Burn Like an Angel (Harrowdean Manor #2)

by J. Rose

For those who’ve spent their lives silent. Small. Unseen. You squeezed yourself into the tight confines of survival mode, where no one can get close, and no one can ever hurt you again. But your voice is your power. Don’t let anyone take it from you.

“Speak the truth, even if your voice shakes.” - Maggie Kuhn

Ripley Bennet stole me. Broke me. Fixed me. Fucking loved me.

That’s how I lost everything. I won’t lose it all again.

What I’m not prepared for is the piping-hot burst of emotion that stabs into me, over and over in a relentless assault on my damaged sanity. It isn’t anger. That I can recognise, utilise, control. It’s… jealousy. Well, fuck.

I need to play this safe. She’s given me a second chance. Now I have to earn her forgiveness.

Fuck casual. Fuck whatever the hell we’ve spent months doing. I want him. I need him. I fucking missed him.

It isn’t a weakness to love or be loved. Those connections are actually what make us strong.

Ripley Bennet has drilled her way into my bone marrow, infiltrated my blood cells and set up shop like a parasitic infection.

“For every mark you left on her skin, I’ll break one bone. Would you care to choose which?”

“In fact, I think you begged me to fuck you.” My lips follow her ear’s curvature, leaving a

featherlight trail. “Tell me, do I have to beg you in return now?”

I lick my lips. “Yes. I’d beg for you.” “Me?” She drags in a shaky breath. “Your acceptance.” Blind hope forces me to keep going. “Maybe even your forgiveness.”

I still want to own her. Break her. Shatter every last recognisable piece. But I also want to help her put those pieces together again. Her pain is no longer my obsession; instead, her will to survive against the odds is.

“I’ll be your villain if that’s what you want.” I nod in total compliance. “No one is going to lay another finger on you,” he promises menacingly. “Not if they want to keep that finger attached.”

“Perhaps we’re meant to be a fucked up family.” Xander trails his hand up and down my back. “Maybe that’s how we live.” “Together?” “Exactly,” he responds, tracing small circles with his fingertips. “Together.”

Turning my tear-blurred gaze on Lennox, I want him to see just how much power the heartless bastard holds. The power to heal. The power to break. The power to end it all.

Fuck him. He doesn’t want me? Fine. Raine does.

Beneath all that goddamn beautiful rage, we’re just alike. Together, we could be unstoppable. Our rage will burn the whole fucking world.

“I love you so fucking much, I’m willing to give you this because I know you need them too. And hell, they need you. We all do.”

“So impatient.” His words warm my already scalding skin. “Nox,” I whine. “Easy, baby. I want to take my time with you.” Hasn’t he waited long enough?

I could fall apart from his enthusiastic praise alone. It’s making my pulse thrum, struggling to hold the excitement building within me. I had no idea he’d be so vocal.

Each slow tease is torture. I want him to surge into me and take me as roughly as he did my mouth. We may not be enemies anymore, but I’d happily let him fuck me like we are.

“I want to hear that you love me.” The son of a bitch. He’s trying to tear the truth out of me. Fuck me until I have no fight left to give and steal my affections before I can change my mind. But worst of all? I want to give it to him. He wants proof. Fine. I’ll hand over the signed confession he needs to finally move on. We’ve come too far to stop before the final hurdle.

“You insane asshole! I am in love with you!”

“I love you.”

Resting our foreheads together, I feel the final pathetic wall stacked around my heart crumble to ruin. The inevitable destruction feels like fucking nirvana. I’ve opened my heart to them all. Accepted the possibility of grief for the chance at something more. A future without emptiness and heartache. Perhaps a happy ending. I’ll do anything to get that. Even if I don’t deserve it.

“When this is all over, I want forever too.” Certainty steels my words. “The four of us. I don’t care where, but I want us to be together.”

“My chest hurts again,” he murmurs. “I think I love you.”