Do You Want Me? (This Love Hurts, #0.5)

by W. Winters

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. ~Friedrich Nietzsche

It’s an undeniable feeling when you miss someone you know you shouldn’t.

I did always love him. There wasn’t a moment that I didn’t love him. He knows that. He has to know that I still love him; we just simply couldn’t be together. We decided. We decided together.

“You said you’d let me go,” I whisper, speaking over my strangled breaths. My gaze never leaves his, even as tears prick my eyes. Not until he answers me. “I changed my mind.”

We had an unspoken deal. “Had” being the operative word.

I now have something I truly desire and no reason not to take it.

“It was a group of three men. They kidnapped and murdered those kids. Fed their remains to the dogs. The one who lived told the cops they had to watch it all. They saw everything happen to the kid before them. One at a time as they huddled together in the cell and were forced to watch.”

“I was twelve. My brother was eight. We were split three years before.”

I’ve never wanted anything or anyone like I want her and the sick part of me knows it’s because Cody pursued her. It’s a jealousy I haven’t been able to kick.

There was an unspoken deal, a bit of camaraderie between us. I’m not the one who changed things. What happens next is his fault, his doing. Not mine.