Survive for Me (Broken Bounty #2)

by Ember Nicole

You bond in very different ways when your life depends on someone else’s ability to use a weapon versus wanting to fuck them.”

“Sometimes people get so caught up in loving the new baby that they seem to forget the mother still needs love and care too. Especially the mothers who struggled emotionally before the baby.”

“Don’t you dare. You break for me and me alone, baby. Don’t do it for them. Don’t give in.”

🥺

“Emotionless and strong aren’t synonymous,”

“Get over yourself, Retirement. You’re hot, but you’re mean as fuck, you sound like a dragon when you sleep, and I’ve got my sights set pretty squarely on someone else.

Trista slipped out from under me when we got closer to a fucking pumpkin colored truck. I about threw up when she opened the back door. “The fuck is that? Where’s Seph?” “Jersey, please. Just get in. We can’t stop right now,” she begged. “Get in that Tonka toy? No, thank you. I’ll walk.”

The size of this truck won’t do a damn thing to help the size of your dick, kiddo.”

“Devastated people need other broken people to have a place where they don’t feel so alone in their pain,” he said.

“Where’d you get liquor?” I asked. “Daddy Utah.” My whole body burst into flames. “I’ll kill everyone on this property if you ever use those two words side by side again, Triss.”

“But my heart beats again when you’re around, and I don’t think I hate it.” “How do you do that? Make me feel like I can’t breathe?” She asked. “Weird. When you’re here, I feel like I can breathe deeper than I have in years.”

“Open your eyes,” I demanded again. “When you break for me this time, Triss, it’ll be the moment that you become mine. And only mine. For the rest of my days. Let me see it happen.”

“Take it,” I growled against the side of her head while I picked up the pace on her clit. “Take everything I have, everything I am.” I could see the very moment that she realized I wasn’t talking about my dick when actual tears pooled in those black coffee eyes. “Take all of me, Triss.”

“Somehow, in like a fucking week, you clawed your way right inside me and latched on like a damn parasite. Now, there’s more of you in my heart than there is of me. I can’t even call it my heart anymore, Triss. It’s yours now. You’re the only one in there.”

“We’ve all got our shit, New Jersey. Just — just own it. Fuck it up before it fucks you up. You know? Don’t let it ruin her life too. Figure it out for yourself so you’re not the next thing that she has to recover from.”

So, you can let the world crush you right along with it when it all comes crashing down on top of him. Or you can do what you asked of him, and you can survive it for him. With him. You can be the thing that gives him the strength to keep standing back up and to keep trying. If someone looked at me the way that he looks at you, I think I’d be ready to fuck up all his demons on his behalf.”

“I never understood why or how I managed to live through all that back then,” he said quietly. “Some part of me understands it now. I’m still here because you were always going to need me. But that’s kind of a double edged sword now too. I wouldn’t survive it a second time, baby.”

She managed to look at me, to love me like she couldn’t see the worst parts of me that lurked just beneath the surface of who I was. She knew those things were there. She’d seen firsthand what I was. Whether she chose to ignore it and act like it wasn’t there, or just chose to see it openly and embrace the fucked up parts of me, I guess I might never know. What was purely certain about it was that she decided to love me anyway; broken pieces and all.

I’ve been trying to live with only half of my heart since I lost them, and it’s been fucking awful. I’ll never just stop loving them. I’ll never just forget them. But you’re what I want now, baby. You’re what I need now. I don’t think there’s anyone else in this world who could survive my kind of love now. And I know there’s not anyone else in this world crazy enough to want it. To want me.”

“Whatever it is that draws me to you, it’ll never let me go. And I’ll never let you go because of it. I’m selfish enough to own that. Whether you’re afraid of me or not, you’re not going anywhere. Whether you want to be or not, you’re mine. But what’s even more fucking terrifying than that, Triss, is that you have me. I’m at your disposal now. Whatever you need, whatever you want. All you ever have to do now is say it, and I’ll put my whole fucking life into making sure it happens. And you can use that power however you want.”

But if running away to hide for a minute was what Trista needed to feel safe, for the chance to be happy, I’d walk us both right off the edge of the Earth just so we’d land where no one could find us.

Sometimes you’re really not in control of the way that your mind reacts to trauma, you know?”