like to be the one sharing Linc's bed instead of my mother. I felt treacherous even though me and my mother and I had never been particularly close.

"No! I am not coming back, and you can't make me!" I yell.

"Amelia!" Linc's annoyed voice snaps me to attention. I bite my tongue. Squeezing the phone in my hand.

I grit my teeth in annoyance. I didn't have any specific plans for the holiday, though I was thinking about my internship options.

Since it is my sophomore year, I am supposed to spend my summer break interning at any reputable architectural company that will take me.

"It is something your mother wanted," Linc says, his voice going back to calm and collected.

Of course. She would still continue to mess up my life even when she is no longer here.

It is aggravating, all the complex feelings she evokes in me. Our relationship wasn't the typical mother-daughter bond. Because she wasn't the typical mother by any means.

Kathryn Dimitri was a socialite through and through. She was glamorous and loud and enjoyed going to dinner parties, soirees, any excuse to have fun and drink champagne, flirting with the throng of men who were always sniffing around her.

It always stung when people noted how different we looked. They always looked at her elegant auburn bold beauty and my muted blonde prettiness and concluded I paled in comparison, just like my skin.

Mother always threw her head back with a delightful laugh when those men paid her compliments at my expense.

That was one of the reasons why I hated spending time at home. With her. She always made me feel like an unwanted attachment to her person. An attachment that never quite measured up.

Sometimes, I think to myself that my attraction to Linc was a rebellion. It was a cowardly one because I never acted on any of my fantasies, but it was a rebellion nonetheless, and it felt good.

When just three months into college, enjoying my freedom from her and that suffocating mansion where I had to hide my blushing face whenever Linc was in the room, I got the call that she had died in a car accident all the way in Paris on her way to another of her glamorous parties, I felt a wave of grief so huge, so encompassing and utterly confusing that my world paused.

I went through the funeral in a muted daze. I faintly remember Linc holding me as I finally broke down and cried on the third night when I wanted to return to college. Wanted to escape.

The reassuring way he held me. Tenderly. Like I was too fragile and could break apart against his huge body. I got on the plane and arrived back in college, and I could still smell his scent on me. I didn't wash the dress I wore for weeks.

"She wanted you to intern at my firm. She wanted me to keep an eye on you. To take care of you and safeguard your future. You like to act tough, but you really have no one else in this world, and that makes me feel empathetic towards you. You can view me as this big bad monster stepfather and I don't care, but I do care about you, and I wouldn't sit back and watch you struggle when I could do something about it. Amelia, please. It would be for just three months. Come to New York. Come home," Linc says, the genuine sincerity in his voice bites at me.

I blink back, furious tears, feeling the anger dissipating into that warm feeling I hate feeling towards him because it felt wrong.

"Ames..." He says gently when I don't reply. I am too busy pushing back the lump in my throat.

He knows he has touched a nerve because he is right. I am truly alone in this world. All of my mother's connections and circle of friends and even families, nobody gave a damn about me after the funeral.

My late dad has family in Portugal, but we were not really close before he died. With my mom gone too, I was left alone, and it didn't hit as hard because before she died, I always felt alone, shuffling from boarding school to college, we never bonded in any special way. I was always alone in my little world.

But in moments like this, when someone like Linc who knew me, knew my mother and I, reminds me how utterly alone I am, it breaks my heart.

"Okay. I will come back to New York." My heart flutters at my resignation because I know there is nothing I could possibly do about it. I accept it.

I guess I have to go back to fighting my forbidden attraction to my stepfather. For just three months. I can survive that long without doing anything I might regret. I hope.

♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎

Linc Tanner's POV:

The golden blonde full-grown woman seated in front of me is not the soft-spoken, shy eighteen-year-old Amelia I remember. I am taken aback by how much she has grown, that eyes that could make a grown man weak, that full mouth that I eager to taste, but I manage to keep my face expressionless.

She is stunning. When she walked in a minute ago, I couldn't take my eyes off her, my greedy eyes taking in every detail of her womanly curves. It made me tingle for all the wrong reasons.

She is currently glaring at me from her position on the chair in front of my desk.

I tell myself I have kept an eye on her over the years because of a sort of loyalty to Kathryn, but in reality, I just couldn't bear not knowing how Amelia was doing, couldn't bear thinking about her being in the arms of another man, moaning and crying out his name instead of mine.

She is a brave, strong girl, but I couldn't just let her go. My body couldn't let her go. She made my heart ache, my cock ache. I'm most definitely proud of her just thinking of her out there, all on her own. She reminds me of myself at the same age, hustling against all odds to make a name for myself.

"Why did you come here directly?" I ask, breaking the ice between us. It has been three years, and we didn't even exchange a smile. She is on guard towards me, and I am walking on eggshells, trying not to upset her.

"I figured we should get to it immediately," Amelia says. The softness of her voice is gone, replaced by a sharp edge that is confident and so womanly. I shake my head to ward off any more misleading thoughts.

"Oh c'mon, Amelia. I asked that they chauffeur you to the house." I thought she would appreciate the rest. But here she is, glaring at me.

