Twisted Love (Twisted, #1)

by Ana Huang

This was supposed to be a harmless experiment.

Like I asked, what is harmless about testing feelings?

I still owned DVDs the way I still owned paperback books. There was just something so magical about holding your favorite items rather than seeing them on-screen.

Right? I only read books on my Kindle, but I buy the physical copies of books that I liked just to have them.

None. Nada. Zilch,

lol

“Biological reactions can be mastered.”

Dude, then tell me how to master a migraine and sound sensitivity

“Don’t try to humanize me. I’m not a tortured hero from one of your romantic fantasies. You have no idea what I’m capable of, and just because I promised Josh I’d look after you doesn’t mean I can protect you from yourself and your bleeding heart.”

Ohhh, darling, but you are a tortured hero from a romantic fantasy

Just because I see the good in people doesn’t mean I’m an idiot. I think optimism is a good trait, and I feel sorry for people who go through life believing the worst of others.” “That’s because they’ve seen the worst.” “People see what they want to see,” I countered. “Are there awful people in the world? Yes. Do awful things happen? Yes. But wonderful people exist and wonderful things happen too, and if you focus too much on the negative, you miss all the positive.”

💯

I’d have to move to Antarctica. Build myself an ice cave and learn to speak penguin

lol

I hated feeling helpless, but I knew better than anyone that no one can fight our mental battles for us.

🫂

“Please remove your hand from my cock unless you plan on doing something with it,” Alex said coolly.

I'm still not sure how it came to this. Did you try to blow it in your sleep? sleep blowing???

“Ian Somerhalder?”

Ohh, you have taste. Him and JK are💋

He grimaced when the parrot squawked, “Ooh, yes! Spank me, master!”

Parrot said that? Where the hell has it been before?

Apparently, the parrot’s old owner had been quite active sexually…and kinky. Its outburst today was tame compared to its previous tirades.

Ohh, makes sense. Please tell me more.

What makes men happy?

The first thing that came to my mind was sex and then validation from fellow men

Sex? Um, I wasn’t having sex with him for an experiment. Or any other reason, even if I was the teeniest bit curious about what it would be like.

Oh yeah. I totally believe you.

He’s a lost cause when it comes to relationships—won’t ever get into one, and he only fucks certain women.”

Bro, Your sis is about to get into one with him. But don't come and fetch your sis. She's exactly where she wants to be.

“I don’t think Jules was ever infatuated with him,” I said. “She just thinks he’s hot.” “Whatever.” Josh raked a hand through his hair.

I have a feeling one of the other books are going to be about Josh and Jules

The frustration morphed into anger. “Why? You got a new man?” he growled. “You have new dick and you don’t need me anymore, is that it? I never knew you were such a slut.”

Ewww

It was the first time he’d laid a hand on me out of anger.

Doesn't mean that this is gonna be the last time.

You think you know someone until something happens that proves you never really knew them at all.

It was always about the long game—measured not in weeks or months but in years. Decades. Even the tiniest of seeds can sprout into the mightiest of oaks.

I should learn to think like a man

A goddess entering the gates of hell, and she didn’t even know it.

I wanted to gouge out the eyes of every man staring at her like they were starved and she was a juicy steak, which was pretty much every man here—including Colton.

Sooo this is also you protecting her as a favor to your best friend? Got it.

He didn’t deserve her laugh.

The Valhalla Club was the most exclusive private club in DC. It capped its membership at one hundred members, each of whom was allowed to bring one guest for a meal each quarter. I’d just handed Colton the ticket of a lifetime.

Her voice came out breathier than usual, and my cock jerked at the sound.

Voice can do that?

Because the fear makes you feel alive.”

A shudder rolled through us, our bodies so in sync we reacted the exact fucking way at the exact fucking time.

tension is tensioning

Humans want a lot of things, but in every heart, there beats one true desire. One thing that shapes our every thought and action.

Acting like Lucifer now, huh? I like it.

“Love.” The word floated between us on a soft gust of air. “Deep, abiding, unconditional love. You want it so much you’re willing to live for it.”

Most people thought the biggest sacrifice they could make was to die for something. They were wrong. The biggest sacrifice you could make was to live for something—to allow it to consume you and turn you into a version of yourself you didn’t recognize. Death was oblivion; life was reality, the harshest truth that had ever existed.

Because what I admired most about Ava was also what I hated about her.

Is this doable?

I hated how much I wanted her, and I hated that she wasn’t smart enough to run away from me while she still had a chance. Though let’s be honest, it was already too late.

She was mine. She just didn’t know it yet. I hadn’t known it myself until I saw her in Colton’s arms and every instinct raged at me to tear her away. To claim what belonged to me.

Glad you decided on it

You want the world to think you have no heart when in reality, you have a multilayered one: a heart of gold encased in a heart of ice. And the one thing all hearts of gold have in common? They crave love.”

“Even gold can tarnish if you don’t take care of it.”

Maybe I’d finally broken, split apart for the world to see. I’d always known I wasn’t normal, me with my forgotten childhood and fragmented nightmares, but I’d been able to hide it behind smiles and laughter. Until now.

🫂

“Everything he has ever touched, everyone he has ever loved. I will ruin them until they’re nothing more than a pile of ashes at your feet.”

💋

If I wasn’t the problem, why did this keep happening to me? I tried to be a good person. A good daughter, good girlfriend…but no matter how hard I tried, I always ended up hurt.

I had Josh and my friends, but there was a difference between platonic love and the deep bonds that bound a person to their parents and significant other. At least there was supposed to be.

“If you let lesser people determine your self-worth, you’ll never reach higher than t...

“You don’t have to work overtime to get people to love you, Ava. Love isn...

But love is like money. Its worth is determined by those who believe in it. And you obviously do.”

I’ve found that the quietest, most reserved people often make the best portrait subjects because the exercise doesn’t require them to speak; it requires them to feel. Those who bottle up their emotions every day feel the strongest and love the hardest; the best photographers are the ones who can capture each drop of emotion as it spills out and mold it into something visceral, relatable. Universal.

Love me a photographer who can make me smile instead of saying smile.

He hadn’t touched me, and I was already so turned on I trembled. I hadn’t thought that was possible outside romance novels and movies.

Why can't this happen to me?

And Alex Volkov—for all his control, all his power—was still wonderfully, frighteningly, heartbreakingly human.

Thank goodness!

and yes, most of it was irritation, but irritation on him looked better than contentment on anyone else.

I can't imagine

All my parents had wanted was for me to grow up happy and successful. While the “happy” part may be a reach, I could damn well work on the “successful” part.

I sat on the edge of the bed and resisted the insane urge to tuck her into my chest.

Why the hell are you resisting? DO NOT RESIST. PLEASE EXPRESS STUFF!

“I hate feeling helpless and out of control in my own life.

“I want to see what’s out there. The Eiffel Tower, the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China. I want to meet new people and try new things and live life, but I can’t. I’m trapped.