Failure. Trash. Loser. Unlovable.

You name it, I probably heard it. I heard it so much, I believed it. Why wouldn’t I? No one besides my best friends ever stuck around, and they were as messed up as me.

Then Dakota came along. He was everything I wasn’t. Smart. Educated. He had a big family who loved and cared about him. He should have run the other way when he saw me, but he didn’t.

Brick by brick, Dakota destroyed the walls that had been around my heart. As much as I tried to protect myself, Dakota made it impossible, weaving his way into my soul until he was a part of me, and I couldn’t breathe without him. He showed me that I deserved good things. That I was worthy of love.

Just when I thought I could finally be happy, someone tried to come in and destroy all that Dakota and I had been building. He thought he could come in and claim the one person who made me feel whole? The one person that I could allow myself to love and love me in return?

I don’t think so.

Dakota Kelly was forever mine and God help anyone who tried to touch him.