Page 117 of When Hearts Surrender

“What on earth was that?” Grace asks. “Something is off with him. He wasn’t like this before.”

“No shit. See? This is why I stay away from men. They’re more trouble than they’re worth,” Taylor says.

I shake my head in confusion. “I always thought he liked me before, and I tried keeping my distance…but I think something else is going on.”

An icy chill sweeps up my skin as the snow falls harder, suffocating the air in a fury of white. The world spins around me again and I bend down and clutch my knees, trying to heave in a few breaths as the girls walk ahead.

“Belle, you okay? You look green.” Tay stops from a few steps away. Grace furrows her brows, clearly worried, and starts walking back toward me.

Closing my eyes, I breathe slowly, waiting for the strange dizzy spell to pass.

I need to find another doctor. A specialist. This isn’t just stress.

Something doesn’t feel right.

“I don’t know what’s going—” I begin.

Suddenly, a loud screeching of tires bellow in my ears.

“Belle, look out!” Grace screams and I look up, finding a car barreling toward me.

Just then, a hard body plows into me, slamming me out of the way of the speeding car, which careens off the sidewalk before taking off, and I feel the heavy impact of a body on top of mine as we land on the wet, hard pavement.

Oxygen wrenches out of my lungs as pain spirals inside me, the dizziness from a moment ago returning with a vengeance. My ears ring from the sudden motion and impact.

The scent of amber and sandalwood hits my nostrils, and slowly, I open my eyes.

Maxwell is staring at me, his face leached of color, his hand cradling my head as his breaths fan over my face.

He looks terrified.

Chapter 43

Belle lets out asatisfied sigh as she snuggles next to me in the bedroom of the family jet. I don’t think my pulse has settled until we’re in the air, leaving New York behind.

She almost died in front of me yesterday.

If I hadn’t arrived just then, hadn’t seen her from afar and asked my driver to drop me off so I could surprise her by being there early, she would’ve gotten hit by the car.

And she would’ve been gone. Once again, I would’ve been helpless to stop it.

Chills run down my body as I hold her tighter in my arms, needing to feel her warmth, her chest rising and falling.

I’ve gotten too complacent, too addicted to her love. I’m tempting fate again, and this is a sign from the curse. The Grim Reaper is lurking nearby, waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

But I don’t want to give up what we have, this connection I’ve never had with anyone before.

Fuck.

“Maxwell,” she mumbles and buries her face in my chest. She inhales deeply and sighs, “Home.”

The backs of my eyes burn as my pulse wreaks havoc in my ears, my heart feeling like it’ll explode and give up on me.

I can’t lose her. I can’t lose this. There has to be some way around this curse. Once we get back to the city after our trip, I’ll search the library to see if there’s anything I’ve missed over the years. I’ll reopen the autopsyfiles of the most recent deaths and see if there’s anything that was missed before.

Anything to give us hope.

Closing my eyes, I listen to the soft sounds of her breathing, the whirring of the jet in the background as we head to Innsbruck, Austria for a quick weekend trip I’d planned as a surprise ever since Lana reminded me I should take my wife on a honeymoon.

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