Total pages in book: 63
Estimated words: 58883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58883 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 294(@200wpm)___ 236(@250wpm)___ 196(@300wpm)
“I have a great life.”
Heath scoffs. “So great that you’re out here on the beach getting raped by your husband.”
If he only knew how much better life with Eddie is compared to what it would be like without him. Eddie might have issues, but at least he keeps it in check. When he’s sober, Eddie is sweet, kind even. But Heath won’t want to hear any of that. He won’t want to hear about the nightmarish maze I’ve been navigating while he’s made a new life for himself and forgotten all about me. I wish I could do the same, but my heart cannot let go. The more time that passed, the more my heart longed for him. Longed to run on the shores with the only man who will ever own my heart.
“That’s enough, Heath. ENOUGH!”
Heath pulls the knife from Eddie’s behind and locks his eyes with mine. The piercing gaze that used to see right through me, that fell upon me with admiration and respect, now shows nothing but rancid hate.
“Just go. I don’t want you to get in any trouble. I’ll take him back to the house and clean him up.”
“Does he give you such great care after her rapes you, Katelyn?”
“He’s not a rapist,” I lie.
The reality is that Eddie is just that. He’s soured and become cruel over the years. The guy Heath knew is unrecognizable in the man Eddie is today.
“Listen, you don’t need to get arrested. Henry and Eddie can get you in a lot of trouble. As much as I hate it, men like them still run the island. They take what they want, do what they want, and no one ever will be able to stop them.”
Something like humor with a shot of desire flashes in Heath’s eyes. For a moment, I see the boy I once knew. He strides toward me with the calculating movements a predator makes when stalking their prey. His blood-stained hand roughly caresses my face, and when he looks into my eyes, I see the battle, a war between the bitter hate he now feels against the beautiful past we share.
My skin pricks with goose flesh as he roughly rubs my bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. He doesn’t say a word, just locks me into his stare as if proving he knows the hold he still has on me. Silently telling me it will always be there.
“I’m not the naive, helpless boy you knew before.”
And I can see that he’s not. The decade we’ve been apart has been good to him. He left Wainscott Hollow a young man on the cusp of becoming and now he’s all man, chiseled angles, muscular, taller, broader. The furrows on his brow only add to his dark allure.
“It doesn’t matter how important you are now. They still have all the power. They’ll ruin you, Heath. Just run. Get away from here, they can’t hurt you if they can’t find you. The gravest mistake you could ever make is to return to Wainscott Hollow.”
Heath tugs at my lower lip and moves in until I feel his halted breath on my cheek. Being this close to him makes my heart accelerate to full speed. His scent, the feel of his rough skin.
Eddie made a quick exit scurrying away toward our home without looking behind him.
Before I can react and push Heath away, his mouth is on mine in a collision of explosive passion. His teeth gently graze my lips before he sinks them into my flesh, and the metallic taste of the blood invades my mouth.
He pulls back, and blood trickles from his full lower lip.
“Thing is, Kat, I don’t run with my tail between my legs anymore. Now, I bite back.”
CHAPTER 10
Heath
Ten years sober of her, and at the first chance of a hit, I couldn’t resist. Because of all the temptations in this world, the only one that can bring me to my knees is Katelyn Shaw. If soulmates are a reality, she’s mine as I am hers, and not time, or distance, not even the devil himself, can truly keep us apart.
I flex my hands, desperate to get the memory of her off my skin. I shouldn’t have touched her. I should have left Eddie there for her to collect and been done with it. But my dreams never prepared me for the pull that surged through my body when I saw the wind tangle her long, dark hair. I wanted to kill Eddie and had she not been there, I would have, but the idea of killing him and hurting her did me in. I don’t want her to look at me the way most people in New York do—with fear and disdain. I want her to see me the way she did when we were kids, to gaze upon me as if I’m her everything.