Catching Sparks (Cherry Peak Book 2)

My eyes shootopen as I sit up in a bed that’s not mine, damn near pissing myself. The clanging outside is cruel. It’s still semi-dark in the bedroom, the open blinds providing me a long, tired look at the early morning sky.

I’m slick with sweat, having had another nightmare rattling my mind all night long. A swirl of my stomach, and I’m tossing my legs over the bed and heading for the ensuite. With a flick of the lights, I stumble in, taking one look at myself in the mirror and cringing, nausea forgotten.

I’ve been exhausted nearly every day of my life for the past ten years. But I’ve never looked it as much as I do right now. I could scare a child with a slight glance in their direction due to the heavy bags beneath my eyes and stress lines etched so deep in my skin they look like scars. Staring back at myself right now, it makes more sense as to why Annalise’s friend looked so disgusted with me yesterday.

Poppy, her name was. The impertinent woman with the soul-eating, caramel-brown eyes and a curved figure handcrafted by the fucking gods above. One look at her and I went rigid, drowning in a case of delirious physical attraction. I threw up a wall of steel between us before I took my next breath.