“Dmitri was at a total loss. It was a common reaction for people when I agreed to do something reasonable.”

“Dmitri was in my arms.”

“I was so tired of being told reasonable, practical things whenever something went wrong with my life.”

“Smiling, I cut across the quadrangle toward the commons. I felt better about life than I had in a very long time. We could do this, Lissa and me. We could do this together.”

“The other problem in my life is Dimitri. He's the one who killed Natalie, and he's a total badass. He's also pretty good-looking. Okay-more than good-looking. He's hot-like, the kind of hot that makes you stop walking on the street and get hit by traffic. But, like I said, he's my instructor. And he's twenty-four. Both of those are reasons why I shouldn't have fallen for him. But, honestly, the most important reason is that he and I will be Lissa's guardian when she graduates. If he and I are checking each other out, then that means we aren't looking out for her.”

“You always said I should quit the bookstore and find something else to do," I reminded him. "Yes, but that was because I thought you'd go on to do something respectable. Like become a stripper or the mayor's mistress.”

“For once, you're going to hear something that doesn't fit into your neat, compartmentalized world of order and logic and reason.”