I never used to live my life by rules. At least not until my fiancé betrayed me, turning my entire world upside down. Unsure of how to move on, my luck seemed to suddenly change. My estranged mother's last gift to me before she died landed on my doorstep, giving me the opportunity to start my life over. I snatched up the chance to leave my life behind in Minnesota, opening my arms up to the hot, sunny weather of Texas. It was easy to start over in unfamiliar territory, my unofficial rules of heartbreak worn on my chest like a badge of honor. But along with the house my mother left came a new neighbor. An obnoxious neighbor with dangerous glaring eyes and a set of abs that should be considered illegal. He was mysterious and full of secrets, a story hidden behind his hard exterior. Before I knew it, Dallas Beckett was about to break all my rules. I just didn't realize he had his own set, and I was about to put every one of them to the test.

Secrets aren’t meant to be kept forever. Colton Adler was one hundred percent off limits up until the night we shared together nearly two years ago. Both of us forged a deal between illicit touches and unrelenting kisses. A secret. A promise. A vow made to one another that we would never be anything more than the one night. Regardless of the feelings I still harbored for him, I understood Colton could never truly be mine. Since then, we’ve kept our secret buried deep, pretending as if it never happened at all. But now, after attending my brother’s wedding, Colton was a flashing wave of hot and cold. One minute he was teetering on the edge of giving in to false promises of a forever with me; the next he retreated, reminding me once again that I would never truly be his. Secrets aren’t meant to be kept forever and it didn’t take long for me to learn I wasn’t Colton’s only one.

𝙏𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙚 #1: 𝙇𝙚𝙫𝙞 𝙃𝙖𝙬𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙨... 𝘼𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨. Levi Hawkins has been trouble since the first time I saw him through the lens of my camera our senior year of high school. He was the star quarterback. I was the yearbook photographer. Although Levi’s hatred for me was no secret, I spent the entire school year fighting my feelings for him, counting down to the day of graduation. When that day finally came, I foolishly thought I'd seen the last of him. Until five years later, when he walked into the same newspaper I worked for. Only now, he was no longer a football star. He's the paper's newest reporter. Disguised by a grand opening of a hotel on the shores of South Padre Island, Levi dragged me on an assignment. His college football reunion. But just when I thought he'd roped me in enough trouble, he asked for one more favor. 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙛𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙘é... 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣. I knew he had dragged me along to get a story, but it wasn’t long before I realized there was more written between the lines. 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙... 𝙇𝙚𝙫𝙞 𝙃𝙖𝙬𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙡𝙬𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙗𝙡𝙚.