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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
GAIL McHUGH
They were a storm I never saw coming, an unforeseen heartbreak on the edge of a
dangerous cliff.
Amber Moretti’s life changes in the span of minutes. An orphaned outsider, she is desperate to start fresh the moment she walks onto campus. In the time it takes to cross the university’s dining hall, she meets two men who bring color, air, and light to her darkened world.They became my addiction, each a needle to my next hit, my high. Brock Cunningham’s appeal is dizzying, a potent force Amber can’t deny. A green-eyed smooth talker, he instantly attracts Amber. It doesn’t take long for him to consume her every thought, her every breath. Ryder Ashcroft, a blue-eyed, tattooed, and pierced bad boy, turns Amber off immediately—that is, until he kisses her, stealing a piece of her heart, her soul. They were as opposite as fire and ice, yet I ached for them equally. Never knowing she could be broken down in so many unexpectedly beautiful yet petrifying ways, Amber finds herself falling for both men.
Immoral? Maybe. I say undeniable. Uncontained.
But one devastating event changes everything, shattering each of their lives...and Amber isn’t sure she can recover from it.
Review
WHOA!!
I have met my newest book boyfriend! RYDER ASHCROFT!! Holy mother of HOTNESS! He is MINE!!!
Every once in awhile you will open a book, start reading the first page and you'll realize this book is about to do something to you...
This book ROCKED my world!!
Gail McHugh is a freaking literary genius.
I read her other books Collide and Pulse but I just wasn't a fan but damn! This book...
This book was fantastic.. Jaw dropping... Earth Shattering. It was freaking amazing.
I couldn't put this book down. Once you start reading you are sucked into the story and you don't want to leave. EVER!
This book is a love triangle at its finest with a story of raw, gritty emotions, with thrilling mystery and suspense and some HAWT sex scenes.
A story where a broken yet beautiful girl falls in love with two hot guys, who just happened to love her for all her broken beauty.
There is nothing that I can say that will do this story justice, so do yourself a favor and go get this book for yourself because its a beautiful, mind blowing, full of angst story of heart ache. You will not be let down.
Okay, I lied about not being let down... You will be, only because of the Mother of all Cliffhangers!!!!
I sat there just looking at the last page for about 10 minutes until I could gather my thoughts... Not very nice thoughts but thoughts all the same.
I cannot wait for the next book to be released!!
Quotes:
"But here I am, my heart bleeding out for two different men, the organ split down the middle between who it truly belongs to and who it truly loves and needs in order to produce another beat."
”I won’t take no for an answer, and whether or not you want me to, I’m gonna find your pieces so I can put you back together.”
”Fuck. It should’ve been me. Not him. Me.”
”My feelings for Amber, her feelings for me, Brook wanting to share her: it’s all a dangerous shit storm of emotions brewing, waiting to demolish us all.”
”I’d rather die than fuck up this girl, this unique gem.”
”Still, as she kisses me, her feverish little tugs on my hair, urgent strokes, and hips bucking against mine like crazed nympho says all this cat needs to know.”
”I…Brock…God, Brock, I…love Ryder just as much as he does me, if not…more. But I don’t love him any more or less than I do you. I don’t ….think, at least.”
”I can live without the sun, but I can’t exist without you.”
"I think you're gonna be the ride of my life."
"I'm gonna kiss you, Ber." His words come out as a husky whisper as he lifts his head, pulling my face a breathe a away from his. "And it's gonna be a kiss you won't soon forget. It's gonna be a kiss I want burned into your fucking memory whether or not we get together. One that'll make you hate every other kiss from anyone else after me. You'll have no other choice but to think of this kiss when another dude gets his lucky chance."
"Holy shit of all fucking shits. I'm making you mine. You know this, right?"
"You're gonna be mine, do yo hear me? No matter what I have to do, I want you to be my girl."
"I hope that you'll become my first for a lot of things."
"I hope that I become everything you need in your life."
