“His darkness bled into me, inch by torturous inch, consuming me from the inside out. It made me feel powerful.It made me feel free.It made the next words that flew from my mouth a plea that he never stopped. He was dark and twisted, but maybe I was too.”

“I thought I told you I don’t play by the rules,” I argue.“Ye’re mistaken,” he says. “Ye just walked into my world unbidden. So you will play by the rules, butterfly. You’ll be playing by all my rules.”

“Nobody has ever looked at me the way he’s looking at me at this moment. Like I’m his possession. Like if anyone else were to touch me, he’d break both their legs and an arm for good measure.”

“I never realized how empty my life had really become until I had him in it. He did that to me. He said I wrecked him, but he completely destroyed me. Everything was fine when I was alone. When I didn’t have to feel or think or care about someone else. Sure I was sad and broken, but I was okay. Now, I’m anything but.”

“This is the moment I realize that our traumas never really go away. They live inside of us, in the deepest darkest pits of our own tiny hells. Cocked and loaded, waiting for someone to come along and pull the trigger.”

“His darkness bled into me, inch by torturous inch, consuming me from the inside out. It made me feel powerful.It made me feel free.It made the next words that flew from my mouth a plea that he never stopped. He was dark and twisted, but maybe I was too.”

“Human emotion is not a linear experience. That which provokes emotion in one may provoke little, if anything, in another.”

“My heart is a compass, and it always leads me back to you.”

“I have no idea why, but I'm grinning back at her. This temperamental, wild creature in front of me who has the nerve to put me in my place.”

“Like Artemis and Orion, fate was working against us, and we couldn't be together in this life. But he will forever be immortalized in my heart.”

“And I’m trying to stay strong. I really, really am. But he smells so damn good, and his lips are just right there. All soft and inviting… and all I can think about is having them on my body.”