**This is Book Two of a Duet. Do not read this novel without first reading Counting the Flames: The Flames Duet Book One.**
Orah
I fell in love with him the night I was supposed to die.
My Hero...
He was the man who gave me my life. And then he stole it from me when he told me no. But I couldn’t forget him. Because I marked myself with Ridge. I walked away from that beach with his blood under my nails and his saliva on my tongue.
I’ve had years of misery without him. And years of gratitude for having once known him. Despite the fear and anxiety that still consume me, I’ve been brave. I’ve been living a life and trying to find happiness, trying to redeem myself from the guilt of my past.
It’s been nearly ten years. Well, if I’m counting numbers and being precise, it’s been nine years and nine months since he saved me. And it’s been nine years and four months since I last saw him. There you have it. For almost a decade, he’s been the invisible ghost lying next to me, filling me with dreams of his breath in my ear and his heartbeat under my fingertips.
And I’ve resigned myself to that. To dreams. After all, dreams are better than nightmares.
But everything changes the second he saunters back into my life.
With his fiancée on his arm.
Ridge
I fell in love with her the night I was supposed to die.
My patient.
My Brave Girl. My Little Bird...
She was my everything. My reason for living and breathing and surviving. But it didn’t end the way I wanted it to. It couldn’t end the way I wanted it to. Why? Because loving her was wrong. And so, I did what I always strive to do; I did the right thing. I let her walk away, and I didn’t chase her.
Even though I should have. Even though I wanted to. With every fiber of my being.
She called me her hero. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m the genesis of broken promises. The catalyst of pain. I’m the boy in the storage room who doesn’t know what he''s doing. The scared twenty-two-year-old kid who believed the raven-haired girl when she said they could save each other.
Because here it is. Almost ten years later. And I’m not sure I’ll ever be saved.
But I decide to try. I choose to chase my happiness with someone else. After all, I’m never gonna see Orah again, right?
Well, that’s what I think. Until I unknowingly waltz back into her life.
With my fiancée on my arm.
Now, I’m caught between the woman of all my forevers and nevers, and the woman who is supposed to be my always.
And I can’t help but wonder if honor and integrity kill everyone’s destinies.
Or just mine.
**The Flames Duet is a standalone duet in a larger, interconnected parent series of novels and duets--The Hill Family Universe. While The Flames Duet can be enjoyed by itself, the reader will experience a more immersive and pleasurable reading journey if The Reality Duet (Escaping Our Reality & Finding Our Reality) and The Skeptic's Duet (The Skeptic's Playbook & The Believer's Game) are read first. The Flames Duet will contain spoilers about your favorite Hill Family characters and events from The Reality Duet and The Skeptic's Duet.**
Genre: Romance
Orah
I fell in love with him the night I was supposed to die.
My Hero...
He was the man who gave me my life. And then he stole it from me when he told me no. But I couldn’t forget him. Because I marked myself with Ridge. I walked away from that beach with his blood under my nails and his saliva on my tongue.
I’ve had years of misery without him. And years of gratitude for having once known him. Despite the fear and anxiety that still consume me, I’ve been brave. I’ve been living a life and trying to find happiness, trying to redeem myself from the guilt of my past.
It’s been nearly ten years. Well, if I’m counting numbers and being precise, it’s been nine years and nine months since he saved me. And it’s been nine years and four months since I last saw him. There you have it. For almost a decade, he’s been the invisible ghost lying next to me, filling me with dreams of his breath in my ear and his heartbeat under my fingertips.
And I’ve resigned myself to that. To dreams. After all, dreams are better than nightmares.
But everything changes the second he saunters back into my life.
With his fiancée on his arm.
Ridge
I fell in love with her the night I was supposed to die.
My patient.
My Brave Girl. My Little Bird...
She was my everything. My reason for living and breathing and surviving. But it didn’t end the way I wanted it to. It couldn’t end the way I wanted it to. Why? Because loving her was wrong. And so, I did what I always strive to do; I did the right thing. I let her walk away, and I didn’t chase her.
Even though I should have. Even though I wanted to. With every fiber of my being.
She called me her hero. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m the genesis of broken promises. The catalyst of pain. I’m the boy in the storage room who doesn’t know what he''s doing. The scared twenty-two-year-old kid who believed the raven-haired girl when she said they could save each other.
Because here it is. Almost ten years later. And I’m not sure I’ll ever be saved.
But I decide to try. I choose to chase my happiness with someone else. After all, I’m never gonna see Orah again, right?
Well, that’s what I think. Until I unknowingly waltz back into her life.
With my fiancée on my arm.
Now, I’m caught between the woman of all my forevers and nevers, and the woman who is supposed to be my always.
And I can’t help but wonder if honor and integrity kill everyone’s destinies.
Or just mine.
**The Flames Duet is a standalone duet in a larger, interconnected parent series of novels and duets--The Hill Family Universe. While The Flames Duet can be enjoyed by itself, the reader will experience a more immersive and pleasurable reading journey if The Reality Duet (Escaping Our Reality & Finding Our Reality) and The Skeptic's Duet (The Skeptic's Playbook & The Believer's Game) are read first. The Flames Duet will contain spoilers about your favorite Hill Family characters and events from The Reality Duet and The Skeptic's Duet.**
Genre: Romance
Visitors also looked at these books