The Sweetest Oblivion

“The words were deep and soft, and a strange part of me felt like I’d done something good. My breaths turned shallow when he moved to walk past me but stopped by my side. His arm touched mine and it burned like the lightest licks of a flame. His voice brushed the side of my neck.”

Elena experiences a physiological response to being in Nicolas (Nico) Russo’s presence, which incites their passionate dynamic. She uses diction including “deep,” “soft,” “strange,” “shallow,” “burned,” and “brushed” to convey the intensity of her burgeoning feelings for Nico. These linguistic choices capture the characters’ innate attraction to each other and introduce the novel’s theme of Passion and Desire in Forbidden Romances. Furthermore the flame metaphor evokes notions of danger, which foreshadows the complicated aspects of their developing dynamic.

“Leaning against the wall, the ring was a heavy weight on my finger. I could take it off, put it somewhere I couldn’t haunt me, but I knew I never would. Not yet. His grip still burned like a brand on my wrist as I left the hallway.”

Elena’s relationship with the plastic ring she wears conveys her guilt over her secretive past. She says that the ring is “a heavy weight” and that its constant presence “haunts” her. These metaphors capture the ring’s emotional significance to Elena. This passage introduces the ring’s symbolic resonance throughout the novel and establishes it as a point of conflict between her and Nico.

“In all honesty, I thought Stefan was going to put the gun down. But at that point I hadn’t cared. A flash of anger had pulsed in my chest from my cousin’s disrespect, and, oddly enough, burned even hotter at the fact he was threatening the Sweet Abelli. The annoying feeling rushed over me that only I could threaten her—so I fucking shot him and watched the blood spatter against Elena’s white dress.”

Nico’s first-person point-of-view narration provides insight into his regard for Elena. The novel depicts this scene of violence (where Nico kills Stefan in front of Elena) via both Nico’s and Elena’s perspectives. From Nico’s perspective, this act of violence is an expression of protectiveness and desire. He cares about Elena (even before he consciously acknowledges it) and takes extreme action to make sure she’s okay. The image of the blood on Elena’s white dress also foreshadows how Nico will compel Elena out of her innocence—the blood represents violence and danger while the white color imagery symbolizes innocence and purity.

“My pulse drummed in my ears as my heart tripped up in what could only be called anticipation. My body’s unwilling reaction brought a rush of annoyance in. I didn’t like this man—heart fluttering or not—and I suddenly didn’t care how inappropriate it would be to talk back to him.”

Elena’s physical and sensory responses to Nico underscore the Passion and Desire in Forbidden Romances. Elena knows that she can’t be with Nico and that she doesn’t like him as a person, but she can’t deny how her body responds to him. Her pulse “drums” and her heart “trips” and “flutters.” These sensations convey Elena’s unconscious, innate response to Nico and the intensity of their connection.

“I realized at this moment why I couldn’t escape the expectations people had for the Sweet Abelli with anyone but my sister’s fiancé. Nicolas Russo was safe. He was marrying my sister. There was no chance I’d have to marry him, no chance my actions would alter how he would treat me as a wife. Most men walking through these doors could be a potential husband to me. Why make it worse on myself?”

Elena’s budding relationship with Nico facilitates her Quest for Autonomy and Self-Possession. While Nico’s character often veers into being a trope (particularly via his dominance and aggression), Elena finds his presence grounding and liberating. When she’s with him, she doesn’t have to hide behind the Sweet Abelli facade. She values this facet of their dynamic and deems him “safe,” because she knows showing him true self won’t threaten their marital prospects at this juncture of the novel. This moment also foreshadows Elena and Nico’s unexpected engagement in the subsequent chapters.

“Everyone knew you didn’t fall in love with a man in my world, like the one who stood before me now. Not unless you wanted your heart shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. No, I’d never fall in love. Truly, I’d never expected to. You didn’t mourn something you’d always known you couldn’t have.”

