Lip Service (2009) (edit title/settings)

Mitch Cassidy has been gone for almost nine years, and he is not returning home a whole man – at least not according to his definition of the word. Instead, he is returning embittered and incomplete, having lost part of his leg in Afghanistan and most of his faith in life all along the way there and back. Running away from Skye Titan had clearly given him more than he expected, at least in terms of the pain she inflicted when she rejected him for the man her father wanted her to marry, an older family friend the powerful Jed Titan had decided was more appropriate than Mitch. And now that Mitch is back, he is going to make Skye pay for ruining his life, never mind that she is now a widow living with her eight-year-old daughter and powerful-as-ever father right next door. Mitch figures he has nothing to lose, having lost his own parents more than a decade ago, and now seeing that Fidela and Arturo (who ran the ranch and were closer to Mitch than his parents had ever really been) have turned the ranch into a organic beef and free-range chicken outfit. Mitch really hates chickens.

Skye Titan has lost two out of the three men she loved and depended on. First there was Mitch, who was her first and most passionate lover, then Ray, whom she grew to love, even though he was old enough to be her father. The only man left is her own father, who insisted that Skye marry the man he chose for her, sending Mitch off to god knew where all those years ago. Was it a coincidence that right as Mitch was coming home, Jed was picking out yet another man for Skye, a man who, it seemed also had eyes for Skye’s beautiful, adrenaline-junkie sister, Izzy? Coincidence or not, Skye has a daughter to raise now and a foundation to run. And besides that, she and her sisters are still dealing with the man who has set out to ruin the Titans, millionaire Titan bastard Garth Duncan, who has been planting small and large grenades in every Titan-run business, including Skye’s foundation, sister Lexi’s day spa, and Jed’s various corporate entities. Even if she is ready to start dating again, Skye feels nowhere near ready to get deeply involved with anyone.

Except that Skye and Mitch have always had so much passion between them, and despite Mitch’s anger and Skye’s grief, that spark has not been extinguished over the many years and tears between their last contact. And once Mitch realizes that Skye’s daughter, Erin, is just old enough to possibly be his, he thinks he has the way to pay Skye back for her disloyalty: he’s going to prove his paternity of Erin and take the girl away from her mother. That Skye insists Erin is Ray’s child means nothing to Mitch, who is hell bent on making the world pay for his missing leg and lost love.