Page 1 of Forbidden Girl

PROLOGUE

JULES

The Meeting…

We gravitate around each other as we always have, two heavenly bodies locked in perpetual orbit, doomed to exist close together but never meet. Of course, I know of her. Rowan Monaghan is the stuff of legend. And I do recognize her. We don’t run in the same circles, but today is a weird, one-off, Venn-diagram situation. Beyond that, she’s hard to miss—like the North Star. It’s something in the way she carries herself, as if she was born without any fucks to give. Hearing all the stories I’ve heard about her, it’s funny seeing her doing something as mundane as blowing up pastel pink balloons with a hand pump.

“Jules, you can put the cupcakes over there.” Rose points me to a long table adorned with a purple unicorn tablecloth, beside the ballon arch her cousin Merrick is assembling. I didn’t realize what I was signing up for when I agreed to help with her seven-year-old niece’s birthday party. Why’d I volunteer to make four dozen rainbow unicorn cupcakes?

I’m exhausted. I got home from school two days ago. Adjusting to being back in my parents’ house has sapped my energy completely. I haven’t even finished unpacking yet. My mom tried to get my father to let me stay in Spokane for the summer; I’d arranged an internship at an investment bank downtown. One guess how that went. Dad prattled on about how Boston is an international trade hub and there were more opportunities for me at home than there would be in western-hemlock country, unless I was trying to grow Christmas trees for the rest of my life, in which case why the hell did he send me to college in the first place? He concluded his diatribe with, “I want my daughter home.” Thus, fantastic as my mom is at schmoozing almost anyone into almost anything, her attempt was a failure. Hemlock is also the name of a poisonous flowering plant. I don’t think I’d mind growing those…

As I saunter past Merrick with the plastic cupcake carrier, he breaks from working and whistles.

It stops me dead. “Oh, hell no, I know you did not just whistle at me.” I speak in unison with Rowan, who asks him, “Did you just fucking catcall her?”

“Not at you. Not at her,” he replies in a panic, looking between us. “The cupcakes! Rose said you were making them, but they look like you got them from a bakery! They’re really pretty and professional, that’s all.”

“Then use your words like a big boy and say that next time.” Rowan purses her lips and squinches at him.

That look. I know they’re friends, but there’s murder in her eyes. I saw a mafia movie once where the main character said it’s better to be feared than loved. I don’t think it’s simply a line from a movie—it’s how she lives her life. I’m sure she gets that from her father.

Merrick ducks his head and says to both of us, “I was trying to be funny. Guess I failed. I’m sorry.”

“Apology accepted,” I tell him. Rowan nods at me, half-smiling, as if to say, Thanks for forgiving this ignorant-yet-harmless fool.

I smile back at her, then get busy stacking cupcakes. She and Merrick fall easily back into conversation, as if there weren’t a heated exchange between them a second ago. “When does the kid get here?” I hear her ask.

“Two o’clock. Her friends should start showing up soon after. Oh, shit, it’s getting late! We’ve gotta hurry this up. I have to change.”

“Change?”

“I told Sammy I’d dress up as a green dragon for the party.”

“You douchebag!” Rowan says so sternly that I quit stacking to look at them. She takes a quick gander around at everyone helping to set up. We’re all in everyday clothes. The plan was to decorate the backyard and prep the food tables, then do a costume change before the birthday girl arrived. The disgust on her face tells me that she was never forwarded the memo. “You said it was fairytale themed. Why didn’t you tell me it was a costume party?”

Merrick grimaces. “Because we needed a lot of help with the decorations and stuff, and I didn’t think you’d come if I told you to wear a costume.”

She stares at him, mouth slack. “Sure, I would have, dumbass! It’s a kid’s party. I don’t wanna disappoint a kid. Work faster.” She grabs a bunch of inflated balloons, moves to the arch, bends down, and starts fastening them to the bottom of the wire frame. My eyes are drawn to her backside, perfectly accentuated by her black slim-fit pants. I am Patrick Calloway’s daughter; I shouldn’t be thinking what I’m thinking about Callum Monaghan’s daughter. And yet… She’s hot. I choose to digest that as a fact, not a feeling: She is conventionally attractive, and her ass looks amazing in those pants. Fact.

“Juliet, what are you—” Rose says from behind me. She follows the trail of my eyes. “Oh no. No, no, no. Get that idea out of your silly horny brain right now.”

“Come on, there’s no harm in looking.”

“Except if you get caught looking by the wrong people, they’d gouge your eyes out. You know who that is, right? And who you are?”

And though I tried to resist, knowing exactly who she was, I couldn’t help myself. The flirting became a first kiss, and before I knew it, we were playing a terribly dangerous game. One I’d never thought I’d play.

ROWAN

“My fucking fingers are killing me from tying all those goddamn balloons. Remind me to never do you a solid again.” I pat Merrick’s shoulder so he knows I’m messing with him. I was supposed to oversee the offloading of a shipment today, but this seemed more important. I pawned it off on Ben. One of the perks of being his boss; he couldn’t say no to me. Not that he would have. Saturdays mean nothing to guys who are too eager to prove themselves to their higher-ups.

“How horrible for all the women loving women of Greater Boston. You’ll have to take a night off.”

I shoot him a sly grin. “I’d break too many hearts if I did that. I’ll recover before the bars open tonight.”

He chortles. “Atta girl.”

He’s still talking, but I’m mostly ignoring him. My attention keeps flickering to the table where Rose and the woman Merrick whistled at are arranging condiments. I can’t place her, but I’m certain I know her. How could I forget a woman who looks like that and is that audacious? She told Merrick off without so much as blinking. Standing up for herself like that took balls, even if she is acquainted with him. It’s always a risk. Dudes have hidden tempers sometimes. “Who’s the chick with your cousin?” I nod in her direction.

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