Title: Finding Me (His, #3)
Author: Mariah Dietz
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 1, 2015
Synopsis
I came here to escape. Leave the debris and avoid the inevitable truths.
Things are better.
Worse.
Different.
I’m finding me, but in the process I fear I’m forgetting those I have left, and the ones who have left me. Maybe I’m losing who I was.
Can I forget my past and move forward?
Can I forget him?
Excerpt
My eyes fly open and my mind feels alert. Normally nightmares wake me up like this, but this time, nothing is haunting me.
I look around the dark living room,
feeling my heart race, and then realize what woke me up. A loud train of curses
followed by a whine and a scratching at the door makes my heart squeeze. I sit
up slightly, my eyes and ears desperately seeking the night for the
confirmation that I’m not dreaming. A scraping against the lock sends my heart
rate to unhealthy levels as my eyes widen and my muscles tense. When I hear the
key turn, I drop back to the couch, squeezing my eyes shut and trying to bury
my face in my pillow, behind a wall of my hair as I try to make my breathing
sound normal.
I can tell when the door is opened
by the click of Zeus’s nails against the hardwood floors growing closer to me.
His voice is hushed as he calls out to Zeus, making my entire body pulse with
familiarity and nerves. Zeus’s heavy breathing grows until he places his front
paws on the couch in front of me and begins bathing me in heavy kisses. There’s
no way to try and pretend I’m sleeping through this. I’ll drown first. Plus my
need to see him is outweighing my fears.
I sit up and wipe a hand down my
face while searching the dark living room for him as Zeus pushes closer to me,
whimpering with anticipation and what can only be described as unleashed
excitement.
Then he appears in front of the
coffee table. It’s too dark to make out much of him, but every fiber of my
being feels some sort of response, verifying that it’s him. Elation and fear,
mixed with rage and jealousy, are topped with curiosity and pain. It’s a
confounding and stifling overabundance of emotions that has my eyes staring
wide at him, soaking up every last detail that I can manage in the dim light
while Zeus works to climb higher on the couch, hovering over me.
Max stares back at me and although
it’s too dark to see the blueness of his eyes, I can see the fierceness in
them. He looks pissed. No relief, no happiness like Zeus, just anger.
“Zeus,” he calls again in a tone
I’ve rarely heard.
“It’s alright. He can stay.”
Thankfully my voice barely comes out above a whisper because my emotions are
shooting through me like vinegar when it meets baking soda—unsteady.
He stares at me, and like a geyser,
unspoken words flood my mind. “Hey, Max.”
He must be just as shocked as I am
that I was able to speak those words because as soon as his name leaves my
lips, he turns and ascends the stairs without responding. His bedroom door
slams and then silence rings in my ears.
I catch a movement out of the
corner of my eye and turn to see Landon in the hallway, running a hand over his
jaw, wearing only a pair of gym shorts. His head turns from the stairs to me,
and then he silently walks to the couch.
“He’s …”
“It’s okay,” I say when the rest of
his words don’t seem to find their way out. “This is his house too.”
“He’s not mad at you.”
I turn to look at him in obvious
disbelief. Anyone would have been able to see that Max was mad at me. His
reaction wasn’t shocking exactly. Max lost one of his best friends, just like I
had. There have been days that I have felt really angry over the whole
situation too. Angry that I didn’t know how to communicate my feelings, and
angry about the way he dealt with my insecurities. I still struggle with being
angry over removing myself and moving to Delaware because I thought it would be
the right decision for me.
Kitty and I have discussed my
tendency to run from awkward situations; she’s the one who provided me with the
new term “remove myself from.” It sounds a lot better than fleeing, but I had
fled, and I know it. I can give a hundred reasons why for each time too,
rationalizing each situation until I’m nearly positive it was the right
decision—but I can never make it to one hundred percent. That small bubble of
resistance and doubt always prevents me from being able to allow the memories
to finally be discarded, and then it begins spreading, eating the conviction
one doubt at a time.
His Series
About The Author
Mariah Dietz lives in Eastern Washington with her husband and two sons that are the axis of her crazy and wonderful world.
Mariah grew up in a tiny town outside of Portland, Oregon where she spent the majority of her time immersed in the pages of books that she both read and created.
She has a love for all things that include her sons, good coffee, books, travel, and dark chocolate. She also has a deep passion for the stories she writes, and hopes readers enjoy the journeys she takes them on, as much as she loves creating them.
Mariah grew up in a tiny town outside of Portland, Oregon where she spent the majority of her time immersed in the pages of books that she both read and created.
She has a love for all things that include her sons, good coffee, books, travel, and dark chocolate. She also has a deep passion for the stories she writes, and hopes readers enjoy the journeys she takes them on, as much as she loves creating them.
Giveaway
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