15 Quotes by Alex Brunkhorst

Just then, the reel snapped off the projector and the screen went black. We stood under the chandelier for one last moment. It cast stars on the floor below us, and we were surrounded by so much velvet I felt like a diamond nestled in a jewel box. But the stars weren't real, and I wasn't a gem. In fact, it was only then that I realized that pretty much everything about the gilded life of Matilda Duplaine was make-believe.

I put my hand over Matilda's, caressing the little blue veins that swam just below the skin and squeezing the chunky black pearl-and-diamond ring that adorned her middle finger. Happiness washed over me. We were in a magical place between warm sky and cool grass, between a soft cashmere blanket and a glittering sky. There were so many stars they seemed to rain like confetti at a celebration, and I felt as if Matilda and I were its guests of honor.

She was wearing a long white Juliet-style nightgown. I was not exactly a ladies' man, but I had been with enough women to know that these weren't garments women wore to bed anymore.

You should have told me earlier. It was an expensive lesson,” I said. “It drained my emotional bank account.

It’s hard for me to say now if I would have called her classically beautiful, but she was that star in the sky that you can’t take your eyes off, even if it’s surrounded by brighter ones.

I was beginning to realize something about myself: I preferred to live in hope than take a risk – a risk that may have quashed it. I needed to change that.