Until I Saw You (Until I Saw You #1)

by Dianna Roman

I need him more than I ever needed anything in my life. Sex has never been so emotionally all-consuming, and this is just a hand job of sorts. It’s him. It’s always him that pulls these wondrous new discoveries from me.

Going blind might have been the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me Harper.

The one. Every fiber in my body shouts I absolutely want to be deserving enough for him to be the one.

Now we’re two horrible dancers dancing together instead of alone. I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun. Staring at the mirth in his eyes, a feeling chokes my throat, a feeling a lot like love.

There’s fragility when people break you, but there’s fragility in being put back together too. With every touch, Riley is returning a piece of me I didn’t think I’d ever get back.

As all those images fade and blur, as my head pounds beyond reason, I take comfort in knowing that when everything is black again, they’ll still be true. Peaceful. Happy. Gorgeous. Mine.

“I’ve never seen him this happy, truly, genuinely, bone-deep happy.” Cupping my cheek, her eyes look as glassy as mine feel. “Whatever you’re doing…keep doing it.”

All I can think as I blink stupidly at the darkness in the room, at the heat of my lover in front of me, shying his face away from mine is that I love him. I love him so much that I’d give him anything. I just wish that anything wasn’t the absence of me.

Olivia—vision reader app. My mother. He named it after my mother.

“What’s left of you? Baby, anyone can be a victim, but not everyone can be a survivor. You’re a survivor,”

“You taught me how to see. I honestly don’t know why God gave me eyes before you came along, because I didn’t use them for a damn thing until I saw you.”

“I love you. I love you so much it hurts. I thought I had to stop it before it hurt me even more, but it only made it hurt worse being without you.”

It’s dark, but I’m no longer in the dark. I have my light back, and he’s going to be okay.

“How can you love me at my worst?” I laugh now at my reply. “If this is you at your worst, I wouldn’t stand a chance with you at your best.”

I love you more than I’m afraid of anything.” The brutal honesty squeezes my heart, but he doesn’t stop there. “I realized I love you more than I’m ashamed of my past. I love you, Riley,”

I wanted to return to him whole, even though I knew he would have taken me in pieces.

I realized allowing yourself to be loved is more difficult than people think. I know enough about it, how it almost cost me Riley. It’s one instance where it’s okay to be greedy—he can give me all the love he wants. I’ll gladly take it and cherish it.