Chapter One

So… Rule Number One: Don’t let anyone find out you’re dating your stepbrother.

Especially when no one at school even knows Jace Carter is your stepbrother.

To everyone else, we were sworn enemies.

Jace was the golden boy—the swim captain everyone admired. The girls wanted him. The guys wanted to be him.

And I was supposedly the one person he couldn’t stand.

Rule Number Two: Don’t get caught having angry sex in public.

Especially not after a fight.

And definitely not when his teammates could walk in at any moment.

Apparently, we had broken both rules.

The storage room behind the Pacific Coast University’s Aquatic Center smelled like chlorine and Jace Carter, my stepbrother who had me pinned to the wall.

His wet hair dripped onto my forehead. My hands were fisted in the front of his hoodie, mostly because I was trying to push him away and failing.

“We shouldn’t be doing this. What if someone sees us?” I whispered, biting my lower lip.

"You've said that four times, and I don’t care. I want you Izel." He grinned that stupid, unfair grin that made girls line up outside swim meets pretending that they cared about swimming.

"I am telling you to—" I started to say and then he kissed me, cutting me off.

Three weeks ago I didn't even like Jace Carter, and three weeks ago our parents got married which means the captain of the swim team currently kissing me was my brand new stepbrother and nobody at Pacific Coast knew and they could never know.

This was our secret. His hand slipped to my waist, pulling me deeper into the kiss as I moaned into his mouth. "Jace...We're going to get caught."

"No one's looking for us." He said and just then, as if God had heard him, the door was flung open, and cameras, the entire school, the swim team and a dozen reporters and approximately two thousand fans were pouring in from the arena after Jace had just broken the NCAA 200-meter college freestyle record.

Every single one of them was staring at us with me pressed against the wall, my boob slightly peeking from my shirt, his hand on my waist.

One reporter looked down at the semester’s registration forms with my full name still sitting on the equipment table then his eyes widened. He looked at me and then back at Jace. "Wait. Is she your stepsister?"

The entire room went silent and the microphones swung toward my face.

To know exactly how I ended up half-undressed against a wall, with the last boy on earth I was supposed to want and be with… you're going to need the whole story. So let's back up. Three weeks, and one very stupid rule ago.

THREE WEEKS AGO

Okay so here's the thing about me. My name is Izel Brooks, I'm nineteen, and I paint murals for fun instead of going to parties like a normal college student. Sue me. I'm a Fine Arts major, at Pacific Coast University in California. I draw comics for the student newspaper nobody reads, and I have exactly one talent that matters in this story.

I am really, REALLY good at loving someone who doesn't notice I exist.

That someone is Noah Bennett.

Noah Bennett, who says after you when we walk through doors, Noah Bennett, who is on the swim team and smiles whenever we walk past each other. Okay…maybe I was just his classmate to him, but what does that matter? I knew there was something between us.

Today was the day I was going to tell him how I felt. I decided it at like 7am over a granola bar and ART211 assignment which, in hindsight, was not a stable foundation for a life decision. 

I was going to walk up to him after his swim meet and ask him for coffee. I was totally casual. 

My hands were shaking the whole bus ride there, which, again not a great sign, but I ignored it.

I got to the University’s Aquatic Center early and found a spot near the team benches. I practiced the words in my head about nine hundred times and I was mid-spiral when I saw Noah.

And he was with some girl in a cropped hoodie leaning in. LEANING IN while she pressed her humungous tits into his chest.

My stomach did this awful drop thing, I didn’t even know when I left. I was speed walking out of the building with my vision blurry which means that I was about to cry in public, which, no thank you, I was not going to let myself cry out here.

I was so busy blinking back tears that I bumped into Jace Carter, the swim captain. He had the highlight reel on the university’s i*******m and he was so full of himself. My sketchbooks went flying.

"Watch it," he said. He didn’t look sorry, not even a little bit.

"You watch it," I snapped back, scrambling for my drawings before anyone stepped on them. 

He bent down and picked up one of my sketches and looked at it for a second too long before handing it back. "This is dramatic," he said, wiggling his brows.

"Narcissist," I shot back, because it was the first word my brain offered. He laughed with his head tipped back, like I'd said something genuinely funny instead of genuinely mean.

By then half his teammates were watching, I felt my face go up in flames, and I grabbed the rest of my sketchbooks and walked away before I could embarrass myself any further and I thought that was the worst part of my day but I was wrong.

I got home to find my mom sitting at the kitchen table with her hands wrapped around a mug of tea she wasn't drinking, and this look on her face that scared me.

"Izel, honey, sit down for a second." she said, wringing her hands. “Richard, my boyfriend and I are…well, getting married.” Her whole face lit up.

I blinked, and then forced a smile on my face. “Mom…wow..that’s…” I ran out of words to say.

"And," she added quickly, like she was ripping off a bandaid, “We're going to move in with him to his place in the Hollywood Hills, after the wedding. It's beautiful, Izel, you're going to love it."

I forced my face to keep smiling and I told myself it was fine. How bad could it possibly be? That night I could not sleep, so I went down to the kitchen for a glass of water. My hair was a mess, and I was wearing the ugliest shirt I owned, but in the dark kitchen, there was a shape there too.

“Mom?” I called out, flicking on the lights. But lo and behold, the shape there was the last person I expected to be in my kitchen. Jace Carter.

"What the hell are you doing in my house?" I said, voice cracking as I struggled to understand what the fuck he was doing in my kitchen.

Jace Carter raised an eyebrow, completely unbothered, like this was the most normal thing in the world. "Actually," he said, "My father and your mother just got married and he's upstairs right

now with your mom.”

“What the fuck?” I spat out, my eyes widening in horror.