Hunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #2)

by H.D. Carlton

You can’t truly love someone if you’ve never hated them.

According to WHO????

When Zade and I are happy, it’s easy to forget how much he enjoys seeing me suffer.

Ah, romance

“You cut me because you know I’ll gladly bleed for you. So now I want to see you bleed for me.” I open my mouth, prepared to tell him that I already have, but before I can, he bends and grabs a long, gnarled twig off the ground, fisting it in his hand. Whatever I was going to say somersaults right back down my throat, and my heart stalls in my chest. “What are you going to do?” I ask hesitantly, eyeing the branch like he’s holding a gun.

I mean, we all know what he's about to do

“Giving my heart to you was something I prayed I’d never do,” I whisper. “But you’ve always been a God, and I didn’t realize my pleas were going straight into your hands. Yet they always went unanswered.”

Girl he is CURRENTLY beating you with a switch

I soak in his naked torso and release a shaky exhale. Where he hit me is almost precisely the same place as the scar on his stomach. Through blurred vision, I watch him whip out his arm, landing another strike to mirror his chest wound, reopening the unhealed rose over my heart. I told him to carve that rose into my skin because I wanted to bear the pain we endured together. When he lashes out again, replicating yet another mark, I realize he’s giving his pain to me—sharing it with me.

How sweet

A deep, rumble sounds from his throat as his gaze eats up the art piece he’s created on my body. My skin is the canvas to release his pain on, and I’m happy to accept each angry stroke.

WHY THO

My hand wraps around his length, drawing a shudder from him that has nothing to do with the wind still ravaging Seattle.

What wind ????

I suck in a breath when his lips skate close to a welt, the pain flaring brightly as his teeth sink into my flesh. Blood drops down between his teeth, and I cry out as the agony begins to overwhelm me.

You're gonna need so many antibiotics

“You… I have the IUD,” I say. It would be difficult to tamper with that. Not unless he physically pulled it from my body. “Do you?” he murmurs, his deep voice low and challenging. He poses the question in a way that suggests he knows the answer to that question better than I do. My nails dig into his shoulders, and when realization begins to set in, I push at him. Of course, he resists against me, a steel fortress that even a nuclear bomb couldn’t crumble. “You didn’t,” I snap. “You sleep so heavily sometimes,” he responds,

Um???????????????????? also, clearly written by someone who has never had an iud

I tighten my lips, but then smile with victory when I realize I’m not even ovulating. When I tell him so, he only smirks. “I didn’t take out your IUD,” he says, bending to gather our clothes.

Well that's a relief

“When I do get you pregnant, you will know about it,” he promises, though it sounds like another threat. “You will watch me pull the IUD from your body myself.” That… oddly makes me feel better.

It should not.

Michael drives us to an abandoned wine distillery corroded from nature.

Vineyard? Winery?

Scrawling with overgrown vines, threading up the side of the gray stone walls.

You're such a shit writer

She’s grown into her strength and independence so much since she survived trafficking, and there are times my chest physically aches from both pride and the need to fuck her.

Objectively hilarious

All the ways I’ve hurt you have always been intentional.”

How nice

“You’re searching for life inside that sunset, yet I seek death between your thighs,” he rasps, his deep voice husky with desire.

This should be on an inspirational poster

“You won’t find God in the sun when he’s already inside you,” he growls,

New church slogan just dropped

“You would want to rule the government? You’re mentally unstable, Sibby,”

Sibby for president

Before she can protest, I position the head of my cock at her tight entrance and gently push in.

Omg without a condom????