Holly Bryant-Simpson

“She looked like the first meteor shower he’d ever seen—impossible and brilliant, so far away but somehow also right inside his chest.”
― Rosie Danan, The Intimacy Experiment

“I’m far more interested in the beaux you have left mournful in your wake.” His fingers trapped one of the loose curls that bounced around her face, sliding the strands between the pads.
“They were legion. But they were all honorable gentlemen—unlike yourself, I may add.”
He gasped his faux outrage.“Are you saying my behavior is anything less than exemplary?”
She slid her gaze to the fingers that were still toying with her hair.
His free hand flew to his heart. She stifled a wholly unladylike giggle at his shocked and offended expression. “I demand satisfaction for this insult. Pistols at dawn,” he roared into the swaying carriage.
She wrinkled her brow. “I believe, as the challenged party, I get to choose the weapon.”
“A thousand apologies, my lady.” He cut a small bow in her direction. “Would you rather it be slow and tortuous?”
“I am not cruel,” she said loftily. “I can take mercy on you if you so humble yourself before me.”
“What if I like it slow and tortuous?” he murmured.”
― Brianna Labuskes, One Step Behind

“It was a warm summer night of a kiss at first. Gentle. Romanic. It matched the dreaminess he’d seen in her eyes when she talked about lovers bathed in starlight.

She couldn’t know what she did to him when she had peered up at him, a mixture of sweet innocence and curious desire all at once. He had waged a war within himself. He should leave, he’d thought. If nothing else in his life remained true, he was a gentleman. And gentlemen did not ravish young innocents in their guardian’s library.
But when her milky skin flushed pink, he’d lost the battle. Even their talk of consequences had done nothing to tamp down the need that consumed him. For just a taste.

Just a taste.”
― Brianna Labuskes, One Step Behind

“What I’m trying to articulate, probably a little poorly, is that you’re precious,” Ethan said, “not in spite of, but because of all the ways you believe you’re broken.”
― Rosie Danan, The Intimacy Experiment