“I plucked at my salt-stained shirt and tried to find an air of nonchalance as I prepared to introduce His Most Holy Pain in the Ass to Miss Elf Princess.”

“You’re going to realize what a pain in the ass I was, and then you’ll forget all about missing me,” I said into his ear.He puffed a breath of air as he rubbed my back. “Promise?”

“It was all for the best. I am an elf, and he is a human. Thomas is a Knight, and I am a Princess. His Knighthood meant nothing in this world. Though it did make me wonder what it meant in his. In his world, did Knights and Princesses fall in love? I doubted it.”

“You’re a pain in my ass.”“I was a pain in the ass long before I met you, Roman. Don’t take it personally.”

“I think maybe the reason I have spent most of my life being afraid is that I have been trying to prepare myself to train my body for real fear when it comes. But I am not prepared.”

“If you were Queen of pleasure And I were King of painWe'd hunt down Love together,Pluck out his flying-feather,And teach his feet a measure, And find his mouth a rein;If you were Queen of pleasure And I were King of pain.”