Haunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #1)

by H.D. Carlton

I know what the fuck I want, and I don’t give a shit what anyone else thinks about it.

I love storms—I just don’t like to be in them. I’d prefer to cuddle up under the blankets with a mug of tea and a book while listening to the rain fall.

I’m scared, but I’m also stupid. So, I’m not leaving.

I have to remind myself she doesn’t know me yet. She doesn’t understand what true need is. Not yet, but she will. Because she’s going to hate the way she needs me.

The moment I saw her sitting in that bookstore, working to hide her nerves and anxiety, there I was—a grown-ass man, falling in obsession at first sight.

I’m going to make her fall in love with every single fucked up part of me. I want this girl to see me at my most depraved. I want her to experience the true darkness residing in my soul.

“Daya, I don’t know what to do. He didn’t hurt me, but he did. He definitely forced himself on me. But I would’ve let him go farther had he tried. I’m so fucking confused. And I feel dirty and wrong, but when it was happening, it felt…”

“Addie, I love you and I’m going to say this with all my love. But don’t project. I’m starting to get the feeling that you want Ronaldo to be the killer because in your head, that will criminalize your stalker, too. Please tell me that’s not why you’re seeking justice for Gigi. Because you’re looking for a reason to hate your stalker when in actuality, you don’t.”

I refuse to love my shadow.

“Zade,” he whispers against my lips. “That’s the only name that will ever leave your lips from now on,

If he had given my soul back, it would be gone again.

Just because the sun is pretty doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous to stare at, Addie.

I was happy. Bored, but happy. And now my very own stalker is teaching me self-defense moves. Not against himself, but his enemies. The irony is not lost on me, unlike my success in not getting choked to death.

“You pretend like you care about me, or whatever you convince yourself that you feel for me, but I’ve been in danger because of you. You do know that, right?

I want you to have all of me. Not just bits and pieces.”

They’ll soon realize that I sit on the fucking throne, and their nightmares bow to me. I’m far worse than any monster they could ever imagine.

For a man that I should loathe, but… I don’t. I just don’t. He’s all those things, but he’s also one of the most admirable men I’ve ever met. The

He’s such a fucking oxymoron. Contradicting in the most agonizing ways.

I feel safe with him. Even now, when fear is rewiring my brain.

Hopeless. That’s what running from Zade is. Fucking. Hopeless.

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.”

baby. Love is an enigma, and it's redefined every time someone says it.”

It’s not right—how beautiful he is. He’s definitely the fucking Devil. I’m sure of it now more than ever.

I don’t know how I’m supposed to concentrate when I just found God. Or rather, I think I just became one.

I smile. I am the fucking grim reaper.

“Baby, you rule the fucking kingdom, and I will gladly bow to you.”

let him consume me because I’m beginning to forget what it feels like to be whole without Zade.

Darkness bleeding into purity—tainting it. Just like he’s done to me.

I hover over her and inspect every curve and detail that makes up the face of the woman I’m madly fucking in love with.

“For centuries. Both of us wearing different faces, inhabiting different bodies. But the same souls, colliding over and over, until this planet decides to crumble and our souls have nowhere else to go.”

“Can you imagine what it would feel like to have my love for that long?” She swallows, her eyes pinned on the water beyond the cliff as a shaky breath loosens past her lips. “Do you know what it sounds like to drown? That’s what it would feel like,” she says, her voice husky and uneven. “Tell me, baby. What does drowning sound like?” “Like the first breath of air after being trapped underwater. It's a sound of both pain and relief.

Of desperation and desire. When you’ve gone so long without oxygen, that first breath is the only thing that makes sense, and your body takes it in without permission.”

“I guess I wanted to see roses all over your house, too. Maybe because you feel like home.”

carry my body around because I have to, not because it's a choice. But when I possess something meaningful, I’m choosing to hold on to it. Carrying something meaningful in my skin is effortless but holding onto something that I could lose—that takes devotion.”