The Pucking Wrong Number (Pucking Wrong, #1)

by C.R. Jane

Unknown: See, now I feel like you've been stalking me. How did you know being insulted turns me on?

The picture that came in then, it was life changing. Like my DNA had been rewritten. Like my stars had rearranged themselves. I didn’t believe in love at first sight. I didn’t believe in love at all. But if I could have, I would have fallen in love with the girl in that picture.

Maybe she’d been waiting for me like I’d been waiting for her.

Like he, unlike every single person who had always disappointed me in my life, was promising he wouldn't.

Because there was no end game where she wasn’t a part of this world right along with me.

Lincoln. My stranger.

Lincoln’s attention was heady. It was addicting. It was already a craving I didn’t know how to get rid of.

“Alright, dream girl. I’ll give you tonight. But you and me…its fucking real. It’s the realest fucking thing I’ve ever felt in my life. And sooner or later, you’re going to realize it too.”

Bastard. He was such an asshole. A generous, gorgeous…ASSHOLE.

“Is it supposed to have Ari Lancaster’s name on the back?” I asked, a little confused. Ashley burst into almost hysterical laughter, having to wipe a few tears from her eyes. “That’s too good. He’s going to freak,” she finally breathed.

“What’s wrong, Lincoln?” he teased. “Why are you taking away my gift to our girl?”

Suddenly, he was cradling my head tenderly. “I would put you in my pocket if I could, baby. Keep you with me always.”

“When something feels this fucking good, you don’t fight it. You just follow it to the ends of the earth, no matter where it takes you.” “I’m scared,” I admitted, and he nodded. “I’ll show you how good it can be. Until you’re not scared anymore. Until trusting me is as easy as breathing.”

like he was mapping out the freckles that dotted my nose as though they were constellations in the heavens he was desperate to record.

Other people might call that scary stalker behavior. I called it true love.

“My brother died, and the only one in my life who stepped up to make sure I didn’t follow him…was Ari.”

“You think you don’t have a claim on me?” he finally growled, breaking the sex-fueled silence. “You think it’s possible for anyone else to exist now that I’ve found you?”

“If you touch me again, I will stab you with this fork,”

I see you. I see all of you. And I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here for you, every step of the way, no matter what. Because I know that you're worth it. You're worth everything. Eventually, you’ll trust me. I’ve been lonely all these years, too. Waiting for you."

Lincoln felt like he could be the missing piece to my puzzle, the one I didn't know I needed until he was right in front of me.

She was my salvation, the one person who could make me feel alive again.

"How can there be anyone else when you exist in the world?"

Our minds, our souls, and our bodies were reaching out and touching each other at the same time.

“I love you. And I’ll never stop,” he told me. “I’d do anything for you…I’d live for you.”

Not for the first time, I wondered about Ari’s past. He’d gone from the streets to my fancy prep school, and although a hockey scholarship explained how he’d got in…I wondered if he’d ever tell me about the years that came before.

Lincoln seemed to revel in the fact that I’d started to depend on him for everything. It was like he was as addicted to the feeling of being needed as I was to having someone to need.

Meeting you on a plane—that’s fucking romance book shit. Not happening.

because he was letting me take care of him just like he always took care of me.

Those butterflies inside me, the ones he’d grown and nurtured and said he’d fucking do anything for…they turned into dust.

Knowing that a part of my fucking soul is living outside of my body and now that I’ve found it, I’ll die if I ever lose it. That’s what we have. Love is a shadowed imitation for people unlucky enough to never find their soulmates. What we have is everything.”

And I hoped that somewhere, wherever he was…Tyler was happy right then too. For the first time, I sent him some light. And for the first time, I swore he sent some back.

Because we both knew that Lincoln wouldn’t let a little thing like death keep us from each other.