Gleam (The Plated Prisoner, #3)

by Raven Kennedy

“You forced truths out of me while concealing yourself. You don’t think that’s hypocritical?”

“Because he said when you asked me to do that, that’s how I was to respond,”

Did I say she was my favorite Wrath? She’s not. I prefer Osrik.

We tell ourselves twisted lies to tangle around our wicked truths, all so that we can get caught up in the bind and not have to face bare regrets.

“You’re very floppy.” I rest my head against his firm, muscled chest. “You’re very hard,” I counter. A rich, dark laugh slips from his mouth. “You’ve no idea.”

“Your ribbons seem to like me.” “Well, they don’t have brains, so…”

“My own good was stuck on a pirate ship, with an aura like a beacon that flared across the Barrens,” he grits out, a thick spun voice meant to tie knots around me. “My own good was cowering before men who were nothing—fucking nothing—in comparison to her.”

“I’m saying that you are my own good. And for you, I gave you a choice, but you chose him.”

“Well, with an invitation like that, how could I resist?”

since every time I lick my fingers, I feel Rip’s eyes cut over to me.

“I’m glad you’re choosing you,” he says quietly, and my lips part, like I want to swallow the rumble of his cadence. “You are?” I go completely still as he moves his hand and grips my chin, like he wants to make sure I’m paying attention. I am. “Yes, Goldfinch. Because I’m choosing you, too.”

I let my eyes run over her pleasing figure. Perhaps Malina’s defiance will work out in my favor after all. Why settle for a cold shrew and a saddle’s bastard when there may be other...options to explore?

You look like him, I say in silent reply. Your guilt lies right there in your face.

You’re not the villain in my story.” “I am,” he says without remorse, his sharp jaw tight with tension. “But I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.”

“I’ve wanted you since the moment I laid eyes on you, Goldfinch. I was just waiting for you to catch up.”

“I want all of you,” he tells me, a newfound hunger in the depths of his green eyes that stirs heat beneath my skin. “Every piece, every memory, every minute, every inch. This isn’t going to be some casual dalliance. This isn’t going to be temporary. I want you soul, mind, and body. I want your trust and your thoughts. I want your past, your present, your future. So make very certain that you want me for the right reasons. Be certain that you’re choosing this, because once you do, there’s no turning back.”

“Love happens in all kinds of ways. Fast. Slow. In bits and pieces, or immediate. Filled with lust, one-sided longing, a snap realization never noticed before. Deeply. Thoroughly. Love is a whisper we didn’t hear or a sound that drums in our ears and drowns out everything else.”

“The moment that sun dips, Goldfinch, you’re mine.”

There comes a point in your life when you have to choose between having regrets and the possibility of making mistakes.

“You are the most stunning female I have ever seen.”

“I’d touch you if it wouldn’t turn you solid,” I admit. “One part of me is plenty solid already,” he says with a devilish smirk.

“Thank fuck.”

her nub,

She is everything I don’t deserve. But I’m going to keep her anyway.

The things you do for the males you sleep with.

“But this was more fun. You should’ve seen your face back there. I thought you were going to pee yourself.”