More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“Thank you,” I say. “For what?” “Everything. Not judging me. Supporting me. Being an amazing friend.”
My fingers immediately begin typing out a text, as if Hayden’s voice is in my ear and he’s standing right next to me. I hate how my body obeys him before my mind has had a chance to think it over.
Hayden: Is this a pathetic attempt to flirt with me, or are you deliberately provoking me?
but the happiness streaming through me—thank you, vodka—is something I don’t want to end.
“I warned you,” he says to me. If he touches you, what I did last time will seem like a joke in comparison.
I’ve become addicted to her. I know this and won’t deny it any longer. But what I can’t come to terms with is my need for her. How strong it is. How all-encompassing.
His mouth ravages mine, our lips and tongues colliding in a battle for dominance. He’s already won, but this is a show of strength. And of need. Every breath, every touch heightens the denied and reckless longing I’ve been fighting.
For a long time, I thought I’d fantasized about a man who wasn’t attracted to me. Now I know better. He kissed me like he wanted to fuck me right on the dance floor.
His lips move over mine with such tenderness that I melt into him within seconds. Despite his hold on my wrists, he uses his other hand to caress my face while his tongue moves over my lips, coaxing rather than demanding a response from me. “Open for me, Callie. I’m dying to taste you again. I need to know if you’re as sweet as I remember, or if I imagined everything because I’m so obsessed with you.”
“You can’t keep me, Hayden.” My protest sounds weak to my own ears, but I keep my expression firm. “I don’t belong to anyone. Not even you.” His hand leaves my cheek as he slides it into my hair, grasping the nape of my neck to tilt my head back. Unable to look anywhere else, my gaze collides with his. Icy blue meets a warm amber. Determination meets rebellion. “You belong with me. To me.” He brings his face so close to mine that the tips of our noses brush one another. “You can fight it all you want, but we both know it’s pointless. What’s happening between us is inevitable, and I’ll do
...more
“What about the fact that I don’t want you to experience pain in any capacity unless it’s the pain of my cock driving into your cunt? What about the idea that you’re hurt because you’re so fucking scared of me that you don’t realize I would kill someone to keep you safe? Fuck my car. I want your blood on it, my cock, and anywhere else that’d mark me as yours.”
“That mouth.” He reaches out to brush his thumb along my lower lip. “The things I want to do to it…”
“What did I ever do to you?” I ask, staring at his forearm and the veins visible just underneath his skin. “You’re the one who won’t leave me alone.” At the feel of his fingers taking hold of my chin, I press my lips together. He lifts my head until our eyes meet. It’s nearly unbearable to look at him. Not when he stares at me like I’m his reason for living. “Because you’re in my blood, Callie. Underneath my skin. No matter how hard I try, I can’t cut you out without killing myself in the process.”
“It might not be healthy or what’s considered normal.” He releases my chin to slide his hand in my hair, tangling his fingers in the strands to hold me immobile. “But I don’t want normal if it means I can’t have you.” A choked sound escapes my throat as his words pierce the last of my defenses. No one has ever looked at me the way Hayden does. And they certainly have never gone through the lengths he has to keep me safe. Not even my father cared this much, and he loved me.
“Once this case is solved, you won’t have any excuses left and no places to run. Right now, you’re the only obstacle in my way, but you’re also the only woman I want. Despite what you believe, that’s never going to change.”
“I do know what I want, Callie. You. All of you.”
“Never,” he says, the sound guttural and deep, as if summoned from the depths of his soul. “Do you hear me, Callie? I’ll never leave you. Not in this life or whatever comes after. You are mine. And I will burn this world to fucking ashes before I let anything take you from me. Or me from you.”
“If I give myself to you, you’ll break me into pieces so small I won’t be able to put myself back together or make myself whole.” “I’ll fuse your broken pieces with mine. Together, we’ll be whole, Callie.”
“Sleep now,” he says. “What about you?” He squeezes his eyes shut as though in pain. “I need to leave you alone right now, or I’ll break my promise to you.” “Will you come back?” His eyelids lift and he gazes at me with such tenderness that I nearly sigh. “I will always come back to you, Callie.”
“I know you think I only wish to possess you,” he whispers against my hair, “but I want to protect you. To avenge you. And I will, even if it takes the rest of my life. I won’t stop until justice has been served by my hands.”
I’ll worship her body and give her the world until she gives me her surrender.
HAYDEN’S TEXTS ARE GOING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK. Or an orgasm. I’m not sure which.
Two birds, one cock.” My lips twitch. “That’s not how the saying goes.”
“That’s my good girl,”
“I’m going to wreck that pretty pussy of yours,”
Hayden yanks me away from the wall and stalks over to the couch. He lays me on my back while remaining inside my body, but is quick to sink back into me fully. I sigh when he buries his face in the curve of my neck, breathing my name like a prayer as he begins to worship me again. I cling to him, desperate to keep this moment alive, desperate to maintain this connection between us. Not only one that’s physical, but emotional as well.
Smexyyy
Calista lifts her head from my chest and kisses me, startling me with her uncharacteristic display of affection. Now I’m the one who’s been wrecked. My heart, wherever that fucker might be, bleeds for her.
“I am happy.” I bite my lip in thought. “Probably the happiest I’ve been since my dad’s funeral.” Harper nods with a knowing look. “Good dick will do that to a girl.”
I’ve always kept my distance when it comes to kissing women—it’s too intimate, too revealing of the emotions I’ve carefully guarded. But as Calista kisses me, everything I’ve held back crashes down like a dam bursting under the pressure of unfulfilled desire. In that single, electrifying moment, the walls I’ve built around myself don’t just crack; they shatter completely. The flood of emotions, long suppressed, surge through me with overwhelming force.
