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438 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
"I hate you, Ellie Watt," he whispered, lips coming closer to mine, "because I still love you after all these years.”
"Nope. This is about taking control. It's about controlling yourself, getting into that tiny moment in which you can make things happen. (…)"
"I own you, Ellie Watt," he whispered.
"Oh, do you?" You think because of your leg and your scars that gives you a right to punish people? Rob people? Cheat, scam and steal? You think you can use that to justify what you do for a living?"
"Do you think because you can't see my scars that they don't exist? That's the trouble with pain, Ellie. If you're lucky, you can wear it for all the world to see. Most people have their pain deep inside, in places no one ever goes. Not until it's too late."
"Do you ever look at yourself in the mirror?" he asked, his voice rising. "Do you like what you see?"
"I know what I know of you," he whispered into my ear, his breath hot. "And I want to know more."
"It's like art, Ellie," he said gently and looked up at me. His eyes looked wet in the table lamp's amber light.
"Art?"
"Like an abstract painting. You can find art and beauty in everything, if you look hard enough. But your beauty is just staring you in the face."
"Ellie," he said, sitting back down. "Let me tattoo your scars."
(…)
"So what are you going to tattoo on me?"
"Whatever your scars tell me to to," he said.
(…)
I put my sins in his hands.
"I'm not bad. The world is bad and I'm just trying to survive in it."
"I don't think I'd ever gone on a vacation my whole life. I was always working, always on. It was a full-time job pretending to be someone else."
"This will be the last time. I've said that before. I've said it a lot. I've said it while talking to myself in the mirror like some Tarantino cliché."
"He was like a living, breathing painting on an all-male canvas."
"Don't try and con a con man"
♪♫The sacred and profane
The pleasure and the pain
Somewhere your fingerprints remain concrete
And it's your face I'm looking for on every street♪♫
Sins & Needles
Watch her surrender her sins to his needles.
Sins & Needles.
This is your Soundtrack to this review – please open it in a new window and listen while you read! It is relevant to the story.
“I’m not bad. The world is bad and I’m just trying to survive in it.”
Friends are dangerous liabilities when you’re a grafter. They’re dangerous liabilities,period.
Revenge never felt so good.
Never commit a crime when you're the only one to blame.
"But then I wouldn't be who I am. I don't want to hide myself. I'm not ashamed of being Camden McQueen. Are you ashamed of being Ellie Watt?"
"Yes," she said softly.
"Can it be so bad?" he whispered. "How can someone as pretty as you have anything that would make her less?"
Used by her parents from an early age as bait in their grifting profession, she has experienced a lot of pain, both physical and psychologically most of her life. She has reached a time in her life where she wants to give it all up and have a normal life. Going back to her hometown might just be the answer.![]()
I hate you, Ellie Watt," he whispered, lips coming closer to mine, "because I still love you after all these years.
It’s sparkling, crackling and sizzling!!!![]()
I loved the writing style.![]()
“This will be the last time. I’ve said that before. I’ve said it a lot. I’ve said it while talking to myself in a mirror, like some Tarantino cliché.”
“The situations they were placed in and the way the story unfurled, it reminded me of a movie, a really kick-ass adventure movie with a hot male lead and super steamy love scenes that I can imagine myself taking more than one trip to the theater to see.”
“Well, I’m certainly not your Prince Charming,” he said, gathering up the other dresses. His arms flexed beautifully against his black t-shirt. “Thank god for that,” I told him, feeling bold. “Prince Charming never had your body or your tattoos.” “Or my cock,” he shot in, grinning wickedly. I bit my lip as my eyes traveled to his crotch and back. “If he did, Cinderella definitely wouldn’t have gone home at midnight.”
He whistled again. “The tattoo on your arm. The tune. It’s from ‘On Every Street.’ Dire Straits.”
“It suits you,” he said, quietly this time. “Rough and sweet and sad?” I joked. “No,” he said. “Just sad. God, that’s a sad song.”
There's gotta be a record of you someplace
You gotta be on somebody's books
The lowdown - a picture of your face
Your injured looks
The sacred and profane
The pleasure and the pain
Somewhere your fingerprints remain concrete
And it's your face I'm looking for on every street
For Now...
"I was used to running and always kept a spare life in the trunk. Spare clothes, spare driver's licenses, spare social security numbers, and a spare tire."
"Spite was the fuel to right all your wrongs. And like any fuel, it could consume you."
Someone who was asking me out on a date, to see his show. And I was thinking two things: 1) I can’t afford to befriend anyone, let alone someone I wouldn’t mind seeing naked and 2) how much cash could I take from him before I hated myself.
He looked up to the ceiling. “And I needed to start over. Isn’t that why you came back?”
I looked at him quizzically. “What makes you think I’m trying to start over?”
“Isn’t that why people return to their past?”
Though his gaze, his pose, his very being, reminded me of a wolf about to pounce, he didn’t move. I felt his eyes roam up and down my body like silk, sending shivers down my back. He was turning me on without laying a hand on me.
"Not many people had an ex that would probably shoot them in the head if they ever found them. And I meant that in the most literal sense."
"Tattoos, sign-making, painting; Camden was the epitome of an artist - complete with the occasional mood swing as well."
....
"He was like a caring, hulking, nerd. And I wanted him."
Then...
"If I believed in God, I'd say you should be proud of the way he made you. You're different, Ellie. Your scars, your injury, they make you who you are. Personally, I wouldn't have it any other way."
Now...
"You know how I feel about your scars. They only make you more beautiful."
"Holy shit, did Camden just spank me?"....
"But, hell, if a neighbor were to stick their head out their window and see a tattooed god ramming a chick in the neighbor's backyard, all lit by romantic lights, they'd probably watch. I'd watch too."