Alexia Monteiro

“I straighten and stretch my neck side to side. ‘I really need to hit something.’
Rafa’s mouth quirks. ‘I know what you need.’
‘In your dreams.’ I know where this is going: it’s been the same banter for about five decades now. Usually he saves it for an audience.
‘In my dreams, Gabe, you end up slick with sweat and moaning.’
‘I have food poisoning?’
He laughs, a beer halfway to his lips. Condensation drips from the bottle. He’s completely at ease here: three-quarter cargoes, frayed t-shirt, bare feet. ‘I’m just saying that if you need distracting, I’m your man.’
‘If I wanted to go places everyone else has been, Rafa, I’d take a trip to Disneyland.’
He leans in closer. ‘Yeah, but don’t you want to know why everyone loves Space Mountain?”
― Paula Weston, Burn

“You and he were never ...you know. You were our best fighters. You bickered all the time, but you brought out the best in each other as warriors. Going into battle to you turned him on more than any woman could.'
I give her a dubious look and she laughs.'Maybe a slight exaggeration, but he really did love it.' Her smiles fades.'And you and Jude were inseparable. That's why it made no sense that you would take the opposite side to either one of them - let alone both...It got worse after you and Jude disappeared last year. We thought he'd gone back to the Sanctuary to be with you. And when we heard you'd both dies...Honestly, I though Rafa was going to harm himself. He wouldn't talk to anyone for weeks. He drifted in and out of our operations, and then a few months ago he lost interest completely and stopped answering calls. We only know he was still alive because he's send Zak an occasional text. We he told Zak about the possibility you'd resurfaced there was no doubt he's come looking for you-'
A fist bangs on the door. 'Gabe' Rafa barks. 'Your boyfriend's here. Get your arse into gear.'
'Yeah' I get to my feet. 'I'm the wind beneath his wings.”
― Paula Weston, Shadows

“How can you forgive what I did?"

"Because I know you. Because I've seen the best and the worst of you. Because of everything we've been through in the last hundred and thirty-nine years and what we've been through since you found me in the bar. God, because I want to move forward."

"Yea, but --"

"Because I love you, you idiot!”
― Paula Weston, Burn

“We’re not doing that, and you know it.” He doesn’t speak again I lean closer, lower my voice. “I know things are messy with us, but do you really think I could just walk away from you?”

This time he doesn’t look away. “Do you really think I’d let you?”
― Paula Weston, Haze