“What do you mean, ruined?"From the way Emily swallows slowly, you'd think we were talking about smoking crack. "Compromised. By...by another man.""Oh!" I say, too loudly. "You mean, if the girl's not a virgin, the guy won't marry her?"She nods, her eyes wide, as if being a non-virgin is akin to being an ax-murder.”

“Just being near the water makes me ache for it, makes my skin tingle with the desire to run until I am chest-deep and the water wraps around my skin like a satin ribbon, making the worries, the aches, the stress unwind. Sometimes, I wonder if this is how a recovering alcoholic would feel if someone put a beer in her hand. If her body would wage war against her mind as mine does.”

“He rests his lips against my temple. 'You need to figure out what you really want from this - from us.”

“What are you doing? Taking a nap?"-Ben Mackenzie”

“You were twisting your wet hair up into a ponytail, and then you saw us, and you smiled....""Then why didn't you-""Because you were smiling for him. And I would have had to have been an idiot to get in between that.”

“Shouldn't you have today off? Isn't it Sunday?""I've a half day off ever' three days. I'll be out temorra afte'noon."I snort. "A half day?"God, that's ridiculous. She doesn't even get a single full day off? What is Alex, some kind of slave driver? Jeez.”

“We are traveling down a path with no happy ending, and it's too late to turn around.”