Lisa Kleypas
She had always maintained a cynical facade, using it as a defence against embarrassment, fear, loneliness… but at the moment she felt unusually vulnerable.Collection: Loneliness
If loneliness was a choice, what was the other option? To settle for second-best and try to be happy with that? And was that fair to the person you settled for?Collection: Loneliness
To be honest," I halfwhispered, "I don't feel as safe with him as I do with you." "I know." A ghost of a smile touched my lips. "How do you know?" "Think about what safety is, Ella." "Trust?" "Yes, partly. But also an absence of risk." He unstuck a strand of hair from my damp cheek and tucked it back. "Maybe you need to take a risk. Maybe you need to be with someone who rattles you a little.Collection: Thinking
He's a fascinating gentleman. Old-school. I tried to talk him into attending one of my services, but he said he wasn't finished sinning yet, and he'd let me know when he was.Collection: School
...it was better to answer, no matter how ineptly, thank to withhold a reply. Because sometimes silence could wound someone nearly as badly as a bullet.Collection: Silence
I had never ironed anything in my life. The proper pressing of a shirt was a mystery of the universe akin to black holes and dark matter.Collection: Dark
For God's sake, Marks, do you think anyone really wants a glance at those dried-up matchsticks you call legs?Collection: Thinking
His expression was infused with lust and adoration as he lowered his head to kiss her throat, his tongue venturing into the little spaces between the diamonds and round opals. “Why can’t you see yourself as I see you?” -Jack to AmandaCollection: Kissing
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.Collection: Men
You are not a perfect woman.You have an evil temper, you’re as blind as a mole, you’re a deplorable poet, and frankly, your French accent could use some work.” Supporting himself on his elbows, Leo took her face in his hands. “But when I put those things together with the rest of you, it makes you into the most perfectly imperfect woman I’ve ever known.Collection: Hands
I've never known anyone more ill equipped for happiness. He wouldn't know what to do with it.Collection: Ill
His kisses tapped into deep mines of memory, and the years that had separated us fell away as if they were nothing.Collection: Memories
You won't kiss me for diamonds," he said, his voice slightly raspy, "but you will for chocolates?" Poppy nodded.Collection: Kissing
As Marcus considered various ways to open the subject of Daisy, Swift surprised him with a blunt statement. “My lord, there is something I would like to discuss with you.” Marcus adopted a pleasantly encouraging expression. “Very well.” “It turns out that Miss Bowman and I have reached an…understanding. After considering the logical advantages on both sides, I have made a sensible and pragmatic decision that we should—” “How long have you been in love with her?” Marcus interrupted, inwardly amused. Swift let out a tense sigh. “Years,” he admitted.Collection: Love
My theory about meeting people,' he said,'is that it's better not to make a really good first impression. Because it's all downhill from there. You're always having to live up to that first impression, which was just an illusion.Collection: People
Sometimes silence was easiest, when the only word left was good-bye.Collection: Bye
I hate you for all the years I 'll have to live without you. How can a heart hurt this much and still go on beating? How can I feel this bad without dying from it? I 've bruised my knees with praying to have you back. None of my prayers have been answered. I tried to send them up to heaven but they 're trapped here on earth, like bobwhites beneath the snow. I try to sleep and it's like I 'm suffocating. Where have you gone? Once you said that if I wasn't with you, it wouldn't be heaven. I can't let go of you. Come back and haunt me. Come back.Collection: Letting Go
A butterfly symbolized acceptance of each new phase in life. To keep faith as everything around you changed.Collection: Butterfly
Hunt looked like a man who had visited many woman's beds and knew exactly what to do in them.Collection: Men
We are hidiously rich Annabelle-- and I've got three older brothers, all unmarried. Would you consider one of them? If you like, I'll have one shipped across the Atlantic for your inspection." -Lillian BowmanCollection: Brother
It’s all right,” the boy murmured as he felt her trembling. “My grandmother always told me ‘Never try to turn back on a new road—you don’t know what adventures await you.Collection: Adventure
Be careful dear that you don’t end up as the queen of a lonely kingdomCollection: Lonely
Evie ” came his faint whisper “I’m going to your mother see…she’s got ’em to leave a back door open…so I can steal into ’eaven.Collection: Mother
The London season is like one of those Drury Lane melodramas in which marriage is always the ending. And no one ever seems to give any thought as to what happens after. But marriage isn’t the end of the story it’s the beginning. And it demands the efforts of both partners to make a success of it.Collection: Giving
Cam had once told her that the Rom believed the entire world was their home. As long as you were with your family you were home.Collection: Home
