POV: Kesley

"She's beautiful," I said. Not fishing for information. Just stating the fact.

"She's beautiful," he agreed, without hesitation, and somehow the directness of it was more reassuring than denial would have been.

"And she is calculating and patient and entirely without conscience. She would burn everything around her to get what she wants.

Those last qualities make her permanently unattractive regardless of the first one." He squeezed my hand.

"You are even more beautiful and you are sharp and you are learning to be ruthless in ways that surprise me on a regular basis.

To top it all, you are also someone who sat in a hospital chair...