[ignitetheworld-blog1]

trcshcans:

“Which seems more christmas party to you – sparkly santa hat or sparkly reindeer ears?”

“Obviously the sparkly santa hat. What sort of decision is that?”

[ignitetheworld-blog1]

inkspillcd:

“No matter, it’s easily explainable. We do a lot for charity, as a family.” Had it been anyone else, she might not have been as arch nor made a joke as easily mistakable as an insult, but with Declan, it was okay. He wasn’t important enough to impress and not ambitious enough to charm — the freedom to not care how she presented to someone struck her frequently in his presence as something alarmingly novel. As new as it had been to not be constantly latched onto another person like their more amicable shadow, it was just as unnervingly unusual to be this new kind of bold: confident in her actions not because the right thing to do had been ingrained in her so deeply but because she knew what she wanted and she knew that she could get away with doing it. Still, the smile she turned on him lifted the corners of her mouth in an image that was the very image of insolence, the face she had turned towards her mother since childhood, on every rare occasion she was caught colluding with her brother and his antics. “Addicts need frequent hits,” she responded, prim and polished and entirely too proper for the purpose she knew him for. “Besides, I think you think you’re much scarier than I think you are. Personally, I feel as if you might find toasting over a cosmo scarier, especially if it had a pink umbrella in it.”

Declan put on an expression of faux hurt. He wasn’t sure the last time anyone was actually able to upset him, save for his father. But his father was always the exception to all of his rules. The one hurt that never quite healed, and never would. Leila, on the other hand, her words flew over him as if they had never been spoken in the first place. It was hard to take her seriously, and yet a large part of him wanted to be near her more. Not because of anything as stupid as attachment, but because of what she represented. Wealth. Power. Words that screamed out to Declan, begging him to make them his own. And he was determined that one day he would. “Interesting that you’d say that, considering the fact that I never see you in the areas I am. Almost as if maybe I don’t scare you, but my world does. Or maybe it doesn’t scare you. Maybe you’re merely curious but too unwilling to admit to that.” Declan moved back in his seat, practically reclining. “It’s alright to admit that I’m interesting. I’ve got no one to tell, sweetheart.”