“He smiles a lot. But I think there might be worms inside him making him smile.”

“She smiled at him, making sure that the smile gathered up everything inside her and directed it toward him, making him a profound promise of herself for so little, for the beat of a response, the assurance of a complimentary vibration in him.”

“Caine might have smiled at her, had his heart not been breaking to smithereens inside of him.”

“I think I must be smiling at him because he's smiling at me, but he's smiling like he might be petrified; he's breathing like he's forgotten he's supposed to, looking at me like he's not sure how to do this, hesitating like he's unsure how to let me see him like this. Like he has no idea how to be so vulnerable.But here he is.And here I am.”

“She gifted him with that soft smile. And it did thatstrange thing to his insides. He would probably leada revolt against the king if she asked him to do itwhile wearing that smile.”

“A residual smile lingered on his face, making the dimple in his cheek sink in. The more he smiled, the more I wanted to hate him, and yet it was the very thing that made hating him impossible.”