The Dark Knight

By Melanie Burrows

Skye Young loved her life. She had a career and job that paid well, a great relationship with her boss, Matthew Mercer that was on the verge of becoming a lot more than just friendship. It wasnt too much to ask to keep her uncomplicated life, uncomplicated. Was it?

Getting involved in a love triangle was the last thing she wanted, or needed. And when Jake Alexander forced himself back into her life, she wanted to to just blast him.
For the first time in her life, she was at a loss. The one man, who had meant everything to her, was back.

Jake Alexander had always loved Skye. Unfortunately, there were complications, lots of them. Without jeopardizing his chance of convincing her that she belonged with him and not Mercer, he had to get her to trust a them, a happily ever after. How hard could it be? But Jake never considered that Skye had developed an attraction for Mercer, that his leaving her five years ago when her brother, his best friend died, had left her vulnerable.

Could he convince her that he could make her happy, that without her in his life, nothing would ever have meaning?

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Aug 18, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496982483

Melanie Burrows

Melanie Burrows lives in George Garden-Route, within the picturesque and historically significant Eden District of the Western Cape, South Africa with her husband and two sons, one dog, one cat. When she’s not writing or being a mom and wife, she enjoys past times such as baking, cooking, knitting and other creative exploits. She runs her own consulting business along with her husband by developing business systems and business ideas. Melanie loves nothing better than to spend her time reading all kinds of books around every corner and watching movies. She enjoys a full busy life, and tries to live her life to its moments of pure fulfillment. She believes that nothing is done or lived by pure chance and tries always to motivate others to live their lives on purpose and by grand design.

Book preview

Chapter 1

When her phone rang at eleven that night, Skye groaned out loud, this day just wouldn’t end.

It had been one long, long day. Living with the constant dread of having to answer calls from her mom all day, and the possibility of receiving calls from her friend Angie had her skittish. Not, she told herself, that she needed an added excuse to purposely go about avoiding all personal calls. All those past personal aspects of her past, Skye had left behind, long ago.

And it was also not something she did every day, she never ran away from anything in her life. But going on radio silence today was simply just worth it. And if she wanted to explore the reasons why, she would probably not have wanted to attribute it to her past. That constant reminders? she would surely have safely left those behind. She would face the music on another day. Just not today! Of course she deserved it.

One glance at her phone, told her that it was an unknown number. Should she answer it? It could be an emergency, and before she could question her eagerness or the deep down desire to just know…, she hit the answer button.

Skye Young. Short, clipped, but in her usual impossibly sweet tone, her eyes focused on a painting she bought and hung on the opposite wall.

Hello, Skye, still awake this time of the night? came an all too familiar drawl.

Skye stopped breathing. The shock hit her hard reverberating through her body delaying a usual reaction, her throat constricted; she couldn’t get a sound out of her suddenly too tight throat and she swallowed with difficulty. It was a voice she had not expected to hear, ever again, and it had Skye almost dropping the cell phone in her lap.

It was the one voice that she could never in a thousand years forget or wanted to remember.

She felt annoyed, unreasonably hating the fact that she would probably never forget his rich, deep baritone voice, knew that without a doubt she would always recognise the effect that sexy drawl would have on her. She had hoped that she had grown up a little more, to have had it buried long ago in her past and that she was a little bit more sophisticated and admit that his voice now didn’t affect her any more. But she wasn’t prepared to acknowledge that fact, just yet. Especially as her heart started beating just a little bit faster.

She shivered unbearably, deliciously, when his deep, sexy voice flowed right through her.

The last time she had spoken to him, was five years ago.

Memories flooded her, and she trembled, trying franticly to stave off the anxiety taking hold of her. What was happening to her? Her hands felt clammy and she very nearly failed to hold onto the phone, resulting in almost dropping the cellular… again.

J… Jake? She ignored the nervousness in her voice, the throaty, almost heavy quality of her voice. She wanted desperately to attribute another voice to this call.

Are you alone? No such luck. Her heart skipped again at the sound of his deep voice. This was real!

She frowned, confused. What? Why would he want to know that? Call her? Out of the blue.

Suspicious, and annoyed with herself, she rolled her eyes, collecting herself, and replied abruptly, What do you mean am I alone? Why are you calling me?

She heard his sexy chuckle over the line and struggled to suppress a stray excited heartbeat that must have escaped from deep within. She didn’t want to acknowledge the strain to hear his sexy, masculine laugh.

God she had missed that sound too much.

Hardening her resolve and shaking her head a little too vigorously, she braced herself against the back of her bed, but her voice when she questioned him, sounded all wrong, What do you want? And, how did you get this number?

