Beard Science (Winston Brothers, #3)

by Penny Reid

I was a mess. I was a mess of wanting to tear his clothes off, and wanting to kiss his face off, and wanting more of what we’d done three nights ago.

He sounded like releasing me was something only to be done out of necessity or under duress.

One day soon, I was going to seduce him.

no one can control who you are—fundamentally, who you are in your heart—except for you. The decision is always yours.”

“No matter what happened in your past, what ghosts might lurk there, the road you take is ultimately up to you,” I squeezed him back, “but—selfishly—I hope it’s always the road I’m on.”

If it were possible to be infatuated with an idea, I was infatuated with this idea.

He closed the distance between us and gathered me in his arms. He didn’t kiss me. He just looked at me, like I was something wonderful and amazing.

Memories, both good and bad, were loudest late at night, when everyone was asleep but me.

As a rule, I didn’t like change. My Jennifer continuously surprised me, and her surprises were a thing of beauty. She’d forced me to re-evaluate my priorities and she’d pushed me beyond the contented circle of my comfort zone. She’d changed me.

Believing in people hadn’t ever come easily to me. I was by nature suspicious and distrustful, mostly because—if the standardized IQ curve was to be believed—the majority of people were idiots. But Jennifer was not an idiot. Jennifer was brilliant and wise, and kind and good, and everything. And I’d just fucked everything up.

“If ignorance is bliss, then knowledge is a cage.” “But knowledge is only a cage if you dwell in isolation.”

Jennifer was the key to my cage. She was the key to my future. We fit together. Her strengths counterpoised my weaknesses. If she gave me another chance, I would give her my faith. I would trust her completely. I would give her everything. I would tell her everything. Everything. Because knowledge is only a cage if you dwell in isolation.

Nothing lasts forever. You got a chance at happiness, even for a week, a month, a year? You grab it and hold on to it for as long as it lasts. I want you to seize.”

“Stay away from the normals, the small-minded people who fill their brains with small-minded pursuits, who blend in and keep up with the Joneses. Those people will tear you down and make you boring. Instead, surround yourself with the weirds. With the misfits, oddballs, and outcasts. Because the normals, bless their hearts, have no idea how to have fun.”

“For the record, I will never turn down you straddling me.”

I may have wanted to possess her, but I didn’t need it. I needed to love her, not possess her. And she needed my love, not my trickery. Not my control.

A man has only so much focus. When handed two, perfect breasts, all other thoughts must abruptly cease, and all attention is rerouted to the palms.