Sweet Temptation (Sweetbriar Romance Book 1)

Prologue

Ellery

ELEVEN YEARS AGO

Everythingfelt wrong.

My hands trembled—hands that could hold a paintbrush or a pencil for hours on end—and my limbs were numb with cold. In the middle of a summer heatwave, they felt like ice to the touch. The kind of cold that seeped out from the very marrow of your bones and infected every cell.

The kind of cold that never went away.

Even the sky felt like a betrayal. Full of bright sunshine that filtered through the trees overhead when it should have been dreary and gray that day. Dark with storm clouds and heavy with the threat of rain.

Heavy like the constant threat of tears burning my eyes.

Maybe if I could cry, my tears would dissolve this knot at the center of my chest. Maybe they would restart my heart and pump blood to the rest of my body. Warm me.

But if I cried, then I would have to feel the emotions. Once that happened—once the floodgates opened—this nightmare would become real. So, instead, I hid out on the back porch, watching the activity inside through a thick pane of glass. Avoiding the crowd of people who came to pay their respects.

Out here, I was nothing. Just an observer.

In there, I had to be the girl who lost her parents.

My gaze pulled like a magnet toward my big brother. The only family I had left. Simon was standing by the fireplace, his girlfriend curled around his arm, while he talked quietly with some people from the town. I noticed he wore the same stiff, frozen posture as me, even with Piper trying to offer silent comfort. It felt like he was just going through the motions. There was a sad smile on his face, but his eyes were vacant. Distant.

His pain fractured yet another piece of my heart.

Nineteen years old with the weight of the world on his shoulders. I wanted to help him, somehow, but what could I do? I may have felt so much older than thirteen but, to the rest of the world, I was still just a kid.

“Shortcake.”

My breath hitched. Whirling toward the familiar voice, I rasped out, “Beckham. You came.”

My brother’s best friend stood at the bottom of the steps, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. Handsome as ever with a small, rueful smile curling on his lips. “Nothing could keep me away.”

He was trying to be strong for Simon, for me. But I saw the redness that rimmed his eyes, the dark circles underneath.

He was as wrecked as we were.

Mom and Dad were just as much his parents as ours. They took him under their wing as soon as he and Simon became friends. He basically lived at our house after that. He was their son in all but name, and the bonds that tied us all together were so much stronger than blood.

Especially for me…

Beckham had always been my touchstone.

My safe place.

Just the sight of him and my chin began to quiver like I was waiting for him to appear and be my strength. Without a word, he let the bag slip to the ground before opening his arms wide. That was all the invitation I needed. I launched myself off the porch and into his waiting embrace.

I hadn’t cried, not once, since finding out my parents were never coming home. Not during the viewing. Not during the funeral. Not even when their caskets were covered in dirt and lowered into the cold, hard earth.

Beckham’s silent comfort was the thing that finally undid me. His warmth seeped into my skin, thawing me until the feeling came rushing back into my body. Until I could no longer stem the tidal wave of emotion that had been building. The knot in my chest grew. It lodged itself in my throat until I choked on a strangled sob.

While I fell apart, Beckham held me steady.

Forever my white knight.

“I’ve got you,” he whispered into my hair. “Always.”

“No.” I shook my head—almost violently—while my hands fisted into his shirt. My voice grew desperate. “You’re going to leave me, too.”

Simon had to stay. I had no one else to take care of me. He would become my guardian until I turned eighteen. But, Beckham… He would be hours away, hard at work in college and his military training. He wouldn’t have time for me anymore.

“Never.”

My eyes flared at the ferocity in his voice. His grip tightened once before he released me. Then, he slid down into a crouch so that we were at eye level and I could see the truth there shining in his icy-blue gaze.

“I’m only a few hours away at college. I can be back home if you need me. I’ll be here every holiday, every break to help Simon out. And you know I’m always just a phone call or a text away. Anytime, day or night.”

He said nothing about the Navy, about the contract he just recently signed. Beckham may be close enough while in ROTC, but he would have no control over where they sent him once he graduated.

The thought of it made my chest spasm painfully.

Of course, he knew me so well that he could tell what I was thinking.

“Doesn’t matter how far away they send me, Elle.” His hands lifted to my shoulders and he gave them a gentle squeeze. “I will do everything in my power to be here for you. Phone calls, video chat, letters. Whatever you need, alright?”

I wanted to believe him—with all my heart—so I ignored the dread pooling in my gut and whispered, “Alright.”

Then I held tightly to the promise in his words.