The Worst Kind of Promise (Riverside Reapers #2)

by Celeste Briars

“I’m going to buy you whatever you want,” he tells me, a body-melting grin skidding across his lips.

Kit’s eyes practically bulge out of his head as he realizes what he just agreed to, and I make a beeline for the romance section, entirely ready to spend the rest of the day hoarding as many books as possible. I titter. “Regret it?” He snorts. “Please. How many books could you need?” “That sounds like a challenge,” I muse, arching my brow, a sinister gleam in my eyes. I walk down the aisle with Kit trailing behind me like a lost puppy, and I drag my finger along the mismatched spines.

“You do realize you’re saying that to the person who’d buy you a house, right?”

It feels like asphalt clots my throat. “You wouldn’t do that.” He steps into me with his intimidating body, making my back go flat against one of the shelves, so close to me that I can see the nuanced truth in his eyes. “You’re right, I wouldn’t do that,” he whispers. “I’d only do it if you agreed to live with me.”

“Kit, did you annotate a book for me?” I ask. The corners of his lips tick up into a loving grin. “I’d annotate an entire library for you if it meant that I got to see you smile.”

My eyes rake over the first paragraph that catches my attention. I’ll always crawl back to her. I’ll crawl to her on my knees across the broken shards of my heart. I’ll crawl to her when she’s thousands of miles away from me. I’ll crawl to her even if she never wants to see me again, because that’s the power she has over me. That’s the kind of love that possesses me. Unconditional, undying, unequivocal. I’m forever hers.