Haunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #1)

by H.D. Carlton

I’m not a natural with social interactions. I’m the type to stare dead into your face with a frozen smile after being asked a question while my brain processes the fact that I didn’t even hear the question.

So, SO real...

it’s easy to accumulate millions of trinkets and items you think you’ll need but never do.

I wait until he disappears from view before making my own way back. It would’ve felt weird walking behind him—two people heading in the same direction that have no interest in talking to each other. Gives me the heebie jeebies.

She’d complain my ass would get too fat, but little did she know, that’s exactly what I wanted.

UNKNOWN: Sneaking off with random men, little mouse? If I catch his hands anywhere near you, they’ll end up in your mailbox by morning.

Can’t have my little mouse thinking there aren’t consequences for letting another man touch what’s mine.

I sniff my armpit, double checking that my deodorant didn’t lie to me and doesn’t fight against tough odors.

UNKNOWN: The more you disobey me, the harder your punishment.

“Cat got your tongue, little mouse?”

UNKNOWN: You don’t need a cop to get me in handcuffs, baby. I’ll let you do anything you want to me.

and then toss the blanket over my head. Under here, the monsters can’t get me. I’m safe. Untouchable.

I’ll have her because she’s the first thing that made me feel something good in so long, and I’ve become obsessed with keeping it.

I am beyond stressed. This just can’t be good for my skin.

“What you’re seeing now is what I see every day. No matter how far I run, how hard I try to escape you—you’re everywhere I go. You’re everything I see. Loving you is like being trapped in a house of mirrors, little mouse. And I’ve never felt so at home while being so lost inside you.”

“One day, you will realize that you are not trapped in a prison,” he murmurs roughly. “You are in my church where I am your God, and you are my equal. I’m not a jail, little mouse, I am your sanctuary.”

“My body is just a vessel that my soul inhabits, attached to a shell that it'll one day leave. And when that day comes, I won’t care to let that shell go. I carry my body around because I have to, not because it's a choice.

“Let me know which stars you prefer. The ones above you, or the ones I make you see.”

“Sometimes the happiest people are the saddest,”