Bria

“Gina’s getting out of the water,” Jonas whispers. He pinches my clitoris hard between his fingers. I come in a hundred shudders, swallowing a scream as she walks up the beach toward us. “It’s not too late,” he says. He wipes his hand in the sand, gets up, and goes to join his wife.”
― Miranda Cowley Heller, The Paper Palace

“Five more minutes,” Maddy groans. “I’m not even hungry.” Madeline is ten years old. Astonishingly beautiful, like my mother. But unlike most of the women in our family, she is small-boned and delicate, with pale English rose skin, Peter’s gray eyes, and Anna’s thick, dark hair. Every time I look at her I wonder how this creature came out of me.”
― Miranda Cowley Heller, The Paper Palace

“Vanity, vanity, taught Madame D’Artois. Everything we treasure has a price. And everything we have will slip away. She told us we were dust and our lives brief as grass. We might understand this if we were truly wise—but I lacked wisdom.”
― Allegra Goodman, Isola

“Gulls were calling as we stepped over wooden planks. Waves slapped against posts crusted with black barnacles. Here my guardian’s men waited in a little boat, and we embarked, descending salty stairs. I stepped in first, and Damienne followed, half-falling as she clutched my arm.”
― Allegra Goodman, Isola