Striking (Red Lips & White Lies #7)

by Bella Matthews

This book is dedicated to anyone who’s ever taken a chance and hoped for magic. Believe in it. It does exist.

The best things in life are the people we love, the places we’ve been, and all the memories made along the way.

Spilling your coffee is the adult equivalent to losing your balloon as a child. Don’t judge my tears.

“Look. It stopped raining, and there’s a rainbow . . . It’s beautiful.” “Yeah . . . it is.” She’ll never know I was looking at her, not the ocean.

“Then make me remember too.” “Fuck, Bellamy . . .” he pulls back and those sapphire-blue eyes stare into me like he’s seeing into my soul. “I’d trade my next fucking breath to kiss you, but you better be sure.”

Thousands of people will come in and out of your life and mean nothing. But it’s the one you never saw coming who changes everything.

“Sleep, my queen.” “I could get used to that,” she whispers. “Being my queen?” Bellamy doesn’t answer right away, and I think she’s fallen back asleep until she presses her lips to my heart. “No. To being yours.”

One day you’re going to meet the reason you never settled, and it will all make sense.

What a fucking year this week has been.

“Even across an ocean, you’ll still be mine. . .” I growl as my blood roars in my ears. “But will you be mine, Rhys?” The question tears a visceral reaction from me. “You’re fucking right, I’m yours. Now show me how you kneel for your king.”

Some girls watched Beauty and the Beast for the beast. I watched it for the library.

“You are the love of my life, little bee. You. Not my country. Not my crown. You. I just want you.”

And when it is all over, if I’m asked what good I did in my life, I will say I loved you.

Raise your children to be so certain of their worth and their place in the world that even the loudest voices can’t rewrite their story.