Kiss Before the Dark: Two Strangers, One Storm, No Escape

A blizzard traps Avery in a remote mountain lodge on New Year’s Eve. The place feels abandoned, the storm sealing her off from everything familiar. Except she isn’t completely alone. A traveler named Elias is already there, steady in a way that hints at old battles and sleepless nights. Their connection is quiet shared glances over cold mugs, low conversations in the lounge, the simple relief of another heartbeat nearby.

But the storm isn’t the only thing moving through the lodge. An old radio repeats their words back to them, phrase by phrase. Footsteps drift from the attic when the hallways sit untouched. Shadows pulse along the walls like the building is taking a slow breath. Elias seems protective, but Avery can’t tell if he fears the lodge or what it stirs awake.

Isolation bleeds into closeness. Curiosity edges past fear. Snow pushes them together while something in the rafters learns their voices, their pacing, their longing. The lodge has appetite. And it does not intend to let go.

As midnight nears, the space between desire and imitation narrows. Avery must decide if the man beside her is safety or bait and if any love can survive when even the walls whisper her name.

When the storm breaks, who steps out alive?

***

As the clock counts down in this story, its forbidden passion and creeping terror echo the haunting heartbeat that binds the entire Fireworks and Shadows series.

On the final night of the year, the line between longing and fear blurs. Fireworks flare overhead while something restless moves beneath the surface lovers drawn together by desire, timing, and the darkness that lingers after the light fades. From haunted houses to towns that remember too much, Fireworks and Shadows unravels what happens when connection turns into invitation, and love insists on surviving what should be left behind. Each story burns briefly, beautifully, before midnight falls and nothing is the same again.

© 2025 Velvet Ink Press (E-bog): 6610001109646

Udgivelsesdato

E-bog: 26. november 2025