“As if I'd had time to drug it in the two milliseconds she'd let me out of her sight.”

“I wasn't a complete bastard. If she liked to think she saw good in me, if she wanted to take credit for it, I'd let her. She deserved that much.”

“College had once been my greatest aspiration; it stood for everything my mother did not—intellectualism, feminism, freedom. But being kidnapped had given me plenty of time to think, and somewhere between all that fear and dread, I'd realized that was the wrong reason to go to college. That the potential for those things had been inside of me all along, only I'd never realized because I hadn't believed myself strong enough to break free without an intermediary.”

“When I felt her yield and kiss me back, and realized I had a fighting chance to make this all work out somehow, I had hope.That was far deadlier than any knife or mace.”

“I'd seen entire constellations of possibility I'd never previously been aware of, so blinded had I been by the bright, glaring stars of expectation. Freedom, I was beginning to think, had less to do with where you were, and was more about who you were trying to be.”

“There are two things about me you should know. Don't fight me, unless you're prepared to kill me. And don't kiss me, unless you're prepared to fuck me.”

“Out running errands—be back before noon. I made a list of some things I like. Check the ones you're interested in, underline any maybes, and cross off your no's. I'm going to do two of the things on that list to you when I get back—your choice. Surprise me.-M”