Jared
They say love and hate dance together on one line.
My feelings for Layla don’t dance on the line; they destroy it.
It’s been seven years since she disappeared.
And now she’s back, but things have changed—I’ve changed.
I’m no longer the Jared she remembers, the boy who wanted to protect her.
I’m very much my father’s son, and I take what I want, and what I want is Layla.
But this time, I’m keeping her forever.
Layla
Seven years—that’s how long it’s been since I’ve seen him.
After painstakingly putting myself back together, I’m finally ready to start a life without his memory chasing my every step.
Imagine my surprise when my new beginning leads me straight back to him.
Only he’s not the boy I remember.
He’s angry.
Damaged.
Hiding secrets that want to destroy him.
He hates me. He wants me.
I’m not sure I’ll survive the man he has become. His demons threaten to destroy us both.
Broken People Duet: Deceive Me is created by Vi Carter, an eGlobal Creative Publishing signed author.

Broken People Duet (1): Deceive Me

Air is rarer than gold dust right now. I’m struggling to find enough to satisfy my lungs as Jared towers over me. He’s larger than life. He’s angrier than a storm. He has a savage beauty about him that makes being in his presence hard to bear.


Jared steps back to the chair and gathers up his jacket. I’m frozen to the spot as he returns, and with such a tenderness that sings to the most humane part of me, he drapes the coat over my shoulders, and my pain wants to howl his name.


"Let’s go." His words are hollow, and the echo of them has my pain burning up faster than dry paper. I follow him quickly out of the mansion. Taking snapshots in my mind of the architecture that under normal circumstances I would admire, my mind reels. I can’t believe this is where he lives. It appears that Jared has everything. Appearances can be and are deceiving, though. I’ve never seen another human so empty at times.


Chapter 24: Layla