What Still Burns Between Us
Warning: Only read, if you have a real appetite for the dark.
Rain Spencer and Dane Collins have already loved each other once.
It ruined them.
They were best friends before they were almost lovers. Enemies before they learned how to stay away. They kept circling each other until the last break finally stuck.
Or so Rain thought.
Years later, London throws them back together under fluorescent lights and hospital sheets. Rain has built a life on discipline and distance. Dane has returned with scars he refuses to name and a past that won’t let him breathe.
Seeing him again doesn’t just reopen old wounds.
It reminds her why she ran.
Against every instinct, they fall back into each other. This time harder. Deeper. Recklessly. The connection that once felt inevitable now feels dangerous — but impossible to resist.
Because loving Dane doesn’t just cost Rain her control.
It costs her everything.
As secrets surface and old patterns resurface, the line between healing and destruction blurs. What starts as a second chance turns into a slow unraveling — one neither of them sees coming until it’s too late.
They don’t just break each other.
They change each other forever.
A slow-burn, high-angst romance about love that refuses to die — and the consequences of choosing it anyway.
Excerpt:
“ Do you not want me?" I whisper, the question trembling right against his lips.
His jaw tightens.
His eyes darken.
"You don't understand how much I want you," his voice comes out raspy.
"How much I want from you."
My pulse stumbles.
"Then what's stopping you?"
I breathe, pushing my chest forward without thinking, nipples tightening under the cool air, awareness pulsing through me.
"I'm a greedy man, Rain."
He holds my gaze.
There's heat there. But there's fear too , both in equal measure.
"I will take everything out of you.
Everything."
His voice carries a dark unmistakable hunger.
His hands slide lower, deliberate and possessive.
His fingers squeeze my ass hard, then settle there, pulling me closer into the hard line of his hips.
"Everything. Until the only thing that remains in you is me."
The words land low inside me, hot, aching. My sex throbs in answer, needy, traitorous.
"And I will let you," I tell him, voice steady, eyes locked on his.
"Only if I get to do the same to you."
Silence stretches.
His breath skims my cheek.
His fingers tightening and then gone. Something flickers across his face hunger, and something I can't begin to understand.
And then he looks down in defeat, knowing that he cannot give me what I want.
Something fragile cracks between us.
Whatever this is looms between us, darkening every moment , a shadow neither of us will name, stretching and stretching until it's all I can feel
Contains intense slow-burn heat, emotional angst, and consensual light BDSM.
"I'm going to do something," he says, voice low, deliberate,
"And I need you to trust me.
Do you trust me, Rain?"
My mind is drifting somewhere far away — hazy, floating — but my body knows the answer instinctively.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
I nod slowly.
"Yes."
"Good," he murmurs against my warm skin.
He kisses both my knees one last time, then pushes them up, pinning them tightly against my chest, spreading me completely open for him.
Like I'm offering myself to him.
His hand slides down, rubbing my pussy in slow, deliberate circles, like he's learning every response and cataloging it .
He looks at me — really looks — eyes dark, hungry, ruined.
"I'm going to spank you right here," he says, still stroking, like he's soothing me into obedience.
"Right where you're swollen for me."
All I can do is shiver.
"You're going to count," he continues, calm and merciless.
"Five."
I see exactly where this is going, the realization flashing through me.
"No—wait—"
His mouth curves — not kind — and he corrects me softly:
"Six."
I don't say anything. Instead, I simply part my thighs wider.
