Calloused Conscience

What...what are you doing, Simon?" Hazel stuttered, her eyes darting everywhere but into Simon's eyes. "You are pushing me into temptation, Haze. You're slowly turning me into a sinner." His huge, calloused hand ran smoothly down Hazel's cheeks, leaving her breathless. "You...you are my stepbrother," Hazel said. "And?" Simon asked, raising an eyebrow. "And, you have a daughter, Simon. I...I can't do this," Hazel replied, shaking her head. "Look into my eyes, Haze, and tell me you don't want me." ********** The death of Hazel's stepdad marked the beginning of something sinful for her. After the burial, her mother sold the house where Hazel was supposed to live after spending five years in California. Left stranded by her own mother, Hazel had nowhere to go except her step-brother's home. Thinking she could stay with Simon temporarily until she found an apartment, Hazel discovered that living with him brought out forbidden thoughts she once had about him. Simon was slowly turning her into a sinner. With her hot mafia stepbrother hovering around and making her heart flutter, will Hazel give in to this temptation, despite knowing Simon has a daughter and is twelve years older than her?

"Help me tighten this?" Her voice trembles as she turns her bare back to the doorway. Calloused fingers brush her spine – but it’s not her stepmother. It’s Asher Voss, SU’s star quarterback and her new stepbrother, smirking in the mirror， "Next time you mistake me for Mom..." His breath scorches her ear. "...I’ll leave a real mark." To survive the sweltering New York summer before college, Wendy Wu makes a deal with Asher: Act like strangers once school starts. He’ll remain the untouchable quarterback; she’ll be just another exchange student. No eye contact. No acknowledgement. Ever. But when her father’s long hauls and her stepmother’s busy schedule force Asher into babysitting duty, the lines blur: In the kitchen, he catches her weeping over a shelter documentary and lifts her against his sweat-drenched chest. Garage doors rattle open – his grip tightens: "Hold on. Unless you want them to see you like this." At a party, her friend spots a cherry hair tie on his wrist before he drags her into a dark hallway: "You didn’t want to see me?" His whiskey-laced kiss brands her lips. "Yet your eyes undressed me all night." In a restaurant, a rival girl glares through the window. He traps Wendy’s thigh under the table， "Call me ‘brother’ and I’ll save you."  Their secret collapses. Wendy ends it, and he freezes her out in public， "Do I know you?" Until a rain-lashed night when Ahser, drenched and desperate, pins her to the wall， "Don’t tell me you do not regret the breakup" His teeth find her collarbone. "I have to admit it-- I miss you." Can a love forged in stolen touches survive the spotlight? Or will their step-sibling bond shatter them both?