Twisted Games (Twisted, #2)

by Ana Huang

But people were people, no matter their title, and some desires were universal. Unfortunately, the ability to fulfill them was not.

A grim half smile touched Rhys’s lips. “I’d rather you hate me alive than love me dead.”

“I suggest you stop lookin’ at me like that, Princess,” I said, my voice lethally soft. “Unless you plan on doing something about it.”

I’d tried and failed to name the empty, gnawing feeling that’d haunted me since Rhys left. The one that crept up on me when I lay in bed at night and tried to think of something I looked forward to the next day. The one that washed through me at the oddest moments, like when I was in the middle of an event or pretending to laugh along with everyone else. Now I had a name for it. Loneliness.

I didn’t want to be one of those shallow people who only cared about looks, but it would be easier not to focus on his looks if he gave me something else to work with.

Most people thought the most important quality in a leader was strength, but it was compassion. Strength meant jack shit when you didn’t use it for the right reasons.

“Remember. In public, you’re my princess, but in private, you’re my whore.”

There was nothing more powerful than power people could relate to.

Without value, tradition is nothing but an imitation of the past,

Forget butterflies. An entire flock of birds took flight in my stomach, soaring into the clouds and taking me with them. “Mr. Larsen, I do believe you’re a secret romantic after all.”