Something Wilder

by Christina Lauren

But now she’d been at it for seven years, which was a long time to be at something she’d started out of necessity and barely liked to begin with.

He’d loved Lily so deeply that it changed his biology. Standing here now, it seemed his love for her hadn’t gone away, it had just been vacuum-sealed and stored. Back in her presence, the physical memory of his infatuation was released in a deluge, gasping to life, and adrenaline flooded his bloodstream.

“Had to remind myself that once upon a time I was good at something other than sitting at a desk.”

Finally, he was able to tell her: “Missing you was physically debilitating.”

“I had to let you go once,” he told her. “You think I’m letting that happen again?”

Just because thoughts are loud or constant doesn’t mean they’re right.”

she thought the craziest story might be this one—that she fell in love when she was nineteen and lived through a decade of loneliness and scrabbling only to wind up right back here, saved by the history she’d figured was her curse, living blissfully with the man she’d convinced herself was lost forever.