My Ex-Stepdad (Girls Playing with Fire)

"You remind me of my ex-wife" might be the worst pick-up line in history.

The ex-wife in question happens to be my mother who divorced this tall, dark and handsome cowboy ten years ago. I can't help wondering if he makes fun of me or he really doesn't know who I am. The only way to find out is to flirt with him until one of us backs down.

Kasey
I tried to make sense of his gaze. It was like craving and anger and shame and determination, all mixed together in a chaotic vortex. He looked like one of those rom-com heroes who got a second chance with the woman who broke their heart. My mom's ten-year anniversary would be the perfect setting for a dramatic scene. But he wasn't going to do that. Unlike my dad, Charles Patrick Moore wasn't prone to dramatic gestures.

"Do you still love her?" The words escaped, ruining my strategy of messing with him. It was a stupid question to which I didn't want to know the answer.

The anger and shame faded from his gaze. He straightened up, and an arrogant smile crooked his lips while he measured me up and down slowly. My skin tingled and it occurred to me that I might not win this game of chicken. I should throw in the towel and tell him that I recognized him. Stubbornness kept my jaw locked and the time to diffuse the situation was gone.

Charles and I never got along while he was married to my mother. I wasn't shy about letting him know that I wanted my father back. The day my parents remarried was the happiest of my life and tomorrow marks ten years since that day. The only thing that keeps us a family now is my half-brother Blake.

Tonight, on the eve of that anniversary, I'm not thinking about my brother who is his son. I'm not thinking about my mother who was his wife. I'm not thinking. I get swept away in a hurricane of sensations and I act on the craziest desire I ever felt in my life. And why not? After all, I'm never going to see him again.

Little did I know that I'd have to see him the very next day. A real hurricane forces us to be under the same roof. Out of habit, or maybe reacting to the events of the previous night, I try to torment him. But things don't go according to plan.

This older man/younger woman romance with a touch of taboo is an unusual enemies to lovers story. It's a steamy forbidden romance ending with a HEA.