Page 91 of One Forbidden Moment

Jillian's heart seemed to stop."No..."

The darkness returned, but the image had already seared itself into her mind.

Another flash.This time she recognized the shirt.The broad shoulders.The familiar shape she would've known anywhere.

"Moe."His name escaped as little more than a breath.

She sprinted toward him, every step impossibly slow and clumsy, as though the storm itself was trying to keep them apart.

Jillian dropped beside Moe, her knees hitting the ground hard.Rain lashed across them as she gripped his shoulders and shook him.

"Moe...please.Wake up."

His body rolled limply beneath her hands.A sob caught in her throat.

She eased him onto his back, brushing mud and rain from his face.Lightning split the sky, revealing bruises already darkening his skin, lips drained of color, lashes motionless against his cheeks.

"No, God, no, no, no."She leaned over him until her forehead rested against his."I'm here.Please don't leave me."

For one endless heartbeat, there was nothing.

Then his chest hitched.

A ragged gasp tore through the silence.

She lifted her head."Moe?"

His eyelids fluttered.His gaze wandered through the storm before finally settling on her, as though he couldn't quite believe she was real.

"You..."His voice scraped against his throat."You made it."

She laughed through a sob, running her hand over his abused face.

"You're okay?"His cold fingertips pressed against her cheek.

She nodded, pressing into his touch.

"I thought..."He coughed and groaned."I thought I lost you."

She covered his hand with hers and held it there."You didn't."

He pulled her into his arms with what little strength he had.She buried her face against his chest, clinging to him as if the storm itself might tear them apart again.His heartbeat hammered beneath her ear, uneven, but alive.

"We made it," she whispered.

His embrace loosened.She looked up.

His gaze drifted past her, scanning the trees bending beneath the wind, the black sky split by lightning, the soaked earth stretching endlessly around them.She studied him as another flash illuminated the landscape.

The same trees lining the road.

The same endless storm.

The same suffocating darkness pressing in from every side.

Disbelief robbed her of her joy."No..."

Moe pushed himself unsteadily to his feet and reached down for her.She took his hand, rising on legs that threatened to buckle.