STORY 1- Pucking My Stepbrother

Blurb:

I wasn’t supposed to want him.

Kai Mercer is the golden boy of the university hockey team, disciplined, untouchable, and completely off-limits. He’s also my stepbrother. For years, we’ve lived under the same roof, pretending the tension between us doesn’t exist. I’ve spent too many nights forcing myself to look away, to ignore the way my pulse stutters when he’s near.

But pretending only works for so long.

After my boyfriend betrays me, something inside me finally snaps. I stop holding back. I stop being the quiet, easy girl everyone expects me to be. And once I let myself want Kai, there’s no going back.

He keeps telling me we can’t. That it’s wrong. That our parents can never know. But every time he pulls away, I see the truth in his eyes … he wants me just as badly. And the more he fights it, the harder it becomes to stay away.

I’m done being the good girl.

And I’m done pretending I don’t want my stepbrother to ruin me.

———-

Prologue

POV Isla Bennett Mercer

I used to be good at pretending.

It was something I got good at after my dad died. I learned how to smile when I didn’t feel like it, how to say “I’m fine” even when I wasn’t, and how to shrink myself so I wouldn’t make things harder for anyone else.

After Mom remarried, I got even better at it.

I became the quiet stepdaughter who didn’t cause problems, the girl who kept her head down and didn’t ask for too much.

Living with Kai only made it harder.

He wasn’t loud or arrogant like most of the hockey guys on campus. He was steady. Responsible. The kind of person who remembered to change the lightbulb in the hallway without being asked and who always made sure I got home safe when I stayed out late.

People at school called him the golden boy, the captain who never missed practice, never got in trouble, and somehow still managed to keep his grades up.

But none of them knew what it was like to live with him.

They didn’t know how it felt to sit across from him at dinner every night, pretending I didn’t notice the way his jaw tightened when our eyes met for too long. They didn’t know how many times I had to look away when he walked around the house shirtless after practice, or how often I caught myself wondering what his voice would sound like if he ever stopped being so careful around me.

I told myself it was nothing. A stupid crush. A phase. Something I would eventually grow out of.

But then there were the nights.

The nights when the house was quiet and I couldn’t sleep. The nights when I would lie in bed and think about the way he looked at me sometimes like he was fighting something he didn’t want to name. Those nights were the worst. Because on those nights, pretending stopped working.

I would close my eyes and imagine what it would be like if he ever stopped fighting it. If he ever let himself want me the way I secretly wanted him. If he ever stopped being the perfect stepbrother and just… let go.

I hated myself for thinking about it.

Kai had always been good to me. Protective. Patient. He never crossed the line, never gave me any real reason to believe he felt the same way.

And still, I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t stop wondering. Couldn’t stop hoping. Couldn’t stop feeling like there was something burning quietly between us that neither of us was brave enough to touch.

So I kept pretending.

I smiled at family dinners. I made small talk in the hallways. I acted like my heart didn’t race every time he said my name. I told myself that wanting him was wrong, that it would pass, that I just needed to try harder.

But some things don’t pass.

Some things only get stronger the longer you try to bury them.

And I was starting to realize that no matter how good I was at pretending… I was running out of time.

Because the truth was getting harder to ignore.

And one day soon, I wasn’t going to be able to pretend anymore.