Elena’s internal monologue conveys her desire to make sense of her interiority while protecting her own heart. Her reflective state of mind in this passage affects a determined, resolved tone: She is resolved not to fall in love with Nico, because she believes it’s taboo “in her world.” At the same time, the latter lines of the passage affect a removed narrative tone. Elena’s retrospective voice is intruding upon her narration in the present as she tries reconciling with her naivety at this juncture in her story.

“Watching her with Tyler made me wonder if he was the man she was in love with. She hadn’t hesitated to kiss me to protect him. My teeth clenched. The ring on her finger was from a man. I’d bet money on it. Tyler? Or the man she’d run away to be with? Jesus, why did I care?”

Nico’s internal monologue reveals his intense desire to understand Elena. He asks himself questions about Elena’s background because he’s eager to know her and can’t dismiss his attraction to her. Furthermore, the depiction of him clenching his teeth conveys his internal tension. Nico doesn’t like when he doesn’t have access to information, particularly when it involves Elena.

“My stomach turned. I didn’t care so much about what others thought of me, but the rumor hit closer to home than I wished. A man was killed because I’d made the mistake of sleeping with him, and now I was lusting after my sister’s fiancé. Her comment struck the right nerve.”

Elena’s growing involvement with the Russo family underscores the Impact of Family on Personal Choices and complicates her search for self-possession. Elena experiences a visceral response when she hears Nico’s family spreading rumors about her. The mention of her stomach turning evokes notions of illness—implying that Elena feels physically sick when others misinterpret her past and disparage her identity because of it. The passage also has a guilty tone, in that Elena is still ashamed of sleeping with her ex-lover and getting him killed; this remorse intensifies her guilt over getting involved with Nico.

“I didn’t regret much, and up until recently I had only one that followed me around. I regretted fucking Gianna while she was still married to my father. Most recently, and more so than even that, I regretted signing the contract for Adriana. I wanted her sister. In my bed.”

Nico employs a resolved tone when reflecting on his arranged marriage to Adriana Abelli and his feelings for Elena. He uses simple, declarative sentences that convey his newfound ability to own his emotions and desires. This moment of interiority provides insight into Nico’s character and marks a turning point in his and Elena’s dynamic. After he claims what he wants, he can pursue it.

“After the fight, I’d gone back inside to retrieve my purse and found the lighter on the floor. It was his, with an ace of spades on the side. I took it as easily as he took my sanity. Climbing back into bed, I lay there and flicked the Zippo open and closed, filling the room with a flame for a man I shouldn’t have. Before I snuffed it out.”

Nico’s Zippo lighter is symbolic of Elena’s passionate feelings for him. She takes the lighter and plays with it (flicking it open and closed and studying its flame) while she’s in the privacy of her room. She likens its literal flame to the metaphoric flame she has for Nico. By holding on to the lighter, Elena is holding on to a piece of Nico.

“Nicolas’s words should have left a puddle of dread in my stomach. However, they had the opposite effect—sinking into my skin and sending a breathless shiver all the way to my toes. The man was rude, arrogant, and slightly psychotic. The logical part of me didn’t like him. But the carnal part—God, did it want to give him anything he wanted. Which was a serious problem.”

Elena’s reflections on her and Nico’s dynamic underscore the Passion and Desire in Forbidden Romances. Furthermore, Elena and Nico are “enemies,” but Elena’s hatred for Nico can’t quell her “carnal” desire to be with him. These dichotomous emotions heighten the narrative tension and the stakes of the characters’ relationship. This passage also conveys the excitement that might arise from taboo intimate dynamics.

“There was always some vice that eventually killed a Russo. […] I was beginning to think mine was Elena Abelli. I wanted to fuck her and ruin her for anyone else. I wanted to crush her wings and then put them back together again so she’d become dependent on me, I wanted her to need me. That dark, possessive, and dangerous feeling crawled through me every time she crossed my path.”

Nico’s use of violent language, metaphors, and imagery when describing his desire for Elena casts him as a trope of the dark romance trauma. As is characteristic of this genre, the male hero is aggressive and volatile—traits that endear him to the female heroine rather than repel her. Nico uses diction like “fuck,” “ruin,” “crush,” “dependent,” “possessive,” and “dangerous” to vivify the intensity of his feelings for Elena—emotions that are rooted in misogyny, domination, and dubious consent. (These are all staples of the dark romance genre.)

