“I watched the tears run down her cheeks and start to drip from the end of her chin. One part of me wanted to put my arms round her but I daren't. Do that and I'd never be able to let her go.”

“I thought about how I'd held her in my arms and run my hand through her hair, along her cheeks, and down her neck, how her lower lip opened just slightly when I brushed my fingers against her breast...”

“She grips my elbow tighter, somehow finding the thinnest skin to dig her fingernails into. I want to pry her fingers from my arm, but when I look down at her, I can tell she’s using me as a lifeline, and I’m not going to be the one to let her drown.”

“I watched you for years,” she whispered. The tears were drying on her cheeks, and heat was building within her. If he would just touch her. Touch her there. “I watched you and you never saw me.”

“She unlocked her hands from my neck and pushed her body against my arms, but i wasn't ready to let her go-not yet. "Noah?" "Yeah?" "I'm kind of done hugging you." Reluctanly, i let go. One shot. One fucking shot. What the hell do i do now? What the hell do i want? Echo. To feel her body wrapped around mine, to smell her enticing scent, to let her deliver me to that place where i would forget everything but her.”

“Let me explain it to you then. I just had a beautiful girl trust me enough to touch her and see her in a way no one else ever has. I got to hold her and watch her and feel her as she came apart in my arms. It was like nothing else I'd ever experienced. She was breathtaking and she was responding to me. She wanted me. I was the one making her spiral out of control.”