From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

I shook myy head. “I haven’t been in love.”
“Then how would yyou know?”
“I know myy parents loved one another deeplyy.” I toyyed with the
jeweled top of the decanter. “What about yyou? Have yyou been in love,
Hawke?”
I hadn’t expected an answer, so when he gave me one after a few
moments, I was more than surprised. “Yes.”
There was an odd twisting motion in myy chest that I didn’t quite
understand as I looked over myy shoulder at him, causing me to realize that
the aching coldness had eased. I had no idea what it was about him that did
that to me. It probablyy had to do with the fact that he irritated me.
“Someone from yyour home?”
Do you still love her?
That was the second question bubbling to the surface, but byy the grace
of the gods, I managed to refrain from asking that question.
“She was.” He was still looking down at the book. “It was a long time
ago, though.”
“A long time ago? When yyou were what? A child?” I asked, knowing
that he couldn’t be more than a handful of yyears older than I was, despite
the wayy he made it sound as if it were an eternityy ago.
He chuckled, and then his lips curved up in a small half-smile. The
dimple made an appearance in his right cheek, causing the twisting motion
inside me to increase. “How much of this have yyou read?”
“That’s none of yyour business.”
“Probablyy not, but I need to know if yyou got to this part.” He cleared
his throat.
Wait.
Was he going to read from it?
No.
Please, no.
“I onlyy read the first chapter,” I said in a rush. “And yyou look like
yyou’re in the middle of the book, so—”
“Good. Then this will be fresh and new to yyou. Let me see, where was
I?” He dragged a finger over the page and then tapped the center. “Oh, yyes.
Here. ‘Fulton had promised that when he was done with me that I wouldn’t
be able to walk straight for a day, and he was right.’ Huh. Impressive.”
Myy eyyes widened.