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Which is totally insane.
She should be here. She wouldn't miss this for the world.
I frown and fish my phone out of my sparkly pink wristlet pouch — a present from Belle— and tap her another text.
Me:"B, where R U@? U OK?"
A few seconds later, my cell buzzes and the screen lights up with a somewhat cryptic reply from my bestie.
Belle:"Am OK, Rory. Somethin major came up. OMG! Can't wait 2 tell U all about it! So happy! :D"
What?
My eyes widen as I try to guess what she's talking about, but I seriously have no clue.
I swipe over my screen to type her another text and ask her what she means when my eyebrows hike up to practically hug my hairline because that's when I see him.
I freeze for a second, thinking my eyes must be deceiving me.
I'm looking straight on at a man I never thought I would see again, the one I'm pretty sure is my one true love, if such a thing even exists, not to mention my own personal hero since the night he saved me from certain death and the only memory I have that's comforting enough to break through my nightmares.
Phillip King.
How can it be him?
It just can't.
But…
Deep dark eyes, tousled wavy brown hair cropped short, the shadow of a beard on the edge of his squared jaw, that tall —as in downright gigantic— frame.
No.
Why would he be on this rooftop and with his turnout gear on?
Or, more pointedly, why would he be in Briarsville in the first place?
Maybe I've gone too long without proper sleep again and I'm hallucinating this.
I'm so stunned, I can barely breathe, my heart is beating so fast, it's damn near vibrating in my chest.
My body's bracing for a panic attack since these are the sensations that I normally experience when I'm about to get one.
Then our eyes meet across the cold nocturnal air and my panic attack never comes. His dark, intense gaze crashes into mine and holds. I start to shiver as a longing I didn't think I would ever feel again in this lifetime whirls through me with the power of a hurricane and all the things I believed I had imagined feeling back then, all the hopes and the fears, all the memories of that night explode in my heart.
Impossible. I'm staring into eyes just as surprised as my own must look. The eyes that lull me when I'm scared and suddenly I want all the things I got that night and so much more.
I want him to tell me why he walked out on me. I want him to hold me in his arms and make me feel like everything is okay again. I want to breathe him in until his scent is all over my clothes and never leaves my skin. I want to hear his deep, gravelly voice as he speaks my name. And I want him to kiss me.
Just like he did that night before he disappeared from my life.
Chapter 5
AURORA
Before I can make up my mind about what I should do — run as fast as this bulky dress could carry me to him or slink into darkness and never look back— Phillip comes up to me and does exactly what I've always dreamed he would do if we were to meet again even if I've never been brave enough to admit the truth up until now.
He cups my face in his large, warm hands and then tilts my chin up as he bends to capture my lips with his in a hard, almost punishing kiss that steals every last bit of my oxygen so fast, my head starts to spin.
