Better Hate than Never Quotes

“I'm panting, aching, because this kiss is an ember and my body is a blaze, burning awake, begging for longer kisses and stronger touch to ground this frantic engery bringing me to life”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Logistically it’s simpler here, but something like this . . . it’s what I’ve always aspired to in my photojournalistic work—activism through storytelling, giving my subjects the chance to be heard, their voices amplified through the power of images that make people stop and listen.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“The smile deepens. “That night, after paintball, was that the first orgasm someone else gave you? The first—” “Ugh!” I slug his shoulder, making him laugh as he leans in and kisses me harder. “The ‘specialness’ of ‘firsts,’ the notion of virginity, are patriarchal constructs, Christopher Petruchio. You are taking nothing first from me, you are not claiming me. I am not your property.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“My heart twists as a terrifying need rattled my bones like they're prison bars - begging me to wrap her in my arms, to take from her body to mine whatever is hurting her”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“If I got to do one thing for the rest of my life" I tell her, "it would be taking care of you, Kate”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Looking up at him, I'm breathless for a moment. His dark hair's everywhere in the wind, the lamplight dancing down his thick brows and lashes, that strong nose and sensual mouth, the sharp line of his jaw. He's so beautiful, it makes me ache”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“No more talking about Jamie. Or Christopher. Today is Sister Day. Only us. Got it?” I smile back. “Yeah. That sounds perfect.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Good girl.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“code, that I keep your horribly sewn handkerchief in my journal at work, that I’ve archived every single photograph you’ve ever published, that I lure your cat to my house for cuddles, that I walk into bakeries in the fall just to see the foods you love, that I sit in your mother’s greenhouse and breathe in the scent of your favorite flowers, because anything you’ve touched, anything colored by the memory of you, are relics and I’m a supplicant?”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Verona Capital offers its employees fully paid insurance covering and affirming their right to all procedures and medications their bodies need, extended paid sick leave and work-from-home accommodations, menstrual leave, extended parental leave, subsidized daycare and pre-K, zero tolerance for harassment, an ADA-certified accessible workplace, dedicated lactation rooms, gender-neutral bathrooms . . . You get the idea, I think.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Drawing in an unsteady breath, she lifts my chin until my eyes meet hers. And then she gifts me with the tenderest kiss. “I love you, Christopher Petruchio. With my whole wild heart. I love you so much, there aren’t words to explain it.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“He reaches for a pillow and kisses me again. “Now, lift your hips.” I lift my hips as he sets a pillow beneath my butt. “Tell me you won’t apologize anymore.” “I won’t apologize anymore.” “Good girl.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“It’s settled,” he says roughly, his hips shifting on the bed. “Now kindly sit on my face, and come all over it.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Kate.” His voice is a rough rock’s edge, a bonfire’s smoky heat. “I said sit on my face, and I meant it.” I gulp, my fingers sifting through his beautiful dark hair. “But what if I smother you with my vulva?”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“I smile. “You’re acting like a kid at Christmas.” “This is way better than Christmas,” he says, grinning. “Now, get up here and sit on my face.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“want to chart the years of his life with my eyes, my hands, my camera, when those faint lines at the corners of his eyes etch themselves deeper from so much laughter that we’ll share. I want to drag him places without a plan and only a Polaroid around my neck to fill the walls of this place with garlands of memories captured in tiny squares of joy. I want him for now. For always. And he wants me, too.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“His lips brush the bridge of my nose, then one side, then the other. “What are you doing?” I whisper. “What I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” he whispers back. “Kissing your freckles.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“She nods. “You feel like . . . one time, I was in Australia, and these winds came out of nowhere, so violent, I swore they were going to rip me off the earth and launch me right into space. I panicked, wrapped myself around a tree that was just as thick as my arms could reach, so steady and solid, and I clung to it until the wind died. That’s . . . you.” She smiles up at me, her touch gently sifting through my hair. “My tree in the storm.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“If I got to do one thing for the rest of my life,” I tell her, “it would be taking care of you, Kate.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Now it’s my turn to sit on the edge of the bed, staring into the fire. “Ready!” she calls. I straighten like I’ve been shocked. Clearing my throat, I stand from the bed. “Coming,” I call back. “Heh,” she says. “So soon?”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“You don’t need dozens of partners to know how to be a good lover, Kate,” he says roughly. “You just need to listen and learn, to trust and talk and try. You’ve done all of that. You’ve been an incredible lover to me.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“No,” he says, pressing a hot, wet kiss to my throat. “I’m just deeply aware there are many selfish at worst, mediocre at best, lovers out there, and you, Katerina Wilmot, deserve nothing but the best. Which is why I’m so satisfied. Because I am a lot of questionable things, but a selfish, mediocre lover is not one of them.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“I peer up at him, naked though I’m clothed, free-falling even though I’m held tight. “Promise?” He lifts his pinkie. I lift mine and hook it around his. And just like our childhood ritual, he kisses his thumb, I kiss mine. When our thumbs meet, soft, slow, like a tender, trusting kiss, his mouth meets mine, too, as he whispers, “Promise.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Wordless, he pulls me closer, cradling my head, kissing me deep and slow. And for just a moment, that’s all the world is—the two of us, arms wrapped around each other, in a kitchen filled with memories—sad, beautiful, bittersweet—fading into the corners, making space for what’s to come.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Should I tell you that I have missed you and ached for you for so long, Katerina Elizabeth Wilmot, that you define those words, and I have done everything I could to break inside me what drew me to you, but I’m not strong enough?”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“What should I tell you, Kate, hmm?” His voice is dark and sharp as he sinks his hands into my hips and pulls me close. “That your birthday is my lock code, that I keep your horribly sewn handkerchief in my journal at work, that I’ve archived every single photograph you’ve ever published, that I lure your cat to my house for cuddles, that I walk into bakeries in the fall just to see the foods you love, that I sit in your mother’s greenhouse and breathe in the scent of your favorite flowers, because anything you’ve touched, anything colored by the memory of you, are relics and I’m a supplicant?”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Christopher,” I press, my heart pounding with a dawning, earth-tipping hope that’s my most closely guarded, deepest-buried dream. “Why is my birthday your lock code?”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Okay, maybe not move on,” I admit to Puck. “I can have a conversation with him about it, though. I. Can. Communicate! I can put on my badass big-girl pants and talk to him. And until then, hopefully make his eyes bug out of his head with this very flattering sapphire-blue, plunging-V-neck sweater.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Gently, he tugs the sheet up to my chin, then drifts his fingers across my forehead, down my temple, across the bridge of my nose. “Time to settle that busy brain of yours, Katydid. Go to sleep.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never

“Whatever you want or don’t want, Kate, tell me. I’ll stop if you say stop. I’ll do whatever you need. Just tell me.”
― Chloe Liese, Better Hate than Never