Page 1 of His Darkest Desire

CHAPTER ONE

As a child, Kinsley had held such simple views of the seasons. Spring had meant picking wildflowers and helping her mum in the garden. Summer meant no school, long adventures in the woods, and swimming. Fall had been about the beautiful colors on the trees and Halloween, which she’d loved even though she was so easy to scare. Winter had been all hot chocolate, warm fires, Christmas, and the near-mythical snow day.

Sitting here on a blanket in the back of her SUV with rain pattering on the raised hatch, she longed for that childhood simplicity. But the innocent mindset of her youth could not be restored by the soothing rain or the tasty ham and cheese sandwich her aunt had packed for her, and the landscape surrounding her, for all its wonder and newness, refused to let Kinsley hide from the fact that her perspective had forever been altered.

Gray clouds loomed over the dark, restless waters of the loch beside which she’d parked, contrasted by the nearby vegetation. Some green lingered, but yellow, orange, red, and brown dominated the Scottish Highlands. It wasn’t just the trees and undergrowth—the ground itself had ceded to autumn.

Her marriage had ended during the fall three years ago, just before the lush Oregon woodlands had started changing color.

Kinsley’s view of the season hadn’t been the same since. Autumn, a time of decay and decline. A time of growing darkness, of day giving a little more of itself to night with every cycle.

And here, now, five thousand miles away from the place she’d called home, she understood that autumn meant change. Wasn’t that what she’d been searching for?

Kinsley took another bite of her sandwich. All things changed with time, and change wasn’t inherently bad. The fallen leaves would fuel new growth in spring. Life would slow down, but it would not end. The plants and animals that would sleep through the winter would awaken to a world reborn.

Didn’t that make autumn a season of hope? Of harvesting and reflection, of…healing?

She swallowed and glanced down at her half-eaten sandwich with a smile. Perhaps everything else had changed, but Aunt Cece’s sandwiches were just as delicious now as they’d been during the holidays Kinsley had spent in England throughout her childhood.

How could ham, cheese, mustard, and mayo—arguably the most basic of sandwich ingredients apart from peanut butter and jelly—be so good?

Was it simply that taste of the old and familiar amidst all this change? All this…

She sighed and returned her gaze to the loch.

What is this?

“It’s an adventure, Kinsley. You’re going to explore the ancient forests of Europe like you always wanted to do.”

At least that was what she’d been telling herself, though she knew it was only partly true.

I’m running.

Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!

Kinsley scrunched her nose and lowered the sandwich to her lap. “I’m not running.”

But saying those words out loud didn’t change the truth.

And yet being here felt…right. All her life, she’d always had this vague sense of an invisible tether tugging her in this direction, leading her to these ancient lands. Now that she was no longer resisting that call, it was like…

Like she was meant to be here.

“One day at a time, Kinsley. One day at a time.”

She lifted the sandwich to her mouth. Before she could eat any more, her phone rang, disturbing the peaceful ambience that had allowed her thoughts to wander where they shouldn’t have. Grabbing the phone from the blanket beside her, she turned it over and smiled at the name on the screen. She accepted the call.

“Hey mum.”

“Hello love!” came Emily’s cheerful voice. “Are you in your new place?”

Kinsley took another bite of the sandwich. “Not yet.”

“Dear, don’t talk with your mouth full.”

Kinsley chuckled. “Sorry.”

It didn’t matter that Kinsley was a twenty-eight-year-old woman, her mother would always scold her for her manners as though she were still a rambunctious five-year-old opening her mouth to gross out her older sister with a clump of chewed up food.

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