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Bonds We Break
Paula Dombrowiak
(Blood & Bone, #3)
Publication date: April 14th 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

To have and to hold from this day forward – to love and to cherish, till death do us part – and these are the bonds we break.

My name is Mia Stone. You may know how my story ends, but the truth is buried between the headlines. A secret that was meant to be taken to the grave – Until now.

I promised myself to one man, while still in love with another. I came between two best friends and by betraying one, I lost everything. In the end, we both knew, those bonds were always meant to be broken.

These men want to own me, possess me, or hold me down, but I was never meant to be tamed.

I have been told that I am a force of nature, but even a hurricane comes to an end.

Authors Note: If you have read Blood & Bone then you know how Mia’s story ends. If you require a happy ending, this book may not be for you. You can choose to skip this book and read Bound To Burn. If you choose to read Bonds We Break, know that this book contains sensitive subjects so please read with care.

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EXCERPT:

“I don’t care. I’ve always only wanted you, Mia. I love you so much I would burn down the fucking world just to have you.” I try not to focus on the tremble of his lips against my skin. It’s torture standing so close to him, feeling him, breathing him in… but that’s what he’s counting on.

“That’s the problem,” I explain.

Tears stream down my cheeks like rain against a windowpane. My lower lip trembles as I rest my nose against his, breathing him in for one last time. I want to memorize every line on his face.

“Tell me you don’t love me,” he demands. This is too much for one person to handle.

“I can’t.” I grip the collar of his jacket so tight I think I might tear it away from him.

“Why does it have to be so complicated?” Those ocean blue eyes of his swim with emotion as they gaze at me.

We were always complicated. From the moment he first wrote in my journal and kept it secret from everyone else, we sealed our fate.

“I need you to let me go,” I beg, the words coming out stronger than I thought I was capable of.

“You know I can’t do that,” he growls.

“Then I will walk away for the both of us.” I muster every last bit of strength I have in me to say it.

Jack grips the back of my head, his fingers fisting my hair, and I know he doesn’t want to let me go just as much as I don’t want him to either, but it’s the way it has to be.

“I can’t let you go,” he whispers into my hair, placing a kiss on top of my head. “I won’t ever let you go.”

“I know.” I let my lips brush against his, the feeling causing me to sag against him as every nerve ending lights up in my body. For a few seconds we are at an impasse, unable to move, a hairs breadth between our lips, until we finally touch.

The kiss is so achingly slow and devastatingly beautiful that a piece of me is lost to him forever. I can taste the salt of his tears, and I swallow them with a kiss. He takes my face in his hands and I place my hands over his, holding us together as if I were to let go, we would fall apart.

That is what will happen. Once I let go, we will fall apart.

I have to let go.

“I love you,” I admit but he already knows this.

“If you didn’t love me, this would be easier,” he says against my lips.

“I don’t like the person I am with you,” I tell him as I let my hands fall away from his, breaking the spell, and we peel apart like the water being pulled away from the sand.

“It doesn’t have to be that way. I can be a better person. I can try. Just don’t give up on me.” The desperation clings in the air like humidity before a storm. I want to believe him, but he’s not capable, not now anyway. Timing is everything.

“I don’t make you a better person.” That’s the real problem. For me, he will give up anything, do anything, be anything, even if it destroys everything around us. That’s not the kind of muse I want to be.

I pull back to get a good look at him. “It’s not our time.” Maybe someday it will be, but that day is not today. “I need to learn how to be me without you.” My eyes swim with tears. He is all I have ever known since I left home, and I fear he is a crutch I lean on far too much.

“That’s the difference between me and you,” Jack says as he strokes my cheek with a callused finger. “I don’t want to know what it’s like to live without you.”

I can’t bear to look at him now and cast my eyes down to his chest. It rises and falls to the rhythm of my own heart. “If it’s meant to be, we will find each other again.”

Paula Dombrowiak grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois but currently lives in Arizona. She is the author of Blood and Bone, her first adult romance novel which combines her love of music and imperfect relationships. Paula is a lifelong music junkie, whose wardrobe consists of band T-shirts and leggings which are perpetually covered in pet hair. I am a sucker for a redeemable villain, bad boys and the tragically flawed. Music is what inspires her storytelling.

Check out my website for more ways to learn about me and my books, as well as purchase signed paperbacks and book merchandise @ www.pauladombrowiak.com

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