Binding Parker? Fucking her? Killing her?
Nothing.
Because this isn’t about her anymore.
I suppose it never was.
She was meant to be a substitute.
I’m ruined.
Utterly fuckingruinedfor anyone but them.
All I want is Haven.
All I want is Kai.
Both. Together.
Because it’s messy and wrong and so fucking perfect my hands are shaking.
I grab Melissa’s hair, and I haul her to her feet, and I drag her down the hall to my study, and I shove her down the set of narrow stairs no one knows about.
Because the alternative is doing nothing.
And I’ve never been able to do nothing.
Agony Hollow should’ve been a fresh start. I kept my head down for three years, getting by on scraps.
Until Haven.
Until Kai.
And now I don’t have a choice but to seek emotional release.
I’veneverhad a fucking choice.
Since the first time I drew blood at sixteen, I’ve only ever craved one thing in life.
More.
Chapter 6
Haven
Someone should warn people about the way happiness sneaks up on you mid-Twizzler while your not-quite-boyfriend dozes on the other end of the sofa with a highlighter dangling out of his open mouth.
Piaget’s stages of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, formal operational.
Right. Cool. Got it.
Except I absolutely donothave it, and midterms are nextfuckingweek.
I glance over at Kai sprawled on the opposite end of the sofa. His one leg is bent, foot propped on the coffee table, the other stretched out so his sock-covered toes press against my thigh. The Corporate Finance textbook balanced on his stomach rises and falls with each breath.
The very picture of academic dedication.
A cold, half-eaten pepperoni pizza sits between us in its grease-stained box. Five empty beer bottles line the coffee table. Three are Kai’s—his fourth is on the floor beside him, half-finished.
