Hayes Brothers

Only regret the things you haven't done. A cheap motel or the guest bedroom of Newport's infamous heartbreaker? Any sane person would run the other way after hearing a "move in with me" proposition days after meeting Theo Hayes. Not me. Having escaped a dark past and started over with only three suitcases, I'm not guided by pride but survival instinct. Taking the plunge, I soon find Theo's magnetic pull impossible to resist. I should keep my secrets, maintain my distance, and build a new life, but... with Theo, I don't want to have any regrets.

Everyone makes mistakes. Some we brush off with time. Others live in our heads rent-free for longer. For ever. Not many of us make mistakes that destroy our chance at a real, meaningful relationship. I did. A mistake that should've never happened to someone like me—a scholar student, a well-behaved, obedient foster daughter, a charity volunteer. That mistake was none other than Theo Hayes. I've been paying the price ever since because days later, I met and fell in love with his older brother, Logan... Logan, who cut me loose the minute he learned his brother had me first.

All my life, I pursued women who made me feel like I was licking honey off the edge of a sharp knife. Those who seduce a man with one look. Bait, hook, and haul my ass to her table with a lick of her tongue across blood-red lips. Cue in Mia Harlow. Delicate. Shy. Fragile. Unapologetically feminine, five-foot-nothing, blonde college girl wrapped in pink. Not my type by any definition, but the electric stress between us grows stronger whenever I see her.

After watching my older brothers fall in love, I knew it was a matter of time before I'd be the one mindlessly losing my head over a girl, but I didn't expect it to happen so fast. I was supposed to buy a house, get a job, and spend the next few years enjoying my youth before submitting to one woman for the rest of my life. Fate had different plans, though, sending me on a mission to pursue a girl who didn't want to be pursued. Too bad that fate and the past get in our way... Just when I think I'm winning, a well-kept Hayes family secret turns our lives upside down.

One year stands between me and freedom. No more jumping through hoops. No more hurt, humiliation, and degradation. One year. I just need to keep it together. Easy, right? Maybe, if not for my new neighbor, Cody Hayes.There are only two things he and I agree on: we both hate me, and we're both certain I don't deserve forgiveness. As our silent treatment morphs into polite hellos and then into something much more physical, I realize that one year under my father's thumb in exchange for my dreams might be impossible.

To my mother, a woman's value is her engagement ring, and she picked my future husband when I was sixteen… and I don't want him. So when my brother's week-long cruise turns into a setup, I lie. I tell her I have a boyfriend. The problem? I don't. Enter Colt Hayes, my unexpected hero who agrees to play along. But as fake touches blur into real feelings, I wonder—does he feel it too?