I stood in the middle of Dad’s old study, heart hammering so hard I could feel it in my throat. The heavy wooden door had just clicked shut behind us, locking me in with the one person I both feared and secretly craved in the worst possible way.
I was twenty, suspended from college for the latest stupid mistake, and now caught red-handed stealing ten thousand dollars from the family safe. My tight black crop top clung to my breasts, and my short denim skirt felt way too short under Ethan’s piercing stare.
Ethan—my stepbrother—leaned against the massive desk, arms folded over his broad chest. At twenty-seven, he was everything I wasn’t: disciplined, successful, running his own security firm. Tall, muscular, with sharp features and those intense blue eyes that currently looked like they
