Mira

“Roman?”
“Yes?”
“I have a confession to make.”
I kiss her shoulder. “Something bad?”
“Yeah. It’s . . . well, it’s a kind of a problem. A big one.”
“Spill it, Nina.” She’s silent for a few moments, and then makes my world tilt on its axis with six short words. “I’m in love with you, Roman.”
I close my eyes for a second and squeeze her tightly. It’s like everything around me stopped. “Then we share the same problem, malysh.”
― Neva Altaj, Painted Scars

“I’m afraid someone may try to take you from me, and I have this compulsion to kill them all before they have a chance to give it a try.”
― Neva Altaj, Broken Whispers

“This is the pact. You and me. The pact is that we spend as much time together as humanly possible. We don't let our busy schedules control our relationship. If there's no time, we make time. Hockey doesn't matter. School, work. None of it matters if you and I are struggling. If we aren't connecting" - John Logan”
― Elle Kennedy, The Legacy

“Tell me, Nina, if there wasn’t this deal between us, would you have come when I nodded?” he asks. “Nope.”
I don’t expect him to ask me to elaborate, but he does, and his question surprises me. “Why not? Is it because of the wheelchair?”
He says it conversationally, but there is a hidden undertone I can’t quite define. I abandon watching the crowd and look him right in the eyes. “It’s because I’m not a poodle, Mr. Petrov.”
― Neva Altaj, Painted Scars