And there’s one more thing to be aware of ” Cam said with a wintry softness that disguised all hint of feeling. “If you succeed in marrying her we’re not losing a sister. You’re gaining an entire family—who will protect her at any cost.Collection: Feelings
I want you," he muttered. "Get rid of him and take me. The only risk is losing someone you don't have anyway. He's not what you need, Ella. I am" "Unbelievable," I said in disgust. "What's unbelievable?" "Your ego. It's surrounded by its own cloud of antimatter. You're a black hole of...of hubris!Collection: Clouds
I’ve won his heart, but it’s like owning a house in which most of the doors are permanently locked. He wants to shield me from all unpleasantness. And it’s not really marriage—not like the marriage you have with Cam—until he’s willing to share the worst of himself as well as the best of himself.Collection: Heart
I thought about the future, the oceans and continents he would cross, far away from everyone who knew and loved him. Far outside the sphere of his mothers prayers. Among the women of the future, there was one who would know his secrets and bear his children, and witness the changes the years worked on him. And it wouldnt be me. -Liberty JonesCollection: Mother
And you're not the kind of girl I want." Surely he couldn't mean the fact that I was Mexican. From what I knew of Hardy, there wasn't a bit of prejudice in him. He never used racist words, never looked down on someone for things they couldn't help. "What kind do you want?" I asked with difficulty. "Someone I can leave without looking back.Collection: Girl
Pity goes hand in hand with contempt. Don't ever forget that, Liberty. You can't take handouts or help from anyone, because that gives people the right to look down on you.Collection: Hands
What are their names? Psycho and Killer?" He shook his head. "Cupcake and Twinkie." My mouth dropped open. "You're kidding." A grin flitted across his lips. "Afraid not." If naming them after dessert snacks had been Miss Marva's attempt to make them seem cute, it wasn't working.Collection: Cute
When the pace of our feet matched perfectly, I felt a deep inner pang of satisfaction. I could have gone on walking like that forever, side by side with him. There had been few times in my life I had ever inhabited a moment so fully, with no loneliness lurking at the edges.Collection: Loneliness
I had never felt the allure of another human being this strongly, warmth and curiosity mixing to form an unspoken question in the air.Collection: Air
It didn't help matters that I was shy and wore glasses. I was never one to stand out in the crowd. I liked to stay in corners. And I was happiest when I was alone reading. That and the good grades I got in school had doomed any chance of being popular with my peers. So it was a foregone conclusion that boys like Hardy were never going to take notice of me.Collection: Reading
If I never have anything from him except this one moment I am going to take it. Take it now, or drown in regret later.Collection: Regret
No matter how strong our resolve, we eventually find ourselves enslaved by the compulsive preference for one particular woman. You’ve been caught, my friend. You may as well reconcile yourself to it.” Nick did not bother trying to deny it. “I was going to be so much smarter than you,” he muttered. Sir Ross grinned. “I prefer to think that intelligence has nothing to do with it. For if a man’s intellect is measured by his ability to remain untouched by love, I would be the greatest idiot alive.Collection: Strong
The feeling of relinquishing responsibility to someone else, letting him take control, was a relief beyond words.Collection: Responsibility
Hardy was every loose-limbed cowboy in warn denim, every pair of blue eyes, every battered pickup, every hot cloudless day." -LibertyCollection: Eye
I loved him so much, loved his fearlessness, his strength, even the ambition that would someday take him away from me.Collection: Ambition
She was a beautiful woman, if not a happy one, and attracting a man was never a problem. Keeping one, however, was a different matter.Collection: Beautiful
A book had always been a door to another world... a world much more interesting and fantastical than reality. But she had finally discovered that life could be even more wonderful than fantasy. And that love could fill the real world with magic.Collection: Real
He had found my worst weakness: I was one of those people who was desperate to be needed, to matter to someone.Collection: People
I need you for a lot of things, Hardy. A lifetime's worth of things.Collection: Needs
You know," I told him on our wedding night, "I'm just as much me when I'm with you, as I am without you." And because Hardy understood what I meant, he pulled me into his arms, against his heart.Collection: Heart
I'd rather be insane with you than sane without you. - Jake to LydiaCollection: Insane
I’ve never had any objection to appearing depraved or villainous. But I draw the line at looking like a prize idiot.Collection: Lines
Hell was waking up alone, the sheets wet with your tears and your seed, knowing the woman you had dreamed of would never come back to you.Collection: Lost Love
Well, it may be humorous to you, but it’s a very serious matter to the squirrels.Collection: Humorous