I smooth it across my palm, flip it to the blank underside, and scrawl a message in ink that bites.
Careful what you wish for, Laurette.
You have my attention.
—B
I slide the napkin into the mailbox, setting it on top of her mail. She’ll find it tomorrow and know it came from someone who was at Leviathan tonight. Someone who heard every word.
Someone ready to answer her plea.
And she’ll wonder who I am.
I glance up at her darkened windows.
“Get ready, Laurette Devereux. The chase has begun.”
Chapter 6
Laurette Devereux
The sun hitsmy face like she’s holding a grudge.
Bitch.
I groan and roll to my side, yanking the sheet with me, face buried in the pillow. My body aches the way it does after a night spent chasing comfort I never found—too much turning, not enough sleeping.
And the dreams…
Vivid. Vicious. Venomous.
I would dig them out of my skull and set them on fire if I could.
I throw back the covers, bare feet hitting the cool hardwood. My robe hangs off the end of the bed, and I shrug it on. A glance at the clock: 6:43.
Fuck.
“Ugh! What kind of woman ruins her own Saturday morning by waking up this damn early on her day off?”
Apparently, the universe decided I need more time to overthink—an extra hour to spiral.
The coffee machine sputters to life. Leaning on thecounter, arms crossed tight, the aroma wakes me as my mind drifts back to last night.
I meant what I said.
Not wistful or half-hearted. Not some romantic fantasy meant to paper over the cracks. I want true obsession, a devotion so deep it scars. Not because I’m fragile or because I’m missing something.
Because I’m worth that kind of fire.
I’m not asking for lukewarm or halfway. I want a man who can’t look anywhere else. A man so consumed with me that the rest of the world falls away. Full throttle, all in.
A man who worships me in the dark, claims me in the light, and says my name like it’s his religion.
I deserve that kind of heat.
Let him come to me with sins and scars. I’ll match every single one.
But he better be ready to burn the fucking world down for me.
