Powerless (Chestnut Springs, #3)

by Elsie Silver

“I’ll drink your water if you give me a facial.” Gotta say, the first place my head goes is not to beauty products. “Don’t worry. I’ll give you one too.” The image of Sloane straddling my face, my hands on her ass while she stares down into my eyes, flashes into my mind.

“Jas! You just threw that at my face, you awkward motherfucker!”

We gave each other facials and passed out awkwardly. Willa: High five. I love it when Cade gives me a facial. Summer: Good god. Sloane: That is . . . not what I meant.

i love that theyre friends

“You, Jas. You. Always you.”

“Because I think I’m about to fuck everything up between us.” And then he kisses me.

Fuck my safety. If I died riding Jasper Gervais in the driver’s seat of this truck, I might be fine with that. What a way to go. Out with a bang, so to speak.

Harvey: Come on. Give me something. One bed or two?

LOL HARVEY

My last moment and she would never know what she is to me. How much she is to me. That she’s it for me.

Sloane is soothing. She’s the eye of the storm. True North. Somehow our compasses always bring us back to each other.

“I never outgrew it, Jas.”

“Because he sucks the life out of you!” She rears back, clearly shocked by the volume of my voice. “And I want to breathe it back in.”

“Times have changed, Sloane. I’m not scared anymore. You’re not my fucking friend. You’re just mine.”

One strong hand props Jasper’s hulking form up against the shower wall while the other grips his cock, pumping up and down slowly.

“We both know you want to watch.”

My brain might be in bitch mode, but my heart? My heart is in slut mode.

get a full view of the tiny ballerina inked on his skin.

Telling me I wasn’t good enough for you? All that did was make me want to be good enough for you.” I groan. “You have always been good enough for me.” He grips my chin and regards me carefully under the bright lights. “I never felt like I was. But I do now.”

“Come to bed,” he urges, not backing down. “I am in bed,” I grumble back stubbornly. “The big bed, Sloane.” “Seriously, get fucked, Gervais. Go snuggle with your secrets, you exhausting, broody asshole. I’m not leaving this mattress. I’m putting my foot down.” I peek at him over my shoulder, and he gives me a little smirk. “There she is.” “Yes,” I huff, turning away and hearing the mattress creak. “Here I am.”

“It means I want you, Sloane. But I’m complicated. The things I like, the things I want, the way my head works. You’re so light and shiny. I don’t want to tarnish you. I don’t want to hurt you.” His teeth sink into my shoulder, and I buck back against him, gasping. “More than anything, I don’t want to lose you.” “You won’t. I promise you won’t,”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Sloane. I have a special knack for pushing people away. They always take off. And they’re never all that sad to leave me behind.”

im so sad for him

“You. It’s always been you.”

“Well, at least you’re consistent with being terrible at talking about your feelings.” She turns over in a huff, muttering, “Boys are so fucking dumb. Thanks for the orgasm.”

It’s my favorite tattoo. For my favorite person.

They found him. He’s safe. They found him. He’s safe. They found him. He’s safe.

Because no matter what else is going on in the world, everything is better with her in my arms.

Willa: I’ll hug Cade for you if you bang Jasper for me. Sloane: When I bang Jasper, I’m banging him for myself. Summer: Ooooooo! Willa: Possessive. I like it. Willa: Wait. Did you say WHEN?!

She’s like Willa. On crack.

Poor emotionally stunted idiot that he is.”

Things between Jasper and me are messy right now, but . . . it’s us. We always end up back together somehow. We just need to stop fighting it.

it’s just Jasper and me walking on a quiet farm under the dark night sky. We’ve been here before. In the dark together. But it’s never felt quite like this.

“I feel like I could crumble under the weight of not wanting to disappoint you. I’m paralyzed by my fear of losing you.”

“Then fucking take me back already!

i love angry love confessions

“You talk about not telling me what to do, that you don’t want to let me down, but I’m sick of being treated like I’m too fragile or too pristine. I don’t want to be a damsel in distress! So stop treating me like one. I’m not a trophy. You aren’t telling me to do anything! I’m telling you I want you to take me, and you’re sitting here, patting my head like I’m stupid, telling me I don’t know what I want. If I don’t like something, I will fucking tell you. But for the love of god, stop deciding what I like or don’t like. What I can or cannot endure. What feels good or doesn’t. Stop holding back with me.”

“It’s always been you, Jasper. It will always be you.”

“Jasper, it feels like I’ve been crawling after you for years. This is nothing new for me.”

“Something you wanna tell me, Sunny?” “You’re so fucking hot,”

“I’m yours, Jasper. I always have been.”

My name looks good on her too.

No one deserves the last name Woodcock. He’d have to look like Henry Cavill and fuck like Peter North for me to overlook that.

And it gives me just a little bit of hope that Jasper Gervais might love me the way I love him too.

“The Stanley Cup Maker.”

“That’s Summer’s older sister, Winter.”

omg

“I’m not a baby. I’m twenty-six.” Rhett scoffs. “No, you aren’t. You’re twenty-two.” “Dude. I was twenty-two when I first met you on the circuit. I’ve gotten older.

It’s like she and I are tethered together, but she’s the strong one. The pillar. And when troubled waters wash me downstream, all I have to do is follow the rope that ties me back to her. It always leads me back to her.

looking over her shoulder at me with so much fucking love in her eyes. More love than I’ve ever seen. More love than I deserve or know what to do with. The kind of love I’ve been known to sully.

“You need to leave. When I’m ready to speak to you, I will. And my name is Sloane. Not Sloaney.”

love her

“I know you’re crumbling right now. I can see you falling apart right before my eyes, Jas. But I also know you need to be the one to put yourself back together. If it’s me, I’ll constantly be the one mending you when you break. Pulling you back from that ledge. And I can’t be responsible for that for the rest of our lives. That needs to come from you.” My voice cracks. “I can barely put myself back together these days.”

Willa: That wasn’t advice. It was motivation. Willa: Also, you’ll never do better than her. I don’t care how famous you are.

i love willa grant the most

I can live without hockey but I can’t live without Sloane.

“Don’t let him scare you off, Jasper.” She pins me with her light blue eyes, so similar to her daughter’s. “Don’t let him control you too. He’s a master. He gets his claws into you and suddenly you wake up in your fifties with nothing but a heaping pile of regret. The best thing I can do for her at this point is lead by example. I don’t want that life for Sloane. I don’t want him for Sloane. She’s going to need you to be there for her when she breaks free of them.”