After Our Kiss

I was thirteen when I was kidnapped. Fourteen when he helped me escape. Twenty-three before I ever saw him again. His face is all over the news: he's a wanted man, now. Maybe my memory played tricks on me… but he looks so different. The boy who saved me years ago had a shy smile and dark, soulful eyes full of secrets. This man has a hard jaw and a harder mouth. Lips that could never whisper sweet promises. I knew him as a hero—my savior. I refuse to believe he could become a villain. Not him. Then he abducts me, proving me wrong. He tells me he's going to take me apart and put me back together again. Make me what he needs me to be: a plaything for a monster. It's the fate I escaped when I was fourteen. And that's when I finally understand. He was never my hero. He's the man who's going to break me.