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"Hey!"

I hear a guy’s voice behind me, but I’ now, so fast I feel like it’s going to burst out of my chest I know I just need to calht up in the ind, I can’t see straight long enough to try

"Hey, wait up!" The voice coback "What the fk do you…" my protest dies on uy I’ve ever seen

His eyes are the first thing I notice They’re dark blue, , the color of skies after sunset It’s always been ht of day has faded away, and the first stars coht constellations Ringed with thick, dark lashes, they burn into me, intense Full of secrets, full of scars

"Where are you going?" the guy de painfully onto my arm "You can’t just walk away from this!"

I pull away, still dazed He’s older than me, but not by much, his early twenties maybe: tall and broad-shouldered, skin tanned a deep bronze by the sun His ar, da to hiswith tightly-coiled power in his black jeans and beat-up work around his collar, and on his right bicep, I can see the dark ink of a tattoo snaking up beneath his shirt

He takes my breath away

The world shifts back into focus, and I find that I can breathe again OK Just like that, ?" he deer fades, replaced with concern "Wait, are you hurt? Did you hit your head?"

He reaches for entleness I look into those deep blue eyes again and feel a shock ripple through e, ? I scold hway? Don’t I have s to worry about--like the fact I was this close to dying just a few ry expression returns "Then you’re lucky I don’t kill you rim "What the hell was that back there? Don’t you know you shouldn’t drive fast in a stor over at once "First of all, I wasn’t driving," I yell back "And second, it was an accident! Our tire blew, it happens How is any of thismy arms

His eyes follow the motion of my arms, and I’h and clinging against aze trails down s I feel my skin prickle, andnew, sohtened awareness I feel a heat pool, low in aze back up to meet mine, and then he looks at es of his perfect ht now?" he asks "I’m the one with my truck totally fked back there"

I look past hi "Yeah, e’ve got a flat tire and no spare"

He smirks for real this time "What kind of idiot doesn’t keep a spare? We’re miles out from anywhere"

"Maybe the kind of person who drives in the city, where we have little things like cellphone signal and tow-trucks!"

The smirk fades "You’re suuess," I shoot back "You’re a toith a chip on your shoulder Well, et out of here"

He opens his mouth in surprise, then stops He looks around at the wet ehway, and finally, it sinks in that I ly "I’ll call for Nornal out here?" I frown, pulling out ot a CB radio in the truck" He heads back towards the red pick-up "Stay there!"

"Where else would I go?" I sigh, watching him walk away I trace the back of his body with ait Then he turns, catchingfrantically that he can’t see my pink cheeks in the rain

"You didn’t tell me your narins, and waits, until finally I surrender

"Juliet," I tell him, and wait for the snarky quip, but instead, he just cocks an eyebrow at me

"I’ true and reckless, so darkly beautiful I feel ain This is what they write stories about, I realize, as if from far away All those books and movies and poe e et who I am