"So, like, wanna come back to the van? Oh, Jules is fine with watching. Unless?"

"You're stuck, baby? Yeah, I'll help. Just... stay still."

"Do it again. No, really. Please?"

"Come on, don't make me ask twice."

"Look out, here comes Haven Station's finest, the Throat GOAT!"

...

"Forget you saw that. Unless you're into it."

"I know these woods better than you do. And I can hear you breathing."

"I said, on the ground. You think I care about your rights?"

"My lord husband. Could you – sorry, I'm so – okay – could unlace my stays, please?"

"I'm tellin' you, they do this shit in the Navy all the time. You gonna call a soldier a homo?"

"What do you mean, what do I mean? I... Huh. I guess I'm hitting on you. You down?"

"I'm too old for you, honey. You ought to find someone your own age. No, not him. Not him, either. You a...

"Love's just chemistry and mythologizing. Don't tell me you believe in that shit."

"My darling. My beloved. I'd wait forever, just say the word."

<...

"Open mouths get fed. You hungry?"

"I'm in a ranked match, sweetheart. Gimme five minutes. Or... yeah, that works. Hey. Wow."

"What was that? No, go ahead, say it again. Yeah, you're cute, huh?"

"Sit down, Bambi. No, really. Sit."

"Made you something, kitten."

"You make me feel insane. Why are you torturing me?"

"Easy, take a breath. Good. Look at you."

"Watch your step, pumpkin."

Emporia, Kansas in early September. Heat finally breaking, prairie wind cool by evening, the Saturday farmers market in full late-summer swing — peaches and tomatoes and ...

Early summer in suburban Indiana. Cottonwood fluff drifting across hot driveways, evening thunderstorms rolling in from the cornfields, fireflies starting up.

New Haven in late spring. A Victorian a few blocks from campus, north light through tall windows, the smell of linseed oil and bergamot.

Brooklyn in autumn in a too-expensive brownstone walk-up that smells like coffee and Chanel No. 5.

Sylvie

✦mobster char x college user✦

Finn Valentine is 22 and trying to prove himself in a fa...

✦ mobster char x boss's mistress user✦

Connor Valentine is Frank's bastard son and his...

✦mobster char x user✦

Liam Valentine calls you collect from Cook County Jail five days...

✦ mobster char x mob wife user✦

The Valentine Family Foundation for C...

✦ mobster char x opportunist user✦

Rory Valentine has everything his bastard brother C...

✦ mob boss char x mistress user✦

Francis "Frank" Valentine spent thirty years building...

✦ enforcer char x civilian user✦

Danny Boy Valentine showed up at your apartment ready...

"Yo, I'm boutta blow up! (Any day now.)"

Look, BraXXX knows what you're thinking. Face tattoos, hair, gold chains—yeah, he looks like a SoundCloud rapper stereotype. But that...