karenc

It started out as a request. That turned into a dare. Now, I am falling for a man I can’t have. He’s my stepbrother. But that doesn’t make my desire to have him any less. Or my will to find a way for us to be together.

I have always been the good girl. The quiet girl. And I’m sick of it. I want to play; I want to have some fun. And there is one man with whom I want to do that. Caleb Anderson.

Mila Andrews has one goal. Keep the peace with bridezilla until Sunday. The wedding will be over. Her maid of honor duties will be complete, and her family drama will finally be a thing of the past. She'll board a plane, leave Hawaii, and life will be back to normal. Sunday. Seven days. In paradise. How hard could it be? Keaton Phillips has one goal. Convince the groom to end things by Saturday. The wedding will be off. His best man duties will be complete, and the wrong he committed years before, will finally be made right.

Men and I are done. Whatever entertaining notions I enjoy while screwing around with the random guys that cross my path are exactly that. Entertaining. I don't want more. I'm not capable of more. More would mean feeling. Would entail wanting. Desiring. And a slew of other emotions I haven’t experienced in over three years.

New York wedding planner Mercy Rose is looking forward to a future not unlike the fairy tales she creates day after day for her clients. She's even got the perfect prince to seal her fairy-tale fate. But when a hurricane savagely blows through her small hometown in rural Louisiana, it's her past she needs to worry about. Going home means risking more than finding her family's B&B in ruins; it could mean churning up every last piece of her past she thought was dead and buried. Mainly, every piece she ever shared with Frank Kingston, the boy next door and her first love.

Calista Luvalle has mixed feelings when it comes to love. On the one hand, working in the bridal business means she’s basically dedicating her life to love and the dream of "happily ever after". On the other, she’s a jaded, love-hating cynic who isn’t about to fall for any of that crap herself. Except, of course, she already did. When she was six.

Rule # 12: You can tease me, Ethan, and we can play, but you can't be mean to me. I need to know that there's more, that this isn't wrong, that you feel the same way I feel.... I never wanted to hide this from you, Dad. It wasn't about that. It wasn't that I was ashamed or thought I was doing anything wrong, but I didn't think you'd understand, and I wanted to be with Ashley. I want to keep being with her, and whenever I thought about telling you and then thought about you getting mad about it...well, yeah, that's it.

We all have our strengths and weakness. We're all good at something and bad at something else. This is why we need each other. This is why it makes sense for Ethan and me to be together. I'm the good girl, the careful, cautious one who thinks before she acts. Ethan is the bad boy, the risk taker, the person who jumps into action regardless of the consequences. Sometimes you can't wait to think before you act, though. Sometimes you can't be careful or cautious.

I don't know. I'm not even sure I should try, because I'm pretty sure I'll say something dumb. Dating is hard, all right? Maybe you think it's hard to actually get someone to start dating you, but I think that's the easy part. It doesn't matter if you screw it up, because you can just move on to the next girl.

I still don't know how to tell my dad that I'm dating my stepsister. I don't know if I can ever tell him. He's already voiced his disapproval, whether he realizes it or not. With more and more people trying to interfere, it's getting harder to keep this a secret, though....