The Devil Himself

Growing up, there wasn't a night that went by that my mother didn't read to me from the Legend Has It series by Darby Donovan. It was her favorite-a collection of spooky folktales about a town called Glenshire and the lonely, gray-eyed fairy prince who haunted the woods there. I knew that they were just stories, but when my mother died and left me in the care of my cold, abusive father, that fictional fairy prince suddenly became very, very real to me. It was as if he was always there, hiding in the shadows, offering me his silent comfort. I created an imaginary friend when I needed one most. And thirteen years later, I'm doing it again. When my coastal Irish village is bombed by the new Russian president, Alexei Abramov, a Bratva leader seeking revenge on the United Irish Brotherhood, those missiles destroy everything I've ever known-my home, my family, and evidently, my sanity-because when I pull an injured Russian Naval officer out of the sea, a man who is the embodiment of evil, I can't bring myself to let him die. Secluded together in my secret hiding spot, we're safe from the mafia war raging outside, but the overwhelming connection I feel to this stranger is a battle I fight every single day. I hate him with everything that I am, but when he looks at me with those smoky gray eyes, all I see is my friend. When he touches me, all I feel is a buzzing, electric desire. And when he wraps his lips around the sustenance that I offer him, all I want is to feel them pressed against mine, loving me, putting me back together. But no one can live in a fantasy world forever, and when reality finally comes crashing down around us, the truth about him is even worse than I could have imagined. The man I rescued is no fairy prince. He's the goddamn Devil himself.