The Thing About Trouble (Crystal Lake 1)

“Where did I…” I took two steps forward and damn near landed on my ass when my heels hit a patch of ice. If I hadn’t been so busy trying not to fall I might have heard him swear like a trucker. I might have known then that he’d recognized me. “What does it matter where I got the key?”

“Answer the question sweetheart.” The way he said sweetheart was the exact opposite of how it should be said. It came across as an insult. It rang a bell and my heart took off like a rocket. This couldn’t be happening. No fucking way could this be happening.

He took a step forward and suddenly the shadows disappeared, revealing a face I hadn’t seen in years. Wait. Hold on. We’d had a moment three years ago but it didn’t count. Still, it was face I knew well. Intense eyes. High cheekbones. Chiselled chin. Sensual mouth. My eyes dropped to his impressive body. To the tattoos on his shoulder. To the one snaking across his lower abdomen. Like way low. To the thin line of hair that disappeared beneath his pants. Huh. Some things never changed. If anything, the man was more gorgeous than I remembered, and that kind of sucked.

Boyd Appleton.

My step-brother. No. That would be wrong. Our parents divorced about six months after they got hitched. He was my ex step-brother. He was also the guy who’d taken my virginity along with my heart when I was sixteen and I hated him more than anyone on the planet.

He glared at me from across the way. I guess he felt the same.

Yeah. Welcome to my life.

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