Falling Out by Andrea Hopkins

COLE:

I wanted nothing to do with love. I’m done. Broken in so many places I’m unrecognizable—even to myself. Lost. So f***ing lost I don’t know what the Hell I’m doing now. I’ve succumb to the darkness that has kindly offered me solace. Dead set on letting life pass by around me as I sulk and lick my wounds—drowning myself in a vat of whiskey and any willing and ready woman I come across. Existing but not really living.

I thought I had everything figured out. Until I saw her. Angeleigh. I shouldn’t want her. She’s all light while I’m stuck hiding in the dark. But damn, what I wouldn’t give to touch her just once. Although I know once will never be enough, not with her, not with my Angel. One look, one touch, one heartbeat at a time—she’s saving me.I thought I was lost. But she found me. She sees me—the me I’ve been trying my damnedest to snuff out. And maybe, just maybe, she’ll chose me too.

ANGELEIGH:

He has a penchant for the f-word. Surly as a mother trucker—wearing a permanent scowl on his unfairly perfect scruffy face. He is the worst kind of man-whore and a complete and total lush. He’s bad news. I know I should stay away.

But no one but Cole has made my body sing with just one look. One touch and I’m humming full length albums—putty in his very capable hands. Hands I want to feel …everywhere. But it’s his eyes—blue as the Oregon summer sky—sad seductive, haunting—piercing my soul in a way that makes my body ache …for him. Only him. He sees me. The me I thought was long gone—stolen by the living nightmare that was childhood and the man who is currently hell-bent on keeping me in his cruel and controlled grasp. I need to leave. I need to save myself. But maybe, just maybe, Cole can save me too.