" The bed is warmer tonight. Warmer than it's ever been and stranger. But easier, too. Lucien catches me looking at him on the pillows, and he smirks.

"You have my permission to stare at me all night."

"And why would I do that?" I fire off a half-downy mumble. "I've already memorized everything on you."

"Well." His smirk grows unmanageable. "Not everything."

Since when is he the one who seduces, instead of me? My face fills red.

"Princes aren't supposed to have roguish manners."

"And ladies aren't supposed to sleep in beds with unmarried men."

"Only married men, then."

He hefts up on one elbow, tracing my hand under the covers. "What are you implying, Lady Zera?"

"Go. To. Sleep." I pause. "Your Highness."

The kiss comes, as I knew it would, breathless and enmeshed in each other, and I'm the first one to pull away and the only one to roll over in faux grumpiness. Lucien's laugh rumbling the mattress.

I try to sleep--try so hard to play at being a human as he is--but I fade in and out, waking up in the odd hours to reach over and feel that he's still there. Still real.

Still with me, despite everything.

Despite how many mistakes I've made. "

― Sara Wolf , Send Me Their Souls (Bring Me Their Hearts, #3)