Twisted Lies

“Like you’re the most beautiful, most remarkable thing they’ve ever seen.”

The words lit every molecule in my body and dissolved them into a pool of exquisite, unbearable warmth.

We weren’t talking

Once upon a time, I hadn’t believed in love.

Now, I realize that love was the last piece that’d been missing in the puzzle of my life.

With it, I was finally whole.

Learn how to accept compliments, babe. “Thank you” is a perfectly adequate response.

Legality did not mean right, and illegality did not mean wrong. One only had to look at the fucked-up justice system to realize the law was nothing more than a house of cards, created to give its citizens a false sense of security and weakened by doorways open only to a select few.

We always expected our external world to reflect our internal one, but it was situations like these that reminded me the world would go on no matter what happened to us individually.
It was equal parts reassuring and depressing.

Any romantic relationship was out of the norm for me. I wasn’t opposed to dating, I just…wasn’t interested.
I liked the idea of it. When I read a romance book, watched a romantic scene, or saw cute couples at dinner, a yearning for something similar tugged at my gut. But once the book or movie was over and I re-entered the bright light of reality, the yearning disappeared.

I heard it over the hot rush of blood in my veins. It was a siren’s song beckoning me to my doom, and it was so beautiful I might’ve succumbed even knowing it would lead me to hell.

Maybe I’d signed a deal with the devil when I agreed to my arrangement with Christian…

But that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth it.

Everyone was starting new chapters of their lives while I was stuck in the prologue, waiting for my story to be told.

“Is that all you want?”

“Not even close.”

A tiny shiver rippled through her. “Because you don’t want to go through the trouble of finding another regular companion for events.”

“Because I don’t want to be jailed for murder if anyone touches a hair on your head.”