"Do you stay alone?" She asks, catching me off guard.

"Yes," I say, cautiously. Her boldness and the way she is holding my eyes are making me feel uneasy. I don't remember her being this confident.

I used to find her extreme shyness amusing then. Interesting.

Now I find her confidence highly attractive. Erotic. It makes my cock throb furiously.

Fuck! Linc. Goddammit! Control yourself.

We have some history between us from that one summer three years ago before she ran away to college. But I am proud of myself for keeping things in control when she was just an eighteen-year-old rebellious teen.

Now that she is all grown, I can't promise that I would be able to control myself much. This woman sitting across from me could bring any man to his knees, and I don't fucking care falling on my knees in front of her as her legs open up for me, taking in the scent of her arousal, tasting and licking her. Merely looking at her, I know she tastes like pure sugar.

I shifted in my seat, my throbbing cock pressed tightly against my short as I stare at her, all the wild things I want to do buzzing around my head like swarms of flies.

If only she's able to see how long I have wanted her in the house, how badly I want to taste her, eat her whole, tear her crafted world apart with my cock.

"Then I am not staying in that house. You have to get a place for me," she says, not adding the unspoken part. That she doesn't want to stay alone with me.

"It is a big house, Amelia." I tried to clear my voice, It is a mansion, but I understand if she doesn't want to stay with me. I guess that could be weird. Without Kathryn in the midst, what would we do with each other? I don't want to dwell on that train of thought.

"I don't care." She folds her arms over her chest, and my eyes get drawn to her full breasts. I want to peel my eyes away, but I am powerless against her quietly confident feminine aura.

She is wearing a pale blue sundress with a black sweater over it, but the pale blue of the dress makes her eyes stand out so clearly, she radiates like a beam of sunlight sitting across from me.

She used to be pale, but her complexion has matured with a golden tint that teases down her long graceful neck into her cleavage.

I yank my eyes up to meet hers; thankfully, she is looking out the window. I note the multiple piercings in her ears, and a chuckle escapes me as I imagine the fit that Kathryn would have thrown if she could see her.

"What is so funny?" she snaps, turning to fix me with her startling blue eyes.

"Nothing. I will have someone look for a place for you that is close to the firm. Fine?"

"Yes. Thank you."

I don't mention that she would stay in the house with me until we find a place. It is unnecessary; she knows.

"Come, let me show you around," I say, getting up, eager to move around before finding myself distracted, watching her like a aroused freak.

I walk to her side to take her hand; she ignores me and tries to get up on her own. She takes a step forward, and it all happens too fast. She trips on her feet in front of me, falling backward with her eyes wide in terror.

I shoot forward, grabbing her by her slim waist instead of her outstretched hand. I pull her forward until she is stable on her feet; our bodies collide, and I hear the soft gasp leave her full lips. A headiness clouds my thoughts.

Her soft full breasts are crushed against my chest, and I hope she can't feel the chaotic beating of my heart as I breathe her in this close.

Her body is intoxicatingly soft pressed against me like this. My primal reaction startles me as all the blood rushes southward. Our faces are inches from each other; her large doe-like eyes blink up at me, and her rosy lips are slightly open. It takes all of my self-control to not just crash my mouth to hers and taste them.

God knows how badly I have always wanted that. Wanted it wrapped around my furiously throbbinh cock the more.

"Why do you not want to stay at the house with me?" I ask, ripping my eyes away from her tempting lips to look into her eyes. They hold mine with a mixture of fear, anticipation, and defiance. The combination makes my blood rush faster.

"You know why," Amelia breathes, so close, so overwhelmingly stunning.

Soft and dangerous. Grown and lethal. She overshadows my common sense, even at just eighteen. I only managed to stay away because of Kathryn, her mother. But now, three hard years later, she is in my arms, and there are no hindrances.

I hold onto her waist tightly; she doesn't resist my touch, but she is not exactly leaning into me. She is frozen in place, and I get the feeling that if I let go, she would run. I can't lose her again.

Damning all consequences, I lean in; my vision narrows in on the most perfect pair of lips I have ever seen, the whole world quietens with a hush.

♠︎♠︎♠︎♠︎

Amelia's POV:

"Mr. Tanner, I have the reports..." A cheery voice interrupts the moment just as I feel the ghost of Linc's smooth lips descend on mine.

"Oh! I am sorry." The woman's surprised, high-pitched voice intrudes on the madness that is my lust-filled brain and snaps me out of my reverie.

His strong arm around my waist loosens its grip, and I take the opportunity to move away from the furnace of the man, my heart thundering at what almost happened. I didn't even hear the door open.

His firm lips only grazed mine before the interruption, but I feel like it was more with the way my heart is beating fast.

I have not been here longer than an hour, and I have already found myself in his arms. We almost kissed.

And I hoped to survive three whole months with him without doing anything I might regret?

That seems like such a practical joke now. Linc is forbidden, a no-go area, he's fire, if I get too close, he would burn me.