Chapter Prologue-Max

Something tickled the periphery of my brain.

I couldn’t identify it. Not yet. Not while sleep still clung to me like the cloying stench of the too-strong perfume the women I’d fucked around with last night wore.

Was someone here?

An animal?

A person?

Whoever it was, they weren’t a threat. At least, not yet.

They were simply hovering there, while I came to slowly, still enjoying my time on the other side of consciousness.

I wasn’t worried, though. If I was in danger, my Devil’s instincts would surely have woken me up before now.

I sighed and stretched, appreciating the cool, dewy grass as it slid across my overheated skin.

It felt even better than the ridiculously high thread count of my Egyptian cotton sheets back inside my bedroom.

But maybe that was because this house, my room, all of it felt like some kind of cage trying to trap me in. I mean, it wasn’t always that way. But just lately.

Fuck. Yeah. Lately.