Sweet as Sin (Bad Habit, #1)

by J.T. Geissinger

“And lavender means, what? Like, friendship? Respect? Oh—trust!” Chloe looked as if she had a piece of delicious cake in her mouth that she had to talk around. “No. Lavender means love at first sight.”

“Tell me what you need, Nico.” “You, you, angel, always you.”

“For me it will always, only, be you.”

“I love you. I will always love you. I belong to you, no matter what.”

“I’ll be yours for as long as both our hearts are beating.” Nico stilled. His brow furrowed. His lips parted, as if he’d say something, but he made no sound. But his eyes spoke to me, and what they said was this: Worship you, cherish you, love you more than anything on this earth.

“But the real cookie’s your heart, baby. That’s the cookie I always wanted. You gave me little nibbles. You even gave me a couple of big bites. But you finally gave all of it to me today, right now.” All traces of humor left his face. His voice dropped to a soft, wondering whisper. “And it’s the sweetest thing I ever tasted in my life.”

“You know,” I said, voice breaking, “if I didn’t know better, I’d think you sat around making up this stuff in advance only to trot it out at the right moment, just to see if you can get me to cry.”

“My parts, as you so eloquently put it, have absolutely nothing to do with anything. You should know well enough by now that Kenji will not be defined by something so limiting as gender stereotypes. We refuse to be shoved into such a dreary conventional box.”