"Some folks are happier not being saved."

"Getting to a higher spiritual level is like increasing your credit score. You get a lot more points for sinning and repenting than if you have no credit history at all."

"Opening up to the wrong person is like putting ammo in their hands."

"I've never wanted to be loved. And God Knows no one's done it yet."

"Win told me that one isn't improved by being at the top of the mountain, one is improved by the climb."

"Despite his flaws, one has to admit that he is a whale-sized catch."I'll be thrilled when someone harpoons him, Lillian muttered, making the other two laugh."

"It's the perfect solution. We argue all the time. We can't stand each other. It's like we're already married."

"Every time you look at me, you'll remember that I'm half his.""No." His hand came to the side of her face, his thumb wiping her tears. "You're all mine." His voice was deep and shaken. "Every hair on your head. Every part of you was made to be loved by me."

"Annabelle gave him a chiding smile. "If you're implying that I'm spoiled, I assure you that I am not."You should be. His warm gaze slid over her pink-tinted face and slender upper body, then sought hers again. There was a note in his voice that gently robbed her of breath. "You could do with a bit of spoiling."

"You fault me for having standards?' Sebastian countered icily.'Not at all. I fault you for having two sets of them.'~ Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent & Cam Rohan."

"The Rom believe you should take the road that calls to you, and never turn back. Because you never know what adventures await." ... "So we're going to take this road," he murmured, "and see where it leads."

"Dearest," she murmured, "as you know, there was a time when it didn't matter to me whether I married a man I loved or not... it seemed enough just to get my family out of the desperate situation we were in. But when I thought about what it would be like to share a bed with my husband... to spend the rest of my life with him... I knew Simon was the only choice." She paused, and sudden tears glittered her eyes. Beautiful, self-possessed Annabelle, who hardly ever cried. "When I'm ill," she continued in a husky voice, "when I'm afraid, when I need something, I know he will move heaven and earth to make everything all right. I trust him with every fiber of my being. And when I see the child we created, the two of us mingled forever in her... my God, how grateful I am that I married Simon."

"I don't think Harry cares about being forgiven," Poppy said glumly."Of course he does. Men love to be forgiven. It makes us feel better about our inability to learn from our mistakes."

"There are some experiences in life they haven't invented the right words for."

"I've had enough of this. if you'll excuse me, i'm going to find a tavern where i can pay an underdressed woman to sit it my lap and look very pleased with me while i drink heavily."

"...one can't avoid the storms and calamities of life, but one can at least find the right partner to face them with."

"He looked like a fallen angel, replete with all the dangerous male beauty that Lucifer could devise."

"Then, as now, there were always girls who were overlooked and ignored by gentlemen who really should have known better."

"Books were everywhere, lined neatly on shelves that went from floor to ceiling. The ceiling was two stories high, with an upper balcony that provided access to a second-floor gallery. The dazzling array of red, gold, green, and brown bindings was a feast for the eyes, while the wonderful smells of vellum, parchment, and pungent leather almost caused Amanda to salivate. An exquisite waft of tea leaves lingered in the air. For anyone who enjoyed the pursuit of reading, this place surely was paradise."

"A weak but steady throb lay beneath Kev's searching fingertips. Win's heartbeat...the pulse that sustained his universe."

"We assured Phelan that we were more than happy to let him have you and your menagerie, Leo retorted."After that, he said he needed to think."About what? Beatrix demanded. "What is there to think about? Why is it taking him so long to make a decision?"He's a man, dear, Amelia explained kindly. "Sustained thinking is very difficult for them."

"Helen likes Brussels sprouts. How can anyone trust her opinion?"

"I've lowered my character with a great deal of unwholesome reading material."

"Today Amanda was dressed in a gown of soft pink wool trimmed in corded silk ribbon of a deeper shade. She had worn a bonnet adorned with China roses, which now reposed on the side of his desk, a pair of velvet ribbons draping gently toward the floor. The pink shade of the gown brought out the color in Amanda's cheeks, while the simple cut displayed her generous figure to its best advantage. Aside from Jack's considerable regard for her intelligence, he couldn't help thinking of her as a tidy little bonbon."

"He turned back to Lara, his alert gaze raking over her tearful face. Somehow the solid reality of his presence eased her panic. He folded her in his arms, anchoring her against his chest, murmuring quietly into her hair.Sniffling, Lara reached inside his waistcoat until her palm rested over the steady beat of his heart. The sensation of his warm breath sinking down to her scalp me her quiver. It was so terribly intimate, crying in his arms... even more personal than making love. But he had never felt so much like a husband to her as he did in this moment. Quieting, she inhaled his familiar scent and let out a shaky sigh."

"I refuse to believe that we're going to go through life without something magical happening."

"I suppose when you say you slept with him, it was more than just a nap?"Lillian shot her a withering glance. "Daisy, don't be a pea wit."

