“There’s danger in feeling,” Tess murmured. Although she could not begin to imagine what kind of pain Dante carried within him, she felt a kinship growing between them. Both alone, both adrift in their worlds. “I don’t want to feel anything for you, Dante.”“God, Tess. I don’t want to feel anything for you either.”

“I want to kiss you again, Tess.”“Why?”He chuckled, low under his breath. “Why? Because you’re beautiful, and because I want you. And I think you want me too.”

“I’m in love with you Renata. I know I’m not a poet – shit, not even close. I don’t have all the fancy words I wish I could say to you … but I want you to know that what I’m feeling for you is real. I love you.”

“She wanted to feel him pound away her fears, a hammer to smash through all her guilt and pain and emptiness.”

“You would quit the Order for her? Niko asked, the youngest only behind Dante, and a warrior who relished his duty perhaps even more than Dante had himself. I would quit breathing for her, if she asked it of me.”

“I don’t know what I want … other than more of this. More of you.” Brock lifted her beautiful face on the edge of his hand. “Take all you want.”

“I love you so much … I don’t want to live a single moment without you at my side.”