“You hold your head up. You submitting to me doesn't mean you're anything less...the very last thing I want is for you to be some mindless puppet.”

“You're stalking me," Owen said.Sterling shook his head. "I prefer the word 'following'; it sounds less creepy.""But that doesn't make it any less annoying." Owen said,raising his eyebrows. "You almost make me wish you were mine to deal with; I can promise you'd be regretting this behavior very soon."That wiped the grin off Sterling's place. "God, I wouldn't regret anything if I was. Yours, I mean. I'd let you do whatever you wanted."'Let me'?" Owen asked pointedly. "Somehow, I think you've misunderstood the definition of submission.”

“I love you," she says. "But that doesn't mean I'm ready to give up my life for you. I don't want to pull over and park right now. I want to see places, Gray. I want to live my life. You're asking me to give up who I am. If I move with you, I'll just be living your life. Your dream. I'll regret the things you're going to hold me back from doing, and then I'll probably blame you. And that's not fair to either of us.”

“You're a very difficult person to manipulate, you know.""Nonsense," he said. "You just have to promise me that I won't have to do a thing, and then I'll do anything you want.""Anything?""Anything that doesn't require doing anything.""That's nothing, then.""Is it?""Yes.""Well, that's something.”

“Tina was kneeling before me, holding Donald's head by the hair and very plainly trying to hand it to me. "Majesty, I beg your forgiveness for the indignity you suffered and offer you the head of our enemy as—" "Put that thing down," I said impatiently. "I can't talk to you when you're shaking his head like a damned maraca.”

“But I know what it means to crave what you're not. To want to sew up that rift because it's exhausting to hold it open. Sometimes you just need to be someone else, someone who doesn't care about anything at all. I know I do. I want emptiness but I can't have it.”