Heart - Book 3 of the Bad Boy Vibes series

Prologue

Prologue

Temptation, hidden in the shadows, wields the power of the forbidden. The lure of the dark is ever irresistible, drawing in its prey with wanton relish.

But the dark is not just limited to the night. Nocturnal beings of a certain kind need only the illusion of the dark to manifest themselves within their victims' minds. Anna Simmons was not an unfamiliar victim to this sort of nocturnal being. The virtual kind that haunted the living, originating from sore memories of their pasts, haunting their dreams, making living entirely impossible for some—when the weapon of choice was the victim's own sense of guilt. Hell existed on earth. It existed in the minds of those who had sinned. It existed in the minds of those who still had a soul with which to sin. But what about the damned? How did they suffer in living? Did they suffer at all? Or would their victims' only solace be in knowing just where they were headed on death?

Anna slumbered on restlessly, her lithe body tossing and turning on the king-size bed. Being haunted by fearsome dreams was nothing unusual for her. But this particular strain of nightmare had her breaking out in sweat.

The sun shone brightly down on her through the open windows. Heat gushed in relentlessly. The taciturn Melbourne weather was once again holding true to its nature with cloudless skies becoming cloud-filled at random intervals.

The afternoon siesta Rafe had insisted on was beginning to take on the nightmarish proportions of hell. Perhaps if Rafe had stayed on with her, keeping her company in her sleep, then she would not be haunted by Matt Preston's unusual play of words. Was she really to be faulted? Was Matt the one who had been the true victim of what happened to her? Did it matter still, either way? Memories long buried rose anew in her unconscious mind in a byplay of events passed that may not have unfolded in the exact way as they did now. Perhaps her unconscious mind was warped with the past and the premonitions of the future.

Anna couldn't tell the difference. She could only toss and turn, trying with futility to escape her inner demons.

"You love me?" His words were softly spoken and strangely uncertain. Anna stared ahead, unperturbed by the question or his need to ask it. She knew just how he would have looked phrasing it, even without seeing his face. She knew his bright-blue eyes would reflect the cloudless morning skies down at her and that the corners of his eyes would crinkle attractively in open amusement at his own uncertainty.

"You know how I feel," said Anna just as softly, lifting her own green eyes, at last, to stare into his.

"Humor me."

That surprised a laugh out of her, but a strange disquiet pervaded her senses then. She wasn't sure what was the catalyst; she only knew a sense of fear.

"Matt?"

"Answer the question, Anna," Matt demanded quietly. Anna allowed her gaze to drift over his blond hair and was surprised to discover their strands were longer than before. Seemingly overnight. What was going on?

Her feet continued their steady pace as she walked by his side, treading quietly with sure steps along the corridor. The place was strangely quiet. Where had everyone gone? Had the bell gone off already? Anna cast a nervous look around, but the warm hand that held hers firmly in its grasp tightened about her.

"Anna?"

"Yes."

There was no question about it. She loved him. She had from the first moment she laid eyes on him. She had only been too tongue-tied in awe to do anything about it then. But she wasn't now, not anymore. If he wanted her to shout it out to rest of the world, she would gladly do it. She would do anything for him. He needed only to ask.

"Me? Do you really love me, Anna?"

The words held a hint of surprise in them, but it was the underlying doubt that had her feet stopping and her head turning to face him.

"Matt?"

"Anna?"

She gazed at him with familiar longing. Why was he doing this? Didn't he know just how much she loved him? Couldn't he tell? She was there with him, holding his hands, wobbling along at his side in a ridiculous pair of stilettos and dressed in the skimpiest outfit she owned. Did he really have to ask... still?

"You know I love you, Matt. You're the love of my life."

"Anna!" he gasped out her name ever so sweetly. His sigh was a soft, warm flutter against her heated cheeks. Anna couldn't help but blush at the intensity of his gaze. The relief in his voice spoke volumes, but Anna couldn't understand why. Why the doubt in the first place?

Seemingly out of nowhere, a door flew open, and footsteps, sure and determined, stormed down the corridor toward them. Unknowing as to why, Anna grew anxious. She cast worried eyes to meet Matt's reassuring ones. Something was wrong, terribly wrong. Couldn't he tell? Why was he smiling now? Why was he not as worried as her?

"Matt?"

But Anna never got to hear Matt's response.

"Fuck you! She's mine!"

Anna cried out in shock as the blade came seemingly out of nowhere to plunge straight into his heart. Blood spurted everywhere, drenching her face and form with its deep crimson color. But it was the scent that had her gagging and nausea rising at the metallic tang to its taste. Then she turned as green as her gaze, realizing just why she could taste it. Her screams were all that she heard still. She forcefully gagged herself then. Stuffing a blood covered fist into her mouth, stifling her cries 'til she could hear it no more.

It was only then that she turned to look at him again, lifting tear-drenched eyes to his face.

"Rafe?" Anna staggered back in her shock. "Rafe!" A keening cry left her lips as a wall of pain came crashing down on her. "Rafe!"

Anna sobbed her heart out, falling to her knees before him. No! No! This could not be happening. She wrapped her arms around her waist to hold herself together as her gaping mouth continued to make those keening sounds. But her moans of pain gathered attention. Soon, she heard her name being called.

"Anna?" The hand on her shoulder shook her away, out of the grip of anguish so deep she thought she would never resurface.

"Anna? Are you alright?"

Lifting her dry-eyed green gaze to stare into the warm, chocolate ones that stared down at her, she could only reflect anguish back at his obvious concern.

A dream.

A nightmare. Only the broad daylight defied the appropriateness of that term. A catnap had literally turned into hellish dreams. Anna lifted tired eyes to meet Rafe's concerned gaze. It was a shame, but her efforts to recoup lost sleep from the night before, spent pleasurably in Rafe's arms, was all to waste. She shook her head silently at Rafe, knowing she didn't need the words to explain it. Rafe was not oblivious to her bouts of nightmares, just as she was not clueless to his.

Every nightmare she ever had held a sheen of violence that could not be denied. But this one had an ominous ring to it. Fear gripped her heart like never before, but in the far recesses of her mind, Anna was oddly glad. She'd finally had the answer to one all-absorbing question.

She may love Matt still, but she loved Rafe more.