Page 1 of Knotted Laces

PROLOGUE

Cam, Nine Years Ago

I layon the floor between my window and my bed, arms crossed behind my head, sleep a long way away as…

I eavesdrop.

Not on my brother, though I’m barely listening to the case he’s discussing with his best friend who might as well be my adopted brother because he’s been around for so much of my childhood.

Not on Lex either, the aforementioned brother in all but blood, as he talks about some big time multi-country criminal case that just landed on his desk.

On—

Well, I’m eavesdropping and yet not listening to either one of the men sprawled out on the deck chairs below my open window because I’m too focused on the fact that…

Lex’s partner is fucking hot.

So yeah, I’m eavesdropping like a motherfucker.

Onher.

Straining as I search the conversation below for hear any hint of her voice.

The crisp notes of the West Coast clinging to her consonants. The contrasting lilting melody of her laugh. The confidence. The swagger. The sure way she handled a Glock at our annual Jackson target shooting competition—which she won, by the way.

Lex’s partner is all I’ve been able to see in my dreams for the last week she’s been staying at my parents’ lake house.

Summer’s brought her and I together—at least in my mind.

Because she’s barely looked at me the entire week except to ask me to pass the salt or to say “Excuse me” as she slips by me so she can throw something in the trash.

I—on the other hand—have committed as much of her to memory as possible.

Which is how I know she smells like vanilla and jasmine.

And has freckles on the bridge of her nose.

And two earrings in her right ear—one shaped like a shell, the other like a starfish.

So yeah, summer’s brought me a new obsession.

Mostly because I’ve already jerked off every night to Athena Phillips—or Attie, if you want to be the demonstration dummy for the taser portion of the self-defense class she teaches in her spare time, or Ats, if you want to livewithoutcopious amounts of electricity cascading through your body.

She’s an obsession I don’t think I’ll be able to rid myself of any time in the near future.

Mostly because that sexy body of hers has spent the last week traipsing its way through my wet dreams.

And why I can’t think of her as anything but Athena.

She’s a goddess—with long, lean strength, dark, curly hair, and an ass that makes me want to get on my knees and beg the rest of the Greek gods just for a chance to kiss her feet.

“…so the report doesn’t show anything unusual,” she’s telling my brother on a sigh.

“Hmm,” my brother says. “And what about the information from…”

I tune out again, not refocusing until I hear her voice.

“Nothing. It’s all clean and…”

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