Loving the Reaper (Silver Falls University #2)

by Lola King

To all the women who smile when they want to scream. I got you, darling. Sit back And watch it all burn.

"Because your jealousy is the only way to get your attention, Peach. I did what I had to."

That's what Peach does. She bites, and she fights. She will drag your sanity out of you before she ends you. "Gentle," I murmur. "Let's not do this. No push and pull. Please, just tonight. Be sweet to me, and I'll leave the side of me you hate behind."

"I don’t want us to fight this anymore. I don't want to have to show you that you like me through jealousy. You're worth so much more to me."

Penelope Peach Sanderson-Menacci. One of my best friends with a stupid nickname that reduces her to a part of her body. A name that caught on since high school and that I, of course, use without shame. Because calling her my love, baby, queen of my life, doesn’t exactly scream friends since elementary school, does it?

"I would choose you. Even if you weren't worth it. And you would have nothing to prove. I would choose you among a million other people. And anyone would be the luckiest person on this planet if you chose them in return."

And with my head still spinning, I hear him say, "Let’s go. I want you to feel my cum running down your legs when you officially become my Hera."

"You're my home."

"My house and my family have never felt like a home. I think I started feeling that very early for many different reasons. And then we met. And grew up together. My feelings were always confusing me, but I always wanted to get back to you. I lived in a huge mansion in Stoneview, yet I wanted nothing but to be near you. In a tiny fort in your bedroom. In the back of my car when we'd have lunch at the top of the Stoneview hills. A seat next to you in class. Those felt like home."

"Because there has never been anyone else in my heart but you, Peach. You take all the space in there with your attitude and sassy mouth. You left no one else a chance because no one has your eyes full of challenge, your soft hair, your perfect skin. No one has two crooked lower canines like you, three freckles that make an equilateral triangle on their right shoulder. No one makes my heart beat. And I don't mean they make my heart skip a beat, or make my heart palpitate. I mean that when I'm not around you, I don't feel my fucking pulse, do you understand that? I feel dead unless I can hear your voice that’s always a little too loud and opinionated, unless I can see that little vein on your forehead when someone angers you."

"I'm crazy when it comes to you. But I accepted that a long time ago. Because why wouldn't I be crazy? When you've been through one-sided love for so long, no wonder you start breaking into their fucking room at night and killing for them. You shove Scrabble tiles down people's throat when they hurt your obsession. I.L.U. I love you. Because fuck, I love you."

I try to grab his hand, but he steps back. It's so clear to me, clearer than anything else in my life, that Wren has put up with so much when it comes to me, that it would kill me to lose him. I can't.

He chuckles sadly. "The most heartbreaking thing is that I'm not mad at you. I can't be. I try to find your flaws and sear them into my brain. I try to hate them and you. I try to tell myself that you've hurt me enough times that I must be angry enough to fucking leave you behind. But I can't. Just like no matter what you do, our deal won't be off, because I'm not looking for your parents to hold something over you. I'm doing it because I'm full of hope that maybe, maybe then you'll finally be whole and happy and understand that being abandoned doesn’t. Fucking. Define. How worthy of love you are. And maybe…maybe once you learn that you’re worthy of love, you’ll be able to accept mine."

“I love you, Wren Hunter.”

"I love you," he says. "I love you so much, I fear I might die if I ever lose you."

"I love you, Wren. No matter what, no matter in what form, friendship or more, I will always love every single part of you."

"What if you're the reason I'm alive? Because only you keep me sane, Trouble. That thing inside of me can only be tamed by you. And all the times I've wanted to give up and just let it take over, I thought of you. How I might lose you if I do. I live for one and only one reason, and that's you."

"Penelope," I purr, giddy from her genius. "When did you start killing people and pinning their murders on me?"

Um, what?

"When you made me join a secret society that disrespects women. When I realized you could kill for me."

"I think between making our deal and having me beg for orgasms, you forgot who I was, Wren. You lost yourself along the way. Take this as a lesson to know your place when it comes to me."

I now understand all those women who fall in love with serial killers. If Peach was arrested, I, too, would send her letters telling her how much I love her.

"There's only one difference between you and those men, Wren," she explains, softening. "At the end of the day, with you, I know I always have a choice. Because no matter what, you will never hurt me. You said it yourself. And that doesn't only apply to you being a murderer. It's in the safe space you created for me, for both of us. I will never forget that you're not the one who invited me to the initiations. You asked me, I said no, and you left it, no matter how much it hurt you. You're not the one who dragged me into this. Choice. That's what you've given me. That's the difference between you and them. I never did anything I didn't want to do deep down when it comes to you."

"I love you," I whisper. "You used me. I thought I was losing my mind, Trouble. But fuck, I'm in love with you."

My heart can barely beat anymore. My jaw drops open, and I lick my lips. She thinks this is going to deter me? I would crawl all the way to hell to save her, only to realize she's the one ruling the darkest depths of it.