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‘The implication was clear; he’d come as close as he was going to. He’d come close enough to imagine her, to taste the proximity of her in the air between them, but no closer—that was up to her.’

“This,” he said, her fingers still hovering above his lip, “is what they call mixed messages, Sasha.”
She blinked, startled, and drew her hand away. “Right.” She exhaled. “Right, of course, I was just, I wasn’t—“
“Oh, hell,” Lev mumbled softly [READ WHAT’S NEXT OMGOMGOMG]

“I don’t care. They could scream and cry all they want, and they’d still be like their mother.” I brushed her lips with mine. “Perfect.”
“I was right all those years ago,” she murmured. “You, Christian Harper, are a softie at heart.”
I laughed softly. “Only for you, Butterfly.”

‘I lifted my head and opened the secret drawer that used to hold her files. Now, it was filled with letters I’d never sent.
One for every day we’d been apart.’

“Do you want to know another secret, Stella? I can’t say no to you. But I will always be here if you need me, no matter how far in distance or time. I don’t care if we’re in different continents or it’s five, fifty years in the future. I never want you to wake up and feel like you’re alone, because you’re not. You’ll always have me. I love you. So fucking much.”

“I love this dress on you.”
“I thought you don’t believe in love,” I teased.
“You’re right. That was the wrong word. Because love is ordinary. Mundane. And you, Stella… You’re extraordinary.”

“You must love that dress,” he said. “You’ve worn it five times since spring began.”
“I didn’t realize you noticed what I was wearing.”
“I notice everything about you.”

‘Despite what I’d said about love being a drug, Stella was my greatest high.
A temptation with no escape.
An obsession with no end.
An addiction with no cure.’

‘A kiss with her wouldn’t be just a kiss. It would be my fucking end.’

‘Darkness was always drawn to light, but I wasn’t just drawn to her; I was fucking obsessed. I would throw myself into her flame and let it burn me alive if it meant her warmth was the last thing I felt before I died.’

‘She deserved to shine without darkness threatening to consume her, and if I were a better man, I would let her go.
But I wasn’t.
My flickering conscience recoiled at the unseen smears of red against her skin while a twisted, possessive part of me thrilled at the sight.
But if there was one thing both sides agreed on, it was that she was mine.
And now that she was in my life, there was no letting her go.’

‘An angel sleeping in the arms of a monster.
Few people trusted me enough to close their eyes when I was in the room, and here she was, cuddling against me like I was a damn teddy bear. Completely unaware of the violence brewing only inches away.’

“I’m not a jealous man, Stella. I have never envied someone for what they have or who they’re with, and yet…” My fingers gilded down to her wrist. “I’m jealous of every person you smile at.” A brush over her fingers. “Every laugh I don’t hear. Every breeze that touches your skin and every sound that pours through your lips. It. Is. Maddening.”

“It’s because you haven’t looked me in the eye since New York. Because you’re all I can fucking think about no matter where I am or who I’m with, and the thought of you hurt or upset makes me want to raze this city to the ground.” Soft, almost desperate viciousness coated his voice. “I’ve never wanted someone more, and I’ve never hated myself more for it.”

“If you saw yourself the way other people see you,” he said quietly, “you’d never doubt yourself again.”
“How do other people see me?”
Christian’s eyes didn’t leave mine.
“Like you’re the most beautiful, most remarkable thing they’ve ever seen.”

‘That was the thing about humans. We were hard-wired for survival, and we took every opportunity to convince ourselves that our problems weren’t as bad as we thought they were.
Hope and denial. Two sides of the same coin. They kept us from falling into a well of despair even in the darkest of times.’

‘Stella’s laugh finally pulled a smile out of me.
Despite what happened last night, her light still shone through, and she was more resilient than a lot of people, including me, gave her credit for.
That’s my girl.’

Who would you rather cuddle with? Mr. Harper or Mr. Unicorn?
“You’re losing, by the way,” Stella said. “Mr Unicorn is beating you 53 to 47 percent.”
I stared at her, sure I was hearing wrong and that she didn’t have the fucking audacity to put me against a raggedy stuffed animal with a crooked eye in some absurd social media poll.
I was also sure I couldn’t be losing to said stuffed animal.

“The world thinks you’re my girlfriend. Can’t have anything happen to you or it’d look bad for me.” The lie slipped as easily from my tongue as my own name. “I’m the CEO of a security company after all.”
That and a world without Stella in it was one that didn’t deserve to exist.

‘In a rare moment of weakness, I’d used our fake dating arrangement to get closer to her, but a part of me had secretly hope it would shatter the mystery and end my fixation with her.
Instead, it was doing the opposite. The more time I spent with Stella, the more I wanted to be around her. To let her into places I’d never shown anyone.’

‘If my thoughts were chaos, she was my anchor.
They always went back to her.
The memory of her walking down the snow-covered street, her hair tossed wild by the wind and her eyes shining like jade, lingered in my brain. The warmth of her, like a ray of sunshine peeking out after a storm, lingered everywhere else.’

that’s actually so wholesome :<

THIS IS SO SWEET HUHUHU