He Chose Her Cat, I Chose His Ruin

Synopsis

On the day we were getting our marriage license, Cohen Hale, my boyfriend and search-and-rescue captain, left me stranded deep in the wilderness to save his first love's cat. Cohen said, "Stay put. Runa spooks easily. I need to get her down the mountain first." Darkness fell. Disoriented and alone, I missed my footing and tumbled into a hunting pit lined with thorns. At my breaking point, a man dropped down into the pit. The metallic scent of blood clung to his skin. In that tight, dark space, with the storm crashing overhead, the atmosphere grew charged with something raw and electric. The man tore open his shirt to bandage my wounds, and his hot palm found its way to my waist. "Don't you think you owe me something a little more physical?" By the time Cohen finally came back for me, the evidence was impossible to miss. The red scratches on the man's neck. And the dark purple mark on my collarbone.