“Then I talked to him. Animatedly. Like it was 100 percent my choice and not done by my father’s interference. Like I hadn’t gotten blackmailed not to. Christian was amused by it all […] He was perceptive, and hot. He only got hotter the more I drank, but, for some illogical reason, I couldn’t push Nicolas out of my mind for a second.”

Elena’s regard for and interaction with Christian reiterates the Impact of Family on Personal Choices. Elena doesn’t have authentic feelings for Christian, but she actively flirts with him in order to gain an upper hand in her relationship with her father. At the same time, her efforts to give Christian her attention (to avoid marrying Oscar Perez) can’t quell her feelings for Nico. This moment thus suggests that no matter what Elena or her family logically wants for her, her emotional and sexual desires will win out.

“I tensed. He wasn’t letting me forget he owned me now, and it cut through the numb haze that caged me. I didn’t know what to feel: nervous, terrified, determined to keep some autonomy, or aroused by the possibility of his hands on me. It became a mixture of all four, dancing along my skin as I got out of the car.”

Elena and Nico’s arranged marriage is a plot twist that alters the narrative stakes and complicates Elena’s sense of self. Elena doesn’t mind that Nico “owns her now” because being with him feels like an escape from living in her father’s domain. Nico makes her nervous and afraid, but these same emotions elicit excitement and arousal. Elena’s dichotomous emotions underscore the Passion and Desire in Forbidden Romances.

“They’d killed the man she was with when she ran away, but they weren’t found in a compromising position and neither did the apartment belong to him. It was possible they killed the wrong man and her lover was still alive. At least, that’s what I heard through the grapevine, and regardless of how much I ached to, I wasn’t digging further. […] Because innocent or not, if that man wasn’t dead and he crossed my path, his lifeless body would be unrecognizable.”

Nico’s preoccupation with Elena’s past conveys his determination to win her affection and loyalty. He doesn’t know the entirety of Elena’s backstory (most of which he’s “heard through the grapevine”), but he can’t help imagining her past. He does so because he sees Elena’s last lover as a threat to their relationship in the present. The violent imagery in the latter line also reiterates Nico’s belligerent personality and his tendency to use aggression to express himself and get what he wants.

“I realized then that I wanted him to want me. Where a deep attraction had hummed for him since I’d met him, there was something else coming to life, pulsing like a weak beat on a heart rate monitor. I could almost hear the beep echo in my ears. Almost feel the thrum in my chest. But it wasn’t of me. It felt like man, clean sweat and whiskey.”

Elena’s private revelation about her feelings for Nico marks a turning point in her and Nico’s romance. This is the first time that Elena is acknowledging to herself that she both wants to be with Nico and wants him to reciprocate this desire. Her allusions to her pulse, heartbeat, and heart rate vivify her private, internal experience. To describe her feelings, she uses diction like “humming,” “pulsing,” “beeping,” and “thrumming”—verbs that enact the active nature of Elena’s desire.

“As I often pushed my luck and stepped away from him, growing tired of his car talk with the few people he chose to speak to, I felt his gaze follow my every move, even while he was immersed in conversation. And I realized one thing: I might not be the only woman in his life, but I would be the only one he called wife. The revelation was a vigorous thrum in my chest. So consuming a hum I couldn’t force myself to feel anything but a deep-seated contentment.”

Elena’s reflections on her and Nico’s relationship grant her peace of mind and affect a resolved narrative tone. Elena has worried about Nico’s fidelity and loyalty, but in this scene she feels appreciative of Nico’s watchfulness; his constant gaze on her reminds her that she “belongs” to and with him. The title of “wife” she’ll soon gain offers her the promise of stability. She again uses vivid and descriptive language to convey her emotional response to her revelation; diction like “immersed,” “vigorous,” “thrum,” “consuming,” and “hum” animates Elena’s emotional state.

