Shay Morgan has stayed hidden for a long time. Living a reclusive life in Earth’s End, Alaska, she’s as far away as she can get from the trauma of her childhood and the man who hurt her long ago. But terror takes over Shay’s life yet again when an unknown stalker steals away the fragile peace she’s built for herself—targeting not only her but the one man who’s ever managed to get past the walls she’s built around herself.
Elliot Winter has lived through being falsely accused before—it ruined his military career. Now it’s happening all over again. And this time, his accuser is a twisted impostor who’s targeting his ex-girlfriend, Shay. Despite a fierce mutual attraction, Shay and Elliot broke up because Shay couldn’t let her guard down, couldn’t let Elliot in. But now they both need to trust each other to confront a psycho who seems to know all their secrets.
Excerpt:
Coming in here had been a BFM. Big fucking mistake. She should have just waited in the car…
Excerpt:
Coming in here had been a BFM. Big fucking mistake. She should have just waited in the car…
“I miss you.”
Closing her eyes, she whispered, “Don’t.”
His lips brushed across her brow. “Don’t want?
Tell you that I miss you? Miss
us?”
“Us?” She laughed
hollowly as she turned to face him.
“There is no us, remember? You
said that. There’s me…and there’s
you…and sometimes we’re together, but there’s no us.”
His gaze held hers.
“I never wanted it to be that way.
And maybe there was more of an us than I realized. Seeing you…” he paused, took a deep
breath. “Seeing you just drives that
home.”
Those intense, hypnotic eyes held hers. Her heart kicked up a few beats, stealing her
breath away. As he started to dip his
head, Shay stood there, frozen.
Shit. What now…
His mouth, so warm, brushed against hers. She gasped and then almost wished she hadn’t
as he used that opportunity to tease the inside of her lips with his tongue,
moving deeper and deeper. His hands came
around her waist, tugging her closer.
This is a bad idea…
The warning was already screaming in her head. She couldn’t give him what he needed. And he couldn’t accept what she had to
give. They would just hurt each other
again—
Tearing her mouth away, Shay ducked to the side. “We…we can’t do this.” She pressed a hand to
her buzzing lips. “I’m just getting to
where I’m used to going through the days without you calling. I’m just getting to where I can pass a few
nights without dreaming about you.”
Liar—
Well, she did manage to go a few nights, she told
herself. Usually, on those nights, she
had nightmares, but so what? She wasn’t
dreaming of Elliot and that was all that counted, right?
“Shay…” He reached up
and touched her shoulder.
But she didn’t want to hear what he had to say. She wasn’t
going through this again. He needed
things she couldn’t give him…and it hurt.
She wasn’t whole inside and she had to accept that and stop pretending
otherwise, and it fucking hurt.
Stooping down, she grabbed the basket of books from where
he’d placed them on the floor. Without
looking back at him, she headed for the front of the store.
She had to get out of here.
She could pay for her damn books and meet Lorna at the café. It was two doors down—she could walk two
fucking doors.
Maybe not well. She
was already weaving a little, lethargy and weakness still pervading her body,
but she damn well wasn’t going to linger around—
She stumbled, her feet all but giving out under her. Crashing into a book dump just next to her,
she flung out a hand, but there was nothing to grab. Books from the display went flying and just
before she would have crashed to the floor, a pair of strong, steady hands
gripped her waist. “I’ve got you,”
Elliot murmured.
I’ve got you…
The room stopped spinning around her, even though her legs
still felt like spaghetti noodles. Her
heart slowed back down to its normal speed for a few seconds, before
embarrassment settled in. Swallowing,
she closed her eyes and reached for some level of control.
Stumbling all over the place.
Running away from Elliot.
She needed to get herself together.
Sucking in a desperate drought of air, she blew it back
out. Carefully, she eased away from
Elliot, checking her legs—okay, she could walk.
This was good.
This was…bad.
Grimacing at the bookdump she’d knocked over, she opened her mouth to
apologize. The display had been holding
a lot of books, she thought inanely.
Foil lettering on one of them caught her eyes.
Lettering the shade of blood.
Familiar…
Her stomach dropped to her knees, and the waning strength in
her abused body disappeared completely.
Sinking to her knees, she reached out to touch one of the books.
“Shay, I’ll pick it up,” Elliot said.
His voice seemed to come to her from a tunnel. Her blood roared in her ears and black dots
danced in front of her eyes for a long, ugly second. Stop it, Shay—breathe!
No more panic attacks. She didn’t do panic attacks any more.
But then again, she’d never found herself holding one of her
books in her hands—a book she had written—with a gold foil sticker on the top
corner that read, Signed by the author!
Touching that sticker, she swallowed.
No.
This…this wasn’t happening.
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