If I met Alexandra DeLuca for the first time today, I would only need one word to describe her: mine. She's everything she was when we said goodbye. Beautiful, stubborn, sweet...and off-limits.

After two years leading separate lives, our worlds have collided. Now that she's back home working and taking classes beside me, she's bound to make me lose my mind. She's all I've ever wanted, all I've ever dreamed of, and the one thing I can never have.

Not because she's my best friend's sister.

Not because all four DeLuca brothers would come at me with fists swinging if I hurt her.

Not even because she's way better than I will ever deserve.

I keep my distance because we didn't meet for the first time today. We met five years ago when I was a different person. When my demons ruled me. Even though I've changed - even though I've gotten my life together and become a better man - I can't change the past. And the secrets that haunt me would destroy her.

But I'm not the only one with secrets, and when the truth comes out, I don't know where to turn. What do you do when your world washes away beneath your feet and you feel like you're drowning? What do you do when the woman you promised yourself you'd never touch is the only thing that can keep you from going under?