Daniela

“But when I make it for her, Eliana puts a spoonful of red wine sauce in her mouth, closes her eyes, and sinks back into her seat. She sighs as the flavors melt across her tongue, a soft little exhale of contentment that makes twenty years of burning my hands to shit in thankless, hot-as-hell kitchens feel like it was worth every stain and scar and drop of sweat.”
― Nicole Fox, Taste of the Dark

“I’ve never had oysters before.” In a night full of firsts, Bastian’s jaw falling open is maybe the most unexpected of them. He looks utterly dumbstruck. As if I just confessed some unspeakable sin. Murder. Arson. Never tasting oysters. All basically equivalent and equally heinous, in the eyes of God and the law, right? Well, in the eyes of Bastian Hale, they are. “Unacceptable. We’re going.” “You don’t have to⁠—” “Eliana.” The way he says my name stops me cold. Not Ms. Hunter, not Hunter. Eliana. “It wasn’t a question.” And just like that, I’m following him again.”
― Nicole Fox, Taste of the Dark