Cry Wolf (Big Bad Wolf, #5)

by Charlie Adhara

“I see you’ve been speaking with the voice I hear in my head at three a.m. while paralyzed with anxiety. Good, good.”

What stage of love was it when another person became a habit? How quickly had the mere background hum of another person’s life become such an essential fixture of the house that its absence felt like a robbery?

“People like to throw around words like closure and forgiveness, but I’ve long suspected that’s because they don’t want to admit how often healing is cruelly arbitrary. Some things just hurt until they don’t anymore and no one can tell you why, so they pretend you must have gotten closure.”

He recognized so much of Neil that he had adopted into his own personality. He hated so much of Neil, too. And weren’t circles the worst Venn diagram of them all?

“Oh, nothing new. Just how I’m going to love the ever-living fuck out of you for as long as you let me,” Cooper said.

“Dreams change. People change. Please just don’t stop giving me the chance to change with you.”

“You are my favorite part of living,” Cooper whispered. “I’d do anything for you.” It was a confession more than anything else. Not necessarily something he thought was right or took pride in, but dug from the deepest and most private part of his mind, unsightly and true. “I’m yours,” Park murmured simply. And for the first time, Cooper didn’t see it as having a power and dominance over him that he’d never wanted, but as a rare and fragile responsibility that Park had gifted Cooper in love.

If you really want to get to know a culture, you study the stories they tell each other.

“I like to win.” He kissed Park again. Then murmured against his lips, “Your love is the most important thing I’ve ever won.”

I vow that I know you love me, too. I never doubt it. How could I when I feel it all the time? I feel it when you make me laugh and then watch with that pleased little look on your face. I feel it when you touch me like I’m special and when you can’t touch me anymore because you’re over-full of sensations, but let me stay by you anyway. I feel so safe in loving you, because I know you love me, too. And it’s the greatest gift of my life.”