Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1)

by Penelope Douglas

“That’s where you’re wrong,” he said, meeting my eyes. “I do want to hurt you. I want to fucking kill you, and then I’m going to kill Trevor.”

I never wanted to ruin what they had. I wanted to be a part of it. I was curious, and I wanted to have some fun, but I never wanted to change them or stop them or . . .

Every time I closed my eyes she was there. It feels like you. Sixteen and looking at me like I was God. You’re in everything. The moment I knew that heart of hers was mine, and I couldn’t wait to be inside of her. Yes, it turns me on. Seeing her go over that edge and trust me to jump with her as I felt her from the inside for the first time and she came apart in my arms. God . . .

it took her nearly getting killed for me to realize what she meant to me. For me to realize how ingrained in every moment of my life she was and how she’d always been there, right in front of me. Her, riding her bike around my driveway when she was five. Her, learning to swim in my pool. Her, running around and doing cartwheels in my backyard. Her, biting her nails when I entered the room. Her, sitting next to my mother at every basketball game in high school. Her, refusing to even look in my direction when I hung out with a girl. And me, barely able to hold back the smile at the little looks she stole and how nervous she was when I was close. She was always there, and it was always us.

Nothing could shake us. She was mine, and I was hers, and it would never break.

I closed my eyes, breathing her in. “I love you so much,” I whispered, tightening my hold on her. “This is where I live.”

I wasn’t a pawn for men to marry and govern.

“So what do we do now?” Will asked. The corner of Michael’s lips lifted. “What we’re good at, I guess. Wreaking a little fucking havoc.”

“It means that I’m going to do my best to piss you off every chance I get, because there’s nothing hotter than you when you’re mad.” I could hear the grin in his voice. He dipped his hand down to the inside of my thigh. “And then I’m going to do my best to remind you of how nice I am, so you can’t stop thinking about me when we’re not together.”

“I thought you had returned everything.” “I did.” He nodded. “But this one I bought.” “Why?” Why would he buy a ring for someone he hated? It would have been after the videos exploded online, so it didn’t make any sense. He tightened his arms around me. “I don’t know. Maybe I couldn’t let a piece of that night go.” And then he leaned in, whispering in my ear, “Or maybe somewhere down deep I always knew this day would come.”

“Other people don’t matter to us, Rika. We don’t let their rules contain us. What we can and can’t do is irrelevant. Who’s going to stop us?”

“Are you tapping out?” He shook his head, his mischievous eyes telling me everything I needed to know as he walked toward me. He was always game. And thanks to his tutelage, now so was I. He’d corrupted me.

She would say that I built her. That I created a monster, and that somewhere during the blood, tears, struggle, and pain, we realized that it was love. That all sparks lead to a flame. But what she failed to remember was . . . our story started long before that night.

“People don’t see me, Rika,” I confide. “I only exist as a reflection of him.” She tilts her head up a little, her eyes still closed. “That’s not true,” she mumbles sleepily. “You’re always the first person I notice in a room.”

Life is one-way, and there is no return trip. What are you waiting for?”

I want a little havoc, a little trouble, a little fun, a chance to go where my heart takes me . . . Who the hell’s going to stop me?

“Do you still have those masks we used for paintball last weekend?” I ask, stuffing my wallet in my new jeans and running my fingers through my hair. “Yeah, they’re in the trunk of my car,” he answers. “Good. Get the guys and meet me at Sticks.” “What are we going to do?” “Whatever we want,” I reply.

She corrupted me.