More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
She was moody, intolerant, judgmental . . . and while I knew exactly where her distrust and hard heart came from, she refused to warm toward me after all this time. If she hadn’t by now, she wouldn’t.
I tried to forget her with others. I went with women who looked nothing like her, so I could get her out of my system, but at the end of the day, it only hurt me more.
Because maybe if I could screw her, I could leave, and it would be like someone flipped a switch where she no longer mattered.
A pyrrhic victory. And here I was, pretty sure that no cost was too great to just be able to hold her. It kind of scared me what I’d pay.
But my situation was different. “I didn’t deserve to go to prison, but . . . I might’ve deserved this.” It got me clean and sober. “Besides, the family I chose would never send me here. They’re what I’m returning to,” I told him.
Meaning it wasn’t a choice of going back. He never thought he was actually getting out.
“I’m lucky,” I said, almost to myself. “I have a family full of people who know what going over the edge feels like. They know there’s a place inside of us where you make the rules instead of following them. I’m not alone.”
“What did she do to get sent here?” he asked before I had a chance to leave.
Would I proceed, considering her a factor?
“Just like the rest of us,” I said, “she knows what she did, and no one here is innocent.”
I didn’t want to say too much in case someone was spying on us, and where she was concerned, I didn’t know who was involved.
I exhaled, relaxing my shoulders. Okay, then. It wasn’t my people.
Either Michael, Kai, and Damon were working on their own, or someone else was behind this. I still knew nothing, but at least I’d ruled out anyone on my end.
He was holding Emory.
I yanked the steel bar away and threw open my bedroom door.
CHAPTER 18
I walked toward him, his scent and arms and smile beckoning me like food, because I was dry and hungry and empty.
The pink party dress, the blood and bruises . . .
I was constantly messing with his head, sending him mixed signals, and yes, he pushed too hard and no means no, no matter how many times I’d changed my mind, but . . .
But to my surprise, he pushed off the wall, coming toward me with a soft smile playing on his lips.
I searched his eyes, unable to look away, because just the sight of him made my heart ache.
“I didn’t want to make it hard for you to find me.”
“I love seeing you laugh.”
He continued, “No one knows where it is, if it’s even real, but stories abound of rich, young men who can’t behave being ferried away there to be hidden.”
“Well, we can’t be arrested,” he pointed out, as if I should’ve known. “It looks bad for the family, you know? So, moms and dads will send you to Blackchurch if you become too uncontrollable. You just disappear. Overnight. Legend has it that it’s remote, secluded, and wild.”
I gaped at him. Who does that? Who sends their kid away because they’re afraid of publicity?
“What the hell?” Will cursed. “Why does everything want to stop us?”
I threw his coat onto a seat and tried peering out the windows to gauge if Martin had seen us, but Will grabbed my arm and whipped me around. I crashed into his chest, he took me in his arms, and his mouth crashed down on mine.
“You’re mine,” he whispered in my ear. I tipped my head back, savoring his warmth on my throat and ignoring the sting as his hand brushed the cut on my brow.
“God, I wanna knock you up,” he said, rising up and looking down at me as he took out a condom. “I want to ruin you for all the times you made me think you didn’t want me. I want to give you a piece of me you’ll never be able to escape.”
“You’re going to have me tomorrow.” I rolled the rubber on, trailing kisses across his abs. “After school in your truck. Against the stacks in the library at lunch. Reverse cowgirl in your lap at the movie theater.”
“But you’re going to be fucking mine someday,” he growled. “Come hell or high water, Emory Scott. You’re my woman, and you’re going to come home to me every day and sit at my table and warm my fucking bed.” He kissed me. “And you’re going to give me a Will Grayson IV. Mark my words.”
Sweat seeped out of my pores, and I opened my eyes, gazing up at his beautiful face and the sheen on his chest, all for me.
You’re gonna beg for me and love me so much you can’t stand it.
He wanted to give me a piece of him I’d never escape, but he had a part of me I’d never get back.
This would never be as good with anyone else. I was fucked, and he’d already had his revenge.
CHAPTER 19
God, how I would’ve loved to never be reminded of how good he felt.
I swallowed. “So, are you . . . like a . . . like a serial killer, then?”
Taylor was right about that. They were all here for a reason, and none of them were my friends.
This house had passages.
I stared at him, unable to move, because I couldn’t remember why I’d come in here, but I knew it was a secret. I hadn’t wanted to run into anyone. I had thought he was still asleep.
I inched in, and he circled my waist, pulling me down into his lap. I protested, trying to stand back up, but he took my hands in his and pushed them forward, palms down into the plant bed and sliding them underneath the soil.
It was long. It wasn’t a worm. I gulped, whispering. “Is that a snake?”
“He . . .” I breathed hard. “He wasn’t an addict. My brother had a temper,” I explained.
“Waiting for the danger to hit,” he continued. “Knowing it was coming.”
“Would you get sick right before you knew he was coming home?” he asked. “Run to the bathroom and vomit, maybe?” I opened my eyes, meeting his through the blur.
“What if I said it’s not venomous, but it can bite?”
“Or maybe it’s not harmful at all,” he told me, “but I might put some in your bed tonight? Would you fear them any less?”
“Don’t run,” he told me, reading my mind. “Don’t cry. Don’t get angry. Just let go.”
