Page 179 of Sun-Kissed Fangs

“Are you scared now?”

“You’re the vampire. You tell me.”

Maya’s eyes flicked between hers. Softening. Brightening. Her smile did the same, growing from a hesitant version to that beautiful one Harper could stare at for hours.

“I think you’re the only person in the world who’s never been scared of me.” Her golden-black eyes shimmered like gemstones. “And I want you to know this. Being around you is a gift. Not a burden. Loving you isn’t devastating. To everyone who knows you,reallyknows you, it’s the easiest thing in the world.”

Maya kissed her. A gentle press of their lips and that was enough to make the world go mute. To make everything but the present fade away.

Harper had gotten so used to being skeptical. To preparing herself for the inevitable twist that would make any peace she found take an abrupt turn for the worse. It had been hard, for so long, that she sought out means of numbing herself to it. That she found herself questioning what the point of it all was.

Now it was obvious. Seeing Patricia, at ease in a way she hadn’t been in over a year. Nell smiling right next to her, while Evie held hands with the woman she loved. The room itself, alive with joy, excitement, and eagerness.

And then there was Maya. Someone so special that she was literally one of a kind, and whose smile could give her the world if she willed it.

In that moment, surrounded by people who loved her with no conditions attached, the cynicism Harper had used as a shield all her adult life was finally lowered.

Because this was it.Thiswas the point.