In three words I can sum up everything I learned about life. Regardless of the shit going on in your life, this fact still remains.
It. Goes. On
Lexie Todd knew these 3 simple words. They were her mantra. So, after dealing with years of abuse at the hands of her boyfriend and the father of her son, she knows what needs to be done. With help from her best friend Mollie, they go on the run.
After months of being on the run they finally find the perfect town to settle in. Unable to trust and always having her guard up, the last thing Lexie wants is to get involved with Lukas Gunn.
Persistent, annoying, bossy, over protective and extremely hot, Detective Lukas Gunn.
After an incident leaves her vulnerable, Lukas knows there’s something haunting her. He’s determined to find out, wanting to protect her and make her his. But Lexie is determined also. Not wanting to give up her past, she pushes him away. Repeatedly.
But when history repeats itself, will Lexie finally be able to trust those around her to keep her safe? Will Lukas be able to save her? Or will Lexie succumb to only knowing what it’s like to be Unbeautifully Loved?Excerpt
Prologue
Meeting
him changed my life. I never thought I’d meet someone who’d
finally complete me like he did. Someone who finally made me feel
whole and loved as much as he did. There’s always been a void in my
heart, a void I thought I’d never have. I was in love, deeply in
love, the kind of love that only comes around once in a life time,
the kind you don’t want to live without and he didn’t even know
how I felt. I’d waited too long and I didn’t know if I’d ever
get to tell him.
The
thought of him fizzled from my mind as my body shook from the cold
under the thin sheet of a blanket that was wrapped around me. I was
in shock, I could tell. I knew the signs. I winced as I moved;
shooting pain licked my body in every direction. I knew a couple of
my ribs along with my wrist were broken, and possibly something on my
face, as pain swept over it and into my head. I raised my free arm up
slowly, painfully, feeling my damp face as my hand found its way to
the laceration on the side of my head, the source of only some of the
pain. Unable to hold my arm up for much longer, it fell to the side
throbbing and dangling off the edge of the bed. My
body, it was beaten and bruised possibly more than ever before and I
could feel myself slipping away, wanting nothing but to close my eyes
and sleep, but it was the last thing I’d allow myself to do.
My
mind was disoriented; I had no idea what day it was or how long I had
been locked in this cold, dark place. Time was frozen, becoming
nonexistent, and I was sure the days were just bleeding together. I
thought about Finn and Mollie, hoping and praying they were safe
because I didn’t know if I was going to see them again. The thought
of that was unbearable. My eyes watered, nose burned and I felt like
I couldn’t breathe.
Pull
it together.
Think.
I
didn’t know where I was, why I was even here or what caused him to
do what he did to me. I felt like my life, my being, was being sucked
right out of me. The abuse had taken its toll on my body and I had no
fight left in me. All hope that I had earlier was beginning to fade
away.
The
door creaking open brought me back from my thoughts, my eyes snapped
closed at the light that followed him in. I wanted to pull my blanket
up to hide myself and hope it would make me disappear but I couldn’t
and there was no point in trying.
Looking
at him you wouldn’t think any kind of malicious evil would consume
him, but it did. It was written all over his face, in the grin he
wore and the burning in his cold, dead blue eyes. A shiver ran
through me as I thought of his eyes looking back at me, blank, filled
with nothing but coldness and the brightness of those eyes forever
gone. I’d never seen a pair of eyes so cold, or so hollow and dark,
not even the pair I looked into years before compared to what I was
seeing now.
He
walked over to the side of the bed, no words said. His rough cold
hands roamed over my hair down the side of my face and my body
stilled as I wished him away. My eyes snapped shut not knowing what
was about to come.
His
hand slipped under the covers, gliding over my naked arm, stopping
above my elbow, lingering there a moment before moving away and then
my cuffed hand was free. His hand went back, gripping my arm tightly
as he pulled me to a sitting position. Pain radiated through me as I
let out a whimper. He pulled me to my frozen feet, my knees shook,
feeling like they were going to give out, unable to support me. I
felt myself sway to the side but his grip held me upright, tightly;
his fingers dug into my arm, pinching my skin.
What’s
one more bruise?
He
started to pull me towards the open door, my eyes squinting, trying
to adjust to the light. I didn’t know where we were going and I was
sure it wasn’t going to be good and for the first time I was
wishing to stay in the hole. I didn’t have any strength to fight
him so I let him pull me, taking me wherever he was going.
Maybe
I had it all wrong. Maybe it was meant to end here and meeting him,
falling in love, having this emptiness I carried around finally
filled, maybe it was only supposed to be... temporary.
Life
had a way of playing cruel tricks on you.
This
I knew.
Boy
did I know.
I
no longer saw the future with him as bright, happy and full of love;
it was suddenly now empty, numb and full of complete and utter
darkness.
