Oliver Stoll’s life has gone up in smoke. Literally. Escaping an apartment fire, he’s made it out with little more than the clothes on his back and his best friend and downstairs neighbor, Mia. With few other options, he agrees to stay with David Elliston, Mia’s older brother. David was Oliver’s first crush, first kiss, first everything. That is, until the day they broke up five years before. It hadn’t been pretty.<br><br>David Elliston is back in town. Offered the chance to oversee the Kellmen Group’s newest magazine acquisition, he isn’t going to let a years old heartbreak stop him. But being thrown together with Oliver is harder than expected. And the flicker of hope he’s long tried to bury becomes even more difficult to contain.<br><br>Ex-lovers, best friends, and angry parents don’t make the best backdrop for rekindling a romance. But it’s the lies from the past that might just extinguish any chance they have of starting over.

Big Flames and Small

Oliver said nothing. He rinsed his hands, finally turned off the tap, and pulled paper from the dispenser. When he moved to push past him to escape, David reached out without thinking, grabbing his hand and pulling him to the closest stall, locking them both inside.


“Listen.” He wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. Should he apologize? Of course. Should he try to talk Oliver into canceling his date? That was a harder question to answer.


David struggled to think of the right thing to say as he studied Oliver’s hurt face. His perfectly lovely, beautiful face. With those wide hazel eyes and that magnificent mouth.


Oliver’s gaze went from hurt, to surprised, to something else completely.


“I’ll kiss you.” It wasn’t the apology Oliver deserved, but at the moment, it sounded like the perfect solution. “That way at least—”


Oliver leaned into him, pressing his mouth to his, interrupting David and his justification for kissing his sister’s best friend.


Chapter 7