She was my daughter’s best friend—until her hungry gaze begged me to break every rule. I buried my heart with my wife and never thought I’d find love again, but Juliette Wilson has been my secret poison. Those stolen glances, the crush she hid in plain sight—all of it carved deeper into my soul with each passing year that she grew older. Now she’s an adult, and I’m in trouble. My daughter’s wedding shoves us together—her as maid of honor, and myself as father of the bride. One molten cake tasting followed by one spicy midnight kiss, and my restraint explodes. I finally claim the mouth I was never meant to taste. She’s sheer brilliance and beauty, shackled to a dead-weight boyfriend who can’t see how bright she can burn. But there’s no doubt, she blazes for me—the one man who’s always known she’s utter perfection, the one she was always careful to stay away from. Twenty years between us, a lifetime of knowing her as my daughter’s best friend, my trail of sins—history screams that she deserves better than a broken widower who wants to devour her completely. In dark corners and desperate hours, my deepest desire to breed and worship her roars louder than reason and logic. I vow to erase every doubt, every name before mine, and build us the life we both deserve. Will I lose everything to keep the girl I was never supposed to crave, or will our forbidden fire finally claim us both?