Stalked by Seduction and Shadows (Eternal Obsession, #1)

by Maggie Sunseri

She was the flame of life that burned on and on, the warmth I would never feel again, the embers that had dimmed when I’d forsaken my humanity for an eternity of ice and death.

No longer did I feel like I was being watched. I was being consumed. Broken, exposed, opened.

“I’m merely trying to protect you from the regret of lost hours on dull mediocrity, disappointment, and selfish, lackluster performances. I’d rather you suffer at my hands, personally. In far more thrilling ways.”

“I will ruin all others for you, Scarlett,” he said. “Anything else but us will only feel empty, meaningless, soulless. I will be the only thing you can see, the only being worthy of touching you, of seeing all of you.” His power stilled, a resolute calmness eclipsing his features. “That is what I will demand of you, and what you will eventually give freely. All of you. The parts that you hide, the parts that you hate, the parts that others have made you ashamed of, the parts that you flaunt and wield as weapons.”

“And yet you burn. Despite everything you’ve endured, all the pain and the loneliness and the grief and the betrayal, you burn fucking blindingly, like you can’t help but be anything less than radiantly alive. In you I see hope that never dies, and some might call it weak or naive, but I think it’s the most beautiful thing about you, this radical choice to be open and warm in a world that is overwhelmingly cold and brutal.”

“There are many people in this world who would love nothing more than to clip your wings. Stop doing it for them. Soar instead.”

“There is no competition in trauma. None of it is ever better or worse than any other. Trauma is not what happens to you. It’s what happens inside of you as a result of what happens to you.”

You are the only thing that feels different in a world that never changes.