Love Without Influence by Jade Dollston

Influence (noun): A power affecting a person, thing, or course of events.
Monty
Boy meets Girl.
Boy experiences severe intestinal distress and runs away.
Boy returns and falls in love with Girl despite his… difficulties.
Then Boy’s entire world explodes, shattered by outside influences that would have broken a weaker man.
But not me. I took all the pain… the hurt… the betrayal… and became stronger. Harder. My heart is an inanimate stone in my chest now, and that’s exactly how I prefer it.
When I’m called back to New York due to circumstances out of my control, I run into her. My only love.
Kassie Ramirez.
But I can’t have her, and she wouldn’t want me anyway.
I’m not the nice, sensitive boy she once knew. I’m a complicated man with dark needs, the kind sweet Kassie would never accept.
Kassie
Bend so you won’t break.
That was my motto for years, and it served me well. It helped me survive when one man broke my heart and another tried to break my spirit. But not anymore.
Now I bend for no one.
Then Monty Bouvier returned.
If he thinks he can waltz back into my life like nothing ever happened, he’s got another thing coming.
I’m no longer the shy little “Kasserole” he knew back then.
But when our past hurts are brought to light, we discover that our lives were manipulated by those around us all those years ago.
And I’m prepared to tell all those “influences” to go straight to hell.