Skye prayed that he would not hear the slight tremor in her voice. This was not happening. After all these years? Why was he calling her now and what did he want? And why was her heart racing like that? It should not be racing.

Panic hovered and threatened to overwhelm her.

I want to see you, Skye. I’m downstairs. Again, are… you… alone? was his impatient reply.

She gulped. No. And lied.

No, you’re not alone or no you don’t want to see me. He asked slowly, and a little too softly.

Does it matter? She challenged.

She heard him sigh, then answer. His voice was clear, a hint of a smile evident in his voice. I think not.

She almost, smiled, and then stopped herself. This was Jake. He had the ability to affect all her emotions in random order; no build-up; no warning. Just pure reaction!

I’m outside your apartment now, I’m asking you again, are you alone? His tone sounded clipped and unreasonably demanding.

Panic gripped Skye – she wasn’t ready to see him again. Not right now. Damn, but she doubted that she ever would be. When it came down to it, she had never expected to hear from him or see him again, ever. Where did he come from all of a sudden and why now after all these years? Better still, what the hell did he want from her?

There were way too many empty years between them. All of them reminded her of pain and unhappiness. She wasn’t ready for this. God, she didn’t want to panic.

She wasn’t ready for the flood that hovered just below. It would be a disaster to let it in; she had left that life behind, buried deep. And she never wanted to go back.

But for the first time in five years, she didn’t feel that safe behind the walls she had erected. It just wasn’t high enough.

If… if she chose to remember, she would have to think about the fact that she had given him everything, her love, her heart, and she tried to be shamed into admitting, her body to this man. She didn’t want to consider all that. If she wanted to remember anything of their past together, it would be that he left her in a bad place.

Just over five years ago he had disregarded her sacrifice, the gift of her loving. Five years had passed and the blatant truth that he hadn’t come back for her still riled her. He had broken her heart, disregard her love and crush her soul. She hated him.

And she had not forgotten. It had taken her five long years to rebuild her life and happiness. She hadn’t opened her heart or given herself to anyone in the last five years. Instead she had opted to hold onto her anger, it had been her friend. She had nursed it secretly, pulling it up whenever a man wanted to come too close. If it could sustain her for five long years, it could very well keep her safe now.

Her anger would hold her and protect her now. Be her strength. But, truth be told, she was just not ready to see him or deal with this.

The anger still fresh in her heart and her mind, fuelled the strength of her words as she said, Hear what I have to say to you, Jake. I don’t want to see you; we have nothing to say to each other. As far as I’m concerned, our ‘friendship’ has long been in the past, it is over, and we have no unfinished business to iron out or to discuss.

Oh, but that is where we disagree, Skye. I’m coming up. Skye didn’t hear the empty click of the telephone, only heard the threat of hard determination in his voice, and something else too, anger? What possible reason does he have to be angry? Once again, Skye bristled. She stared at the phone in her hand, unable to get over his arrogance as she listened to the monotone of the dialling tone. What the hell?

Hardly a minute had passed when she heard a soft firm knock at her door. Hastily she donned her most attractive nightgown and slippers, somewhere in the back of her mind thinking it wouldn’t hurt to look good, en route to the door. If she was going to be forced to face him tonight, she might as well do it in style.

She knew as she checked the peephole of her door out of habit who she would find there, but she did it anyway. It still came as a shock when she saw the distorted figure of the man she had once thought the world of, standing there. She really hoped he looked as funny face to face.

Skye frowned, sighed, and took a long shaky breath before unlocking the door.

Yep, nothing had prepared her for her reaction in seeing him standing there.

And with that, complete sexual awareness hit her.

Awareness of him. It was her curse, always had been. She tried hard to suppress her erratic breathing, her racing heartbeat dancing around in her ribcage. Not a very good sign. Her body must be reacting to unresolved feelings of proximity to the man she knew of her past. That’s it, has to be. Why else would her body feel that irrepressible excitement she always experienced with him. Her heart wanted to sing, she wanted to smile. For God’s sake, STOP! This is not happening again.

Instead she bit down hard on her bottom lip. She wouldn’t give him the pleasure.

All of this… made absolutely no sense. She hated him. He had hurt her. It would serve her well to remember that. Still, her breathing sped up even more as she bravely faced him.

But it wasn’t fair. Standing there before her, lounging lazily against her doorway, she noticed everything about him. She hated that her body forced her to confront the fact that she was as affected by him as if seeing him for the first time. His six foot two inch frame, powerful and strong, horribly male was still too easy on her vulnerable senses.

She had loved his tall lanky male body that had embodied a younger Jake Alexander with a passion. The fact that she had never felt that way again with someone else since had haunted her far too much since he had left.

