People say the heart wants what it wants and will not be denied. Those people are fools. I’m a practiced hand at hiding from the world. The scars I bear are invisible to all but me, and I use them to sustain the walls I’ve built around myself. He knocked my simple life into disarray and infiltrated my carefully constructed defenses. The tight control I maintain is at breaking point, and ever since our eyes connected across a lunch hall, my world has been off balance. I can’t have him, and he can’t have me. I know it. He knows it. I’m just not sure that Tarrant Reigns has ever followed anyone’s rules. Everything and everyone is against us. Even his brother. Caden brought us together, but now he’s standing in our way.

They say, ‘Be true to yourself and follow your heart.’ But what if the two things aren’t mutually exclusive? If only one half is being honest, can you ever really be complete? For years I was my own oppressor until I found my absolute. He was the addiction I didn’t want to fight, one that nearly broke me. But I knew, when it came to Casper, I was never going to be a survivor. I enjoyed drowning too damn much.

I’m told if you love someone you should let them go. Nobody tells you that doing so will break your soul in half. My life was easy when I had the college boyfriend who ticked all the right boxes. The night I laid eyes on Enoch Carter everything changed. I thought I was doing the right thing. Now I know I was wrong. I don’t know how to retrace my steps, how to repair the distance, fix the mess I made. I never meant to fall in love. I stayed away because she was off limits. I broke the code, then left her bed without a backward glance. All the black marks on my heart would make her dirty and I won’t allow that. Friendship is all I can offer. Even if she doesn’t want my friendship, she needs it now more than ever. I shouldn’t love her. I can’t love her. I won’t.

Max's Book