There’s a thin line between love and hate…

Lauren Bishop has every reason in the world to despise the sexy, chauvinistic, calculating Dylan Maguire. Once colleagues in a top investment firm in The Windy City, a slick sabotage move by Dylan—her mentor, demolishes any hope for advancement in her career. But that was several years ago. And despite the bitter parting she has a lot to be thankful for. A trade: the hustle and grind of Chicago for the serene simplicity of Napa Valley.

Lauren makes her choice. She decides to set her Ivy League goals aside for her girlhood dreams. Dreams that have haunted her ever since a tragic car accident at the age of nine forever altered her life.

It was a bold move, but rewarding. After-all it brought Monty Angelo into her life. A Hispanic tall, dark, devastatingly handsome man with a penchant for being every girl’s hero. But just as Lauren learns to trust again she suffers another bitter sting of betrayal.

Disillusioned by the whims of men and struggling to prove she can survive her life alone Lauren grows bitter and jaded as she accepts that there are no dreams, just heartfelt wishes of little girls that are never destined to come true.

Now Dylan and Monty are back, and Lauren must face off with both men who have similar agendas. Repairing the past mistakes to win the heart of the woman they’ve never been able to let go of. But is it too late? Has time turned Lauren’s heart of forgiveness to stone? Dylan and Monty vow to risk it all to find out.

Jun 13, 2004 – Chicago, Illinois

“I want to talk to you!” The door swung shut with a thunderous slam. Lauren struggled to keep the tears pooling in the corners of her eyes from spilling. She’d be damn if she cried at work, in front of him of all people. But this hurt. The kind of hurt she couldn’t just sit back and take. Damn it to hell but this was the last straw. Dylan McGuire had it coming.

Dylan eyes lifted from the financial pages covering his desk. The jerk is probably rummaging through my account list to see who else he could steal in the name of ‘investment excellence’ or whatever crap he’s shoveling to Mason to justify his ineptness today. He sat back in his chair. He was only four years her senior. A reasonably handsome man, most women in the office tripped over themselves once locked in his eyes. Where others saw mystery and sexy in the blue swirls, Lauren saw something else. His eyes blue as sea crystals under a dark brooding brow were cold and unrepentant. Lauren couldn’t believe that the conniving bastard didn’t even try to fake surprise at seeing her.

“I’m busy.” He dismissed, looked away.

“Oh that’s right. It has to take all day to sit there and think of new ways to steal from your peers.” She dropped her hands on her hips. “What’s that you reading Dylan? The How to be a Manipulative Thief for Dummy’s Guide?”

His eyes shot up.

Lauren refused to back down. He could fire her for all she cared, she was fed up. Seething, on the verge of losing that lady-like composure she mastered in some of the toughest of boardrooms she marched to his desk. “Don’t you try to deny it. You took the Coiffeur Anderson financial report and scrubbed my name from it. You stole my client right from under me.”