Bryon by Suzanne D. Williams

His hand extended, palm upturned, he wiggled his fingers, and she settled hers in it, rising at his tug. He didn't bother to close the car door, but walked her into the light of his headlamps and drew her into his arms. Swaying, he sang a tune from his younger years, but what had been done on a stage in a cloud of cigarette smoke in front of people who didn't care about the words held a new meaning spoken to her.

She gazed at him briefly, then dropped her cheek to his chest, and something happened in his heart that he couldn't stop. She burnt a place there, a hollow shaped exactly like her, and he determined to somehow make it stay.

Though she grew up with her hippy mom on the west coast, Pepper Dupree has always been close to her billionaire dad , which made moving home to nurse him through a horrible illness an easy choice. But from the start, something isn't normal. He's uneasy, unsettled.

A late night drive to scope...