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How he was the most powerful man I knew, and yet, I was the one to mark him before he marked me.
A poet. An explorer. A romantic. A culture-loving, dragon-slaying princess. Bonus points—she apparently had the ability to make me sound hella emo. So there was that, too.
My Whole Life Has Been Pledged to This Meeting with You A sudden need—to break these walls and see who she was before what happened to her—slammed into me. This quote couldn’t be about us, could it? I wasn’t that person. I was the bastard who used her to get his surf park.
that quote is definitely about you babe, it is fate.
She wasn’t a flickering candle. She was a blaze, but someone had put her flame out. Three someones. I was about to ignite her right the fuck back up, even if it was the last thing I did.
love this 🫶🏼
No, she wasn’t a snowflake. She was a snowstorm.
I AM IN LOVE WITH THIS BOOK- IT IS SO CLOSE TO RIVALLING VICIOUS- LIKE WHAT? I AM OBSESSED WITH VICIOUS, LIKE THAT IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE BOOKS AND MY FAVOURITE FROM L. J. SHEN-
The secret to being an asshole was to not be an asshole.
okay… 📝 elaborate please..
Freeze frame. Rewind:
okayyy- this is new- I like it!
Come. See. Conquer (then come again, but in a completely different way).
Omg storp 💀
When I walked out, I found Jesse sitting on the step, right where I’d left her. She looked up from a book, and I immediately realized two things: She was supposedly reading a red hardcopy of something. Something classic, by its cover. She had another book tucked inside. And my eyes landed on a paragraph I was pretty sure I had no business seeing. He slid his big palms down her thighs and spread them wide, pressing his hot tongue to her mound. “I hope you like it rough, my darling, because you’re about to get pounded like the pavement.”
oh goodness- Jesse, girlie- oh no- 💀
“She was about to get pounded like the pavement? Like. The. Pavement?” Bane light-jogged behind me, the chuckle in his voice vibrating inside my chest for some reason. My ears were on fire. What was I thinking, reading smut in public? I was thinking no one was going to notice, since the book I was reading was tucked inside a perfectly respectable classic. I wasn’t counting on Bane to reappear five minutes after he’d entered the shop. Hadn’t he said ten? How good was he at extortion? Pretty freaking amazing. You’re here, aren’t you?
“You don’t carry a lot of cash on you.” “Why should I?” “You never know who you need to bribe not to tell about your literary preferences.” His grin widened, making his face gleam with delight.
omg stop 💀😭
“I know some words, though.” I dipped the straw inside my milkshake and brought it to my lips for another taste. I never usually ate anything other than my stash of Kit Kats, so I considered it sort of a progress. A pathetic one, but still. “Let’s hear them.” “Suka blyat. Horosho. Kak dela. Pizdets. Privet.” “Those were all curses and pleasantries. Your Russian family must be really fucking passive-aggressive.” I didn’t know why it made me laugh so hard. Maybe the realization that we were just so normal together. Normal. God. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed that feeling.
pffttt bane 💀
“I know some words, though.” I dipped the straw inside my milkshake and brought it to my lips for another taste. I never usually ate anything other than my stash of Kit Kats, so I considered it sort of a progress. A pathetic one, but still. “Let’s hear them.” “Suka blyat. Horosho. Kak dela. Pizdets. Privet.” “Those were all curses and pleasantries. Your Russian family must be really fucking passive-aggressive.” I didn’t know why it made me laugh so hard. Maybe the realization that we were just so normal together. Normal. God. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed that feeling.
aww
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re a huge pain in the ass?” I turned around, pointing at him with a trembling finger. “You said life is about meeting your eyes in the mirror. I just wondered if you’re at peace with sleeping with random people for favors.”
the drama is real-
When I got to the first red light, I punched my steering wheel and let out a scream. It felt good. I felt alive.
I wasn’t butthurt over her comments at Café Diem.
mhm 💀 you sure about that?
