Excerpt!
“You’re so beautiful when you blush. I’ve always loved how your cheeks turn pink like an early morning sunrise made just for me. ” His voice was raspy. I leaned into his touch, closing my eyes so I could savor every single second.
I heard his breathing increase and it was a song that matched my heartbeat. One that we had danced to countless times before when the only thing that mattered was being together and the promise that was shared when our bodies became one.
My eyes fluttered open and I saw the pain of our past etched into his irises. And something more—weariness, perhaps of what the world had almost turned him into. Fatigue from the burden he carried of being the product of such damaged souls. And the weight of witnessing the underbelly of the world while fighting in a war.
It was all there, laid bare for me to see—like he needed me to see it. All I wanted to tell him was that I’d been here. This entire time, waiting for him to let me in again. Confused at how we had been each other’s everything, only for him to walk away, deciding to do it all alone.
Why, I wanted to scream. Why leave me? Leave us?
My chest tightened with such brutal force, I could hardly breathe. I took a step back, his hand dropping from my face. Everything he’d revealed in that one look was gone in an instant. Locked—once again—behind a door that I didn’t have a key to.
We were both orphans.
While Johnny Moore was the product of alcohol and bad decisions, he never let his family define him. And me? Well, let’s just say that my mother’s unwanted pregnancy almost destroyed her family name and leaving me behind was the best decision she ever made.
Johnny and I made a pact all those years ago—never leave. Two simple words that always gave me hope. Something solid to lean on when things got tough.
But I guess promises are meant to be broken. The memory of Johnny walking away on his eighteenth birthday will forever be burned into my heart like a brand.
Ten years of forgetting him. Ten long years of forging my own path and trying to make my dreams come true…without him.
Nothing could have prepared me for the series of events that brought me back to Pebble Brook Falls and face-to-face with Johnny Moore. The very man I wanted nothing more than to forget…forever.
And nothing could have prepared me for the man that was the embodiment of my weaknesses. With his towering height, southern accent, and a smile that made me weak in the knees, I was completely helpless against him.
He had been my first for everything, and I mean everything. And even though I knew he was the only person who could break my heart, the moment I laid my eyes on him after ten years, I knew I wanted him to be my last—my forever.
The only question was, would he even want me to stay?
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Brianna Remus is a Florida-based author who lives with her husband, three pups, and terrorizing cat. She started her writing journey in 2016 to ward off the woes of graduate school. The light-hearted hobby quickly turned into a passion filled dream that consistently distracts her from the real world.
When Brianna isn't working as a psychology resident or writing books, you can find her getting lost in the worlds created by others (through writing and movies), spending a day at the ocean, or taking a walk in the forest. She loves to spend her days outdoors surrounded by the beauties of nature.
A true Tolkien nerd, she also spends a lot of her time immersed in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as well as praying that Amazon doesn't completely fuck up the new LOTR series.
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