You Only Love Once

By Serena Jayne

In the year 2222, venturing outdoors is dangerous. Exposure to the searing ultraviolet rays of the sun could turn anyone into a crispy critter. The ocean is a toxic stew of chemicals and home to a horror show of mutant monsters. When a three-eyed creature skulks out of the sea to nibble on Leo, his beautiful neighbor comes to the rescue. Since the tragic accident that resulted in Ivy's cybernetic limb, she's embraced the mantra "you only live once," but her dangerous plans might be more a death wish than a desire to carpe diem the hell out of life. Can Leo convince Ivy that nothing makes a person feel more alive than taking a chance on love?

NOTE: This story was originally published by Stars and Stone Books in LOVE ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: 13 Stories of Science Fiction Romance Set on Intergalactic Shores
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Physical Chemistry Creations
• Release date: Oct 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386669661

Book preview

You Only Love Once

You Only Love Once

Serena Jayne

Copyright ©2017 by Serena Jayne

You Only Love Once was previously published by Stars and Stone Books in the anthology Love Across the Universe: Twelve Stories of Science Fiction Romance Set on Intergalactic Shores

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All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is purely coincidental.

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No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law and for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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Editor: Stephanie Parent

Cover Design: Stars and Stone Books

Interior format: Monica Corwin

For Daisy. The day you crossed the rainbow bridge, all the sunshine turned to shadow. I miss you, my sweet girl.

Contents

You Only Love Once

Also By Serena Jayne

About the Author

You Only Love Once

Leo stepped outside his condo, turned toward the beach, and went breathless. The emergency indicator on the sleeve of his environmental protection gear wasn’t flashing red, because the suit worked fine. The EPG blocked the searing rays of the sun and filtered the air of toxins.

The reason for his current lack of oxygen was that his breath caught in his throat at the sight of his beautiful neighbor. Clad in the translucent model of EPG, she lay sprawled on a striped blanket on the beach reading a thick hardcover book. Underneath her EPG, she sported a pink two-piece bathing suit. With the cobweb of remaining ozone layer and pea soup haze of air contaminants, no one in their right mind spent a second longer outdoors than necessary.

Especially not near the ocean.

The only creatures able to survive in the toxic stew of salt water were too frightening to contemplate.

Leo winced as his boots sank into the sand. Six months ago, when he'd finally summoned the courage to knock on Ivy's door and ask to borrow a cup of carbohydrate meal, no one had answered.

Now his gorgeous neighbor sunbathed as though