“I waited two thousand years for you, Grace Alexander,” he whispered in her ear. “And you were worth every second of it.”

“He'd only been gone two seconds, but the room got brighter when they were together, as if they were two elements that became brilliant in proximity. At Sam's clumsy efforts to carry the vacuum, Grace smiled a new smile that I thought only he ever got, and he shot her a withering look full of the sort of subtext you could only get from a lot of conversations whispered after dark.It made me think of Isabel, back at her house. We didn't have what Sam and Grace had. We weren't even close to having it. I didn't think what we had could get to this, even if you gave it a thousand years.”

“I have taken exactly what I wanted," he whispered in her ear. "I will have every part of you, until I live with you underneath your skin.”

“I've waited for what feels like two thousand years to tell you how much I love you and to touch your lips again.”

“He'd waited a thousand years for her, and she would know him for less than two weeks.”

“I told you, God is not coy. He's more likely to hit you across the forehead with a two-by-four than whisper in your ear”