“I felt electric when he touched me. I’d had crushes before; when your body melts and tingles but this was different. It was like a magnetic pull. Every cell in my body pulled toward him. It was almost uncomfortable but I found myself craving another touch.”

“I hated and admired this hunter. I once gave him my heart and soul. Since then, I had given him more and more of myself, but I never forgot his true nature and what he had done to me.”

“Every word from Kismet’s mouth sounded like poetry spoken with the most fervent passion one could conjure up. I couldn’t understand how he could stand to have such intensity building inside him. I watched, captivated by each breath in between his words. I found myself tracing the lines of his face over and over and leaning into him.”

“I learned that love wasn't a magical thing. It was something more like hormones and sensations. It was tolerance and patience. It was accepting one another despite our differences and forgiving each other even when the other didn't deserve it. Love, for Beau and I, was anything but easy. It boiled down to us understanding one another and learning to enjoy each other.Eventually, I loved him like I breathed air.”

“I could feel it then like I feel it now, like a palpable thing inside me, like a physical touch; what we shared was not accidental and nothing close to normal. It was not imagined or fabricated out of loneliness or the conditions under which we were brought to New Haven. It was given to us, meant only for us. It was a gift much like the "special gifts" that brought us to New Haven.”

“I didn’t know whether it was the wine or the night air that held its sway over me, but I felt alive. I looked up at Beau’s cloudy gray eyes and wondered what he was thinking. At the time, I imagined he was thinking what I was; that I was wrong about everything.If love exists, this is what it feels like.”

“As we flew down the highway I started to think seriously about what I was doing and what would happen. I felt Beau’s hand slide over mine, holding my hands tighter to his chest. It was then I realized that I didn’t care what was going to happen. I didn’t care that we had just left everything I knew or that we’d committed grand theft auto. It didn’t feel wrong to me. I felt like those moments were what life was all about; seizing the ones that make you feel alive and never letting go.”