The way he dove into her eyes and starved all the fears and tasted all the dreams she kept coiled beneath her bones.” –Christopher Poindexter Monroe “HELLO? COLIN? IS everything okay?” The questions rushed from my mouth in a single breath as my heart pounded nervously against my ribcage. Phone calls at 4:40 in the morning weren’t typically a good thing, often the result of someone being arrested, seriously hurt, or worse. “Colin? Can you hear me?” “Hey, babe, yeah, it’s me,” the familiar, comforting voice of my husband replied, but instantly, I knew everything was not okay. My stomach constricted into a tight knot as I waited for him to continue. “Sorry to call at this hour, but I’ve had a little accident.” I sucked in a sharp breath. “An accident? What happened? Are you hurt?” Two strong, corded arms circled my waist from behind as I stood naked in Oliver’s living room, the farthest place I could get from his bedroom when I called Colin back, in an attempt to not wake him up.