A knock on the door saved me from the prospect of round two. I broke her cigarette in half and threw it in the water. “Say no to cancer.” “You smoke like a chimney.”
stop I can't do this anymore- you’re too funny Bane 💀😭
“She needs me.” I didn’t just say the words. I felt them. They crushed into my chest. Because I needed her, too.
That’s how I ended up heading to Mrs. Belfort’s.
😬
“It’s been a while,” she mumbled to herself, her eyes glued to the maze like it was the most interesting thing in the world. I decided the best course of action was to make myself known. I did the whole awkward hi thing with my hand, even though I was a giant subhuman enveloped in ink and carved by brutality. “Oh, Fred, how I’ve missed you.” She smiled at me with tears in her eyes. And the plot thickens. Mrs. Belfort wasn’t lucid. That, or I had a strong resemblance to a dude named Fred.
I'm about two seconds from pissing my pants.
“Remember the maze, Fred? You and I used to go there all the time. It was our secret spot away from the children.” “Sure, sweetheart. Sure.” I patted her knee distractedly, slowly walking toward the labyrinth.
stop I’m about to cry my eyes out 💀😭
They were all a few inches taller than me, which meant that I couldn’t cheat my way to the exit.
💀
“Let me go grab Shadow’s leash.” Remember those words, because they were the ones leading to a shitshow of epic proportions, sponsored by Pam Morgansen, directed by yours-fucking-truly.
no because I fricken love his pov sm 💃🏼
Here’s how it happened: I stood in the foyer next to the oldest dog in the world. Not an exaggeration. Shadow flashed me a tired I-don’t-trust-your-ass glare, and I answered him with an I-wouldn’t-trust-my-ass-either smirk. It was the first time I visited her house in daylight, and it was luxurious, silent and empty. It was like putting a designer dress on a corpse. Beautifully depressing. I scanned the huge paintings on the walls and tried not to think about the fact that Jesse thought that I smelled good. Usually, I didn’t give a shit. That’s not to say I smelled like it. But I wasn’t used
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NONONONO- ILOVEVICIOUS, ILOVEVICIOUS! IWOULDNEVERREPLACEVICIOUS, IWOULDNEVERREPLACEVICIOUS!
Her fake tan was the exact shade of a KFC chicken thigh.
BANE YOU DIDNT 💀🫢
“A stranger in the house.” Barbie slid her sunglasses down, gasping theatrically, but it was flirtatious. “I’m Pam. And you are?” Not interested.
“hi ‘not interested’~ i’m barbie~!” ✨
“Roman.”
I swear to God, Roman is suchhhh a hot name 🥵
Pam shifted closer, offering me the back of her hand for a kiss. I took her palm, lowered it, then shook it. Her blindingly white beam collapsed an inch. “This is not very chivalrous,” she commented. “It is also not the seventeenth century,” I informed her, snapping my gum in her face.
I LOVE HIS FUCKING SASS 💅🏼🧎🏼♀️
I was starting to feel increasingly sorry for Darren. His stepdaughter didn’t care for him much, and his wife actively tried to screw men who weren’t him. All the money in the world and not an ounce of respect.
#justicefordarreneventhoughidontknowifheisanassholeornot
“She had a flat tire. I had hands. The rest is history.”
yes, you do have hands 👉🏼✋🏼🤚🏼
How long did it take Jesse to grab a goddamn leash? I wanted to get out of there. Preferably before my potential investor found his wife trying to grind her groin all over my face, which was starting to look like a plausible scenario.
bane- baby- run for your goddamn life-
I successfully suppressed the mental image of collaring her with it and taking her on a nice, lengthy stroll inside her fancy bathroom before fucking her in front of what I bet was a Jack and Jill mirror. And by ‘successfully’, I meant not really. Same. Fucking. Difference.
The Sass. Jesse is The Untouchable. You, Roman ‘Bane’ Protsenko are The Sass.No objections. You just are.
“Is there a problem, Pamela?” I didn’t call her Mrs. Morgansen because I didn’t want to show her respect, and ‘Pam’ felt too friendly. Pamela was a nice fuck-you way to address her without using the b word.
