BOOK ONE OF THE BLACK SERIES -- "Well, behalf of my dick, who cannot speak for himself," Kade said simply as he watched over my face, one of his eyebrows risen, "I would like to say for him that he doesn't care about my brother's feelings at this current moment - or his reaction to the photo." "Well, I do," I muttered, my sentence coming out muffled in my hands as they covered my face. "Do you know how this makes me look to the public eye? To be sleeping with my boyfriend's older brother?" "Look on the bright side, Em." I didn't even spare him a glance as I shook my head, grunting. "Emara, look at me." My hands were pulled away and Kade stared at me, his vibrant blue eyes twinkling and his dirty blonde hair covering his eyebrows. The sight of his effortless beauty made my hard glare slightly soften. "You know I won't tell him if he finds out, you know me," he mumbled to me, "but I'm not going to lie to him when he finds out and say that if I had the chance to change what we've been doing, I wouldn't - because I would do it again without a second thought."

"You're atheist," I remind him. "You don't believe in god." "I believe in you," He murmurs, letting the cigarette hang from his lips. "I believe in whatever you believe." He says, letting the confession roll off his tongue as if it were that simple. As if god, the devil, heaven, hell-as if none of it really had meaning to him. "That's not how it works," I mutter as we walk down a few more alleyways-the city of Manhattan coated in a light blanket of snow. Henry Vitiello had never had anything to pray for, that is, until he met me-the only thing that had ever opened his mind up to the possibility of religion "Isn't it?" He argues, taking the cigarette by his middle and pointer finger before blowing the smoke out. "I'II dip my hands in holy water if it means I could touch you." "You'd probably burn." 𓆩♡𓆪 𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐑𝐘 𝐕𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐎, the reaper. He's a prick. An asshole. A pretentious son of a bitch. He's not perfect. He's not even decent. But he's hers. She could be a bottle labeled poison but he was an alcoholic, and he had drunk her empty. Now he was hungover. 𝐉𝐀𝐍𝐄 𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐒, the healer. She's known to be the perfect good girl, with perfect grades and a perfect life with a perfect family. They didn't know that behind the gated doors of their billion dollar estate, she was strapped down to a chair every night and picked apart just to be put back together in time for supper. 𓆩♡𓆪 star-crossed; adjective (of a person or a plan) thwarted by bad luck. 'star-crossed lovers' and that, they were. So they fucked under those very stars that tried so desperately to break them apart. 𓆩♡𓆪 ‼️DISCLAIMER ‼️ BOOK REFERENCES TO MARA DYER, SHATTER ME, MIND FUCK, ETC ARE ALL INTENTIONAL SO DONT BE RUDE. AS FOR TRIGGER WARN

After spending a night together, Alani never expected to see Valerio again. That is, until three months later when their paths meet once more. "𝒀𝒐𝒖'𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒘𝒆𝒕, 𝑨𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒊," 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝒔𝒐𝒇𝒕𝒍𝒚, 𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒏𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒌. 𝑽𝒂𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒆, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒔 𝒂𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔. 𝑯𝒊𝒔 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒍𝒊𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒕, 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒆 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒎𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅. 𝑰 𝒑𝒆𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒐𝒘𝒏, 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒐𝒐𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒎𝒚 𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒚 𝒖𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒆𝒂𝒓. 𝑰 𝒔𝒎𝒊𝒓𝒌𝒆𝒅 - 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒍𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒆𝒅.