When I started my first year of college, I had one goal in mind and it had nothing to do with school. I wanted to earn a spot on the U.S. National Water Polo Team. I never imagined that my new coach would be someone I looked up to. Someone whose entire career I meticulously followed... and someone I had a misguided crush on. The first moment I lock eyes with Fallon Harris is the moment everything changed. The Olympics weren’t the only thing on my mind anymore. He doesn't feel the same because everything that comes out of his mouth is anything but admiration.

At eight, he gave me roses. At fifteen, he gave me butterflies, and at seventeen, he gave me sanctuary. I wasn't a damsel in distress. He wasn't Prince Charming waiting to whisk me off my feet. We didn't meet by chance. He's been part of my life for years, and for most of that time, I've been under his spell.

Theo Graham is charming. Sweet. Absolutely gorgeous. But I’m not a little girl anymore. I shouldn’t want him. I can’t have him. I should know better than to want my best friend’s dad. My best friend is Theo’s son, who may or may not have had feelings for me on and off for the past eight years. Wanting my best friend’s dad was the one secret that was never supposed to come out. Except now, he wants me too.

This isn't the first time I've imagined tearing Jenna's clothes off and reddening her ass with my belt, then pinning her to the bed and taking her so roughly she can't help screaming my name. But it's the first time it's about to really happen. Teaching my daughter's nineteen-year-old best friend all the ways a billionaire mobster can make a girl like her blush and beg and come would have been over the line even for me.

I didn’t notice her before... but now I do. Once I focus on her, I can’t take my eyes from my newest obsession. I need to know everything about her. Her past. Her present. The way she takes her coffee. Exactly how she smells after a spritz of perfume in the mornings. I notice the organized way she arranges her clothes in her closet. How she visits the same market each Saturday. The sounds of her breathing as I lie beneath her bed in silence. Violet is mine. She just doesn’t know it yet.