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“Do you ever run out of words?” “Nope.” He popped the p in emphasis. “I remain consistently delightful at all times.”
She must simply be lonely for human contact, however aggravating.
That all-consuming need to be with another person. The sort of raging desire and attraction that meant you couldn’t—wouldn’t—be parted for long.
“I didn’t dodge your emails. After reading them with laudable—nay, remarkable—speed and attention, I simply determined that they didn’t require any immediate response.”
He looked like a star. Also the night sky surrounding that star, right as blue turned to velvety black. The color, she’d discovered, was much more evocative and dangerous than plain old black or navy could ever be.
“I’m not ashamed of you,” he said abruptly. “I’m not ashamed of what I did, and I’m not ashamed of you.”
No one ever put her first. Not even her. Not until now.
All of that, all of who she was, could have been gone, all because she didn’t give a damn about herself. It was intolerable.
I like your nose. I like looking at your face. I like looking at you.” Her gaze flew to his, and he rushed to add, “But more importantly, I like birds. Specifically, I like winter wrens. They’re my favorite species.”
At the foot of their mountain, Hollywood sparkled in the distance. Stars above, stars below.
Her eyes were brighter now than the stars above could explain.
But when you’re trying to keep someone alive, inpatient hospitalization might be the only reasonable solution. Too many times, there are just no good options. None.”
Oddly, it felt like seeing him for the first time. Or maybe … seeing him for the first time in color, instead of gray scale.
Only yesterday, mere hours ago, she’d told Sionna he was sexy, and she’d believed it. But today she felt it.
the imprint of his body against hers had left her unable to speak.
Soon enough, though, she’d have to wrench herself out of Alex’s orbit and float out into space, a satellite adrift once more.
Yes, she was doing the right thing. But leaving Alex felt wrong, wrong, wrong.
she didn’t look like she’d been sleeping. She did, however, look like she’d been dragged backward through several different circles of hell.
“You look like shit,” he told her. “Being away from me doesn’t suit you.”
“Your lack of anger does not reliably indicate a lack of wrong done to you.”
He smelled like sunlit cotton and starlit nights on a mountainside. Fresh air and warmth.
Self-reflection is not my strong suit, dickwad
The only way to save him was to leave him.
“This—what we had …” Another pause. “It was an interlude. A vacation from reality. But vacations end, and we have to return to our real lives.
His life was fundamentally selfish. He was fundamentally selfish.
Sunrise or no sunrise, his world was so cold and dark, it might as well have been night.
“Sometimes I want to burn down the fucking world for what it’s done to you.”
The best thing the world offered an ugly little girl was indifference. Pity stung exactly as much as insults, if not more, so she tried to avoid either. She tried to avoid notice. Even as a child, she’d understood it was important to stay quiet. Unobtrusive. And above all, undemanding.
they’d taught her that family peace was more important than her feelings.
He was watching her with something like—wonder. Like he’d wished on all those stars above and below them, and he’d wished for her.
Panic, as it turned out, had made her priorities crystalline. It also spurred her willingness to think through all her options, not just the ones that came easily to mind. And when she considered her own happiness, not only the needs of others, what she should do had suddenly snapped into focus.
