|•| ANDRÉ BAUDELAIRE |•|I had toured the world for a century to conclude that there were only two things I considered gripping enough to be termed beautiful. A splash of different colours of paint on an artist's canvas and nature. They were unrivalled until she came into the picture.It should be labelled as a form of sorcery how I was taken by the sight of her all sprawled on my bed that was covered in black satin sheets, clad in the silk lavender thin-strapped nightwear that Ophelia had begrudgingly changed her into after she fell asleep last night. The dress looked like it was made solely for her, clinging to her body in a way that rendered me jealous of the fabric.Due to how much she must have tossed around, it rode dangerously up her thigh and I didn't make any attempt to adjust it because it was such an erotic sight. The strap of the nightie was falling off her shoulder, revealing her neck and shoulder blade that was sparsely covered by her hair, which had taken a somewhat gol

|•| DESIRÉE DOYLE |•|"It's just a fleeting obsession."Get out of my head."I am not into you as much as you are into me."Get. The. Fuck. Out. Of. My. Head."I can't see you anymore, Desirée."No, I don't want to hear it anymore."We are a lost cause."No!"Des? Des?" the voice sounded so far away, almost familiar and I tried to hold on to it as an anchor that could keep me grounded in this reality, away from the sinister voices that thrashed around in my head in demeaning tones. Those words wouldn't stop echoing in my head no matter how hard I tried to get myself to move past it. They were ruining me and I wanted it to stop."Desirée? Desirée!" the feminine voice snapped and yanked me out of the hellhole I had been trapped in for days. Heck, my mind has been feeling like a weapon fashioned against me since that day. It has been acting as my greatest enemy.I sucked in a sharp air that pricked my lungs like needles, blinking repeatedly. My eyes snapped to the tall figure beside me,

|•| DESIRÉE DOYLE |•|"Bran!" an ardent smile descended on my face when my eyes landed on the masculine figure by the counter as I traipsed out of the store with a box of coffee beans in my hands. Charlotte had a grin etched on her face and I dropped the box, closing in on him and wrapping an arm around his muscular frame for a light hug. The dark-haired guy laughed almost squeezing me into a yarn of thread with his large arms."Desirée, it's so good to see you." He kissed my cheek and let me out of his grip.Brandon was just a couple of years older than Charlotte, his girlfriend. He works outside the city and doesn't get to see his girlfriend often. But whenever he wasn't in town, he made it a point of duty to check in on his girl. He made Charlotte so happy and the guy ticked the boxes of the perfect girlfriend. And I knew without a doubt that they were endgame for each other."It's been so long. It's good to see you too. When did you get back?" I asked, tucking my hair behind my e

|•| DESIRÉE DOYLE |•|I grabbed a large slice of pizza from the box, taking a huge bite, and munching on it while savouring the taste of the heavily marinated flour-based goodness. I took a sip from my glass of unsweetened Greek yoghurt afterwards. I was almost home before I remembered that I was going to starve through the night if I didn't get takeout. I made a mental note to go grocery shopping tomorrow.'No, you won't. You always forget.' The tiny voice nagging at the back of my mind slithered to the surface to announce its never-ending presence.Shut up.After stuffing myself with some pizza, I put the food away and began typing on my system, letting my thoughts lead me. It was very seamless and that was a huge relief that I didn't have to worry about the perfect words coming together. I let loose and allowed myself to write.I was halfway through the next hooking paragraph when my doorbell cut through my train of thoughts, halting them. And just like that, I was back to square

|•| DESIRÉE DOYLE |•|I turned on my side, causing the covers to roll off my body. The chilly breeze that swept through the contours of my skin made me shiver softly and my eyes fluttered open. On reflex, my palm reached for the space beside me, feeling it up, and hoping to glide back and forth on a taut, masculine body but all that greeted me was a cold space. A weird sense of awareness kicked in, alerting my brain and I jolted upright. Every ounce of sleepiness cleared off my face. My eyes flitted through the room frantically, my heart picking up a faster pace."No," I whisperedHe promised to stay. He said he wasn't going to leave. I could see it in his eyes that he meant it. With my clammy hands, I threw the covers off my body and slipped on my huge tee that was lying on the floor.I checked the bathroom. He wasn't there.Racked with panic, and with wobbly legs, I bolted out of the room. However, I didn't get too far when the neatness of the living room grabbed my attention, cau