“Close your eyes. Take a breath. Count to three. Let it out. Count to four.” “Shove it up your ass,” he said, hunching into himself and starting to shake. “The last time you told me to close my eyes and count from ten, look what happened to me.”

“He paused until she locked eyes with him. “Count, Livia. Count out loud when you come for me.”“Two, oh, three, God, oh, God.”“Screw the biting. Just please, just more,” she begged.“Biting is next,” he said.By the time he was nibbling circles, she was counting again. “Four—your hands, use your hands.”“Five…six…seven. I’m never going to stop…” She was almost panicked in her frenzy.”

“He had never bothered to count time before, but he started to now, and it began with counting each breath she took.”

“Count up the almonds,Count what was bitter and kept you waking,Count me in too:I sought your eye when you glanced up and no one would see you,I spun that secret threadWhere the dew you mused onSlid down to pitchersTended by a word that reached no one’s heart.There you first fully entered the name that is yours, you stepped to yourself on steady feet,the hammers swung free in the belfry of your silence,things overheard thrust through to you,what’s dead put it’s arm around you too,and the three of you walked through the evening.Render me bitter.Number me among the almonds”

“She’s a badass motherf**keress. She’d kick your ass soon as look at you. You’ve clapped your eyes on The Law. Count yourself lucky, sucker. Now, what’ll it f**kin’be?”

“I’m going to count to three, and if you’re not on number four by the time I’m done, I’m going to continue counting without you. Love waits for none.”