Anira

“I know. I made it my business to know everything there was to know about you the second I saw you on the parapet.'

'Because that's not creepy.' I let the coffee warm my freezing hands.

'Can't know how to ruin someone without understanding them first,' he says quietly.

I lift my gaze to find that his is already on me. 'And is that still your plan?' Mira's words have haunted me for two days.

He flinches. 'No.'

'What changed?' Frustration tightens my grip on the mug. 'When exactly did you decide not to ruin me?'

'Maybe it was when I saw Oren holding a knife to your throat,' he says. 'Or maybe it was when I realised the bruises on your neck were fingerprints and wanted to kill them all over again just so I could do it slowly. Maybe it was the first time I recklessly kissed you or when I realised I'm fucked because I can't stop thinking about doing more than just kissing you.' My breath catches at his admission, but he just sighs, lets his head fall back against the wall. 'Does it even matter when, as long as it changed between us?'

'Don't do that,' I whisper, and he lifts his head again to hold my gaze.

'Do what? Tell you I can't get you out of my head? Or speak directly into yours?'

'Either.”
― Rebecca Yarros, Fourth Wing

“Her heart was beating so hard she could hardly hear her own thoughts. Cyrus had looked at her many times since she'd met him, and always with varying levels of intensity, but never quite like this. Never like he wanted to fall to his knees before her.”
― Tahereh Mafi, These Infinite Threads

“You have no idea what I could give you," he said, his own eyes blazing. "You have no idea what I want. I have been in agony for eight months, Alizeh. Do you know how hard it's been to pretend I don't know you? To pretend I don't want you? To act as if I haven't known every inch of your body in my dreams? To learn that your heart has been entangled elsewhere? I look at you and I can't breathe. In my mind, you are already mine.”
― Tahereh Mafi, These Infinite Threads

“He laughed a little, like he was drunk. "I do say it a lot."

"What?" she said, going briefly still.

"Your name," he said, and closed his eyes. He nearly fell over, catching himself at the last second. "I didn't know your name for so long, angel. I love the way it feels in my mouth.”
― Tahereh Mafi, These Infinite Threads