"It was finally becoming clear to her that love wasn't about finding someone perfect to marry. Love was about seeing through to the truth of a person, and accepting all their shades of light and dark. Love was an ability."

"And then another letter had come from Christopher, so devastating that Amelia wondered how mere scratches of ink on paper could rip someone's soul to shreds. She had wondered how she could feel so much pain and still survive."

"It's like your whole life you've been falling toward the earth, until the moment someone catches you. And you realize that somehow you've caught her at the same time. And together, instead of falling, you might be able to fly."

The ghost went to the discarded clipping and stared down at the photo, riveted.

"She's a beaut, isn't she?"

"Sure," Alex said automatically, although there was nothing of Zoë's sparkling allure in the photo, only a hint of resemblance.

"I've got about ten things to say to you right now. But at least nine of them would make me sound like a psycho.In spite of the seriousness of the situation, I nearly smiled. "What's the tenth thing? I asked his shirtfront. He paused, considering it. "Never mind, he grumbled. "That one would make me sound like a psycho, too."

"He's part of my family.""You don't have a family, Ella."Although I had made similar comments in the past, it rankled to hear him say it. "We're individuals bound by a pattern of reciprocal obligation," I said. "If a group of chimps in the Amazon can be called a family, I think the Varners qualify."

"A couple of times in your life, it happens like that. You meet a stranger, and all you know is that you need to know everything about him."

"There isn't going to be a 'next lover,' Grant said automatically, outraged by the idea. "I'm the only man she's going to have."

"What are you thinking?" he asks.I know Gage hates it when I cry - he is completely undone by the sight of tears - so I blink hard against the sting. "I'm thinking how thankful I am for everything," I say, "even the bad stuff. Every sleepless night, every second of being lonely, every time the car broke down, every wad of gum on my shoe, every late bill and losing lottery ticket and bruise and broken dish and piece of burnt toast."His voice is soft. "Why, darlin'?""Because it all led me here to you."

"You wanted to belong. The problem was, no matter how well you kept your secret, the very fact of having one was enough to separate you from everyone else."

"Christopher heard a pair of women gossiping nearby, whispering in disapproving undertones. "... Ramsey was found flirting in a corner with a woman. They had to drag him away from her." "Who was it?" "His own wife." "Oh, dear."

"Scorpions are quite ruthless, you know. That is why Artemis bid one of them to kill her foe Orion. And as a reward she set the scorpion on up in the sky. I'm not ruthless. I merely do whatever it takes to achive my goalsThat's not ruthless?"

"The situation was extraordinary. How someone like Evangeline Jenner could have wrought such a change in St. Vincent, the most worldly of men, was difficult to understand. However, Westcliff had learned that the mysteries of attraction could not always be explained through logic. Sometimes the fractures in two separate souls became the very hinges that held them together."

"You're not worried about being compromised, are you? he asked. "Because I've already done that."

"You're far too prickly tempered to be a mistress. You're far better suited as a wife."

"Where are we going? Annabelle asked, resisting his hold on her wrist."To the house. If they're not willing to be witnesses, then it seems I'll have to debauch you in front of someone else."

"I love you, Marks. My heart is completely and utterly yours. And unfortunately for you, the rest of me comes with it."

"Beatrix wished she were a swooning sort of female. It seemed the only appropriate response to the situation.Unfortunately, no matter how she tried to summon a swoon, her mind remained intractably conscious."

"I never want to be apart from you, he said. "I'm going to buy an island and take you there. A ship will come once a month with supplies. The rest of the time it will be just the two of us, wearing leaves and eating exotic fruit and making love on the beach . . .You'd start a produce export business and organize a local economy within a month, she said flatly.Harry groaned as he recognized the truth of it. "God. Why do you tolerate me?Poppy grinned and slid her arms around his neck. "I like the side benefits, she told him. "And really, it's only fair since you tolerate me."

"No marriage stays in the same pattern forever. It is both the best feature of marriage and the worst, that it inevitably changes."

"He wasn't mine anywhere except in my heart."

"My family has always believed that when we are faced with large and apparently impossible problems, the best solutions are found by the insane people, not the sensible ones."

"In this regard, Daisy reflected, her marriage to Matthew would not be unlike Lillian's with Westcliff. As two strong-willed people with very different sensibilities, Lillian and Westcliff often argued and negotiated... and yet this didn't seem to weaken their marriage. Quite the opposite, in fact- their union seemed all the better for it.She considered her friends' marriages... Annabelle and Mr. Hunt as a harmony of similar dispositions... Evie and Lord St. Vincent with their opposite natures, as necessary to each other's existence as day and night. It was impossible to say that any of these pairings was superior to the others.Perhaps, in spite of all she had heard about the ideal of a perfect marriage, there was no such thing. Perhaps every marriage was a unique creation."

"But I must warn you, Miss Hathaway ... life has a way of fouling up our plans. I speak from experience."