The first time I met Kyler Blackwood, he was a bruised and battered boy with fire in his eyes and nowhere safe to land.
 
Since the first time he kissed me, he was my best-kept secret, my quiet rebellion, my haven in the storm.
 
But fate forced us apart, making us pretend to be strangers because it hurt too much to be anything else.
 
Years later, time hasn’t dulled what we felt, has never erased the way we fit. And when Kye’s past collides with my present, everything shifts.
 
It’s a choice neither of us expected.
 
A bond that never really broke.
 
A line we were never meant to cross.
 
We tell ourselves it’s only temporary, that the arrangement is just a means to an end. But with each passing day, the lie feels more like the truth. And with each stolen touch, Kye feels more like mine. Because some things were never meant to be pretend.
 
And some dangers are closer than we ever imagined...
©2025 Catherine Cowles (P)2025 Catherine Cowles