Elizabeth Morgan

But my mind is stuck on the word daddy and, again, without my permission, I start picturing what he would be like without the tee, sweaty and on top of me.

“Cam, he wanted you.”

“He wanted me?” I ask with indignation

Kat’s thing is falling in love in a millisecond and then getting bored just as quickly and moving on without a second glance.

In fact, in my ten years of making sure people really, truly mean it when they say they like me (or even more unbelievably, when they say they love me) only two people have passed.

“You meet people and instantly think the worst of them. You think they’re going to hurt you, they’re playing you, or manipulating you.”

“And sometimes, they are,” I say, tipping my chin and crossing my arms on my chest.

Abbie’s face goes soft.

“And sometimes they are, Cami, but how do you expect to figure out who is and who isn’t if you decide someone is going to fuck you over before you even know their name?”

And then, they’re off and I’m once again on my own.

And I usually like it, being alone and able to focus on me, but for the first time in a long time, alone feels . . . lonely.

"No, sweetheart. If you were mine, I'd take you everywhere. Anywhere. Show you off any chance I got. A woman like you, you don't tell her what to do, what to wear. You let her do it, then prepare to watch her ass as she moves, stay alert while she lives her life, ensuring no harm comes to her. You make it so she never has to realize there's a world outside of her bubble that isn't sunshine and rainbows.

"This is how it works, Ava. I kiss you. Every time, I kiss you, and I do it in a way that you can never forget what it's like to be kissed by a man wholly and completely obsessed with you."

Ava Bordeaux is the first thing I think about the moment I wake up and the last thing I think about as I'm falling asleep, and it has nothing to do with my need to protect her. Not even a little.

"Say fuck it and kiss me, Jaime. I’m so into you, I can barely breathe even though I know you're the one person I shouldn't be thinking about."