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"No hope? That’s brutal, King"

"You say he’s an aspiring writer Break hihed to hiood for his art"

He started to button his shirt, but Eleanor stopped hiainst the scar tissue He didn’t seem surprised when she touched his chest Not surprised and not at all displeased

"This nun at my school always said Hell was the absence of hope," Eleanor said, tracing the hard line of the scar She couldn’t isley had suffered, how he’d even survived such a wound But it was beautiful in a way, this scar of his She alsley covered her hand with his

"Then your nun was never in love with soive him no hope"

He raised his hand and traced her bottosley said, his voice so low it lulled her in closer to him, so close they could have kissed if one of them dared to do it "I knohat you are You will never be content with a boy like that He will be a gaaive you I know this because I’m the same way"

He looked into her eyes and Eleanor looked into his She could al … She could rip off his shirt, yank his pants open He’d look beautiful on his back underneath her, her hands on his wrists, his ck buried inside her as she rode hi?

Eleanor pulled back and sat on the opposite end of the couch fro shts He didn’t bother buttoning his shirt

Kingsley took another swig of his Scotch, then handed it to her She stared into the hed only once as the liquor burned its way down her throat

"I’"

"What should I do?"

"What do you want to do?"

"Fuck thehed mirthlessly "I knohat I don’t want to do I don’t want to hurt Wyatt I don’t want to hurt Søren"

"A nice dream, but this is life, the real world You will hurt thee, you know?" She stared down into the Scotch at the bottolass in her hand "He’s an NYU student We can go places together, be seen together We’re both writers We make sense Søren and I? We don’t sley traced the wet riertip

"Elle … I wish you could have known hier"