"I hope there never come a times when you think I'm an asshole. I hope that at least once a day, even if only for a second, I can make you smile."
"I hope that nothing I ever do makes you cry, and most of all, I hope that some part of you eventually trusts me enough to let me into your heart. Really let me into it."
"It's her eyes-not her face, ass, or tits-that nearly mutilated my heart the first time she looked at me."
"Through she's completely oblivious to it, and a little of her rocker, theres nothing about her that is truly phenomenal. She's a spitfire. My match in every way possible."
"There's not a second that goes by that I'm not thinking about you."
"I knew she was cut from a different cloth from all the rest. I felt it in my bones, in the hollow of my chest. Completely rocked, I felt it in the way my lungs burned, making it hairdos fuck to breathe. I don't believe in premonitions and stupid shit like that, but I saw it all the day she fell in my lap. I saw her not only in my bed but as a permanent fixture in my life. I saw her wrapped in my arms after a long day, felt her lips on mine before I kissed her. It was as if I knew she was suppose to be mine. But I fucked it up, and the only place she wound up, other that hanging out with Brock, was in every waking thought I've had since."
"Sweet Christ, her smile is the most goddamned beautiful thing I've ever seen. Pure fucking candy to each and every single one of my senses."
"I may not be in her every waking thought the way she is mine, but right now, Amber's giving me something greater than that.... She's allowing me to enter her empty heart, guiding me through her bent past."
"What I don't like is the control she has over me. The unrelenting steel hand she has wrapped around both my dick and heart. She doesn't know it, but she owns me, and I don't even exist in her world. Christ. In less that thirty minutes, she's disarmed me, fucking breaking down every molecule of who I've been for a while."
"Death. Though plenty think they are, no one's immune to it. Every breath we take is one step further from our birth.......one step closer to our ultimate dismissal. The Reaper come for each of us, and when he show's up, he lacks prejudice. But fuck if he should be allowed to."
"With a killer personality-one I'm sure she has no idea she possess-and a gorgeous mouth that spits out words like a filthy trucker, Amber was placed on this earth to multiply with me. She's the kind of girl who'll make it impossible to not fall hard and fast for, offering no apologies as she slowly turns yo into the man you never thought you were capable of being. The kind of girl who'll let you see her shadows, but will keep you guessing every time she reveals a new layer of herself, a new path through the maze of her heart. The kind of girl who'll have you begging on your knees, questioning your sanity, faith and reason for continuing to live if you were to ever lose her."
"When I'm around Amber, every lone I'm not suppose to cross becomes zigzagged, blurring the direction of my moral compass. She blinds me to what I know is wrong, provoking what I'm sure is inevitable. I'm about to commit the sin of all sins: I'm gonna steal Brock's girl right out from beneath him without giving it a second thought."
"Yup. She's my missing half."
"Ah, I see. Now you have me wondering just how sweet your lies will taste on my tongue."
"I need all of you." "Every inch. Your heart, soul, your past, present, future. All of it. Say it, Ber, tell me you're mine, baby girl."
"But even if I've fucked any chance of being with you, I can't say either kiss is something I'll soon forget. I'd kill to experience them over....and over.... and over again." he pulls back slightly, his eye moving across my face. His smile again, and it nearly stops my heart a second time. "Our lips fit perfectly together, and I'm pretty fucking sure you know it. Felt it. Want to feel it again as much as I do. I see it int he way your're looking at me. Those gorgeous eyes hide nothing. Neither does your body. The way your breathing's picking up. The way you're shaking just enough to let me know you want another taste of what I have to...offer."
"Christ. No doubt I'm in deep, this girl the owner of every filthy, twister beat of my heart."
"Amber Moretti is my blow, my need for her the and worst kind of addiction."
"I'll never be worthy of the girl of flew into my life like an avenging angel, consuming me hard, stealing my heart faster."
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
"You kind of..... complete me."
