Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all excited about the release of The Day to Remember, which will be out in August! I’ll announce the official release date very very soon ;). In the meantime, I’m sharing another teaser!

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Here’s the UNEDITED prologue of The Day to Remember. Enjoy! And don’t forget to tell me what you think! XO, Jess

Prologue

“If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.” – Michel de Montaigne

I found myself standing in the center of a dark clearing surrounded by trees. A brilliant, icy-blue full moon casted its gentle light down from above. A cool breeze blew through my hair, bringing the sounds of a melody to my ears. I looked around the clearing, searching for the source of the soothing music. I found it.

From about a hundred yards away, soft lights illuminated from the edge of the forest where the trees were sparse. From where I stood, the lights were like twinkling stars suspended around the trees. There, I saw someone—a man—standing there. Instinctually, I moved towards the man. The thick glass was lush and damp under my feet as I walked. Then, as if sensing my approach, the man looked up and saw me. He smiled, and my heart stopped at the sight of the deep-set dimples that had once melted my heart. It was him.

My heart raced and I was consumed with an irresistible urge to run from this clearing—to run away from Brandon. But my body would not listen. Instead, I felt myself walking across the clearing. As I came closer towards him, I saw thousands of small lights wrapped around the trees and dangled down in long thin lines like falling stars. Brandon stood in the middle of the lights, playing a guitar. His fingers melodically strummed Elvis Presley’s I Can’t Help Falling in Love with You. His eyes were full of emotion as he watched me approach him. By the time I got to him, my eyes were filled with tears that were threatening their way down my face.

At the end of the song, he placed the guitar on the grass and he reached for my hands. “I want to be that fool that rushes in because I can’t help falling in love with you.”

I looked at him and felt my heart ache with happiness and sorrow. I blinked and felt the hot tears rush down my cheeks. “But … but what about her?” The image of the other girl—the stunning girl I saw at the door—was all I could think of when I looked at Brandon.

He smiled at me as he held my face with his hands and gently whipped away my tears. “She means nothing to me. You are the one that I want to be with. You are my world. Forever and always.”

Our eyes met and I felt my anger towards him waver at his words. “I am?”

“You are.”

“But—but why was she there?”

“I don’t know. She shouldn’t have been there. I’m really sorry you had to meet her.”

I looked at him in confusion. His brown eyes were gentle and sincere, and I knew I believed him. No matter how much pain he had caused me, for some inextricable reason, I believed him. “You broke my heart, Brandon,” I said softly.

“I know, and I’m so sorry. Please believe me when I say I would never intentionally hurt you.”

His hands were warm against my face and his thumbs gentle stroked along my cheekbones. I closed my eyes and allowed my face to sink into his touch—to feel the familiar roughness of his hands against my skin. “I want to believe you,” I whispered. I felt torn between what my heart and what my head was telling me.

He pulled me into his warm embrace and I buried my face into the contours of his chest and inhaled his scent. He gently kissed my head and whispered back, “Tell me what I need to do for you to believe me.”

I sighed against the heat of his body. Being with him, in his embrace, was home to me. It felt right and I knew there was nowhere else I wanted to be but here. “Just don’t leave me. Don’t let me go.” I pressed myself against him and felt his arms tighter around me.

“I won’t. And I don’t ever want to.”

I moved my face up to look at him. He looked down at me and I saw the love in his eyes—the same love that I felt in my heart for him. Our lips met in a deep all-consuming kiss, and all my worries melted away like ice cubes in the heat of his touch. My lips eagerly explored his—soft and salty. Our tongues found one another, moving in unison, swirling and sucking. His hands moved down the smalls of my back and he pulled me closer against his body, pressing his manhood against my lower stomach. I gasped in surprised by how hard his erection had grown against me.

“Can you feel how much my body responds to you?” His voice was ragged and I heard the want in his voice.

I nodded and gasped, “As much as my body wants you.” I rubbed myself against him, hungry for his touch and desperate for him to be connected to me.

Then suddenly from the corner of my eyes, I saw an ornate full-length mirror a few feet away from us. Was that there earlier? I pulled away from Brandon’s embrace and looked up at him, frowning in confusion. “What’s that doing here?”

He didn’t seem to hear my question and pulled me towards him again, kissing the nape of my neck as his hands explored my back. I moaned in pleasure, trying to forget about the mirror. But I couldn’t. Something compelled me towards the mirror and I found myself moving away from Brandon’s embrace and towards it. I walked the few feet in the direction of the mirror, holding Brandon’s hand and leading him with me.

When I looked into the mirror, I gasped in shock and dropped Brandon’s hand. There in the mirror, staring back at me, was her—the stunning brunette I saw at the door that morning, the one that had looked at me with disgust, the one whose words shattered my happiness with Brandon—Brandon’s girlfriend. But she wasn’t next to me and she wasn’t behind me. She was me! She was me and I was her.

I woke up and sat straight up in bed. My body was covered in cold sweat. My heart was pounding against my chest as I tried to catch my breath and shake off the images I just saw from my mind. That was another dream—a nightmare. Brandon had professed his love to her. He desired her. She was his world. Not me.