When Hearts Collide (ORCHID #2) by Victoria Lum EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Victoria Lum
- Language: English
- Genre: contemporary romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 4.7 MB
- Price: Free
THE GUNSHOT IS DEAFENING.
The sound echoes in the quiet morning just before the screeching cries
from a flock of quail fleeing the scene of a murder pierce the eerie silence.
I’m still standing.
For the brief millisecond as the rifle ricochets in my hands, time freezes,
the seconds suspending in an alternate dimension. My breath lodges in my
throat as goosebumps prickle my forearms, already glistening with a thin
layer of sweat.
The damp fog in the waning twilight, the skies lightening from dark
navy to pale blue as the sun announces its arrival, all seem sharper and
more visceral.
In this instant, I stare at nature in its eyes, not knowing if I’ll be the
person left standing.
To conquer or be conquered.
But I feel so damn free. Alive. Unapologetically honest.
A wide grin splits my lips. I savor the high streaming in my veins and I
can finally breathe.
The beast inside me roars. For a few blessed minutes, it’s uncaged,
unchained, untethered. It can run, it can escape, it can raze the fields to its
heart’s content.
This motherfucking boar, with an impressive set of razor-sharp tusks, a
beast twice the size of the normal wild hogs I’ve hunted in the past, is now
a dark clump in the distance.
“Good job, Ryland. Waking up before dawn paid off, eh?” Jerome, my
trusted hunting guide of fifteen years, gives me a terse nod before raking his
weathered, tanned hands over his shaggy blond hair. I flew him out here to
California from back home in New York just for this hunting trip; a rare
escape for me.
My lips twitch in a half-smile, sweet satisfaction flooding my insides,
mixing with the heady rush of adrenaline. It’s a sensation a man can be
addicted to.
The hunting. The freedom. The danger of the chase.
The stress I’ve accumulated in my tight shoulders slowly leaches out of
me.
“It’s satisfactory,” I reply.
“It’s good to see you smile finally. I was beginning to think you forgot
how to do that.”
Jerome and his assistant, a stocky guy who looks no older than twenty,
follow me as I amble toward the fallen beast to see if my shot hit front and
center.
Two blurry shapes of blue and yellow catch my attention. I glance at the
low-hanging branches, finding a curious bird, the sialia currucoides, the
mountain bluebird, staring at me with sharp eyes, its vibrant blue feathers a
sharp contrast to the browns and greens of the muted valley landscape in the
fall. Its partner, the sturnella neglecta, the western meadowlark, with its
captivating yellow chest, breaks out into a sweet, melodious song.
The birds cock their heads in unison as we observe each other. They
don’t seem to care they’re in the presence of danger, or how the rules of
nature dictate they should flee as I step closer to them. In fact, the
meadowlark’s song grows louder.
It’s as if they’re here to say, fuck the rules.
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB