**WATTPAD HQ EDITOR'S PICK Nov/Dec 2021**
BOOK ONE in the STEAMY FORBIDDEN ROMANCE series
Coralie Watson, a British thirty-year-old living in San Francisco, has a tormented past with men. Physical and mental abuse, abandonment issues, incompatibili...
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♫ I keep looping my memories of you in my head I pretend that you want me ♪ Maroon 5—Can't Stop
Coralie struggled to pick out the right outfit for her dinner date with Michael. She browsed her closet to throw together something casual, simple but impressive. He'd always intimidated her despite his relaxed manner and easy-to-talk to style, and they'd only been around each other in work situations. He couldn't be much different in a more personal setting, right?
None of her clothes pleased her.
"But what if he isn't like I know him to be?" She changed her attire for the third time after modeling every piece for Delilah, who kept checking her phone and yawning. "What if he's taking me to some high-class rooftop restaurant with magnificent views and super fancy food?"
"Cora, honey." Delilah shot to her feet and shoved Coralie back into her room, pushing until they reached the walk-in closet. "Stop overthinking it. You said he was a hippy, vegetarian photographer, right?" Coralie nodded, and Delilah grabbed a strapless sunflower maxi dress and threw it at her. "This is what you want to wear, with a cute pair of flats. It's nice out, and he won't take you to some snotty five-star celebrity restaurant. So chill, will you? Jeez." She sauntered out and yelled a goodbye as she departed for whatever adventure she had planned for that night.
She turned out to be right. Michael didn't pick a snazzy jazz bar, but a low-key, up-and-coming vegetarian-friendly sushi joint that Coralie had always been hoping to try.
As they settled in the bright booth across from each other, Michael smiled. "You look beautiful, by the way." He rolled up the sleeves of his beige shirt, exposing his colorful tattoo that Coralie used to fawn over in secret. It was a replica of the first picture he'd had featured in a magazine—a San Francisco skyline, with the Golden Gate Bridge, and so much detail, one could get lost looking at every precise stroke of the needle.
She reached for her menu, scanning his clean-shaven face, his docile hazel eyes. "Thank you... and you look pretty dapper yourself."
Dapper? What the fuck was that?
He chuckled and browsed through the various pictures of sushi rolls. "I'm glad I finally did this. I'd been wanting to ask you out for a while, but with Jayden..."
She peered at him, half-hiding her flush behind the menu. "Really? That long?"
She recalled when Jayden had done a brief stint at the company, but after two months had stormed out because everything bored him. Michael, too sweet to comment on his attitude, had let everything slide and hadn't blamed Coralie for introducing them, but she'd always sensed an animosity between them whenever she spoke to Jayden about Michael, or answered Michael's polite questions about how she and Jayden were doing.
It was Michael's turn to fight a slight blush brushing over his cheeks. "Yeah. I'm not the bold type, as you might have noticed." He glanced at the table and tapped his fingers to an unsteady rhythm. "But I figured I needed to speak up now. Before you go and find another Jayden."
