"I want everything with you, America. I want the holidays and the birthdays, the busy season and lazy weekends. I want peanut butter fingertips on my desk. I want inside jokes and fights and everything. I want a life with you."

“What am I supposed to call you?""Your Royal Husbandness. It's required by law, I'm afraid.”

“It's the most wonderful and terrible thing that can ever happen to you," she said simply. "You know that you've found something amazing, and you want to hold on to it forever; and every second after you have it, you fear the moment you might lose it."I sighed softly. She was absolutely right.Love was beautiful fear.”

“I loved him.I couldn't pinpoint what made me so certain, but I knew it then, as surely as I knew my name or the color of the sky or any fact written in a book.Could he feel it, too?Maxon broke the kiss and looked at me. "You're so pretty when you are a mess."I laughed nervously. "Thank you. For that and for the rain and for not giving up."He ran his fingers along my cheek and nose and chin. "You're worth it. I don't think that you get that. You're worth it to me.”

“He must love you very much,' Gavril said once I had my footing.I couldn't look at him. 'What makes you say that?' Gavril sighed. 'I've known Maxon since he was a child. He's never stood up to his father like that.”

“Sometimes I feel like we're a knot, too tangled to be taken apart.”

“You’ve changed me forever. And I’ll never forget you.”