PROLOGUE
Fate and destiny… Different sides of the same coin.
Whatever you want to call it, whatever you want to believe, one of them brought me here, to where I’m currently standing, dripping in sweat, my heart pounding loudly…
To where I’m waiting for the rest of my life to begin.
Waiting to breathe again.
They say love is a numbers game, so here are some for you.
Last night, I lay awake for one hundred and ninety-four minutes, thinking about the girl I haven't seen in three hundred and seventy-two days.
Since then, my heart has beat forty million times. Every single one for her.
Seven billion people in the world.
Three hundred and thirty-one million people in this country.
Nine million people in this city
But only one in my head. Only one my heart.
The probability of seeing her again? Infinitesimal.
And yet there she is. my Lucky Charm.
So I ask you, do you believe in fate? Or do you believe in destiny?
Because either way, I sure as fuck do.
In the way I know fire is hot and ice is cold, I know that we’re supposed to be together. Two halves of an indisputable whole.
My soulmate.
And now it all comes down to the next sixty seconds. Standing here. Waiting for her to turn around.
The stakes have been raised. I’ve thrown my cards on the table.
Because what happened in Vegas, didn’t stay there this time.
This time, I’m keeping it.
Chapter 1
Aloud, extended car horn blared out for the second time as my phone buzzed on the table next to me. I ignored it, not needing to look down to see who it was, and not wanting my assumption confirmed. The horn moved to short sharp honking bursts, and I grinned into my bag, holding back the laughter which was threatening to break through.
“Fuck! It’s like we’re back in high school!” My brother, Jupiter, stomped across his entrance hall and threw open the front door, making it look easier than it should considering it was a slab of ten-feet-high, seven-feet-wide solid oak. Clearly the extra weights he’d been adding to his daily workout schedulehad been beneficial. “Mallory, just fucking come in or stop with the noise.”
He left the door open behind him as he stormed back to stand in front of me. Even though my head was down while I rifled through my bag, I could tell he was glaring, so I took my time to stand up knowing it would only annoy him more. Between my best friend, Mallory, and me living to annoy my brother, and him falling for it, it kind ofwaslike we were back in high school.
I raised an eyebrow as I stood, mirroring his stance with my arms firmly crossed over my chest, although mine weren’t bulging quite so angrily, and were clear of the tattoos which covered every spare inch of his bronzed, Californian skin. “Yes?”
Even though we were two years apart, when we were little kids, people often mistook us for twins, but as we grew older we became less alike although our eyes were still a dead giveaway we were related. Something he clearly felt seemed to give him the right to tell me what to do; an opinion I did not share.
“Em…” The annoyance in his voice softened along with his glower, “take your pick, go anywhere – Maldives, Bali, Tahiti – I’ll sort it out, you name it…”
“Jupe…”
