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You can’t hurt me the way you think you can But even if you could? I would rather die with the taste of you on ain I’m in love with you, Mara I love you No ht in my throat No matter what The words were a promise, a promise I didn’t know if anyone could keep

"We’re only seventeen," I said quietly

"Fuck seventeen" His eyes and voice were defiant "If I were to live a thousand years, I would belong to you for all of them If ere to live a thousand lives, I would want to make you mine in each one"

Noah knehat I was and what I’d done and he wanted me anyway He saw me All of me With my skin peeled back,

"All I want is you," he said "You don’t have to choose me now or ever, but when you choose, I want you free"

Soer than you believe Don’t let your fear own you Own yourself"

I turned the words over in my mind Own myself As if it were that easy As if I could walk away fro behind

I wanted to I wanted to

"Kiss ers traced the column of my spine, exposed in the dress Heat bloomed beneath my skin

"I can’t Not like this"

Noah started this chase and I stood before hiht He could have me, but he refused to ht He aiting for ed for his shirt and pulled hiainst me My hands became fists in the cloth but his were stone on either side of e; they rose and fell with each hard breath I took but didn’t ers wandered beneath his dress shirt; his breath quickened when they es of muscle and sinew, hard and hot beneath my palms I tried to reach his mouth with mine, but he was too tall and he wouldn’t bend

So I backed down onto the sand And I pulled him doith me

The hem of my dress touched the water but I didn’t care, not then The earth gave way beneath my body as Noahmy flame His arm slipped beneathmy collarbone and the hollow beneath my ear My arms twined around his neck, my fists curled in his hair My heartbeat ild His was still calm

And then I slid over him Above him His ribs s I was breathing hard and feeling reckless Noah watched me, and if I didn’t know him as well as I did, I wouldn’t have known that there was anything unusual about this But I did know hi different about the way he looked at me now

I placed my hands on his chest His heart beat faster His control was slipping

Chase

I leaned closer,lower down his stomach, my back arched above him I kissed his throat I heard a sharp intake of breath