"Christ, I fucking want you so bad." Ryder whispers hoarsely. He drags his lips back to mine, his kiss urgent, greedy. However, he brings it down a notch, his movements revisiting slow, sensual, worshipping this moment for everything it is. Worshipping me for all I am. '"So badly, peach. More than I've ever wanted anything or anymore. You drive me crazy. Your smell, skin eyes." He sucks my between his teeth, a groan punching from his chest as he runs his fingertips along my bare arms.
"Your little giggles, pouts, personality. Every single fucked-up scar you own in and out. All of it. All of you." He licks into my mouth, his tongue exploring mine with precision as his hands find my nape, their hold possessive. "Fuck. It should've been me. Not him. Me."
"Because you're playing with someones mental state. Your actions can ruin their life, murdering their trust in anything real. Your indiscretions might as well be a hand wrapped their throats, squeezing their air frothier lungs. You can kill someone's faith in what love is supposed to be. I shrug again, feeling no different from Charles Manson for what I did to Brock "Murder. Just a tamer definition of the word."
"If falling in love can turn into a bullet in your skull, what's the point of giving your heart away? Yet how do you stop your heart from reacting to what it needs?" You can't.
The Organ has a mind of its own, disregarding what might be unhealthy for you. Once it's been jolted by the spark, awakened by that all-consuming flame, it plays the dirtiest game of all. With each curious beat of wanting to touch, taste, and feel love, the heart routes all logical thoughts from your brain, siphoning them out of that sucker like a thief, spitting them back our onto a highway piled high with nothing but bloody wreckage.
Causing mass destruction to our mental well-being since the beginning of time, our hearts are public enemy numero uno."
"You're surface happy." He glances at me, his voice soft. "Don't think I can't see through you. I love you,and I want every bit of you happy. Not just the outside."
"I don't know how you did it, but you did." he says into my ear, his voice soft, sincere. "I know telling you this in the middle of rush hour traffic isn't cool or romantic, but I love you. I love you something fierce, and it scares the fuck out of me, but I couldn't keep it in any longer. I don't except you to say it back, or even feel the same way about me, but I wasn't about to let another day go by without letting you know that I love you, Amber Moretti." -Brock
"I gotta get the girl out of my head, but how the fuck do I let her go of someone who I feel was made for me?" -Ryder
"As lethal as I am to her, Amber's no less poisonous to me. She knots me up, twisting my emotions sideways. She drums up every inch of my head, testing my sanity and making me question everything I believe. Her soft, curvy frame, cushioned against mine, hijacks each of my senses." -Ryder
"She can throw a man off balance, leaving him with nothing but tiny fragments of what used to be a pretty sane mind."
"I think she knows what she does to a man." "How she completely takes over every goddamn thought he owns. Whether he's awake or not, she's there in his head, jacking up his universe. But hell if he want her to stop. He's addicted to her eyes, the way her sweet taste lingers on his tongue, and the way she moves when she's near him." He takes a breath, his barbell peeking out as he licks his lips. "So Fucking in tune with her, he hears the silent call from her body when she craves his touch." -Ryder
"Because I'd die without you. Thats why. She was a mistake, something I can never erase, But you..Christ, Amber, you'd never become a mistake to me. It's impossible. Ryder was right; you are a gift. One neither of us deserves. But you're one we'd treasure, making sure to take care of your every mental and physical need." He drags his lips to mine, kissing me soft, deep. "I fucking love you, Ber. You're the purest air that I have around me. I need you to breathe, to wake up. To just....Exist. You're my lifeline. That's why you are and will always be to me. I need you to know that."
"Through she's Brock's, the girls supposed to be mine. From the second I saw, something in my gut, a premontition of some sort, told me that. Fuck. I don't know what the hell it was--What the hell it is--it happened and it hasn't let up, its claws digging into the hollow of my chest more with each passing day. Yeah. Way past physical."
