The Harvest

Every October, Hollow's Bend holds The Harvest — a masquerade the whole town pretends is just a party, and everyone quietly knows is something older.

I wasn't supposed to go this year. Not after my mother's funeral. Not with my father's debts still hanging over the orchard house I inherited and can't afford to keep. But grief makes you reckless, and reckless is how I ended up dancing with a stranger in a raven mask who knew my name before I gave it to him.

He said three words to me that night. You're not leaving. Then he vanished before the clock struck twelve — and left me aching for a man whose face I'd never seen.

I told myself it was a one-night fever dream. Until the new owner of the land bordering mine moved into town three weeks later, and I recognized his voice the second he spoke.

Chayton Blackhawk doesn't explain himself. He doesn't apologize for the way he watches me like I already belong to him, or for buying up half of Hollow's Bend, or for showing up at my door every time I try to put distance between us. He's twelve years older, from outside everything my community ever prepared me for, and completely wrong for me.

He is also the only thing I've wanted since the mask came off.

Chayton has spent a long time telling himself I'm not his to want. He's about to stop listening to himself.

Tropes: Forbidden Attraction, Masked Stranger, Age-Gap, Small-Town Secrets, Possessive Alpha, Slow-Burn to HEA

Contains mature themes, sensual content, and emotionally intense romantic tension. Intended for adult readers 18+.