LAURA’S POV

My heart is literally pounding as I write this.

I was always the "good girl," you know? Quiet, kept to myself, fresh out of college and trying to be an adult.

But underneath all that… God, there was this secret, burning part of me that I only let out on paper. My journal. My dirty little secret.

And he was my secret. Michael Carter. My best friend Sarah’s dad.

He’s forty-eight. Tall, with these broad shoulders and salt-and-pepper hair that just makes him look so… powerful.

He has this quiet confidence that makes my knees weak. For years, I’d stutter when he talked to me, my cheeks burning...