Lords of Pain (Royals of Forsyth University, #1)

by Angel Lawson

Scary because I need it, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned this past year, it’s that needing something means giving in to someone else’s power.

Hearing them is just a reminder of how exhausting it all is, tiptoeing around this house, avoiding all the landmines. There’s one at every step, it seems. The whole thing has made me paranoid. I feel like I’m constantly being watched. Or that someone has been in my room.

Tristian is insanely good-looking. He’s all blond hair, tan skin, and lean, hard muscle. I know that, out of the three of them, he does best with the girls. Much like Killian and Rath, he’s also enormous. Intimidating not just because of his size, wealth, and popularity, but mostly because of something else. His smile never quite reaches his eyes. They’re ice blue and carry a glint of cool detachment. Just looking into them makes me want to wrap my arms around myself. Rath is the opposite of Tristian, with his inky-black hair, lip piercings, pale skin, and dark eyes. He’s quieter than the other two, those intense eyes always watching, tracking.

The door clicks shut down the hall. I stare at my nails, wondering for the millionth time if I’m doing the right thing. Then I remember that this isn’t about the right thing. It’s about survival.

Dimitri Rathbone—Rath.

you have a name as cool as Dimitri, and you go by Rath??? choices

“Dangerous can be sexy.”

It reminds me of the first time I saw her; the night at the restaurant when my dad introduced us all. I knew that he’d intended her for me. He had to have. She was just too perfect, too pure, too sweet and cute. The first time I smiled at her, she squirmed in her seat, red blooming over her pale cheeks, ducking her head to hide a grin. I knew then that she’d be mine. I was wrong.

Anger that the night in the laundry room should have sealed the deal, but all three of us were too drunk and pissed off to do it properly. Anger that she just up and left.

She’s like sand slipping through your fingers. Water through a sieve. You can’t keep what you can never grasp.

Don’t thank me. I’m not your savior, then or now.

I can’t let him know.

i hate to break it to you but he knows already babe

It’s easy to give a girl a bad fuck. Giving her a good one is the better challenge.

Yes. Being their toy will be easy. The hard part will be deciding who I want to lose more.

“I’m just not comfortable kissing you guys.”

you got finger-fucked bent over a piano but kissing is where you draw the line????

But a kiss, it’s the thing you wait for. Girls dream about it. It’s a rite of passage and I want it to be right, not taken by an abusive asshole.

so you'll give them your virginity but you won't kiss them? girl what is this logic??????

I don’t want to see what happens.

I do tho

There is nothing god-like about Tristian Mercer. If anything, he’s a demon.

Mostly, it hurt that it hurt at all.

10 things I hate about you coded

By nature, I’m an empath.

are you sure about that????

And from the way Charlene looks at me, she knows it.

we all know it too babe

“I still have a scar from the paddling.”

it was dexerved. and it's probably hot.

“If I’m broken,” she whispers, rusty voice cutting through the silence, “then you’re the one who broke me.” I blink at her, confused. “You look pretty together to me.”

“I hate her, too.

keep telling yourself that killian

I’d rather stab myself in the eye with the corkscrew, actually.