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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Sara Raasch
Read between
September 5 - September 5, 2025
“Your villain victory speech would be more impressive if you hadn’t already been at this for twenty minutes.”
What’s the point of magic if you don’t get to use it for silly shit anyway.
“Though thief is the incorrect word,” he carries on like I didn’t speak. “What’s the name for a person who breaks in and leaves something?” My grin widens, more a baring of teeth than a smile. “Santa Claus.”
Enacting pranks: a good way to burn off stress. Going to parties: a bad way to burn off stress. But actually burning things? The best way to burn off stress.
“Go fuck yourself, Walsh.” “I will, and I’ll think of you while I do it.”
My eyes go involuntarily to his chest and the jagged white scar that sits along the seam of his left shoulder. Seeing it always pierces something deep inside me, my own scar to match his, but internal.
Am I attracted to Elethior?
“You bought my familiar food.” My lips curve into a grin. “You bought Nick snacks.”
“Get out of the car, and don’t make me say it again. If I do have to say it again, I’ll call you a dumbass, and decorum frowns on calling anyone a dumbass in a family emergency.”
He smiles. It’s small and real. The cold winter wind is the reason I can feel my face reddening.
They’re warm because they’re pressed to his mouth, and his mouth is warm; and I know that because I’m kissing him. I’m kissing him.
“What if I want to talk about it,” he repeats, “because I can’t stop thinking about it?”
“Another of mine is that I don’t share. Even if this is only physical, I won’t be fooling around with anyone else. And I don’t want you to either. For safety reasons, and because I’m a possessive fucking bastard.”
“I’ll help you forget, I promise. I’ll fuck you so good you won’t remember your own name beyond me calling you baby. But I can do that and still respect you, so look into my eyes and tell me you want my mouth on your cock.”
Elethior takes us both in the hand that he came in and he uses his own cum to jack us.
“Aftercare is part of it. I’ll be gone by morning.”
Great. Now I’ve got a boner on the bus.
He shrugs. Totally chill. “I’ve had your dick in my mouth. Figure you can call me Thio now.”
“Baby boy, you keep standing there, I’m going to pull you onto my lap.”
So we don’t react to it. Can’t. If we acknowledge it, it’ll shatter.
ready to write sonnets to the rise of his stomach, the coarse hair leading up to the swell of his pecs, the pebbled mounds of his nipples.
He’s the plummet and the catch and the rise again all in one, and kneeling at his feet, the world orients around him.
This isn’t just messy. It’s a full-on environmental disaster. Geiger counters will pick up radiation here a century from now.
“I win,” he says. My answering smile is only a little exasperated as I dump my armful of boxes between us, into the pile he’s already made with his. “Well, I like making you come apart in my mouth. Who’s the real winner here?”
“Whatever you want, Sebastian,” he whispers. “You can tell me whatever you want.”
Why did I think this was a good idea? Oh. Because I like the guy. Probably more, and for longer, than I’ll let myself believe.
“I don’t know about you, but I’ve stopped believing there’s a way to get this out of my system at all. I’m pretty sure you are my system now.”
He looks deservedly proud. “And I’m going to wine and dine the fuck out of you. I haven’t had many good things in my life that my family didn’t ruin.” He interlaces his fingers with mine. “So this? I’m going to do this right.”
“So. Um. Want a tour?” I realize I’ve been quiet for a solid minute, standing there motionless. I feign adjusting my glasses to cover wiping my eyes. “Do I need a ticket?” Thio’s lips quirk. “I’m sure the tour guide can fit you in.”
“Dinner. You made me dinner.” “Mmhmm.” “And you bought me flowers.” I feel his smile. Feel the stretch of his lips against my skin. I shiver. “Yes.” “I want to eat this dinner you made me next to those flowers you bought me.”
“Sit at the table, Sebastian,” he tells me. “Or I’m going to fuck you over the back of my couch, and we’ll never get around to eating.” My breath catches. Doesn’t just catch; it’s fully reeled in, vanishing above the surface, leaving me down below in cool dark water and utter stillness. I’d hoped that was where tonight would end up. We haven’t taken that step yet, not as fuck-buddies, but now? I didn’t know if it’d be on the table. Apparently it’s on the back of the couch. And hopefully his bed. Possibly the shower. Fuck.
And kissing Thio? Being with him? Is the most riotous kind of living.
“You’re so tight, baby; you’ll feel so good wrapped around me. I’m gonna make you fly.”
“Please,” I relent, tugging at his arms, his neck. “Please, Thio, fuck me. Fuck me, own me, ruin me—” He kisses me to silence. Eats the last few garbled words. “Oh, I’ll ruin you,” he tells me. “But you’re mine, so I’ll always put you back together again, too.”
“This ass.” He digs his forehead into my shoulder. “You’re too good. Gonna make me come. You want that? My cum in you. Filling you up. Gods, Sebastian—wanna mark you, wanna come inside you.”
We’re both broken, though. And our jagged pieces don’t exactly fit together, but we know how to move around the sharpest points of each other’s, how to adjust and make space so no one bleeds.
For two people who built a relationship on screaming at each other, Thio’s good at saying things I can’t argue with.
What good is living in a world with magic if I can’t use it to make him happy?
“We’re going to go to your room, and I’m going to put a levitation spell on you, then fuck you until you come again,”
“I’ve loved you through thinking I hated you. I’ve loved you through figuring out how to rely on one another. I’ve loved you through not knowing why you love me at all. Every day, getting to love you remains the greatest honor of my existence. Will you marry me?”
