The Muse's Undoing Quotes

“You’re a whole person,” he says, and he takes one of my hands. “Maybe we just happen to share a heart.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I’m not sure you were wrong to think my feelings for him could threaten my relationship with Vaughn. It’s—all-consuming. I’ve never felt like this before, and it’s terrifying to feel like you can’t breathe without someone who has so many other options.” “Is that what you want? To leave him free to explore his other options.” I feel the color drain from my face.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“that I will never forgive the people who forced me to abandon the one person in the world who would never in a hundred lifetimes have abandoned me.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“Forget the fact that the idea of going twenty-four hours without him is giving me actual chest pain. And forget the fact that what I said to her on our walk the other day wasn’t “is this what love feels like?” It was “I get it now. It’s him.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I bottom when I want to disappear. I never want to disappear with you. I do it when I don’t give a fuck who I’m with. When I need the noise to drown myself out. But I am insanely in love with you. I want to tattoo you on my soul.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“Would you have broken my heart?” “Not back then. I didn’t have it in me.” “But now?” “Now there is no me without you.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“What are you doing to me?” he says on a breath as he nuzzles into my neck, and I hold him close. “I’m trying to chain you to my soul,” I say, clearly out of my mind.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“My love for him has its own drawer in my mind. Recently, I’ve cleared out a new drawer for him where I’ve put sex. But it would require an armoire built by both of us to contain in love.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“We’re intertwined in a way I may never understand except to say that life without him would barely qualify as a life.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I’ve had plenty of women. What I haven’t had nearly enough of is you.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“It’s easier to think of us like we are now. Inevitable. Inseparable. Together.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I feel like a part of a ritual. There’s no chanting, but there is rhythm. There are no spells, but I feel dizzy. He’s the leader, and I’m the sacrifice. You’re such a bottom, though…”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“You’re fucking huge.” “Pass or smash?” I ask. He huffs a breath that almost sounds like a laugh. “Smash. The bigger the better.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I want to make a mural of his scars. Paint it on my bathroom wall and try to make sense of them because I bet if I stared at them long enough, I’d have an epiphany.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I want to tell him I’ve been floating in a sea of denial, not of what I knew but of what I wanted—what I was denying myself because I thought he’d ruled me out years ago for too many reasons to count.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“Anything I want?” “Yes.” “It’s a lot. You think you can handle it, princess?” “I hope so,” he whispers.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“So, the options are we either fuck, or go back to being normal brothers.” “We were never normal, and we’re not brothers,” I remind him.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I’m not sure I can go back to being his friend, and God knows, we’ve burned the brother bridge. I feel fucking paralyzed.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I’m sorry,” he gasps, “I’m so fucking sorry.” “I’m not.” “I’m not usually⁠—” “Shh…” “Like I’m fucking fourteen…” “It’s okay.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I sink into him the best I can, using my tongue to draw moans and whimpers from his throat.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I have an oral fixation about as impressive as the Empire State Building, and kissing Fischer satisfies it like nothing else ever has.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I’m terrified I might lose you,” he says, and it chills me, the thought of that. “I won’t risk it. I’ll pull out all the stops. I’ll fight dirty.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I’ll come back whether we kiss or not,” I whisper. “I need you, too.” He gives his head a short shake, like I can’t possibly understand. “It’s not the same. You can go three weeks without seeing me in any meaningful way, and I can’t do that. I’m not asking to be everything to you again, but you’re kinda everything for me.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“How do you want to deal with this?” I ask. “Did you want to have sex?” he asks. I bolt upright. “You don’t want to have sex with me, Matthew.” “I do, actually.” He mumbles into the pillow almost like he doesn’t want me to hear it. “I have for a while.” “What do you expect me to say to that?” “Nothing.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“You don’t have to ask, Fischer.” He sounds exasperated. “But I am asking.” “Why? You think now, all of a sudden I’m gonna say hey—this is weird, stop trying to snuggle up to me? If I didn’t want you, I wouldn’t be here.” My breath stills.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“He cared for my body with his hands and his time, but I credit the simple fact of his presence with the fact that I was able to regain the mental strength to go back to work. He held me together when I was in literal pieces, and I’ll never stop missing those days when I could reach back and find his hand any time I needed it. He was my silver lining.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“I’ve been attracted to him for a long time, but last night that attraction felt like a whole other person inside of me—viscerally real and starving. Damn near chomping at the bit to put my mouth all over him.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“Did you have a good night?” I frown. “Yeah. Sure.” “What was your favorite part?” he asks. The moment his hands went up my shorts. “Watching you eat it on the rug.” He snorts a laugh and snuggles closer, wrapping his arm over my chest and resting his nose against the nape of my neck. His breath blows down my spine. “I liked it when you called me princess.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“Maggie calls me a serial monogamist. But the truth is, my heart’s not available. It picked its person a long time ago.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing

“Sex and control are how I’ve coped with feeling like half a person. My muses have helped me through some of the rougher times. They offer sex with passion, which feeds my obsessive tendencies, but it’s all in the name of my art, which is an extension of me, but not me.”
― August Jones, The Muse's Undoing