Page 1 of Shine Bright

Prologue

Ophelia

It begins with a kiss.

Soft lips meeting mine. Hot, hungry, and demanding. My mouth opens all by itself, and somehow, I can’t do anything about it. I’m at a party, and I’m kissing a guy I’ve never seen before tonight, whom I’ve barely even spoken to. He’s saving me from total embarrassment with this kiss. He’s the fairy-tale knight I’ve been looking for all my life.

But he’s a dark knight. Because the bright ones, the ones with shining silver armor who come to rescue princesses from monsters, can’t kiss like this. And maybe that’s exactly how it should be.

I forget who and where I am and even why I’m kissing him. His tongue touches mine and sends heat flooding through my body, a thousand tiny shocks across my skin. He buries one hand in my hair a little too deeply. It pulls, but in the best possible way. There’s a rushing sound in my ears, and I can’t hear anything but my heartbeat. All I can feel are his lips on mine, his one hand in my hair, the other on my cheek. His grip is firm and gentle at the same time.

A sigh escapes me, and I can feel him smile against my lips, just for a second. Then he tips my head back slightly and deepens the kiss, and I burst into flames.

What the hell is happening here?

I twist my fingers in his shirt, and it’s crazy how much I want to feel his skin right now. I’ve never been kissed like this before, and I’ve never kissed anyone back like this either.

And then it’s over.

He pulls back, just a little, so he can look at me. The baseball cap he’s wearing casts a shadow on his face. It’s a handsome face, much too good-looking, with clear, sharply defined features that are almost perfect. Strong eyebrows and lips that are a little swollen from our kiss. He gives me a crooked smile when he notices me staring at his mouth.

My gaze darts upward to his eyes, which are so dark they’re almost black. But I can see a sparkle of amusement in them. He looks at me just for a moment, then glances past me, and I remember the reason we were kissing in the first place. All at once, my stomach drops. I want to turn away, but his hand is still on my cheek, keeping me where I am.

“Don’t look now,” he whispers, and I freeze in place. I can’t help it. Probably because he’s right: Me looking now would completely ruin the point of the show we just put on.

“He doesn’t seem to be thrilled,” he says, pushing a strand of hair behind my ear. Aside from me, I don’t think anyone else can tell that he’s looking at Archie and Florence. Florence is the girl I wasn’t supposed to worry about, but she’s obviously more to Archie than just a fellow student.

How could he do this? How could he move on from our relationship so quickly? And what the hell am I doing here, anyway? I shouldn’t have come, especially not expecting to talk to Archie, hoping he’ll stop ghosting me and admit that the last few weeks have changed things between us. Obviously they have, just not the way I wanted.

But now we’re both here, and I can see him with her. Her hand on his chest, his hand on her back, a little too low, almost on her butt. It’s the casual intimacy of their touch that makes my heart shatter whenever I look at them. They’re making it so obvious, like they’ve done it a thousand times before.

“Not thrilled at all,” the guy in front of me says, distracting me from my thoughts. An amused smile plays around the corners of his mouth. My heart skips a beat, but it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that Archie is annoyed about me kissing a stranger at this party. He’s here with Florence. He’s her boyfriend now.

I take a deep breath, and my chest presses against his. “That’s his problem,” I say quietly, but it’s a lie. It’s my problem, because now I know there’s no hope, no chance to undo the breakup that happened three weeks ago.

It’s better this way, he told me. Over the last few weeks, I’ve realized that we’re just not right for each other, Lia.

Those two sentences were enough to pull the rug out from under me. All the plans and dreams we had, everything I’d imagined for our life together, were gone. Just like that. And there was nothing I could do about it. He made a decision without giving me any chance to try to save our relationship.

We’re not right for each other. We’ve grown apart.

We were perfect together, and he knew it. After all, we’d been together for four years, almost five. We had the same friends, the same ideas and dreams. We wanted the same things, from the very beginning. At least, that’s what I thought.

“Yes, looks like it.” His lips touch mine again. It’s not even a real kiss, just a fleeting touch, but it’s enough to make my skin tingle. My mind stops working, and I forget about Archie standing just a few feet away from us. I forget that I only kissed this guy so Archie would think I didn’t care that he was here with his new girlfriend. Maybe I just wanted to prove something to myself. But right now, with his warm breath on my skin, it feels like I actually don’t care at all.

I look up at him and wrap my arms around his shoulders, my fingers brushing the sensitive skin on his neck, and I feel him getting goose bumps. I have to smile.

“Thanks for your help.”

“You’re welcome.” His lips brush mine again. “Do you want to get out of here?” he whispers hoarsely, his voice sending tiny tremors through me.

I hesitate. I should say no, because I don’t do things like that. I don’t even go to parties, much less kiss strange guys at them. And I certainly don’t leave with them. That’s not who I am. Or at least, that’s what I always thought about myself. But right now, there’s a part of me that wants to do exactly that. I want to feel his hands on my body, his lips on my skin. Everything is throbbing with desire, urging me to let go.

Just once.

Just for one night.

Just one mistake.