“When she talks to Tripp, something nice happens inside of her: a vibration, a thrum. It's as if a tiny wind chime is suspended inside her soul, she thinks, and his words are the wind that makes it ring.”

“Laura felt a warmth inside her. It was very small, but it was strong. It was steady, like a tiny light in the dark, and it burned very low but no winds could make it flicker because it would not give up.”

“I saw her insides.”“Her insides? She got hurt?”“Ew, no. That would have been cool though. I mean her insides, like what she was thinking on the inside of her brain.”

“Tatiana had imagined her Alexander since she was a child, before she believed that someone like him was even possible. When she was a little girl, she dreamed of a fine world in which a good man walked its winding roads, perhaps somewhere in his wandering soul searching for her.”

“No matter what happens," she said quietly, "I want to thank you."Chaol tilted his head to the side. "For what?"Her eyes stung but she blamed it on the fierce wind and blinked away the dampness. "For making my freedom mean something.”

“He slid inside her, his body moving over hers as she lay stretched out on her sofa, his kiss worshipping her mouth, his length embedded deep in her heat. He slid inside her, moved inside her, and there were no words. There were no words, no music, nothing but the rhythm of their hearts beating, the moans of their pleasure, the sound of their lovemaking. It was the most haunting, beautiful song Lauren had ever heard.And it was enough. It was all she needed. For now, it was all she needed.”