Run Riot (State of Grace, #1)

by Colette Rhodes

“But you don’t do that anymore,” I settled on eventually. “I don’t.” “Okay, well, that’s...I mean, so long as you’re not doing it anymore—” “It would be a mistake to think of me as the good guy, Grace. I’m not,” Riot said flatly. I could feel his self-loathing like blades against my skin, but even if I couldn’t, it was written all over his face. “We’re more than the sum of our regrets, Riot,” I told him softly.

Maybe what Grace needed wasn’t so much guidance as approval. That nod of go-ahead to just fucking explore and live, and not give a shit what anyone else had to say about it. And someone to tell her it was okay afterwards, when the inevitable guilt for feeling anything other than chaste positivity arose.