Chapter One

When I was kidnapped, Eric was on a yacht watching the sunrise with his new girl. He casually told the kidnappers to go ahead and kill me.

To stay alive, I took off my own clothes and wrapped my arms around the waist of the Mafia's new boss.

Later, Eric finally came after me like a madman, desperate to save me.

But the young don only laughed softly and looked down at me, asleep in his arms. "She's worn out. She doesn't have the strength to go anywhere with you."

Chapter One

"Chloe, the ways you come up with to cling to me get more creative every day."

Eric's voice came through the crackling speakerphone, lazy and a little tipsy.

"Yesterday you went to the Upper East Side and got my mother to push for a wedding."

"And today you're putting on a kidnapping for me?"

"If you want to die, go ahead. Just don't keep me from watching the sunrise with my baby."

The rough rope cut deep into my wrists. I shook my head frantically, my tears dripping onto the dirt floor of the abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn. "Eric! I'm not acting!"

"I have no idea why your mother suddenly announced our engagement to the press."

"Please, believe me just this once. Help me!"

"Help you?" Eric scoffed on the other end. "Sure. Fifty million dollars, right? I'll pay it."

The leader of the kidnappers, standing over me, jumped in right away. "Five hours from now. The marina at South Beach, Miami. Cash for the girl."

"Forget the girl," Eric said, not bothering to hide his contempt. "Keep her tied up. I'm in no hurry to get her back."

"Teach her some manners, so she'll stop bothering me."

"Think of the money as your fee for training her."

The three kidnappers looked at each other. "Are you serious?" one asked uncertainly.

Eric gave a low laugh, full of cruel malice. "As long as you've got the nerve to touch her, I've got the money to pay."

I closed my eyes in despair. A chill spread through my whole body.

So that was how much he hated me now.

"Eric..." I bit through my lip and begged with everything I had. "I really have been kidnapped. I don't need to be trained. Just pay them, and I swear I'll disappear from your life forever..."

"Babe, the sun's coming up!"

A girl's bright, flirty squeal suddenly came over the line.

Then came the unmistakable rustle of fabric and the wet sounds of a deep kiss.

In that abandoned warehouse, where my life hung by a thread, the speakerphone blew every sound of their passionate kissing up to an unbearable volume.

I froze. The last bit of warmth in me that had still been fighting went completely cold.

I looked down at the antique necklace on my chest, the one he'd given me, and suddenly it all seemed absurd.

He'd fastened it around my neck himself when I was sixteen and said he would protect me for the rest of my life.

So that was how short the shelf life of a teenage promise was.

"I'm sorry, Eric. I was wrong."

"I'm sorry I bothered you all these years with feelings you never wanted."

"It won't happen again."

I said it softly, and then I gave up fighting entirely.