drielly

“I want your best room,' said Laurent, 'with a big bed and a private bath, and if you send up the house boy, you'll find out the hard way that I don't like sharing.'
He delivered the innkeeper a long, cool look.
"He's expensive,' said Damen to the innkeeper, by way of apology.”
― C.S. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“I want you," said Damen.
"You've had me," said Laurent. "Twice.
I can still feel the . . . sensation of it."
Laurent shifted, just so. Damen buried
his face in Laurent's neck and groaned,
and there was laughter too, and
something akin to happiness that hurt as
it pushed at the inside of his chest.
"Stop it. You will not be able to walk,"
said Damen.
"I'd welcome the chance to walk," said
Laurent. "I have to ride a horse.”
― S.U. Pacat, Captive Prince: Volume Two

“Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
"I feel like I could eat the world raw.”
― Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

“Laurent was a nest of scorpions in the body of one person.”
― C.S. Pacat