The Softest Parts of Me (Book 1)
Leo is quiet, careful, and always watching the exits. Maddie is loud, steady, and impossible to ignore.
Their connection isn't instant-but it's real. And when life starts to unravel, it's Maddie who stays. Even when Leo pushes her away. Especially then.
This is a story about falling in love for the first time when your heart is still learning how to beat. About finding safety in someone else's hands... and daring to believe you deserve it.
Story Snippet:
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Then her voice floated out, light and casual: "Leo?"
He looked up. The door cracked open a little, steam curling out, and Maddie peeked through-cheeks flushed from the heat, water dripping from the ends of her hair and trailing down the slope of her collarbone. She wasn't holding a towel. She wasn't really holding anything. Just leaned in the doorway, chin tilted up, the corner of her lip quirked slightly.
"Can you grab my towel?" she asked, almost too casually. "I left it on the bed."
His heart stuttered. "Uh-yeah. Yeah, of course." He scrambled up.
"And my clothes? The ones I left out." Her voice lowered just a little, almost teasing. "Also... do you have a zip-up I can borrow?"
He found himself nodding before he could think, already pulling the folded towel into his hands, then her clothes-still neatly laid out like she'd planned it. He grabbed her skincare pouch from the nightstand too. Last thing she'd want was to forget that.
Then he paused at his duffel, rifling through until he found one of his hoodies. The grey one. Oversized. Definitely too big on her, which suddenly made his brain short-circuit even more.
He knocked lightly on the doorframe. "Got everything."
"Come in a little," she murmured from behind the door, cracking it open just an inch more. "Just... don't look."
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- Content Warnings: emotional abuse, coercion, trauma recovery, PTSD, healing after SA
- 70,000-210,00 words in total
- BOOK 2 IS CONFIRMED!!!!!
(cover pic is from pinterest)
