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Breathe
Last Updated:
2024-09-16 05:35:14
River Audra Hey loves, I hope you guys are liking my book so far. I'm working hard to try an update as fast and often as I can but it's definitely a challenge with being a mommy of three! I hope the length of my chapters make up for it! Anyhoo! Please feel free to comment questions about characters or even check me on some grammatical errors lol. I'll do my best on editing too! Enjoy this chapter! xoxo
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Last Updated : 2024-09-17My Bruised Heart And I'm Sorry
MILES Dominic Black was full of shit again. It had made me squirm, the way Dominic's golden eyes darkened and raked over me as I sat kneeled in front of him. I could see it happening in his eyes. Every delicious, forbidden promise he was making to me. To my body. I wanted him to do it, to just pull me up from the floor and make me forget what a broken human being I was. I was one minute away from taking control of the situation, from taking hold of the large bulge in his sweats, but the way he had paced after kissing me like he had made the biggest mistake of his life made me hesitate. But I could see it. The absolute power I could have put over him. It wouldn't have taken much from me to make him break. I knew it because I felt the same way. I just wasn't fighting it like he was. That secret thrill of what being with him would destroy made me buzz. I should have done something. I should have grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to me. Should have dragged my lips along h
Last Updated : 2024-09-18My Bruised Heart Power
WARNING: EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT MILES "Miles," a voice whispered, deep and husky, tinged with the unmistakable scent of liquor. I furrowed my brows and took a deep, sleepy breath, hovering between dreams and consciousness. "I shouldn't be in here," he murmured, his breath fanning against my ear, warm, heady. "I shouldn't want you..." A hot, heavy hand gripped my knee, sliding past my thigh, his thumb dipping beneath the fabric of my shorts. "...but I just can't help myself." Then I felt him. His solid chest pressed against my back, his strong thigh slotting between mine. His scent wrapped around me—sandalwood and something darker, something forbidden. Dominic. He was in my bed. Excitement coiled deep in my belly. I should have woken up. I should have gasped, turned to face him, asked him what the hell he was doing. But I didn’t. I wanted to know just how far he would go. How much restraint he had left. Or if he had any at all. So I stirred, arching into him in encouragem
Last Updated : 2024-09-19My Bruised Heart Sounds Like A Real Psycho
MILES I woke up drenched in sweat, my breath coming in sharp gasps. Sitting up, I pressed my hands to my face, trying to shake the lingering tendrils of my nightmare. But something felt off. My body was thrumming, my skin overly warm. I squeezed my legs together, remembering the way his hands had been on me—Dominic, in my bed, whispering filth in my ear, his fingers— No. I shuddered, forcing the images out of my mind. It was just a dream. Except… I swallowed hard, my pulse still frantic in my throat. It felt too real. The weight of his body, the rough desperation in his voice. The way my name had sounded when he groaned it. But it had to be a dream. Right? I gripped my head, digging my fingers into my scalp. Get a grip. I had bigger things to worry about than some overactive imagination. The nightmares were back. The same ones that plagued me whenever I got too comfortable. Just when I thought I could breathe, I’d dream of drowning in black ink, of being consumed. But this t
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MILES The clock on my nightstand read 4 a.m. I went ahead and dragged myself out of bed. It would be no use trying to fall back asleep. Today was Monday, which meant it was the first day of university, and I'd be riding with Dom. I had stayed out of his sight the rest of last week, my mother's too, using the excuse of having a stomach bug. I was able to avoid dinner as well. Maverick himself brought up soups for stomach aches. "You should still eat," he'd tell me. "Give your body the strength it needs to fight the sickness." His kindness still threw me off. I didn't know how to react but to give him small, unsure smiles and little "thank you's." It was starting to give me a guilty conscience about fucking his son. And then kissing him. And then having sex dreams about him. I didn't want a guilty conscience about any of it. While I waited for my shower to warm, I looked at myself in the mirror. I looked like shit. My skin was paler than it had ever been, my lips cracked, and t
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Last Updated : 2024-09-22My Bruised Heart Bleeding F*cking Heart
