Chapter 1

My best friend secretly bought me a lace camisole, but she forgot to change the shipping address, and it landed at my ex-boyfriend's place.

I was in the shower when his texts started rolling in, one after another.

Ethan: [Why is your stuff being delivered to my place?]

Ethan: [Wait. Lace lingerie? Are you seeing someone?]

Ethan: [Guys who like this kind of thing are the worst kind of trash. Use your head.]

Ethan: [Not that it's any of my business, but a word of advice. There isn't a clean man out there.]

Ethan: [Dating is a huge risk these days. If you really have needs, I could take one for the team.]

Ethan: [No reply means yes.]

Ethan: [So you're playing hard to get?]

Ethan: [You think I'm throwing myself at you for free?]

Ethan: [I've got everything packed. I'll be there in twenty minutes.]

I came out of the bathroom, towel my hair, and my phone showed more than twenty unread messages.

Before I could open them, the doorbell rang.

*****

I opened the door, and Ethan Cole was leaning against the frame with the tips of his ears bright red.

"Can I help you?" I planted myself in the doorway. I had no intention of letting him in.

An ex I'd broken up with a year ago showing up at my door in the middle of the night was wrong, no matter how I looked at it.

Ethan said nothing. His eyes slid past me to the shoe rack by the door.

Whatever he saw there, a flicker of a smile crossed his face and was gone.

Then his gaze came back to me.

I'd just gotten out of the shower and was wearing a silk slip that barely cleared my thighs, tied at the waist, the neckline a little loose.

I noticed his eyes circling my collarbone, and I coughed and tugged the neckline up without thinking.

Sure, I had great skin, a great face, and legs for days, and fresh out of the shower, I was soft and warm and smelled good, but he was my ex. Where did he get off looking at me like that?

Ethan's throat worked hard.

I put my hand on the doorknob, ready to shut it.

"Cat got your tongue? If you're not going to talk, I'm closing the"

Before I could finish, he put his hand flat against the door and leaned half his body inside.

"You know exactly why I'm here. Don't play dumb."

He looked down at me with those eyes, and something I couldn't name was moving behind them.

I had to admit, paired with that cold, monk-like face, it worked.

I swallowed quietly, but I had no idea what he was talking about.

"Are you drunk?" I asked.

He had officially started talking nonsense.

Ethan stayed braced against the doorframe, his pale face flushed a clean, bright red.

"Olivia, I'll admit it. That move of yours worked on me."

"Sorry, what?"

Hold on.

Was this really the ice-cold Ethan, the untouchable heart surgeon every nurse at Riverside Medical Center had a crush on?

I said, "I know it's been a year since we broke up. If you feel weird about this—"

Ethan dropped his eyes and cleared his throat.

"You could let me come in and sit for a minute first."

I had nothing to say to that.

Sit for a minute?

A heart-to-heart with my ex in the middle of the night?

In what universe was that reasonable?

I said, "Forget it. It's late, and I'm going to bed. Go home."

I had no idea what show he was putting on, but I'd learned my lesson the hard way once, and I wasn't letting my guard down.

The second I said it, Ethan panicked.

He asked, "You're kicking me out?"

He clung to the doorframe like his life depended on it, disbelief all over his face.

"I drove all the way over here, and you're throwing me out?"

I rolled my eyes. "Did I ask you to come?"

How was he turning this around on me?

He didn't have an answer.

Ethan's face went red, then dark, then white, and he looked ready to combust.