When I near the second floor, I slam to a halt as a six-foot something, broad shouldered, hoodie-wearing problem emerges in my path. I bring my fingers to my cheek, remembering the guy I stumbled across the night I snuck out of my house. He struck me then dragged me into the bushes near a massive building that centers the Shadow side of town to punish me for being out so late. The people around the building didn’t intervene, because they had their own problems they were dealing with. The torturous things being done to people… God, there was so much darkness… so much evil…

The sound of the guy stomping up the stairs brings me back to reality. He has a notebook in his hand, and the hood of his jacket is pulled over his head.

He has to be the guy who picked up my torn journal pages.

He stops in front of the right door on the second floor and pops the end of a cigarette into his mouth. Once he lights up, smoke circles his face and the air around him as he rests against the doorframe.

I see three options on how to get the papers back. Option one, I shove him down and steal the papers from his pocket. But I’m not a ninja, so plan one gets immediately scratched. Option two, I could flirt with him until he gives me the pieces of paper. That one seems doable. I’ve charmed a few guys before, including Evan. But this guy is about as far away from a pretty boy as one can get and definitely not Evan, so I’d be way out of my comfort zone.

That leaves me with option three, which is simply asking him kindly to give them back to me.

I start down the stairs toward him. As if he senses someone watching him, he glances around. Still near the corner, he can’t see me as easily as I can see him. Wisps of his black hair land in his dark eyes, and silver studs cover his brows and pierce through his lip. His features are beautiful, but he looks rough around the edges, like he has really experienced life and has been scarred by it.

I get an even better view when he spots me and quickly draws the hood off his head.

He has the darkest eyes I’ve ever seen, is the first thought that crosses my mind. Then all thoughts float away and evaporate into one clouded thought—Gorgeous.

He’s not conventionally beautiful at all. He is a dangerous beauty, a potent beauty, an overwhelming beauty. Like a painting so imperfectly put together it creates the most amazingly emotional, perfect piece of art.

If my mother were here, she’d tell me he was about as imperfect as a person can be: a piercing in his lip, another in his brow, hair as black as ink, eyelashes so long and dark he looks like he’s wearing eyeliner, scars on his neck that declare his imperfection. A rebel, she would say. A disgrace. Someone who needed to be punished, locked up with the key thrown away.

But, to me, he is art, poetry for the eyes and heart. He is the most terrifyingly beautiful guy I have ever seen. And his scars have to tell a story, a story I want to hear.

All I can do is stare. All I want to do is stare. Never move my eyes away from this guy and his beauty and the intensity scorching in his eyes. How could I have been so afraid of his kind, so terrified of something just because they look so dangerous? Because he doesn’t seem dangerous like I’ve always been told. He’s just intense.

Really intense.

I should probably look away; his gaze is too penetrating. But I can’t break the lock of our gaze as he stares me.

And stares.

And stares.

I should really move. Break the connection from his imperfect perfection. The guy who has my secrets tucked away in his pocket. But, my feet remain fused to the concrete while my heart slams in my chest and my knees start to wobble. The stare is starting to become awkward, but I can’t bring myself to look away.

Look away, Emery. Look away.

Finally, I manage to step forward, my lips parting to ask him for the papers back.

“Hi. I’m Emery Iveryson.” Apparently, my mouth has an idea of its own. “Um, I live upstairs,” I continue rambling, my legs feeling like two wet noodles. “I just moved in like five hours ago.” As a nervous laugh escapes my lips, I want to smack myself in the forehead. What is wrong with me? I’m way off my game.

The guy tilts his head, lifts the cigarette from his mouth, and his lips quirk. He stares at me as if I’m the most amusing creature he has ever met.

I tug the bottom of my shirt a little lower as his gaze skims my legs, chest, neck, and face.

“Um…” Say something! “Do you live here?”

Ashes scatter and dance in the air, circle around us, and kiss the silence of our stares as I wait for him to say something—anything—to shatter the stillness coming from him.

But he doesn’t…

Utter…

A word.

Instead, he assesses my body thoroughly. He never actually touches me, yet I feel like he’s brushing his fingers across my skin as his gaze travels across my flesh. Heat singes through my veins. I’m burning up, erupting in flames.

It’s the most intense moment I’ve ever had.

I almost don’t want it to end.

But it needs to.

I force my gaze away from him and stare at the ground. “Look, did you by chance find a bunch of shredded papers out on the front grass?”

Again, he doesn’t utter a damn word.

After a minute ticks by, I lift my gaze to him again. He’s not looking at my body anymore or even at my eyes. He’s looking into my eyes.

What if he knows?

What if he read some of the pieces already and knows about me?

Terrified, I do the only thing I can do.

I run the hell away.