DOM First-day classes were a drag. I could hardly concentrate on anything, and it pissed me off that I was disappointed about not having any classes with Miles. I shouldn’t have been. I was trying to stay away from her anyway. The confusion invaded my mind all day like a sickness with no cure. I didn’t even know how I survived afternoon practice. Coach had us running drills like we had personally offended his ancestors. I was lucky to walk off the field in one piece, considering the glares of death I got from my teammates. By the time I got home, dinner had already started. Miles wasn’t at the table. My father’s sharp gaze flicked to me. "Where is Miles?" Ms. Valentine looked up from her wine glass, her expression unreadable. I frowned. "She's not in her room?" My father shook his head, his voice losing its usual warmth. "No. When I sent for her to come down for dinner, I was informed she hadn’t arrived home yet. Why is she not with you?" Shit. That tone? That meant I
Last Updated : 2024-09-23My Bruised Heart Kneel
WARNING: VIOLENCE AND ABUSE MILES I stared at Dom's number, now saved in my phone, then at Maverick's. I’d never had so many numbers saved before. My mother had given me this old flip phone years ago, stating that I needed it only when she called. She had started to get annoyed when she'd kick me out for an entire day and had no way to summon me back for her bidding. "I call, you come. That's it," she'd said. So for a while, hers was the only contact. Then it was Kenzie. When I started my job, the diner's number was added. Now, two more people. I couldn’t help but feel a little happy. Maverick had insisted we all exchange numbers after dinner. Apparently, he hadn’t liked the fact that I walked home, and I could see him getting close to chewing Dom’s ass out for it. I could have asked around for Dom at the university, but I figured he wouldn’t have wanted that. So, I couldn’t have let him take all the blame when I was the one who chose to walk home. Despite how down I felt this
Last Updated : 2024-09-24
Latest chapter
My Bruised Heart Oh, Did It Simmer
MILES Miles: Marcus Miles: Where are you? Miles: I swear, when I lay eyes on you, your balls are going in a vice. Miles: Don’t make me find you. I sighed and tossed my new phone into my bag, the screen blacking out like it was tired of me too. Marcus was avoiding me like the plague, and Dom—he was holding something back. I could feel it. Taste it in the silence between us. See it in the way his hand would twitch like he wanted to reach for me... and didn’t. “They’re probably pissed at you,” Kenzie had said earlier over the phone. She had called to “check in,” which in Kenzie speak meant scold me for not dying harder. “I know I was,” she went on. “If you hadn’t already flatlined and come back, I would’ve killed you myself.” “I’m still alive, you know.” “Yes, and you’re lucky.” Her voice cracked just enough to make my guilt spike. “You flatlined for a full fucking minute, Miles. Don’t think you hid that from any of us.” “You talk to them?” Another sigh. “Of course. You can’
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DOMINICI didn’t realize how loud it was in my head until everything else went quiet.The sound of lockers slamming, cleats against tile, water running in the showers—none of it touched me. I was stuck. Floating somewhere between rage and guilt, fear and this fucking ache in my chest that wouldn’t go away.Marcus walked in, tossing a water bottle onto the bench beside me.“You’re spiraling.”“Wow. Thanks for the diagnosis, Dr. Phil.” I didn’t look up. “Where the hell have you been?”He sighed and plopped down next to me. “Dealing with Mommy Dearest.”That was all he said. I didn’t pry. Not here. Not yet. Not with our teammates still around. The walls had ears.He patted his lap. “Come on, lay back and tell me all about it.”I grimaced. “Dude, no.”“You know you want to. You’ve been giving me those ‘comfort me’ eyes for days. It’s calling to me.”The way my eyes were slapping his face—over and over—“Don’t deny me.”I didn’t want to talk about it. But fuck—I needed to. Everything from
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MILES Lunch was over way too quickly. The second Dominic and I stepped out of the library, the stares returned like they'd been waiting for us. Silent, sharp. Hungry. Added by the whispers. "Think she's the jumper?" "What kind of psycho jumps off a cliff unless they’re trying to die?" It shouldn't have bothered me. And it didn’t. Not really. But the attention? The spotlight? That made my skin crawl. The worst part was that Dom looked like he was barely holding it together. His jaw ticked every few steps. His hand twitched at his side like he wanted to grab mine. Like maybe that would ground him. Or maybe it would ground me. It didn’t even matter what they said. They were going to talk. They were going to look. Not because of me. Not just because of me. But because of him. Dominic Black. The golden boy, the prince of the campus—was hovering over the broken girl who looked an awful lot like the one who jumped off a fucking cliff. Earlier in class, I heard people whisp
My Bruised Heart She Thought She Knew Me
