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And I still can’t take my eyes off the butterfly.
Its wings flutter against the stroke of the wind before it settles on Colton’s shoulder.
“What are you thinking about?” he asks quietly.
“About how right this feels,” I breathe, my gaze roving over his face. Memorizing every inch of it. It’s his eyes, I decide.
It’s the look in his eyes that has me so captivated.
His grin widens. “I’ve been waiting here for a very long time. It’s been a little lonely until now.”
“Waiting for what?”
His head lowers, bringing our faces closer. “For you to come to me,” Colton rasps against my lips.
“Riley.”
Colton’s arm tightens around me.
“Riley.”
I hear my name again, but it’s not Colton saying it.
Confused, I look around the vast meadow of yellow lilies. Searching for that second voice. It’s familiar…I know who’s calling out to me.
A sharp pain pierces through my sternum.
Colton pulls back.
His face twitches with a flinch, and there’s a flash of pain in his eyes.
“Wait,” I tell him.
But he’s already slipping out of my arms…already walking away…
Fading right in front of my eyes.
Until he’s gone, and I am left with just the comforting scent of him and the ghost of his touch.
CHAPTER ONE
Grayson
My head hurts. What the fuck happened?
When I open my eyes, my vision is blurred. The place is dark; I can’t see much, but it smells dirty and musky. Like days-old rotting garbage. The scent is almost putrid and I fight a gag.
Blinking a few more times, I try to clear my vision. And I finally make out the shadows around me. It looks like an abandoned construction site. Oh shit.
I remember waiting for Riley at the park. And then she came to me. She was finally giving me a chance to explain myself, to tell her the truth behind our breakup. Riley had been ready to hear me out and maybe, just maybe…give me another chance.
I don’t deserve it, especially after breaking her heart the way I did — but fuck, I want another chance with her.
The pain in the back of my head is insistent. Someone struck me from behind, I remember now. A baseball bat. I didn’t see my attacker’s face but I had heard a familiar, callous voice that I would recognize anywhere. That sadistic voice follows me around in my fucking nightmares.
Goddamn it.
My father had been watching me, lingering in the shadows. Waiting for me to make a mistake. He was waiting for a weakness. And Harrison Avery found it. Her.
