More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“I knew the second you walked away that night … I never could.”
“You’re worth everything I have, Kens,” he whispers, and a small smile takes over my lips. “Everything I am is already...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“Are you busy the next few days?” I ask, my chest growing tight. He’s quiet a moment before he answers, “I have some reading to do, emails, and stuff, but I’ll be around.” “I wanna go home.” All his muscles lock beneath me.
“Home, Parker. To Alrick. See my mom and dad. I need to talk to them before …” “Before what?” he whispers slowly. “I’m ready.” He’s quiet and then, “For?” “You.” I swallow. “Us.”
“Go home, Kens. Do whatever you need. I’ll be here, waiting, when you’re ready to come back to me. But … maybe don’t take too long.” He laughs lightly, skimming his lips over mine.
“Come with me.”
“Come with me, Parker.” He swallows, giving a small nod. “I can do that.”
And knowing damn well it doesn’t matter if I am or not because, at the end of it all … I can’t be me without him.
“I’ll do whatever you need me to. Be wherever you need me to be.”
“I don’t wanna be away from you yet.” I can’t help but smirk at that. “Good. Then, I did something right. Go, Kens. I’m only a call away.” She nods, hope shining in her eyes. “See you soon, Safety.”
Lolli Bear: Your daddy and his daddy home?
“Knock that shit off right now. That is bullshit. Straight-up, Parker.” Her brows rise. “Yeah, I said Parker. Look, you’ve lived in hell, whereas I fell into it. It’s why you’re my person. You deserve to be happy. And, truthfully …”
“Fuck it. I’m gonna say it. Sorry in advance. But, Hero, you were well on your way to a solid happiness before she showed back up. I know you still had your internal battles, mainly missing her, but you were happy. Genuinely happy, not like in Alrick.”
“Because you sho...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
“You brought me back.” Tears form in her eyes. “You’d do it for me.” “I would.”
“My scars …” “Are a part of you.”
She moans, deep and long and desperate, and fuck me if it isn’t the sexiest thing I’ve ever heard.
“When I have your body in front of me like this, I do the work. All of it. When I’m touching you”—I
“your hands are on me or anywhere else, except on yourself. I’m a greedy man, Kens.”
“Touch me, baby,” I whisper against her skin, grinning when she shivers beneath me. “Anywhere you want. However you want.” I kiss her throat. “As long as you want.”
Fuck, I’ve wanted this for years. Wanted her. Imagined it, fucking fantasized about it.
She’s completely consumed. Enthralled in me. Gripped by me.
“Kens?” I whisper into her chest, and she hums in response. “Am I all you feel right now?” “Yes,” she gasps.
“You, Kenra Monroe, are amazing.
It’s just after dark when the front door opens. I glance over the couch right as Parker and Kenra walk in, and it’s obvious there was some sort of shift. He’s eased. She’s hiding something.
“Tell me something. Anything. Give me something, Kenra, because I can’t just move on or wait or let you fucking go when you walk out that door. Not this time. Not after … you said you were ready. And I believed you, Kens.” My shoulders sag, and she whimpers, her hand lifting to cover the sound as she cries. “If there’s more going on here than just you wanting to leave, tell me. Let me help you.”
“Stop saving me. Let me fall.”
“I won’t, Kenra. I can’t.”
“I’ll save you every chance I get. You fall; I fall.”
She pulls back. “There won’t be a chance after this, Parker. I won’t be back. I won’t be the reason you break again.” “You leave here; I break. You don’t come back; I shatter. You live unhappy, unloved, and underappreciated, and I fucking die inside, Kenra. Please. Don’t go.”
“Tell me what’s going on and let me decide. Show me I’m worth it to you.”
Maybe I was never enough to begin with.
“Deaton, I—” “Shh, baby. It’ll be okay.” He cradles her face. “I know you’re afraid, but I know we can do this. I promise you, Payton. We talked about getting away, starting a family later anyway. Now, we just get to do it sooner.”
“Just you wait, baby. This is only the beginning.” He rubs her belly, and her hand comes down to cover his. “I love you both. I’ll take care of everything.”
I give Kenra everything I have, and she carries it with her on the way back to him. I belong to her, but she doesn’t wanna belong to me.
“That night in Mexico, when shit blew up in my face, you said to me, ‘He doesn’t get to do this to you.’ I heard you. Hear me, Hero. She does not get to do this to you.”
“I invited it, Lolli Bear. It’s just as much my fault.” “Why?” “Because I love her. Always have and always will. Can’t shake her. As long as she comes back, I’ll be here.”
“You deserve better.” Her nose turns red as she fights tears. I give her a sad smile. “I know that now. You helped me see that I should be enough. But I’m not when it comes to her, so nothing changes. I know my worth. She comes and goes, but my feelings for her stay. I can’t help it...
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
I’ll never forget the look on Parker’s face the moment he realized I was leaving. There was no anger in his blue eyes, only defeat.
“where’d you sleep last night, Kenra?”
“In his bed.”
“And where did he sleep?” “Beside me.”
“Did you let him fuck you?” “You guys,” Deaton warns, “stop.” I don’t know why, but I lift my chin and seethe back, “I begged him to.”
Blue eyes are all I see before everything goes black.
“I’m not. A hero. I couldn’t save her. She wanted to be saved. Maybe not in the true sense of the word, but …”
“From herself.”
“Lolli Bear, tell me what you’re thinkin’.” “You sure?” “Yeah.” “I’m thinkin’ I hate her. I kinda wanna kick her ass right now.”
“And Deaton?” I ask quietly. “How’d he … what happened?” “There were no airbags in the back, and when they flipped, his head …” She gets choked up. “They said he died instantly.”
I’m convinced I’m the only one who can bring her back to being her. And I will. Because I’m her safety.
And I’ll be her defense, protect her from anyone who gets in her—in our—zone even if I have to protect her from herself.