KENNY Miles acted like nothing had happened. Like she hadn’t unraveled in my arms. Like she hadn’t called my name with my hands on her skin, my mouth against her throat. Like she hadn’t begged me to make her feel something. And fine. I could play along. But I wasn’t stupid. The way her fingers hesitated sometimes when she reached for something. The way her gaze flickered, just for a second, when I got too close. The way her lips parted when I made her laugh, like she had almost forgotten she could. She hadn’t forgotten. I could tell my the way her cheeks would flush when my hand brushed hers. She was pretending. And I let her. I still made her coffee the way she liked it. I still teased her when she got flustered. I still called her Mimi, just to see the corner of her mouth twitch in that almost smile. She never pulled away. Never put space between us. But I knew where the line was. And I never crossed it. Until today. I was behind the counter at the diner, wipi
My Bruised Heart It F*cking Mattered
*WARNING EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT* KENNY "You can't take it from me," she whispered. Her voice curled around my ribs. Tangled in my lungs. "But you can give me something else." My throat bobbed. “Miles—” “Something to feel.” And there went my self-control. Miles barely had time to breathe before my hands were on her—gripping her waist, yanking her against me. My mouth crashed against hers, and she took it. Took everything I gave like she had been starving for it. A low moan hummed from her throat, vibrating against my lips, and fuck—I was already gone. I had wanted to kiss her for days. Wanted to feel her. Wanted to take away her pain. Her fingers slipped into my hair, nails scraping my scalp, pulling, tugging, making me groan into her mouth. “Kenny,” she breathed, and I felt it. Felt her heat. Her desperation. The way she arched into me like she wanted to climb inside me, crawl under my skin and stay there. I grabbed her thigh, hoisting it up, pressing my k
My Bruised Heart The Light In Her Eyes
KENNY Her eyes were hauntingly beautiful. A storm in a purple sky. Lavenders on a cloudy day. Such beautiful damn eyes. If only they held a little bit of light in them. I remembered the first time she walked into the diner. It was late afternoon, the kind of heat that clung to your skin like a second layer. I thought she was a customer at first, so I grabbed a menu and made my way over, only for her to throw her hands up, a nice coral blush tinting her ears. “Oh, I don’t have any money,” she said, biting her lip. “I saw the help wanted sign and wanted to apply.” Her hair was windblown, strands sticking to her forehead from sweat, and she smelled like the sun… and honey. It wasn’t perfume—just her. Fresh, a little wild, like she had been running through an open field before stepping in. I should’ve said something. Anything. Instead, my brain short-circuited as I followed a single bead of sweat trailing down her freckled cheek, over the curve of her jaw, disappearing beneath the
My Bruised Heart Silence
MILESDominic met my stare with something unreadable in his golden eyes. Even as I pulled him closer, still, he held back."Scared?" I dared, knowing he liked a good challenge.But instead of that knowing smirk—the one with those delicious dimples—he inhaled through his nose and gently pulled my hand from his shirt. He stepped back until he was leaning on the nearby bookshelf.I had expected him to come stomping into the library like a storm barely leashed, dragging his rage with him. I had expected his sharp tongue, his impatient sighs, his suffocating protectiveness that had only gotten worse since I woke up in the hospital.What I hadn’t expected… was this.Silence.Now, he stood in front of me, hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket, jaw tight, eyes stormy. I had chosen the farthest, most secluded corner of the library to eat my lunch, but of course, he found me anyway.Of course, he did.I swallowed my last bite of an apple and leaned back against my chair, resting my good a
My Bruised Heart Guess I Really Am A Psycho
MILES Maybe I thought I would be prepared to return to university. Maybe I believed that after everything, walking these halls would be easy. I had decided to go despite myself, just to prove a point. That I wasn’t weak. But that weakness crawled out from the dirt I buried it in as soon as I entered my first class. I had spent the morning in the library, hidden in the quiet while Dom and Marcus were at practice. It was the first time in weeks I had been truly alone—no watchful eyes, no questions, no hovering hands. Just silence. Then, I left. And as soon as I walked—no, limped—into my first class, the whispers started. You would think the stares were because of the brace on my ankle, the sling keeping my shoulder in place. But no. It was because Dominic Black had his hand on my waist, his grip steady as he helped me to my seat. "Who the hell is she?" Someone whispered. "Why does she seem so close to three of the hottest guys in school?" "She’s probably fucking them." "No,
