If You Dare (Dare #3)

by Shantel Tessier

DEATH IS A debt we are all born owing. It’s something that money can’t buy nor can it be traded. You can’t bargain for more time. When it’s up, you accept it like a fucking man. I’ve never been afraid to die. Or to love, for that matter. Aren’t they the same? You surrender to a fate you have no control over. You don’t get to choose when or how you die, just as you can’t choose when and who you fall in love with.

I wrapped my hand around her throat, and she begged me to breathe. She stabbed me in the heart and demanded I bleed. She might as well have been fucking poison, but I would have drunk her anyway. That was the kind of obsession I had for her.

He tastes just as good as the other night at Silence. Like sin and cinnamon. It stirs something in my stomach, and I pull him closer to me. A moan escapes me as I open my lips, wanting him to take my breath away.

I can read her like a book. One that I want to rip the pages out of and burn to ashes. A story left to never be told again. It’d be a tragedy, but one she earned with too many pages filled with lies.

“Then I’ll protect her.” It’s not even a question. I’d do whatever I have to do to protect her from whoever thinks they can go toe to toe with us.

Demi has her elbows on the table, her chin in her hands, and she looks at them wistfully. And I realize that I will do anything to keep that look on her face. It’s crazy how pissed off she used to always look. She hated the world. Now she’s always smiling at me. And laughing. Fuck, that laugh. I tickle her just to hear it. I toss her over my shoulder to hear her squeal my name. And I lie awake at night to watch her sleep. I wonder what it would have been like if I would have picked her instead of Becky. I never even looked at Demi. She was once nonexistent to me. Just like she was to everyone else. But I see her now. And she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.