Ava

“You're still wearing it."
He couldn't help but say it. Laurent's wrist was heavy with gold, like the colour of his hair in the firelight.
"So are you."
"Tell me why."
"You know why," said Laurent.”
― C.S. Pacat, Kings Rising

“You want to see compassion? Fine." I take the hand pressed against my shoulders and kiss his knuckles. "I've now kissed the hand of my mother's killer."
Before he has time to react to my chaste kiss, I bring my other hand up and slap him. His head whips to the side.
"I'm also a vindictive bitch," I say.”
― Laura Thalassa, The Queen of All that Dies

“Slow rocking began to turn the kiss into something more.

There was a knock at the door.

"Come in," said Laurent, turning his head towards the sound.

Damen said, "Laurent," shocked and on full display as the door swung open. Pallas entered. Laurent greeted him no self-consciousness at all.

"Yes?" Laurent's voice was matter-of-fact.

Pallas's mouth opened. Damen saw what Pallas saw: Laurent like some dream of a newly fucked virgin, himself unmistakably above him, fully roused.
[...]

"My apologies, Exalted. I came to seek your orders for the morning."

"We're busy currently. Have a servant prepare the baths and bring us food mid-morning." Laurent spoke like an administrator glancing up from his desk.

"Yes, Exalted."

Pallas turned blindly, and made for the door.

"What is it?" Laurent looked at Damen, who had detached himself and was sitting with the sheet pulled up to where he had clutched it to cover himself. And then, with the burgeoning delight of discovery, "Are you shy?”
― C.S. Pacat, Kings Rising

“When you live without someone for as long as I have, love becomes this abstract concept, something you attach to a memory. And when memories are that old, they feel like dreams, and you wonder if any of it was real, or if your mind created it all.”
― Laura Thalassa, The Queen of All that Lives