Page 108 of Two Sides of Sin

It felt like an open hunting ground.

I sprinted, ignoring the strange looks from passing students, tears pricking the corners of my eyes. I glanced back again. The man was gone, but the presence had magnified, turning the air thick and heavy around me.

He was close. He was right here.

I whipped my head back around, blind with terror, running full tilt towards the library steps.

THUD

I slammed into a body.

It wasn’t soft. It didn’t yield. It was like running into a wall of solid granite.

The impact knocked the breath out of my lungs. I stumbled backwards, my legs buckling, ready to hit the concrete and give up.

But two massive, incredibly strong hands shot out, wrapping around my upper arms, holding me upright with effortless ease.

I gasped, a strangled sob ripping out of my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing myself.

“Hey. Sage. Look at me.”

The voice was low. Rough. Gravelly. It vibrated with a raw, terrifying edge of violence, but underneath it, there was a fierce undercurrent of tenderness that I recognised in an instant.

My eyes shot open, gasping for air.

The sunlight was blazing down on the quad, illuminating the massive, broad-shouldered man looming over me.

He was wearing black combat boots, cargo pants, a tactical vest, and a tight black t-shirt that revealed arms covered in thick, corded muscle and raised scars that looked like they had been made by an explosion of glass.

His hair was short, dark, and military-cut. His jawline was rugged, set in a lethal, tight line.

And his eyes… they were blacked out. His pupils were blown, wide and void of light, staring down at me with an intensity that should have terrified me, but instead, it stopped my heart for an entirely different reason.

It was Julian.

He looked feral. He looked lethal. He looked like he had just cut his way through hell to get to me.

“Julian,” I choked out, my voice breaking as the adrenaline finally crashed, leaving me weak and shaking.

I collapsed forwards, my hands gripping the front of his vest, hiding my face against the hard muscle of his chest, unaware that the man I was running from wasn’t far away, watching the reunion with a dark, satisfied smile.

My hands were shaking so uncontrollably, I could barely keep my grip on the thick, ballistic nylon of his vest.

I just stood there, frozen in the middle of the busy quad, staring up into a face I had only seen through pixelated video calls for the last month. My chest heaved, pulling in short hyperventilating gasps of air.

Julian’s massive hands slid from my upper arms to cup the sides of my face. His palms were rough, calloused, but incredibly warm. As I stared into his eyes, that terrifying, pitch-black void slowly receded, bleeding out to reveal the deep, grounding honey irises I knew so well.

The feral, lethal tension bleeding off him softened, though the rigid set of his jaw told me it took every ounce of his willpower to do it.

“Julian?” I gasped again, my brain short-circuiting. “How… how are you here?”

“I got to leave early,” he murmured, his thumbs gently sweeping across my cheekbones, wiping away a tear I hadn’t even realised had fallen. His voice was thick, gravelly and focused on me. “I wanted to surprise you.”

A massive, overwhelming wave of relief hit me so hard my knees actually buckled.

Julian caught me effortlessly, wrapping his thick arms around my waist and pulling me flush against his hard body. I buried my face directly into the centre of his chest, inhaling the scent of him I missed so much.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” I sobbed quietly into his t-shirt, my fingers curling desperately into the fabric, feeling like if I let go, he’d disappear. The events of the hotel room, the photo—it all crashed down on me at once. “Julian, I feel like I’m losing my mind. I’m so scared.”