More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
He looks like the moon, and he feels just as far away.
“Can I tell you a secret?” he asks, and I nod. “I think they’ve had it wrong this whole time. You were my purpose. And I don’t regret it. Not for a second.”
Six days later, my older brother slips into unconsciousness. Two days after that, I stand against the wall and watch him die while my parents hold his hands. Then, eventually, I follow.
Temporary fixes are all I can rely on in a world like mine. One that lacks permanence in everything except pain.
“I won’t share space with the dead,”
“Trouble. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Fuck her for seeing me so clearly yet getting it so fucking wrong, too.
“Are you saying you’re my queen, then?” “Your words. Not mine.” “The queen’s the most important piece on the board, Davis. Sounds to me like that’s you.”
“I thought you’d play something more, I don’t know, rock and roll, I guess.” I raise my eyebrows. “There are few things more rock and roll than Stevie Nicks, Davis.”
“Claire Davis, I’m glad you’re my queen.”
“I. Pay. Attention.”
“I pay attention to every single thing you do, and it’s driving me fucking crazy.”
“I pay attention. The way you blush. The way you think. The way you fucking smell. You’re all I can think about, and I want you. I want you, Claire, and it’s going to get me in so much fucking trouble. But you want to know a secret?” “Yes,” I whisper, and I feel him smile. “Trouble is my weakness.”
I’m obsessed with her.
And the thing I don’t want to admit, even to myself, is that I want to keep her. I want her to be mine. I just don’t know in what capacity. Sex slave? Soulmate? At the moment, my brain can’t identify a difference.
Claire Davis could be my penance, but I’ll be damned if I admit my sins out loud.
“I regret it because you fucking own me now. I regret it because you consume me. But God, I want it. I want it even if you’ll just trap me and take all my money.”
“You’ve gotten under my skin, Trouble, and I like it. I like it too fucking much. And I just kept thinking, when she leaves...” I hesitate. The words are scary. Too honest. Too raw. I force myself to say them anyway. “I kept thinking, When she leaves, she’ll go back to him, and she’ll take my heart with her.”
“You’re mine, Claire Davis.” He growls the words into my mouth possessively, almost angrily, with his hand still wrapped around my throat. “Do you understand what I’m saying? You’re mine.”
Checkmate, Jonah Hendrix. You’ve won.
“I couldn’t love myself until I knew I was someone deserving of her love.”
“Falling in love feels like falling to your death.” “Jesus. Then why do people do it?” “Because it’s the revival that feels so sweet.”
“You know the sad part?” Jonah blinks, and a single tear rolls down his cheek. “I’d have done it, if I could. If I had to kill myself to save him, I’d have done it. For fucking years, you had me convinced that was all I was good for. That Theo’s life was my only purpose. I believed it so strongly that when he died, part of me died, too.”
“I don’t care what lies you try to sell about me. I’ll take a torch to my whole fucking life if it means you’ll burn with it.”
“Tell me you haven’t thought of it. Tell me you can’t see it, Claire. Me and you and this baby. Happy and together. If you haven’t thought of it, if you’ve never once wanted it, tell me, and I won’t bring it up again. But if you have, even just once, I’m begging you to do this with me. I’ll even be the more loving one. If equal affection cannot be, Let the more loving one be me. I don’t mind. If it means I get to keep you, I don’t mind. Tell me, Claire.”
“Now. It all starts now.”
“I didn’t know I could love someone so much so quickly in such a new way. It’s like...it’s like a new part of me was born with her. Created for her. Does that make sense?”
“Fifty percent of the princesses are Caveat boys?” Jonah smirks, and I roll my eyes. “You better get them on that video.”
