PROLOGUE
MAISIE
I understand nowhow people become addicted to adrenaline.
How easy it would be to become enslaved to the feeling, to chase the high, to follow the rush wherever it takes you, even if it’s through the dark, into a place that you’ve never been brave enough to wander before.
Cloaked in that darkness, surrounded by the low, sultry hum of music vibrating through the speakers, dark, stormy eyes traveling the length of my body have my heart racketing in my chest and my skin, which is slick with sweat from dancing in a mass of bodies, feeling as if it’s on fire.
Like there’s a current running through me, a live wire of electric energy that I’ve never experienced.
It’s not only because I’m doing something I’ve never done.
Of course, there’s a thrill in doing something that you probably shouldn’t but are anyway.
Dancing alone on a crowded dance floor of a bar for the very first time.
The reason that I feel more alive than I ever have in my life is the man, the dark, broody stranger sitting across the room, whose stare has remained on me the entire night.
Unabashedly watching me like I’m dancing forhim.
And maybe I am.
Maybe I like the way it feels more than I should.
I slowly run my palms down my front, over my chest and along the bare skin of my stomach beneath the cropped fabric of my top, letting my hips sway in sync with the slow, sensual beat, while holding his eyes, which seem to flare when my fingers dance along the frayed ends of my blue jean shorts at the tops of my thighs.
I rake my teeth over my bottom lip, pulling it into my mouth as my eyes flutter shut, and I lose myself in the music.
Dancing for my handsome stranger.
Feeling the heat of his stare on my skin as if it’s caressing me, encouraging me,praisingme.
Imagining what it would feel like if it were actually his hands touching me instead of my own, instead of his steady stare. His hands gripping my hips and pulling me tightly against his body.
I have no idea what I’m doing, not in the slightest clue, but I came here with a purpose, and something tells me that it’s already found me.
I push away the nerves fluttering in the pit of my stomach, the constant swirl of second thoughts in my head that make me question myself, and pretend I’m a girl who knows how to play whatever game we’re playing.
When I open my eyes, my pulse skitters when I watch him rise from the barstool with a mixture of anticipation and nerves because I know that he’s headed for me.
This is why I came to this bar tonight, alone. A bar that was nowhere near Orleans University because I didn’twantto run into anyone I knew.
I wanted to come here tonight because I didn’t want to be Maisie Delacroix. I wanted to be a nameless girl who can makedecisions without having the weight of her last name bearing down on her.
I want to be the girl I am right now, at this very moment. Confident and unafraid. One who isn’t worried about the dangers of regrets or expectations.
Who’sfree.
His gaze never falters, holding mine steadily as he makes his way toward me, every deliberate stride closer making my pulse pound even harder.
It thrums loudly in my ears over the sound of the music, a relentless whoosh that has my head swimming and even more so when he stops in front of me.
Across the bar, even in the darkness only lit by neon, I could see how handsome he was.
But now that he’s standing in front of me, I realize that he’s undoubtedly the most attractive man I’ve ever seen.
Not just the mess of dark, unruly hair or deep brown eyes that feel bottomless, nearly black as they burn into mine. It’s not the sharp cheekbones or his sharp jaw that’s dusted with an overgrown shadow. Or the canvas of tattoos that decorate his arms, making him even more of the mysterious, dark stranger I’ve conjured in my head. That’s not what draws me in, like a magnet pulled toward its opposite.
