Wretched (Never After, #3)

by Emily McIntire

So she may have his attention and get showered in his love, but she doesn’t truly have his favor. I do. And it starts right here, in my greenhouse full of poppies.

“And real emeralds have flaws, sweetheart. Just like the rest of us.”

“There’s no one like family, Evie, and there’s no place like home. We have to stick together.” “Fine.”

That means I say jump, you ask how high.” I nod, swallowing. This

“You don’t have to trust me, Evelina. But words are your safe space, the same way that they’re mine.” My fingers thread through his hair. “Let me be your calm in the chaos, pretty girl.”

Let me be your calm in the chaos.

“I’d kill them if they touched you. This is mine,”

But if I’m her calm, then she is my chaos, and if I can’t live with her forever, then I don’t want to live at all.

Brayden. She’s Brayden’s. Which means she’ll never be mine.

“But it’s there. And it fucking sucks, and I hate myself for loving you.”

“But I hate the thought of not having you more.”

“I didn’t know that I could love until you. And you’re not perfect, okay? You piss me off and you do things I never thought I’d be all right with, and you’re moody as hell. You’re actually the furthest fucking thing from perfect I’ve ever seen. But, Evelina…you’re perfect for me.”

“I don’t want you to forgive me right now. I just want to know you’re out there and there’s a chance. That one day, maybe we’ll meet again, and I’ll walk up to you and say I’m Nicholas Tennyson Woodsworth, my favorite color is blue, I hated school, and I am so fucking in love with you that I can’t imagine living in a world that doesn’t have you in it.”

“I’m so fucking in love with you, Evelina Westerly,” he cuts me off. I grin, rising up on my tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. “Every wretched piece?” He brushes the hair back from my face. “Every single one.”