Under Your Scars (Under Your Scars, #1)

by Ariel N. Anderson

“If you’re so concerned about my humanity, Elena, then reach into my soul and find it, because I’m not sure I have any left.”

“You can ask me for anything else, Elena, anything else, and I’ll give it to you without hesitation. Don’t ask me to live without you. I won’t survive.”

Safe isn’t a place. It’s the people that love you.

Let me see all of you, the parts of you that you keep hidden under your scars. Make me fall even more deeply in love with all the dark parts of you. The parts you think are unlovable.

“What if I want you to break me?” I ask, my eyes not leaving his. “What if I don’t want you to be gentle?” “Then I’ll love you violently instead.”

“How do you know me better than I know myself?” “Because I see more than you think I do. And I see an angel who just got her wings.”

“What took you so long?” Christian circles my wrist with his cold fingers. “I met Death.” I take my bottom lip in my teeth. “And?” Christian brushes a strand of hair back from my face, and looking deeply into my eyes, he whispers, “I told him to go fuck himself, because I’m not going anywhere without you.”

“I think that’s the harsh reality of being a woman,” my mother continues, “we’re always so focused on everyone else, that we forget we need to take care of ourselves, too.”