"You have no idea what she's like in bed. The filthy things she says. The way she moves. It's like she was a dude in a former life. She kills it, knowing exactly what to do. No joke, my girl was created to fuck a man into oblivion."
"Amber's got you hooked, and you have yet to fully experience her."
"I love you," Brock whispers, something parallel to paranoia surfacing across his expression. "You'll never understand how much I cherish you, baby girl. I'd do anything fir you. Anything."
"You're the most goddamn beautiful thing ever created," he croons, his words spoken soft against my cheek. "I might be a little hemmed ip, but that doesn't mean I can't see straight. I'm positive I'll never come across anything as breathtaking as you." -Ryder
"Asking me not to worry about you is like asking me not take my next breath, Amber." -Ryder
"Christ, I never meant to hurt you." he whispers, his voice cracking as he holds me tighter. "I'd die first before ever trying to hurt you, peach. I'm sorry." -Ryder
"I care more for you that I know I should," I whisper, aware I'm crossing a dangerous line as I press up on my tiptoes, laying my mouth over his. I kiss him soft and slow, my need for the truth growing. "I have from the second you stole that first kiss from me. Your smile, your laugh. The way you love and take care of you family. All of it, Ryder. you're a magnet I know will never stop pulling me to you. even when you're not near me, I can feel you. Hear your voice. See your face in my dreams." "The feelings I have for you scare me. You scare me. But even if I wanted to stop them, I couldn't because I down't want to. I'm tired of fighting what feels....right. You feel right to me Ryder, and I need you in my life. Couldn't imagine it without you."
"I know you're not mine to claim. Hell, you might not ever be. This I know all too well. But the little bits of you I've got-the beautiful, painful, amazing, Swizzler-Loving, crazy pieces of yourself you've shared with me-mean way too much to my goddamn sanity to give you up." -Ryder
"I need you a hundred times more than I need my next breath, a thousand times more than I need my next heartbeat, and a million times more than I need to wake up to the sun hanging in the sky." -Ryder
"Staring into my eyes as though I'm the only thing that natters, the absolute center of his existence, Ryder kisses me, each soft, slow sweep of his tongue opening my heart to him even more."
"and I don't care what Brock thinks. Your pussy was made doe me. Not him." -Ryder
"Shh. I have you," he whispers, his gaze moving over my face. "I've always had you, Amber. Always."
"You're mine, Amber." he whispers raggedly against the shell of my ear, his hands cradling the back of my head. Opening his baby blues, he gives me a slow, passionate kiss. "You've always been mine, peach. I think you know it too." My hearts swells with equal parts of confusion, emotion, and my own temporary insanity, my insides lighting up like lighting as my conscience screams that he's right. Though i"ve tried to fight it, Lord know I have, it was a battle fought in vain from the second our worlds collided, our pull to magnetic, strong and powerful to ignore.
"I can't help but fell like we're all standing in the path of a dangerous storm. A storm i'm positive is gonna take one us out-if not all of us-leaving the bloodied remnants of our hearts spread over a field of nothing but pain, hurt, and regret."
"Love changed us-changes the dynamics of everything we ever believed in. Love's pure and selfish. It can make us want things we shouldn't and hate what it's turned us into. It's giving, greedy, indecisive, vindictive, and magical all at once. It makes us jump from one delusional emotion to the next, all the while patiently keeping us dangling in its malicious yet euphoric web. A web that's laced with beautiful lies and horrible truths. But one thing love remains constant at- the most important feeling it controls in us-is jealousy. When we live someone wholeheartedly, truly can't imagine getting through single day with them, that's when love can show her rage. Once released, love's jealousy can never be taken back, her desire to forget her pain breaking all the rules, uncaring of every obstacle she destroys in her path. It's unlike any God-given emotion we're born with."
Gail McHugh is the author of the New York Times
bestsellers Collide and Pulse. She is the
mother of three beautiful children and has been
married to her husband for fifteen years.
