More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
“And if I slit your throat?” He breathed a laugh. “My kind of fun has a price, remember?” I stopped breathing for a moment, remembering those words. Remembering that he was him. My ghost. The one I kissed and made love to.
Oh fuck
“Why would my mother leave me with you?” “Because she’s a cunt.”
Ouch
In a setting like this, with all these people and madness around . . .
Smart girl
Did he like abuse or something? I couldn’t picture him having Damon’s dark side.
They did more than that;)
Red. Anger and fury and heat and need so strong you’re a fucking animal, Winter. It’s primal. So that was red. I’d wanted to do it. I loved the flames. I had dived in. But now, the pain of the burns. I hated him.
Will was doing a piss-poor job watching out for her. Grabbing her was way too easy. I took another drag, noticing a
Hahahah
Winter’s age wasn’t the problem to me. I didn’t even see it. The crime was I couldn’t tell her who I was. And the crime was she didn’t love me back.
Maybe Will or Alex—or both—would like to join me for the next round. Winter seemed to like them, after all.
Oooo yeahhh
Michael, Kai, and Will head straight for me.
Oooooooo
want to talk to you in private,” he said. I straightened my spine, meeting him eye to eye.
Yes please
Me? Oh, so that was it. The only way she’d give me the time of day was if I was blackmailing her?
“It’s one of her professors,” Alex offered. “She’s part of his research team at the college.”
“He was not touching her very professionally when he was in disguise,” Will replied sarcastically, taking a swig of his beer.
He didn’t want a puppy. He wanted a partner. But there comes a point when you have to defend your house and take charge. And not just in the bedroom. Which was all she needed him for.
And then I taunted Kai. “Still able to knock someone out with a single kick?” “Want a demonstration?” he shot back.
Me as practice
Kai looked over at me, twenty yards away, and I jerked my chin, alerting him it was time. He stepped back, giving himself room, got in his stance, and as soon as Alex came around the corner, Kai shot out, swung his leg around, and knocked the dude right in his temple. He didn’t even have time to turn and see who was there. His head jerked back, his knees gave out, and he fell forward, face-planting on the dirt ground.
Husband material
After a pause, she pulled away, sighing with relief. “Okay, good.” “Baby, please.” Kai looked insulted.
Lovee
“You gonna make my sister carry that?”
Will and I were cut from the same cloth, both always diving too deep for our own good, he with alcohol and drugs and I with the pain I needed to inflict.
Not everyone needed help to stop hurting themselves. Some of us just traded one coping mechanism for another.
I knew it was coming. Once the sex happened, she didn’t want to be away from me. And in all honesty, I didn’t want to be away from her. I just needed to make sure she listened to me. That she heard me out and couldn’t run away. That there was no one around to interfere before she was able to process it. If I wanted to keep this, it was my only chance.
I’d changed her forever. I’d bent and twisted and broken everything that made her the most beautiful thing that ever happened to me.
My father thought anyone who wanted me was obviously victimizing me. And look at that. He was right. I was the idiot for not knowing better. For thinking a “regular” guy wanted me. I felt the bed sink as my mother sat down. “Did he hurt you?”
He’s not him. He’s not who I fell in love with. He was my sister’s husband, and he wanted to make sure I was never happy again.
“We have money.” “No, Rika has money,” Kai shot back. “We have our parents.”
SORE
Taking down Winter’s father wasn’t just to get Winter. Kai shook his head. “Jesus.”
Ahhhhhhh
Finally, she blurted out, “Why me?” “Because Michael couldn’t care less, and the rest of us are felons.” “Hey, it’s America.” Will leaned back, slumping in his chair with a lazy smile. “Anything is possible.”
Hahahhah
I broke last night because I didn’t want this. I just wanted that kid back who sat in my lap and drove my car. I made her happy. Me.
“Mr. Torrance is having the ‘stupid, gaudy, fucking fountain’ removed,” he said.
“Why are you named Winter?” “It’s a poem by Walter de la Mare,” I tell him, still taking in the vast scenery as I recite part of it. “‘Thick draws the dark, / And spark by spark, / The frost-fires kindle, and soon, / Over that sea of frozen foam, / Floats the white moon.’”
To dive and fall. To have a lifetime of searching for something. Or to have five minutes of everything.
“Who’s fucking you?” Oh, God, I was coming. “Damon Torrance,” I breathed out.
He was still the boy, promising to kiss me again someday, and I was still her, never wanting to leave whatever little private world we created when we were together.
told him I loved him. But he hadn’t said it back. It was okay. I didn’t need to hear it yet. He seemed to need to hear it himself, though. Like in the tree house when we were kids. Desperate to keep me safe and by his side.
I crashed back on the bed, feeling my body tingle all over. He wrote me a note. I’d never gotten a love letter before, and that was totally one. I couldn’t believe he had a braille printer.
“Because I was afraid of life without the hope of you to look forward to.”
Will rose from his seat, heading over to me, while Kai was passed out on a recliner with Banks curled up on top of him, and Michael and Rika were asleep on the couch.
“A few hours,” he said. “You never sleep long.” “I want to leave.”
“Aw, you care?” “With you bedridden, you can’t cause trouble,” he pointed out. “It’s nice.”
I finally just met her eyes and shrugged. “Ya know.” A soft smile crossed her beautiful face and her eyes started to glisten. “Yeah, I love you, too,”
Pissant.
So take my father, if we can, and hide him somewhere, threatening and/or torturing him until he gives up her fiancé and my . . . Winter. That sounded like a lot of waiting.
Or kill him
“Please, don’t . . .” he begged. “Please don’t leave me.”
“I never did,”
“You two . . .” he said, sounding like a threat, “are making me so hard.”
love you,” he whispered over my lips again.
Maybe on those nights, sneaking into my house and taking me on adventures, he was the real Damon Torrance.
“You’re going to need to go to the hospital again, Damon,” Banks spoke up. “Fuck that.” I blew out smoke. “Just butterfly bandage it.” “Are you kidding?” she blurted out.
“My woman doesn’t ask permission. She’s a force. Say it louder.” Her chin started to tremble, but her voice burst out strong. “My place is at your side.” And I kissed her, making sure she fucking believed it. She was always wanted.
We weren’t boys in hoodies anymore, I guess. It was time to reintroduce ourselves to Thunder Bay.
