Forbidden: A professor-student romance. (Hamiltown Heat Book 4)

FORBIDDEN TIA LOUISE CONTENTS Forbidden Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Epilogue Fearless Prologue Boss of Me Prologue Chapter 1 Books by Tia Louise Acknowledgments About the Author This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. Forbidden Copyright © TLM Productions LLC, 2023 Printed in the United States of America. Cover design by Lori Jackson Design. Photography by Wander Aguiar. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, photocopying, mechanical, or otherwise—without prior permission of the publisher and author. Created with Vellum FORBIDDEN BY TIA LOUISE I have one job: Get close and take him out. The only problem is, I want him more. I was barely five when I lost my brother; seven when my father was murdered. Overnight, I was taken by my mysterious uncle, grafted into a world of crime I didn’t understand and couldn’t escape. The first ten years, I did my best to blend in. The next four, I reinvented myself, growing stronger, searching for answers. Now I have one assignment—take down the man who knows our secrets. Professor Dirk Winston is my target, and I’m expected to be a good soldier, disguised as a good student. Only he’s not the passive bookworm I expect. He’s ripped muscles, bedroom eyes, dirty mouth, and ready for a fight. But I’ve got plans of my own, and this hot teacher is going to do more than give me grades and take my panties. He’s going to help me get revenge. (FORBIDDEN is a five-alarm-spicy age-gap, student-professor romance with secrets, lies, and answers to all your questions. No cheating. No cliffhanger.) “It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love.” —Horace Slughorn 1 Dirk “I have a bad feeling about this.” My older brother watches me, hands on his hips. Standing in front of the half-renovated warehouse I call home, all my belongings fitting neatly in a large duffel bag, I’ve never felt so unmoored. “Who are you, Han Solo?” I drop the bag in the back of my Jeep beside a smaller case. “Sure, if that’s the analogy where you’re leaving the field in the middle of a battle.” “That would make me Han Solo.” I exhale a bitter laugh, turning to face him and pulling a ball cap over my messy hair. “There’s no battle, Hutch. It’s been four years. The case is closed. Hell, even Hugh says it’s over.” “You know we can’t trust what Hugh says,” he growls, refusing to let it go. Hutch is an intimidating guy—a former Marine with too many muscles and the attitude to match. We’re three years apart in age, but he’s always had my back. It was easy to say yes to joining his private investigation firm eight years ago. He’s the muscle, and Oskar Lourde, or Scar as we call him, is Hutch’s former military guide, scary as hell and an expert tracker. I’m the tech guy, tracking messages across the dark web, hacking into street cams and security networks to follow suspects throughout the city, often throughout the night. My hours are insane, but I’ve never been a nine-to-five guy. All that changed after our last case. “I won’t argue with you, but he paid his bill. We have no reason to keep pursuing it, whatever it would be now.” Hugh van Hamilton is our richest client, and he has a bad habit of withholding vital information from the team he’s supposed to trust, a.k.a., us. When he hired us to protect his nieces, we discovered their safety was only the tip of the iceberg. We spent the next year tracking down blackmailers, exposing a money laundering ring, dodging a Russian oligarch, and escaping a murder charge that almost sent Scar away for life (in a Russian prison, no less). I won’t lie—it was fun. The challenge, the excitement, the cat-and-mouse game… we don’t get a lot of that in our tiny town, and now that it’s done, I’ve emerged from my tech-cave to discover I’m the only one waking up alone every morning. “We have plenty of reasons to keep going.” Hutch shakes his head. “Their network is still in place. It’s only a matter of time before a new leader emerges, and it’ll probably be the guy who murdered Simon Petrovich.” “Simon was the head. We cut off the head, and the body died.” “We didn’t cut off the head, and whoever did cut it off is going to come back.” That makes me laugh, and I football-charge him with my shoulder. “This isn’t a horror film. They’re not coming back.” He easily blocks me, pulling me in for a brief hug. “Watch yourself. I don’t want to have to kick your ass again.” “Like you ever kicked my ass.” “Only because it would’ve broken Mom’s heart. You were her favorite son.” “Whatever.” If that’s true, it’s because I acted like a son. Hutch was born to play the dad role, unlike our real dad, who checked out when we were only kids. Our mom leaned on my brother for everything, all the way until she died. Shaking away that dark memory, I grip his shoulder. “I haven’t seen any rumors of a resurgence on any of the chat boards. It’s time to let it go. You’re married, Scar has a baby on the way… ” My voice trails off as I consider our broody Viking of a partner settled with a wife and baby.