Braelynn and Peyton are
finally headed down a path without torment—until he allows someone else to come
between them.
With the remnants of her
broken heart scattered, Braelynn begins to piece herself back together, piece
by ragged piece.
Peyton has dark secrets of his
own. Secrets that leave him no choice but to walk away from the only woman he’s
ever loved.
But his desire for Braelynn
has him fighting between what he wants, and what he needs to do to keep her
safe.
Love can only withstand so
much. The connection between Braelynn and Peyton has been tested before—could
this be their breaking point?
Prologue– Peyton Present
Present
I had lost her.
And not like before. Not like
when she pushed me away and I’d refused to leave. This time, I had lost all of
her.
Her heart.
Her adoration.
It was all gone.
The love she’d had for me
vanished. Her eyes changed when she looked at me; the brilliance in them faded.
I had betrayed her in the
worst possible way.
Braelynn was the only woman
I’d ever loved. She was the one who changed my entire life. All I’d ever wanted
to do was protect her, and I had spent months trying to do just that. I wanted
to keep her away from my past—away from secrets that could hurt her and destroy
us. But instead, I’d stomped on our relationship, dragging her heart through
the mud in the process. Her pain and her heartache were entirely my fault.
She might never forgive me for
what I did.
The day he showed up at my
office changed everything. I shouldn’t have let him blackmail me but I was
caught off guard, and the only thing I’d wanted to do was shelter Braelynn from
harm’s way.
I watched as she sat on the
couch, her loose tendrils covering the tears that dripped from her eyes. The
cut on her lip had swollen in the past thirty minutes. Her eye was bruising,
turning shades of blue and purple with each passing second. The sling that the
paramedics had placed over her body was supporting her right arm. She held her
head low while talking to the authorities. Her hands were coated with his dried
blood.
She glanced in my direction
and her eyes told me everything.
With that one look, I knew I
had lost her.
Forever.
***
Melissa tapped on my glass
office wall. Looking up, I noticed her point to the elevator and give me the
thumbs up. I need to give my secretary a raise for putting up with the unstable
man she works for, I thought to myself.
It had been a little over a
month since I last saw Braelynn. She had ignored every one of my calls and she wouldn’t
speak to me. Any time I tried to see her she avoided me, and the few short
times I did bump into her, she wouldn’t even look at me. Her green eyes had
always been the conduits to her emotions. Without being able to look deeply
into them, I had no inkling how she felt.
She’d given me no choice but
to lie to get her here. She would be pissed but at least she had come. There
was one thing Braelynn never did half-assed, and that was her job. She took
pride in what people thought of her in the workplace. So I had Melissa reach
out to her and explain that there was an old case she had worked on while at PH
Esquire, and the client would only speak to Braelynn.
She took the bait.
She looked beautiful in a
tight gray skirt and orange blouse. I tried to hide the grin that I knew was
spreading across my cheeks. Her heels had slammed against the marble floors
before stopping at Melissa’s desk. I assumed she’d want to talk to this
previous client and leave as quickly as possible. When Melissa began to explain
that there was no client, her face whipped in my direction and her nose
crinkled with anger. She tossed her bag on Melissa’s desk and marched towards
me. I loved this fiery vixen that couldn’t hold her tongue and braced myself
for her anger.
“I have a job across town!”
she shouted, stomping into my office. “I have cases I need to review. I have a
schedule I need to maintain. What do you want?”
“You!” I stood, resting my
hands on my desk. It was a simple answer. She was what I wanted. What I needed
to get back.
“I did not get stuck in rush
hour traffic to hear this.” She marched over to my desk and mimicked my pose on
the opposite side. “Do not summon me with some bullshit excuse again. I am not
your dog, Peyton. I do not come when you call!” She stood and twirled back
towards the door.
“You do not walk away from
me!” I knew how to push her buttons. If she walked out of my office now, it
would take me months to get her back.
She looked back, and her eyes
pierced through me with hatred. “We are over. I don’t know how many more ways I
have to paint it for you, Peyton,” her finger pointing between our bodies, “but
I can’t do this anymore. You lied to me for months. I cried myself to sleep so
many times. And for what? Because you were a coward!”
I walked around my desk,
meeting her in the middle of the office. “We. Are. Not. Over. That will never
be true. We’re never going to be over because I won’t allow it. Get that
through your head. I won’t ever get over you, so us being over is irrelevant.”
I lifted my hand to touch her cheek, but she pulled away.
“We’ve done this song and
dance before.” Her voice cracked with the pain I’d caused her. “I can’t go back
to living that way.”
“How many times do you want me
to apologize?” I reached for her forearm and she didn’t stop me.” Come back to
me, Braelynn. Forgive me.”
“Please stop . . . ” She
looked at my hands on her skin. I knew she felt the electric current running
through us because where our fingers connected, I felt the same current.
“I love you.” It was all I
could say.
“Stop. I’m tired of your mind
games. I cried for so long, thinking of everything I could have possibly done
wrong. And it was you, not me.” She yanked her arm away. “I’m not a toy that
sits on your shelf to play with when you’re bored and horny. I am not the girl
who will run back to you because you said you were sorry and that you love me.
You want me to forgive you, earn me! Until then, there is no us.” She paraded
out of my office.
If she wanted me to earn her,
I would.
Braelynn belonged with me.
Consensual (Consensual #1)
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Coherent (Consensual #2)
Livia Jamerlan is the author
of Divided. She is also a hopeless romantic who is always looking for her next
love story to pop in her head. Though Livia kept a journal throughout her early
life, she never thought about pursuing a career in writing. She always used it
as form of therapy, pouring her heart out into words. It wasn’t until a story
developed in her head that she decided maybe she could write a book. At first
it was just an escape from reality, but now she uses it as a power to put all
her feelings, hopes, and fears on paper. Deciding it was time to tell her story,
she began to write. With each passing day the story grew, characters were
formed, and what seemed like a hobby at first has now become a passion for
Livia.
She is a New Jersey Native who
loves spending time with her husband and two dogs Buddy and Daisy. When she is
not writing or hiding behind her Kindle, you can find her with outside,
gardening, at a local shopping center enjoying some retail therapy, or enjoy a
pepperoni pizza
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