Home > Work > Beyond Innocence (Beyond, #6)
1 " In fairy tales, there were always ogres or evil queens or circumstances to be overcome. But in real life, you could give everything you had, everything you were, for someone, and still fall short. "
― Kit Rocha , Beyond Innocence (Beyond, #6)
2 " Sometimes, people won't like what you do. Do it anyway. It's better to be happy and hated than miserable. "
3 " Grief was something you could work through, but regret lived forever, tormenting you with everything you might have done differently. "
4 " She wasn't the desert or the flowers. She wasn't ice or steel. She was a goddamn diamond, formed under terrible pressure, as hard and unforgiving as the rock Logan had put on her finger. "
5 " That much he understood now—the compulsion born of secrecy, how silence was its own sort of prison. The relief that came with being able to tell someone, anyone, all those things you were supposed to keep locked up. "
6 " But everything is a cost-benefit analysis, isn't it? 'Do I want this badly enough to pay the price? "
7 " But sometimes I feel like a soldier who's won a war. It's time to go home, and I don't even know what that means. "
8 " He wasn't a cold, aloof god anymore, but a flesh-and-blood man who could bleed, hurt. Want. "
9 " No one could survive so much heat after a lifetime of ice. "
10 " Real honesty was made up of a million facts and feelings, filtered through everything from morality and society to kindness and disregard. Love and hate. That made the truth a complicated thing. A tool that you could still use to lie. "
11 " If it had only been fear, she could have managed—fear was vital, the basis for survival. "
12 " Naked wasn't a dress pulled up or pushed aside, frantic touches in a dark corner. It was stripping off every layer of armor, one scrap of clothing at a time, and showing him every usually concealed imperfection. "
13 " It was too much to process. Even trying left him dizzy, lightheaded, so Jared did the only thing he could do. The manly thing. He passed the fuck out. "
14 " Beautiful, Lili. I love that word, but it's not enough for you. Not nearly. "
15 " We survive however we can," she murmured, hating how shallow it sounded. How patronizing. "
16 " Tenderness and safety and fucking. "
17 " You're the first person I've believed in a long time. "
18 " I know your pain. I know your heart. I know you. I see you. You are not alone. "
19 " What does it feel like? Giving someone pleasure, I mean. "
20 " Sweet women who just needed a little tenderness to wake them up. Making them feel good made him feel good, and everyone walked away with fond, pleasant memories and mild feelings. Mild wasn't always satisfying, but intensity was complicated. "