Extraits

“What are my options?"

"You could read obscure poetry while I play the triangle, I suppose. Or we can smother ourselves in peanut butter and howl at the moon. Use your imagination."

"Fine,"I said. "You take my hand and back up toward the bed."

"Excellent choice. What then?"

"You sit down, and pull me down with you."

"Where are you?" he asked.

"You pull me onto your lap."

"Where are your legs?"

"Around your waist."

"Well," Noah said, his voice slightly rough. "This is getting interesting. So I'm on the edge of your bed. I'm holding you on my lap as you straddle me. My arms are around you, bracing you there so you don't fall. What am I wearing?"...

"What do you usually wear to bed?" I asked.

Noah said nothing. I opened my eyes to an arched brow and a devious grin.

Oh my God.

"Close. Your. Eyes," he said. I did. "Now, where were we?"

"I was straddling you," I said.

"Right. And I'm wearing..."

"Drawstring pants."

"Those are quite thin, you know."

I'm aware.

...

"Right," he said. "So what are you wearing?"

"I don't know. A space suit. Who cares?"

"I think this should be as vivid as possible," he said. "For you," he clarified, and I chuckled. "Eyes closed," he reminded me. "I'm going to have to institute a punishment for each time I have to tell you."

"What did you have in mind?"

"Don't tempt me. Now, what are you wearing?"

"A hoodie and drawstring pants too, I guess."

"Anything underneath?"

"I don't typically walk around without underwear."

"Typically?"

"Only on special occasions."

"Christ. I meant under your hoodie."

"A tank top, I guess."

"What color?"

"White tank. Black hoodie. Gray pants. I'm ready to move on now."

I felt him nearer, his words close to my ear. "To the part where I lean back and pull you down with me?"

Yes.

"Over me," he said.

Fuck.

"The part where I tell you that I want to feel the softness of the curls at the nape of your neck? To know what your hipbone would feel like against my mouth?" he murmured against my skin. "To memorize the slope of your navel and the arch of your neck and the swell of your-”

“If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them. If we were to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one.”

"Je l'ai vu fixer mon briquet."

J'ai cligné des yeux. "Tu as donné un briquet à une enfant dans un service psychiatrique".

Le coin de ses yeux s'est plissé " elle m'avait l'air digne de confiance."

" Tu es malade" lui répondit-je en souriant.

" Personne n'est parfait," me répondit-il en me rendant mon sourire.

"I can't bear to look at my bed without seeing you in it.”

“If I truly loved him, she said, I would let him go.

I wish I loved him enough.”

“How long do you want me?" he asked.

How long can I have you? I thought.”

You can't hurt me the way you think you can. But even if you could? I would rather die with the taste of you on my tongue than live and never touch you again. I'm in love with you, Mara. I love you. No matter what you do.

This was the boy I loved. A little bit messy. A little bit ruined. A beautiful disaster. Just like me.

" There will come a moment when there's nothing you want more than us.Together.When you're free of every fear and there is nothing in our way". Noah's voice was sincere, his expressions serious. I wanted to believe him.

If Phoebe wasn't going to admit to it, I would call her out and let the chips fall as they may. "I think Phoebe wrote it and put in my bag."

"Why would you think that?"

"Perhaps because she is batshit crazy, Brooke."

Jamie slow-clapped.

"Jamie," Brooke said calmly. "I'm not sure that's productive."

"I was applauding Mara for her extraordinarily appropriate use of the term 'batshit crazy.'"