Page 1 of Forever Flames: Padraig & Stevie
Prologue
Padraig - Present Day
Ican’tgettherefast enough.
Every red light. Each turtle-speed driver feels like the universe testing my patience. Daring me to slam my foot on the accelerator and tear through the streets until this restless fire burns itself out.
More than a decade of wrong turns, missed chances, swallowed words.
Watching her life unfold from a distance. Sometimes with pride. Mostly with regret so sharp it’s split me open.
Now she’s in reach again.
Close enough I can almost smell her skin.
I let her slip through my fingers once. Stood there and watched the only woman I’ve ever loved walk away without a fight. Drifted, while she built something solid without me. A family and children whose faces I’ve mostly seen from the edges of photographs and stories. I tried to fill the hollow she left with anything else. Women. Music. Noise.
Nothing came close.
Until Rafferty. Becoming his father carved me open. Changed me in ways I never knew possible.
I’ve poured everything into being a man my son can be proud of. A safe place in a world that almost stole him before he took his first breath. I’ve found strength I didn’t know I had, and I’m never putting my own life on hold again.
It’s time to fight for what truly matters.
Every turn brings me closer.
The dark Pacific Northwest night sky bleeds into the windshield, bruised black and blue against the road unspooling in front of me. Trees, buildings, streetlights, none of it matters except my final destination. Every mile drags me deeper into the pull of her.
A war drum pounds in my chest, each beat locking in with the relentless thrum of tires on asphalt. The steering wheel bites into my palms, knuckles bone-white.
She’s everywhere.
In the curve of every turn. Haunting the air between heartbeats. Burned into the backs of my eyes.
Every version of us hits in ragged bursts. Our first kiss. The last fight. The night we lost our virginity on her living room couch as we fumbled and clutched and couldn’t stop.
The years we mapped each other’s bodies like scripture written in sweat and breath. Worshipping and committing every sin.
I remember the taste of salt on her skin and the sweetness on my tongue when I’d bury my face between her thighs. Hear her gasps turn to raw, desperate cries when I fucked her deep and hard. Feel the molten silk of her pussy gripping me as her nails carve my back.
We tore ourselves apart to stitch our souls together, again and again, until the rest of the world ceased to exist and until there was nothing left but us.
Stevie and Padraig.
Forever flames.
Until we weren’t.
Holy fuck, the weight of what’s about to happen presses harder. I’ve tried to bury it. All of it.
Failed.
Fear rips through me, sharp and unrelenting. What if the man I’ve become isn’t someone she could love again? The thought is like a fist closing around my heart, but I keep pressing on the gas.
I won’t back off. I can’t. Not when the thought of losing her twice is like a slow, cruel death.
I take the last corner too fast. Gravel spits under my tires as I pull into her driveway, killing the engine before I’ve fully stopped. I’m out before the thought’s even finished, boots hitting the path in quick, sure strides. I don’t know this house, but I know she’s here.