God, i love him.
“What was all that about with Pam?” With Pam? What the fuck kind of family was that? My mom would club me with a jar of pickled cabbage if I referred to her as Sonya and not Mamul.
I can imagine that rn and I am eating that shit up 👏🏼👏🏼
“So. About my mom…?” She trailed off. I stared at her like she’d tried to rub a hedgehog on my cock.
HOW DO YOU COME UP WITH THESE?!
Normally I didn’t care what people thought of me. With her, I didn’t not care.
🧡
Her scent hit my nostrils and sent my head tipping back against the seat. Ever been punched in the face? I had. Plenty of times. The first few seconds, you’re disoriented. Not really sure what time of the day it is. Where you are. That’s what Jesse smelled like. Like a punch in the fucking face. And, honestly, women should find a way to bottle it as perfume. Very powerful stuff. “What are you so happy about?” she asked, suspicious of my smirk. I shook my head. “Green apples and fresh rain.”
OHGOD I LOVE HIM 😭🤚🏼
Experience had taught me that there were a few types of silence. Embarrassed silence. Intense silence. Sexy silence. Mysterious silence. Sorry-I-fucked-your-wife-she-said-you-were-cool-with-it silence. Jesse and I had settled into a new type—companionable silence. It felt like her variation of small talk, and sat between us like your favorite uncle who always made great fart jokes.
i never want this book to end. the end.
He took her hand and directed it to Shadow’s throat. Jesse’s hand jolted violently, but I stepped in, removing Dr. Wiese’s hand, placing mine on hers instead. Her palm was on Shadow’s fur now, and mine was covering hers. My heart pounded so fast I thought it was going to jump out of my throat, and I didn’t even know why. Her skin was hot and silky. Perfectly gorgeous. Perfectly damaged. Perfectly ruined. Did I mention perfectly forbidden? Because that shit should be at the top of the list. And since when did I care about how people’s skin felt like? Seriously, what the hell was happening to
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NO WORDS- except for that this is a beautiful moment 😭🧡
Because all I could think about was directing her hand into the inside of the waistband of her jeans and have her fingering herself with my hand on top of hers.
I- wow- ✨
Asshole pled the fifth. I wanted to leap on Dr. Wiese and strangle the words out of his throat, but I wanted to keep my hand on Jesse’s more.
“He’s my only true friend.”
am I about to cry? Abso-fucking-lutley.
“What?” I furrowed my brows. She shook her head, taking another step closer to me. “You’re entering creeper zone again,” I said. She didn’t smile. She didn’t talk. It didn’t register at first, when she rose on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to my cheek. Now, here’s the part I wasn’t so crazy about admitting: I didn’t do any of my usual moves. I didn’t smirk or rake my eyes over her body or gather her into a one-arm hug like the tool they had taught me to be at All Saints High. I just stood there like a damn fool, feeling her kiss soaking into my cheek like poison. Why poison? Because it was
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woah.
“He’s going to be fine.” I said something aloud so that the voices in my head would stop urging me to do shit like putting my hand on hers again. Note to self: check if you did actually grow a vagina today. It started to look like I might have.
💀
She answered, “I hope so, because he is the only one I have.” “Flattered,” I quipped.
“Offer me hope. Faith is a dangerous thing. It drives you to try, and when you try, you fail.”
I wondered if she realized that our knees were nearly touching. That we were closer than we’d ever been. That not only could we smell each other, but we could also study every individual freckle and blemish on each other’s skin.
🤍
“Don’t work for the money. Work for the sweat. Work for the power. Work to feel needed, and independent, and goddamn fucking productive. Work to show the motherfuckers who did what they did to you that you’re strong. Illegitimi non carborundum.”
slay bane
“It means ‘don’t let the bastards grind you down.’ ”
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
She smiled to herself. This time it reached her eyes. Another win for me. Another win I didn’t want to share with Darren.
🥹
