Brutal Game (Kings of Reina University, #1)

by Jo Brenner

“Okay, so, the twins are Levi and Judah Wasserman. They’re both first line defensemen. The one with the glasses and the super serious look in his eyes? That’s Levi. Judah’s the one with the man bun;

“The curly-haired flirt with the dimples and smirk is Isaac Jones. He’s a player. Probably a talker in bed,

on a tall, built guy with dark, straight hair. “And that, well, that’s Jack. He’s hockey captain, king of the Kings, king of everything, really.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been truly noticed by someone before. It’s…disconcerting, to say the least. It’s like your clothing, your makeup, your armor, the cover-up you religiously paint over your scar—all the ways you try to fade into the background …they just fall away. And suddenly there’s a spotlight on you.

What would it be like, to matter so much to someone that caring for you was like muscle memory to them?

Everything about you is mine, and I protect what’s mine.”

“I look okay?” I asked Tovah. “You look like you’re about to be sacrificed on the funeral pyre of Jack Feldman’s crazy, but you’ll look hot as you burn,” she said. “Well, as long as I look hot,” I joked.

“Let me get this through that beautiful little head. If I find out you’ve flirted with another man, I will lock you up in my basement and throw away the goddamned key. And him? They’ll never find his body. Do you want that on your conscience, princess?”

“You gorgeous, brilliant little thing, you know I’m here, don’t you. Asleep but dreaming of me. I’m everywhere, in your body, your head. Your fucking soul, when I get my way.”

Chinchilla’s “1:5”

There is nowhere in this world you can hide that I won’t find you, nowhere you can go that I won’t follow. I will chase you down and bring you back. Every. Single. Time. So stop fucking fighting me.”

He watched me. “Tell me. Who hurt you. Besides me.” If he truly wanted to know, I’d tell him. “I don’t know. Society? The patriarchy?” I stared at him, needing him to hear the last part. “Institutions that put men in positions of authority and never hold them accountable for the terrible things they do. Take your pick.”

Instead, he stared at me, his eyes so silver, I almost gasped. There was love there, trust, determination. Loyalty. “Then let’s burn it down together, princess.”

“I don’t know if you know how much I love you,” I said, quietly, solemnly. “I don’t even have words for it. I don’t think there are words for it. I love you fiercely, obsessively, relentlessly. I love you in my heart, mind, soul, in my fucking bones, until the day I die, and then I’ll love you still. There’s no heaven or hell for me, little fury—just you, forever.”

Let’s burn it down together, princess.