Olson, Darlene Pollard, Donna Fernandez, Jessica Laws, Keisha Craft, Leeann Van Rensberg, Lily Jameson, Marci Antoinette Gant, Melinda Parker, Michelle Chambers, Nicole Erard, Nysa Bookish, Ofa Reads, Paula Deboer, Rhonda Ziglar, Sarah Polglaze, Shawna Kolcznyski, Tara Horowitch, Terri Handschumacher, Tracey Wilson-Vuolo, Tiffanie Marks & Vanessa Reyes!!!
Words cannot express the gratitude I have for you!!! I wish I could personally hug and kiss you all. Thank you so much for pimping my books the way you do. I can’t thank you enough for it. You ladies are amazing to me. I hope to meet each and every one of you!!
Bloggers:
Most of you have been with me since I started my writing career over five years ago. I can’t thank you enough for always supporting me every way you can. I appreciate and love you so much. I couldn’t do this without you. I love you.
My VIPS & Readers:
Thank you so much for loving my babies the way that you do. You guys bring so much happiness and love into my life, and I love you so much. I couldn’t do this without you. You mean everything to me!
PROLOGUE
<>Aiden<>
“I just don’t know who you are anymore!” she screamed out with pure hatred dripping from her voice.
In her eyes.
In her fucking soul.
Her fists slammed into my chest with a hard thud, but I barely wavered. I’d take every blow, every yell, every single goddamn thing she delivered.
Her pain.
Her sadness.
Her desire to let go and just be.
It was all clear as day, glaring right at me.
The fear in my mind grew at a rapid speed, corrupting the only vacant spaces left of my being. The unease festering inside me was far greater than anything I’d ever known or felt.
It took over as I stepped toward her, instantly blocked by an imaginary wall she had built so high, it would simply crush her the moment I tried to knock it down.
Caving us both in.
“Get away from me! Just get away from me!”
She was slipping further away from the life we fought so hard for.
Everything we wanted.
Everything we needed.
Everything we prayed for time and time again was disappearing like a thief in the night.
Willingly taking the love of my life with it.
“Bailey … please … please don’t say that. I’m begging you…” I extended my hand, but she immediately pulled away as if the words she spewed were in fact our reality.
Leaving me far behind.
I ran my hands through my disheveled hair, yearning to rip it out of my head. “Bailey, ple—”
“No! No! No! No!” she wholeheartedly repeated, placing her hands over her ears. Backing into the wall with nothing but her sobs and desperate pleas filling the small space between us.
Wrecking the fuck out of me.
“I don’t want you anywhere near me! Go away! Just go away!”
I couldn’t breathe.
I couldn’t fucking breathe.
“Bailey, just calm down! Calm the fuck down and let me—”
“I don’t want you near me! I don’t need you! I want nothing from you but for you to leave me alone!”
“Bay, you know I can’t do that,” I strongly conveyed, trying to steady my tone. Compose myself, catch my bearings, knowing it would help bring her back to me in the end. “Beauty—”
“Stop calling me that! That’s not my name!” She reached for the first thing in sight and chucked it at me. Her rage completely taking over.
I let the glass hit my shoulder, hoping it would help her find truth through the lies.
“I don’t know you anymore! Why can’t you understand that I don’t want anything to do with you! Nothing!”
“Don’t push me, Bay. You don’t mean that. You don’t fucking mean that. Please, baby … don’t do this … don’t fucking do this to us…” I pleaded with my hands steepled out in front me.
Praying.
Surrendering.
Relinquishing defeat.
My white flag was up. My goddamn flag was raised up high, flowing adamantly through the storm.
“Just stay away from me,” she murmured so low, I could barely hear her. Narrowing her gorgeous eyes at me with an endless stream of questions splitting through her unsettled gaze. Making it difficult for her to focus solely on me.
On my voice.
On my presence.
Her.
Me.
Us.
“Aiden—”
“Please don’t leave me, Beauty. Please…”
I took an agonizing step toward her. “I.” Two more slow steps. “Love.” Another two brought me inches away from her mouth. I resisted the desire to claim her lips like I’d done hundreds, thousands, millions of times before.
A lifetime of kisses.
I love you’s.
You’re mines.
Instead, my eyes stayed fixated on her face. My core seized tighter, my knees got weaker, my