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.

Romanticizing love was easy. Falling in love was harder,

Stella and I circulated the room for the next hour before we finally came face to face with Richard Wyatt.

After the obligatory small talk,

Not fear that Stella was in physical danger, but fear that I might not see her and that I’d lose her forever.

“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 glided down to her wrist. “I’m jealous of every person you smile at…” A brush over her fingers. “Every laugh I don’t hear…” My touch dipped to her knee and made a slow, languorous journey up her thigh. “Every breeze that touches your skin and every sound that pours through your lips. It. Is. Maddening.”

“A mother’s love for her child is supposed to be the greatest love of all. Yet it wasn’t enough for her to stay with me.”

I was angry, and I was glad about that, because anger is easier than abandonment.”

A dream? I’d gone through hell because of a freaking dream?

I couldn’t decide what pissed me off more—Kurtz’s face, Kage’s betrayal, or the fact that they were acting like villains in a bad TV cop drama.