“You think you can take all of it?” he murmurs.

“It’s just been so much, over and over. I’m tired of fighting, but I don’t know how else to get out of this. I want it to be done.”
“What if it can’t be yet?”
Her head droops. “Then I guess I have to live with that, huh?”

“I’m not afraid of you anymore. Let it all out. Show me what you’d do with me if you knew I wanted all of it. Because I do.”

“You can still be angry at me, and that’s fine,” he says, low and even but with a terse edge that suggests he isn’t really all that happy about my feelings. “It’s not going to stop me from protecting you.”

She belongs with us. She left us behind, but now she’s back, and she is ours.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have stuck my nose where it didn’t belong.”
“You and your dog have that in common. He’s just a little friendlier about it.”

“You’d be an amazing princess. One any nation would be honored to have. You’d care about your people first and foremost. You’d put their well-being above all else. You’d fight for them when necessary, and cheer for them when they did great things. You’d be the kind of princess with statues erected in your honor, and you’d earn your people’s deep and abiding loyalty. And you’d accomplish all of that without being anyone other than exactly who you are. The world would be a better place if there were princesses like you.”

All we can do is be grateful for the lessons we’ve learned and move forward.

“This is normal,” he said with a small shake of his head and a serious expression. “This is what a man does for his woman. He protects her. He goes out of his way to make sure she’s happy and safe. He looks after her. Just as she does for him.
“You haven’t had a good example of what a relationship should look like, but I’ve got you, Carlise. If you’re hungry, I’ll feed you. If you’re cold, I’ll bring you some blankets. If you’re scared, I’ll keep you safe, and if you’re happy, I’ll do whatever I can to keep you that way.”

“But . . . I’m a protector, Carlise. It’s who I am. When my friends and I got out of the army, we didn’t want to go into any kind of profession that involved weapons . . . security or bodyguarding, that sort of thing . . . but it’s in my DNA to try to make sure those around me are protected and cared for. I’m uncomfortable with the fact that you had to tend to my every need these last few days, though I’m so very relieved, grateful, and touched that you did.”

“You have a nice voice . . . soothing. I’ll keep you safe. I swear I won’t let them hurt you!”
Carlise’s heart turned over. Riggs sounded so earnest. “We’re safe here,” she told him.

“Don’t touch her,” I breathed. I glanced at her body, her chest barely rising.
It was my job to take care of her. It was stuck in my head all along, and I would fulfill my duty and do just that. This vampire would not touch her.
Quillian, the asshole leader of the group, raised a brow to retaliate, but his eyes sunk back into his head, and his hands gripped my wrist holding onto his arm. “Your eyes, your bear—”
“I ain’t just a damn bear. I’m a grizzly,” I corrected. “And he’s awake.”

Mom used to say she gave my sister better opportunities because, as the older sister, I should fight and struggle to serve as an example. It never made sense to me, and it makes little sense to my therapist, either.

Finally, there’s Keg, who says, “You look just like your mamma.” At which point, my eyes fill with tears.
Dane looks down at me with concern, and I feel like a complete idiot. “My ankle hurts pretty bad.”
Releasing me, he hoists me up in his arms, and then carries me into his home.

Il entra dans le vestibule de sa maison avec le besoin urgent de se donner une douche froide. Peut-être que cela lui ôterait l’idée qu’il avait partagé un baiser délicieux et inoubliable avec une femme mariée.

But that hatred had never stopped me from missing them all and it had never fixed the huge void left inside of me the day I lost them. Nothing ever would.

”ye’ve bewitched me!” His breath caught in his throat. “I cannae think of anythin’ else but ye ever since ye landed on me beach with yer purple hair and yer selkie skin, and it’s pushin’ me toward somethin’ like madness, Adeline. When I’m near ye, ye unleash somethin’ in me.”

No one has ever made me feel this way. Physically or emotionally. We fit together on a molecular level. When I’m with her, my world feels right. I’m going to have a hard time keeping my distance from her tonight.

“What’s going on with you and Jack? What are you telling him? That asshole said something to me about being a better father. How does he even know I have a kid?” Taylor’s happy-go-stupid smile faded into something uglier. He was angry that he wasn’t getting his way.
I hadn’t known Jack spoke to Taylor. After seeing the anger and hurt in Jack’s eyes as he held Jesse that day at school, it shouldn’t have surprised me. “Was he wrong? You should be a better father.”
“What business does he have knowing about it?” Raising his voice, Taylor still blocked me from shutting the door. “Are you fucking him?”
I saw red. I opened my mouth to rip him a new one but it was Andrew’s voice I heard instead of my own.

“But do I even stand a chance of making you want that?” I blurted out, flinching inwardly as soon as the words came out.
“I married you, didn’t I? If we didn’t stand a chance, I would have let Kayog take you to Amreth.”

“My club is the air I breathe, but you’re the blood in my veins. If you left, I could breathe, but everything inside me would shrivel up and die. You’re my only reason for living.”

That all-powerful emotion I felt earlier. It had a name: love.

A fucked up man like me had no business with an angel.

I loved him with every cell in my body. Every breath I took. Every beat of my heart had his name engraved on it.

“There’s some bitch goin’ off on Dallas and Blimp at the gate. Says she knows you. That you need to talk.”

Every. Fucking. Piece.
But I do it.
For Kit.
For Adam.
For the uncertain future.
For my heart.
’Cause I think, for the first time in my life, the damn thing’s breaking.