Before (After #5)

“I mean it. You need to take a break. You’re still recovering from that little monster tearing you open,” I say, and slide my hand up her shirt and rub her stomach.
She flinches. “Don’t,” she groans, trying to push my hands off her soft skin. I hate how insecure she’s become since having our son. Auden’s birth did more damage to her body than Emery’s, but to me she’s sexier than ever. I hate that the touch of my hand makes her uncomfortable like this.
“Baby . . .” I move my hand away, but only so I can lean up on my elbow. Looking down at her, I shake my head.

I dragged Tess and myself through hell and back, but here we are—

I’m blessed with a family that I couldn’t have dreamed of, and I’m raising kids who will be better than I ever was.

I’m my own man. Certainly, I’ve made my share of mistakes. But I served my penance and came out forgiven. I’m not a particularly religious man, but I know there has to be something bigger than Tess and me at play here. My world went from nothing to everything, and I feel pride in who I am now.

Praise for Anna Todd and the After series

“Todd [is] the biggest literary phenom of her generation.”

—Cosmopolitan

“I was almost at the point like with Twilight that I just stop everything and my sole focus was reading the book . . . Todd, girl, you are a genius!!!”

—Once Upon a Twilight

“The Mr. Darcy and Lizzy Bennet of our time . . . If you looked up ‘Bad Boy’ in the fiction dictionary, next to it would be a picture of Hardin alongside Beautiful Bastard and Mr. Darcy.”

—That’s Normal

every lie made in the dark becomes an evil truth in the light

And I have the feeling that Hardin is made of gasoline.

which of course makes no sense, but that’s frat houses for you.

Move on. As if it were so simple.

they search the streets for the attention they’ve been deprived of