Heart Beats – Rebecca Elder (1)

In a final flourish of aesthetic desperation, I place a fresh bouquet—soft pink ranunculus and white tulips—on the entry table. I angle the vase slightly, so it looks casually elegant instead of like I’m trying too hard. Then I lunge for the pile of shoes by the door, cramming them into the hall closet with the grace of someone disarming a bomb. The door barely closes, but it does, and that’s what matters. Breathless, I glance around.

The place looks… welcoming. Cozy. Like someone who has her life together lives here. Mostly. From my best estimation based on the dinner destination, he should be about a twenty-minute walk from my apartment now, giving me enough time to freshen up and brace Ferguson for meeting our guest. As I run a brush through my hair, my golden locks now grown to the middle of my back.

Ferguson yowls in protest, his amber eyes narrowing at me like he knows exactly what I am doing. “Come on, Ferg,” I say, scratching under his chin. “Play nice tonight, okay?” Ferguson has never been a fan of the men I bring home. It isn’t subtle, either—he hisses, growls, and bolts for the nearest hiding spot when one dares to enter his domain.

I warned Julian about this, expecting his usual nonchalant charm, but his response had surprised me. “Challenge accepted,” he’d said, grinning with confidence. It was cute, sure, but I wasn’t looking forward to the inevitable look of disappointment when Ferguson made his disdain known. A knock at the door sends my heart into a flutter. I press a quick kiss to Ferguson’s head, earning another annoyed yowl, and hurry to open the door. Julian stands there, donning that dazzling smile, holding a takeout bag that smells deliciously like Chinese food.

The moment he steps inside, he wraps me in a tight hug, the kind that makes it feel like we haven’t seen each other in years. Before I can catch my breath, he quickly kisses my lips and says, “Hey, beautiful.” I am already beaming, but then I realize he isn’t looking at me. His gaze has shifted downward. “Hey there, gorgeous,” he coos. I follow his line of sight—and freeze. Ferguson, my fierce and perpetually unimpressed feline, sits calmly at Julian’s feet.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. ISBN-13: 979-8-218-80123-6 Cover design by: Rachel Sierra Printed in the United States of America OceanofPDF.com To every person who has ever felt like they were not enough.

You are. Don’t let anyone, even yourself, convince you otherwise. OceanofPDF.com HEARTBEATS PLAYLIST In The Stars – Benson Boone You’ve Haunted Me All My Life – Death Cab For Cutie Stay – The Kid LAROI, Justin Bieber I’m Not Okay – My Chemical Romance i think about you all the time – The Maine Good Grief – Bastille How Do I Say Goodbye – Dean Lewis Please Please Please – Sabrina Carpenter Damaged – Danity Kane D2B – JasonMartin, Bad Lucc, The Homegirl The Night We Met – Lord Huron Falling In Love at a Coffee Shop – Landon Pigg Espresso – Sabrina Carpenter Emerald Eyes – Anson Seabra Are You Even Real – Teddy Swims, Giveon Consider Me – Allen Stone Little Bit Better – Caleb Hearn, ROSIE When Am I Gonna Lose You?

– Local Natives Want You Like That – Charlotte Sands You’re So Vain – Carly Simon All That Really Matters – ILLENIUM, Teddy Swims Banks – NEEDTOBREATHE Baby Blue Eyes – A Rocket To The Moon Crazy In Love – Beyonce Heartbeat – The Fray You Are The Best Thing – Ray LaMontague Miserable at Best –Mayday Parade Truly Madly Deeply – Savage Garden All of Me – John Legend Scan the QR to listen to the Heartbeats playlist on Spotify!

OceanofPDF.com CHAPTER ONE October 4, 2022 10:20 a.m. The towering high-rise gleams in the late-morning sunlight, the glass windows catching the golden rays and reflecting them in shimmering patterns. From my vantage point on the corner, the building looks almost surreal—its sharp edges and sleek modern design standing in stark contrast to the softness of the day.

I pull out my camera, adjusting the settings before raising it to my eye. Each frame captures the interplay of light and architecture, the way the structure commands attention with its striking symmetry and contemporary elegance. A vibration in my pocket reminds me to check my phone. I scroll to the email from my client, scanning for the door code: 2208. Slipping my camera back into its bag, I punch in the numbers, the metallic keypad cool against my fingertips.

The lock releases with a click, and I open the massive glass door, stepping inside.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 2c1d275dac991358
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 3,789,724 bytes (3.614 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9798218801236
• Pages: 346
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 588.94 minutes
• Total Words: 117,788
• Total Characters: 659,632
• Average Words per Page: 340.43
• Average Characters per Page: 1906.45

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