Copper and Salt, page 19
“Isn’t there… someone else you’d rather, uh… celebrate with?” Etienne managed.
Adam pouted, pushing out that full lower lip. Etienne wanted to suck on it. He tore his eyes away, clearing his throat.
“You don’t want to?” Adam was asking.
“Oh, I do,” Etienne said, and Adam’s smile returned, bright enough to light the room. “But I just—” He gestured helplessly, at the people around them and then himself. So many better options, he was trying to say, but he couldn’t figure out how to put it into words.
Adam put a hand on Etienne’s thigh, making him jump. “My place is just a block away,” he breathed.
Somehow, Etienne found himself following Adam from the bar as his friends laughed and shouted encouragement.
Blindside Hit is available now!
Cold Stone Heart
Sneak Peek
CHAPTER ONE
Isaac Summers was too damn stubborn to die.
He stumbled down the street, his arms wrapped around his waist, vaguely certain at least three ribs were cracked. One eye was rapidly swelling shut, his vision blurry and indistinct out of the other, and there was a slow, dull ache between his legs. He knew, somewhere deep in the back of his mind, that he wasn’t going to make it to a hospital or to the shelter before he collapsed. Blood was dripping from a cut on his forehead and he swiped at it clumsily, missing a step and catching himself on the iron railing beside him before he fell.
He looked up, blinking and trying to focus on the huge brownstone in front of him. Maybe the owners wouldn’t mind if he spent the night on their front porch. Maybe he could slip inside and they wouldn’t even know he was there.
Isaac pushed open the gate and staggered down the path, weaving drunkenly toward the front door. He’d almost made it when the blackness dragged him under.
CHAPTER TWO
He woke up warm and dry, his whole body a solid scream of pain, blinking back to consciousness slowly. There was an extra warm spot on his hip, and it seemed to be vibrating. Isaac opened one eye and stared up at an ornate ceiling.
“Don’t move,” a voice said.
Isaac turned his head toward the sound, trying desperately to focus and biting back the agony. There was a dark-skinned man sitting beside the bed he was in, leaning forward with concern written all over him. Isaac stared at him for a minute.
“Where… am I?” he slurred.
The man frowned. “You’re in my house,” he said. “My name is James. I found you outside my front door.”
“Thanks, but I can’t… fuck you… right now,” Isaac managed. “Maybe… in a day… or two…”
James pulled back, revulsion clear on his face. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he demanded.
Isaac huffed a humorless laugh. He could feel the blackness tugging at him again, dragging him down with sticky fingers. “Where do I st—” He was unconscious before he could finish the sentence.
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Michaela Grey, Copper and Salt
