“He wondered if perhaps, subconsciously, he was trying to sabotage her efforts by setting the bar too high, trying to keep her with him longer; but surely his subconscious wasn't that stupid?”

“If he had his wits about him Bunny would surely keep his mouth shut; but now, with his subconscious mind knocked loose from its perch and flapping in the hollow corridors of his skull as erratically as a bat, there was no way to be sure of anything he might do.”

“He pulled something out of his pocket and tried to stick it in her arm. A needle. He'd offered her hope, but then he was trying to hurt her. Poison. She pushed him away. "That wasn't nice.”

“He was done with politics and intrigue. He loved her, and no empire, no king, and no earthly fear would keep him from her. No, if they tried to take her from him, he'd rip the world apart with his bare hands. And for some reason, that didn't terrify him.”

“cell phones have a way of disliking the bayou and the river. It must be water thing.""But what about when you weren't i the bayou? Surely Calhoun gave you a cell phone to keep in touch when you were in town.""I melted two of them. he decided it wasn't worth it."He looked down at her to see if she was teasing him. Her gaze was all too serious. "You melted them?"She nodded. "I melt things. Accidentally."Nicholas wasn't touching that. Considering all that melting going on inside of him any time he was close to her he could believe she'd melted a couple of phones. After all, they were much smaller than he was. His breath chuffed out and he took her hand, deciding to try to diffuse the situation. "Try not to melt any body parts.”

“My conscious self would do anything to avoid people with cheating tendencies, but my subconscious keeps trying to recreate home and keeps bringing me back to people who recreate my childhood.”