Madly Yours (Nora Reed) novel Chapter 240

Something was wrong.

He immediately reached for his phone on the nightstand, but just as his fingers brushed the screen, his bedroom door clicked open.

"Edmond, what happened? I heard a crash..." Juliette hurried over.

She was wearing a creamy white silk nightgown. The soft bedroom lighting outlined her curves perfectly. It was Nora's favorite nightgown. The exact same style, the exact same color.

Edmond's pupils dilated. His vision started to blur. The heat inside him flared out of control, incinerating his remaining consciousness. The figure in front of him wavered and shifted.

"Edmond... what's wrong? You're scaring me." She grabbed his arm, pressing her body against his chest.

Edmond's breathing grew ragged. He stared down at her face. It flickered between clarity and illusion—one second it was Juliette, the next, it was someone else.

Nora...

He shook his head, trying to banish the ridiculous hallucination. But the drug was too strong. It wiped out the last shred of his sanity.

"Edmond..." The voice was soft and sweet, brushing against his ear like a feather and sending a shiver down his spine.

Edmond grabbed her wrist with an iron grip and pulled her roughly into his arms.

"Nora..."

His voice was entirely wrecked, a desperate sound ripped from the back of his throat. "You came back... You finally came back."

Juliette leaned into his chest, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs. Slowly, a victorious smile spread across her lips.

"It's me. I'm back, and I'm never leaving again."

Edmond pulled her flush against him, holding her so tightly it felt like he was trying to meld their souls together. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling deeply.

It wasn't Nora's scent. The perfume was too heavy, sickeningly sweet. Nora didn't wear perfume; she only ever smelled of clean shampoo and fresh body wash.

The scattered, blurry memories from last night hit him like a freight train.

Nora?

How...

Then, a horrific realization paralyzed him. No. It wasn't Nora. Nora was in San Francisco. She couldn't possibly be in his bed.

So who was the woman he had spent the entire night with?

His hands balled into tight fists, the veins popping along his knuckles. It took him a long time to muster the courage to reach out and brush the tangled hair aside.

Juliette.

His pupils contracted sharply. He sat there, utterly petrified, as if he had just been struck by lightning.