The fact that he was so much bigger now had her mind wandering. She could seriously blame it all on his love of playing physical sports. She took a roundabout when her mind almost wandered to the day he tried to teach her how to row with him. Remembered too easily his patience when she had struggled to find sequence, when finding it hard to concentrate on anything else but the way his legs bunched against the pressure of rowing the boat. Skye shook herself. No!

Instantly and shamelessly, her body knowingly reacted, her breasts grew heavier with memories not forgotten. She didn’t want to remember. Trying hard to regulate her breathing Skye tried desperately to hide her reaction to him, tugging a little too hard to cover herself with her wrap.

Couldn’t he have just changed, just some, over the years?

She moaned, instantly stopped the sound from escaping her lips. ‘Oh God, he is still an absolutely, gorgeously sexy man.’ The thought slipped out before she could stop it. She blamed her personal, intimate knowledge of long ago. Somewhere, out of nowhere, she heard that groan. Could it have been her? Immediately she berated herself. She absolutely didn’t want to think of him at all. Not the way he looked after all these years or the way he made her feel right now as he looked at her.

You cut your hair. The accusation stilled her raging thoughts and spilled out before she could stop it, colliding with his words of…

I can see you missed me as much as I missed you.

Skye heard the quiet arrogance in his voice; saw the arrogant smirk on his face. A part of her knew that that alone should have had her livid, but for the life of her, she couldn’t manage it. His eyes connected with hers and held hers; searching for something she didn’t quite know what.

He would notice her lack of retaliation.

Skye leaned against the door, feeling suddenly limp, swiftly finding that using the door as support had become necessary. She wished she didn’t have to hide that fact.

She needed a comeback. Where was one when you needed one?

Her eager eyes took in his expensive clothes, the way his body fit, the supreme confidence he exuded and carried around in every inch of his very male body. Had he always towered over her like this? She didn’t remember him like this; he had always made her feel safe. Did she feel safe with him now? After all, she didn’t know him that well anymore. He reminded her of an animal that was ready to pounce the minute it perceived its quandary’s vulnerability.

When did he get so big? How could she have forgotten that dangerous potential that was so obvious in him now? Because he left you, you idiot, left you to God knows where, to do God knows what. She felt the overwhelming pain claw at her, making her back down from wanting desperately to touch him.

She knew that she was staring. Judging by his amused expression, he was looking her over just as eagerly. She wanted to resist and discourage the attention, but deep down, and she hated to admit it, she longed to take in everything that she had missed seeing for the last five, long years.

His eyes crinkled, lit with amusement, putting Skye on instant alert. She didn’t trust him and took a slight step back, giving him a wider berth when his eyes honed and settled on her lips. Skye refused to feel threatened and focused on his eyes. Perhaps, in hindsight, that was a mistake.

Jake had beautiful, intense, what she had often described as, longing, eyes. Well, at least, that was the way her friend Angie had described it when she had briefly met him those years ago. When she asked what that meant, Angie had shrugged and said that Jake wore his feelings on his sleeve whenever he looked at her. Skye had smiled then, wanting it to be true, not quite believing it. But it was hard to forget that look. She had always associated it with him. He had sexy eyes, hard to escape.

Eyes that were still that, deep, smoky, jade colour, surrounded by the longest sweeping lashes, she had always begrudged him. She remembered how she had often wondered why his eyes that had always been amazingly clear whenever he looked at others, but other times, when he was with her, it had would turn almost smoky, if not murky with soft brown flecks in it. In the past when he smiled, as he was doing now, it would have guaranteed her smiling back at him. But there was something in his eyes that she couldn’t quite place. His eyes seemed darker, almost haunted.

But he looked at her now, smiling, and yet the smile struggled to reach his eyes. He had lost most of that boyish sex appeal that she had found so appealing. Now… he was all man, his face was stronger, a little sterner, and she couldn’t help thinking that he still had the most arrestingly attractive, face on any man. He hadn’t shaved. Would that have been intentional given the fact that it made him look even more attractive, a lot more appealing? Absolutely Sexy; with a capital S. Or so she would guess. And once upon a time, maybe five years ago, she had had a weakness for that face.

But all fairy tales ended some time. And there was no way she was going to admit all that and that she

Reviews for The Dark Knight

[jackalope1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

amazing, so many plot twists with Joker, it's crazy.

[datrappert · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

No redeeming qualities. I truly hated this movie. It has no soul. It revels in violence and the most gut-wrenching cruelty without offering a single ray of hope. What is the point? Heath Ledger's performance as the Joker is superb - but it is easy to see how it could leave a person deeply disturbed. I have no problem with violent movies - Tarantino, Peckinpah, no problem. But those directors' movies, despite their extremes of violence, still have some sort of human center. The Dark Knight doesn't.