“Please tell me you’re not chastising me over my lack ofmanners right now. Because if I thought that were true, I just might getone of those stupid shrimp forks your mother insisted we have and jam itinto your eye.”

“I like my freedom, and I sure as shit won’t ask your permission to cross stuff off my bucket list. I’m cranky in the morning until I’ve had my coffee, and I’m not sure I ever want kids... I’m not used to compromising or having someone to answer to or clear my schedule with. And to be honest? It scares the ever-loving shit out of me. But I want to try. If you do. Because being with you is an adventure.”

“What it looks like is that you’re having sex with one of my oldest friends in the linen closet of our reception hall. Unless, of course, she’s lost something in her vagina and you were gallant enough to try and fish it out for her. With your penis. If that’s the case, I suggest using a larger lure.”

“Maybe the way he tried to corral me my entire junior year of high school like I was some wayward cow and he was the ranch’s most enthusiastic farmhand?”

“Dear Satan. I don't know why you're testing me, but I don't like it. No love, Galen.”

“The dawn will be upon us in a couple of hours. We need to leave this place.""I won't go with you," she insisted stubbornly."If your pride dictates that you must fight me, you may try to do so." His voice, with its Old World cadence and formality, was almost tender.Her eyes deepened to purple. "Stop giving me your permission! I am Mikhail and Raven's daughter, a Carpathian like yourself and not without my own powers. I have the right to my own choices!""If it pleases you to think so.”

“Oh my God. I kneed him in the wiener. And oh my frigging God, it was like stone.”