He Introduced Me to a Lover, and My First Love Walked In Chapter 01

He Introduced Me to a Lover, and My First Love Walked In Chapter 01

Julian Prescott was obsessed with fairness.

Whenever he started seeing a new young woman, he made sure to send a college boy my way to even things out.

The first time, I completely lost it and smashed everything in the house I could get my hands on.

Julian didn’t try to stop me.

He simply stood in the doorway and watched with cold detachment until I exhausted myself and collapsed onto the floor. Then he went back to his room, leaving me alone with the wreckage.

After that came a second time, a third, and eventually more times than I could count.

The breakdowns gradually gave way to numbness. In the end, I could calmly tell every man who tried to use me to get ahead that I wasn’t like Julian.

I wasn’t going to degrade myself just to get back at the person I loved.

Then one day, Julian brought home someone different.

The new girl, Chloe Bennett, seemed sweet and fragile, staying half-hidden behind Julian as she watched me nervously.

Julian said with a mocking smile, “Chloe’s pregnant. She’ll be staying here through the pregnancy, so make sure she has everything she needs.”

“And of course, I’ve already arranged your compensation. I found you a U.S. Presidential Scholar who had just started his freshman year at Georgetown. He’s more than good enough for you.”

I gave a detached nod and pulled out my checkbook, already prepared to pay him off and send him on his way like all the others.

Then I looked up and froze.

The man standing in front of me was Evan Ashford—the man I’d secretly loved for ten years, the one I’d never gotten over.

***

My heart slammed against my ribs.

Time seemed to have left him untouched. He looked exactly as he had when we parted six years ago—if anything, even younger.

I wanted to ask what he was doing here.

I wanted to ask how he had somehow become the Georgetown freshman who had been named a U.S. Presidential Scholar.

Yet when I opened my mouth, not a word came out.

All I could hear was my own heartbeat, pounding louder with every second.

Julian had never seen me lose my composure before. His striking, naturally flirtatious eyes narrowed slightly as his gaze moved between Evan and me, and then he scoffed.

“Audrey Quinn, I never would’ve guessed this was your type.”

To Julian, Evan looked painfully unsophisticated.

He wore a wrinkled plaid shirt and faded jeans that had been washed nearly white. His hair hung low enough to cover his eyes, and the dark gaze fixed on me from beneath it gave him a brooding, closed-off air.

Julian couldn’t understand why someone like that had me so transfixed.

He tipped his chin toward Evan and ordered with casual arrogance, “Go on. Make your sugar mama happy.”

Evan didn’t move.

His mouth tightened, and his fists clenched at his sides as if he were swallowing a humiliation he could barely stand.

The sight unsettled me.

Evan had always had a terrible temper. Anyone who crossed him got payback immediately; he would never stand there and take something like this.

Maybe this wasn’t Evan after all.

But could two people really look exactly alike?

While I was still trying to make sense of it, Julian ran out of patience.

He walked up behind Evan and kicked him hard in the side.

Evan staggered and nearly went down.

I rushed forward on instinct and caught him. He fell against me, buried his face against my shoulder, and shook uncontrollably.

No. This couldn’t be Evan.

Evan was proud to a fault. I’d never seen him this vulnerable.

The wild excitement inside me went cold, and I pulled out my checkbook again, wrote a check, and held it toward him.

Before he could answer, Julian scoffed.

“What’s the point of playing the saint now? Back when you were doing everything you could to get into my bed, you were as slutty as they come.”

I’d grown so used to Julian’s cruelty that I didn’t even look at him. Instead, I said calmly to the man who looked so much like Evan, “It’s for seventy-five grand. Take it and go.”

His expression shifted almost imperceptibly.

He reached out, his fingers settling lightly on the edge of the check.

My breath caught.