“Fuck!” I yelp, bolting upright. My heart leaps into my throat as I rapidly take in the unfamiliar scene—pale blue bedroom, bed covered in expensive white linens, pillowcases smudged with makeup.Mymakeup, I realize. How long have I been here? I lift the sheets and peek underneath, relieved to find I’m still fully clothed.
“It’s all right,” a soothing voice murmurs. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
The accent… Rough-and-tumble British bad boy. Sexy. Dark. Something about the cadence of it tugs at my memory, but my head is throbbing and everything’s fuzzy, and trying to remember where I’ve heard that voice before is like walking uphill through molasses.
I close my eyes and rub my temples, trying to grasp at something in my mind that feels just out of reach. “Where… where am I? Who are you?”
“You’re in my home in the Catskills, about an hour northwest of Kingston. As for who I am… Surely you haven’t forgotten me already?”
He sits up beside me, his arm brushing against mine. A spark of awareness skitters from my shoulder down to my fingertips.
“My head’s kind of fuzzy tonight. I’m…” I turn to look at my bedside companion, my words falling away at the sight of him. The shocking blue eyes watching me intently. Black hair falling into his face, longer on the top and shaved on the sides. A familiar, intoxicating scent that lingers in my memory from another time, another place.
“I… Iknowyou.” I’m reaching for his face before I even realize what I’m doing, fingertips brushing his hair and gently trailing down to his perfectly stubbled jaw.
“Hello, scarecrow.” A crooked, mischievous grin curves his mouth, and he turns and presses the softest kiss to my palm. “Miss me, darling?”
I close my fingers over the heat spreading across my palm.
Scarecrow…
For the second time tonight, my heart stops.
It’s him. My avenging knight.
“You… you saved me?” I whisper, but the moment the words are out, I know they’re not true. It wasn’thimin the bell tower, but…
Bell tower…
Memories flash through my mind, snapshots of a night gone horribly wrong. The black lace dress. Eloise and her flowers. The men watching me from the pews.
The demon.
The ravens and crows.
The athame and the blood.
Running up to the bell tower and... Did I fall? No, that’s not right. I was climbing onto the ledge and there was someone else close by… He grabbed me. We leaped off the tower and I was so sure we’d hit the ground, but…
Damn it.Everything in my mind is a murky gray mist. The harder I try to remember, the foggier things get.
How the hell did I end up here?
Fear crashes over me in a hot wave, sending my heart into overdrive. I try to kick off the bedding, but my lungs seize up and suddenly I can’t get enough air, can’t get free from the sheets determined to hold me captive. “I have to go. Let me go! Let mego!”
“Calm down,” he says, raising his hands and giving me a little space, but not much. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“How did I get here?”
“It was your wedding night. You were running from your demon groom. You were injured. You asked my associate to help you, so he did. He brought you here. Patched up your hand, too.”
I stare at the clean bandage wrapped around my hand, remembering the cruel slice of that athame. “Your associate… Where is he now? And who the hell areyou?”
“I’m Jude, and I’ll answer all your other questions in due time, but first you need to breathe.” He turns toward the nightstand and grabs a mug of something hot and frothy. “Drink this.”
I take the mug and give it a good sniff. The rich, creamy scent calms my racing heart—the chocolate and almonds I smelled earlier. “What is it?”
“An almond joy latte. As I recall, you’re a fan.”