“I could make her do whatever I wanted. I could take it all. I even knew she would like it. But something arcane and deeply rooted held me back. Something that gave me the urge to smoke every time I thought about it. I had to know I wasn’t a substitute for some lost love. Had to know she wasn’t pretending I was someone else. Had to know it was what she wanted and not due to some kind of obedient trait or sense of duty.”

Nico’s first-person reflections on his dynamic with Elena depict him in a rare moment of understanding. He wants to control Elena and to demand her loyalty to him. At the same time, he doesn’t want Elena to be with him just because she has to. This private admission suggests that Nico has a softer, more caring heart than he typically lets on. He does enjoy playing a dominant role in his and Elena’s relationship, but he doesn’t want to force her to be with him.

“Heartbeats are fickle things. Beating one moment and then stopping the next. Raging a storm and then lying as still as a tranquil sea. But what I didn’t know is that they change. They glow and warm and expand in a chest. They ache and yearn for a reason to beep. My heartbeats had a fondness for the romantic.”

Elena uses figurative language as she tries to make sense of her deepening feelings for Nico. Her musings on heartbeats affect a lyrical tone. She compares them to “a tranquil sea” and a “raging storm,” metaphors that enact the mutability and volatility of the human heart. Elena has indeed experienced these extremes with Nico. The passage thus poetically reiterates the Passion and Desire in Forbidden Romances.

“Nico’s gaze flicked to me. His eyes were dark around the edges, but the irises were shimmering depths. Awareness ran through me. He said nothing, though he didn’t have to. He wanted me to choose him and he was letting me see it. It was the most vulnerable thing I’d ever seen him do, and the fact that he might show me a side of him not many had before sent a throb at my chest.”

Elena and Nico’s growing intimacy with and devotion to each other intensifies the stakes of their relationship. While Elena indeed wants to be with Nico, once he’s more open about his devotion to her, Elena feels overwhelmed by feeling. She describes his eyes as “shimmering depths,” a metaphor that suggests that he is a complicated individual who is just beginning to show Elena his true self. She experiences a “throb at her chest” when he lets her in because this intimacy is new to her.

“If perfection had a face, a body, a voice—this girl would be it. I skimmed a thumb across her soft cheekbone. My gaze found her ring and my throat tightened. Gianna’s words filled my mouth with a bitter taste. I would make this girl want me, need me, love me, because fuck if I was going it alone.”

Nico’s body language, physical movements, and private thoughts in this passage enact his internal conflict. He is studying Elena’s “face” and “body” while running his “thumb across her soft cheekbone”—imagery that depicts him admiring Elena’s physicality; he indeed describes her as perfection, but it is her body and not her character he describes. He therefore sees her as someone he can make want, need, and love him. This passage reiterates Nico’s domineering personality and underscores his trope-like tendencies. Furthermore, the moment foreshadows Nico’s decision to make Elena marry him at the courthouse before their wedding ceremony.

“I pressed my face into his neck and breathed him in. His smell was like nicotine, the drug burning through every capillary and spreading through my bloodstream. The last thread of the rope snapped. And then it was nothing but me, him, and a long way to the ground. Thrilling, she’d told me. She never said it would hurt.”

Elena uses figurative language and metaphors to enact the intensity of her attachment to Nico. She likens her feelings for him to a nicotine addiction—a metaphor that evokes notions of craving and dependency. The reference to the rope snapping is also a metaphor that evokes notions of letting go and/or falling. This is indeed the first moment that Elena fully acknowledges she’s in love with Nico.

“‘You’re enough for me.’ My heart grew. I suddenly realized that even if I’d heard those words from him at the beginning, I wouldn’t have believed them. However, now an unexplainable feeling told me his words rang true. He pressed his face between my legs and I burned with bliss.”

Nico’s promise of fidelity affords Elena happiness and foreshadows their happily-ever-after ending. Elena’s heart “grows” when Nico makes this profession because she’s always wanted to be able to satisfy Nico. Furthermore, this moment of emotional intimacy begets their subsequent moment of sexual intimacy in the passage’s latter line, suggesting that the two forms of connection are entwined.