“Dangerous Currents”

Haillie never planned to fall in love with someone like JJ Maybank.

She was all set, with ambition, a plan for the future, and a hell of a need for control. Him? Well. JJ was a human hurricane. Blonde hair blowing in the wind, a look like a storm, and a smile that could sell ice to penguins. Total chaos. But you couldn’t miss him. You couldn’t escape him.

They met on the worst possible day—she’d gone to the store for gas, and he’d tried to steal cigarettes because “fuck, he forgot his wallet, and Nick hadn’t lent him one again.” Their eyes met. She rolled her eyes. He grinned. And that’s how it all began.

“What are you staring at, princess?” he said in that sly tone of his.

“For an idiot who can’t get out of grade school,” she replied, walking past him like he was air.

JJ was intrigued. Damn it. No one had ever beaten him like that. No one had looked at him like a person – just like an obstacle. And Haillie… was different.They started dating by accident. She had dropped in on a bonfire with a friend, and he had suddenly shown up at her school with a motorboat and “accidentally” suggested a ride. The tension between them grew with each passing day – like a wave before a storm. He was raw, wild. She was strong, but closed. JJ drew out of her what she had carefully hidden. And she gave him something he had never had – the feeling that someone really saw him.

But it wouldn’t be Outer Banks without trouble.

JJ dragged her into one of his actions – something that was supposed to be just a “quick cash grab” but ended with a police chase, a smashed quad and hiding in an old beach house. That was when he kissed her for the first time – dirty, tired, with adrenaline gushing from his ears.

“You’re fucked up,” she said, breathing heavily.

“I know,” he replied with a smile – and that’s exactly why we fit together.

Haillie knew JJ could destroy her. But she also knew she'd live a half-assed life without him. And she wanted a full-on fucking life. With him.