All Downhill With You (Honeywood, #1)

by Julie Olivia

Maybe the park imprinted on me werewolf-style. There have been weirder imprints—looking at you, Stephenie Meyer.

It’s like a new mom asking me if her baby is cute when he came out looking like a newborn Benjamin Button. There’s no nice way to say, Those wrinkles are adorable, ma’am.

I bet he takes his coffee black. I bet he replies to texts with the letter K. I bet he answers knock-knock jokes with, Get off my lawn.

The cynical yin to my optimistic yang.

“Oh, that man feels for you. Maybe it’s hate, but boy, does he love to hate you.”

“Yeah, sure, the dude has problems,” Quinn says, tilting her head side to side before taking one long gulp of her drink and setting it down on the table. “But I think you might be ninety-nine percent of them.”

Lorelei Arden is everything. She’s the steady rise of a lift hill. She’s more exciting than the anticipation as you crest the top. She is the thrill of the downhill, the rush of anxiety through your chest, the harsh banked turn, the dip in the track, the grip from the brake run.

My entire being burns for Lorelei. It burns like the big dumpster fire that I am.

My heart beats a little faster. My stomach does flip-flops. Is that … butterflies? Oh God, pull it together, man. You’re thirty-six, for Christ’s sake.

She’s smiling around me more, and my heart stumbles like a teenage boy every time.

“No, no, the force from that turn will give the guests …” How about the force between my thighs, making me clench my knees closer together?

“Don’t let his storm cloud rain on your flower garden.” But I don’t tell her that, sometimes, plants need a little water to thrive.

I already know she deserves better than me. “What do you want, Emory?” she asks. But at the end of the day, I’m a selfish bastard. “You.”

I fall to my knees. I don’t think it’s even voluntary. It’s like the weight of this moment, of watching her, willed me to do it. She is my goddess, and I’m poised to pray at her temple.

My name on her lips is like a toxin, and I want it flooding my body more. Ruin me, Lorelei.

“I knew there had to be a reason you were an engineer, Mr. Dawson.” “Say that again.” “Mr. Dawson.” “Good girl. Eyes on me.”

“You say I need to control things? Well, I won’t control this. I’m yours, Lorelei Arden. Control me. I want you to tell me what to do to make this better.

“Wanna know something funny?” I ask. “I think I fell for her the first time I saw her. Before I even knew who she was. She was halfway across the midway, picking up trash, and I still thought, Wow, that is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.”

“Every situation contains two sides of the same coin,” she says. “If you find a penny on the ground, it only appears to be lucky or unlucky based on which side shows its face. But it’s all about perspective. It’s all about what you believe.

Lorelei doesn’t belong to me. It’s my heart that’s owned by her.

I’m in love with the fact that he doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve, and I love that he still stitched it there just for me.

“You really should let people see the best side of you,” I mutter. “I like it being just for you.”

“You are the first person who showed me it’s okay to be happy,” he says. “To want something more than just my job. Because, Lore, I want you. I want you so bad. And unless you can tell me right now that this will never happen, that I will forever be wasting my time convincing you just how much I have absolutely fallen in love with you, then I’m not going anywhere. I will spend every waking moment trying to deserve you, if you’ll let me.”