Prologue
Hayes
No.
No.
I shook, trembling with her body pressed against mine.
“Hayes,” she moaned, breathless.
“We can’t,” I whispered, putting my hands on her arms.
She was close. Too close.
She froze in my hold, her spine straightening. I couldn’t look at her. I didn’t have the strength to look into her jade eyes, knowing they’d be searching for something I could never give her. Not now. Not in the moonlight. I wouldn’t be able to survive it. I felt her hands come to my bare chest then, her touch unlike anything I’ve ever known. I kept my gaze on the window, ignoring how “at home” her bed felt, the subtle scent of jasmine and rum lingering in the air.
Her voice was small then. “You told me you needed me.”
“I’ll fail you, baby. I’ll fail you. Whether it’s now, tomorrow, or a few years down the road, it’s inevitable. I’ll fail you and I can’t have that. You don’t deserve that,” I pushed out.
Before I could stop it, she pushed me to my back. I let her—but fuck, I let her. She straddled me, hands on my chest, her black hair hanging down around her like curtains, her skin pale and covered in ink. Her body was a work of art. She was a walking mural of determination and strength. “Then why come here?” she murmured, practically purring. “Why come to me?”
“I—”
From the west, I heard the sound of an explosion, followed by painful cries of horror—my crew. They were all around me now, screaming and begging for mercy as her fingers wove into my chest hair, covering my racing heart. I was covered in sweat then, drenched and panting.
“I need to get you out of here,” I rasped, my heart drumming in my ears. I looked over to the right, seeing my copilot extend his hand out to me. It was on fire, the orange and yellow flames devouring his skin, charring it right down to the bone.
“Mitchell, help me!”
I blinked, chest heaving now, the smell of burning flesh filling my nose.
No, it couldn’t be. He wasn’t here. This wasn’t real.
“Hayes?”
I closed my eyes, holding them shut for three seconds.
One.
Two.
Three.
That’s all it took. Three seconds for the ghosts who haunted my past to go away. Three seconds to adjust my hold on my sanity. Three little seconds.
One.
Two.
Three.
“Hayes, look at me,” she begged, her voice shaking. “Focus on me.”
It took all my strength, but when I managed to turn my head away from the burning man who plagued my nightmares, my world was filled with green. Not just any green. Her green. Jade, everlasting, and beautiful. Breathtaking.
Everything about this woman was breathtaking.