Lisa Kleypas

“She smiled at him, though her hazel-green eyes were wary beneath the brim of a sodden hat. Right at that moment, staring at her across the hall, Gideon Shaw, cynic, hedonist, drunkard, libertine, fell hopelessly in love.”

“This was never making love before..not before you.I knew how different it was going to be with you the first time we kissed.""You knew that...just from a kiss?""I'll have to remind you about the kiss.”

“Please come to me, Cat, because there's no surviving you. You don't have to love me back. You don't have to be mine. Just let me be yours.”

“Well, I find a strange comfort in the fact that he wouldn't feel this degree of animosity now, had he not loved me so much before.”

“Have you ever wanted something so much that you would do anything to have it - even knowing that it was bad for you?""Of course," Adam replied. "All truly enjoyable things in life are invariably bad for you - and they are even better when done to excess.”

“Maybe when you're married, you'll have a better idea of what desperate lengths you'll go to...for your sake,I hope not.”

“Haven't you ever wished that you could steal back just a few hours of your past?" she asked softly. "That's all I want... just a little taste of what might have been.”

“...she could only wait for someone, something, to free her from the invisible chains that bound her.”

“One can't help but marvel at the variety of ways that women had devised to make us look like flaming idiots.”

“Shaw...has a woman ever asked you to write a poem for her?""Good God, no," Gideon replied with a snicker. "Shaws don't write poetry. They pay others to write it for them and then take the credit for it.”

“In the past year I've gotten used to being cut down to size whenever I start acting too high and mighty. If you didn't keep me in line,I'd be damn well unmanageable. As it is, you're going to have a lot of work to do once they leave.”

“Perhaps only those who had loved and lost could appreciate this magic.”

“Now the line was drawn. Lucy had never thought that one of the fiercest battles of her life would be fought over a breakfast table, with quiet words carefully chosen.”

“If I'm to change my life for you, I've got to have some hope.""I don't want you to change your life for me. You'll have to make the same decision every day, over and over - it must be for yourself alone.”

“You're unbelievable," he said in a low voice, and it wasn't a compliment. "It amazes me that there was ever a time I thought you needed toughening up.""Would you prefer someone more...helpless?"Even Lucy had to admit that she had pushed him too far.”

“And now she's right where she wants to be,Lucy thought with a stab of fury. How easily men were taken in by women! A few tears, some sweet Southern helplessness. Oh,it must have been ridiculously easy for Raine.And here she, Lucy, was, harboring the woman under her own roof! It had the makings of a fine farce.”

“One should make the best choice possible given the circumstances, and then avoid second-guessing for the sake of one's own sanity.”

“I'm not here now. This isn't happening. You're just visiting a dream of mine.”

“He'll survive," he answered her. "Just as he's survived everything else in his life. But he'll never be the same.”

“It's a strange life, isn't it? ...A Rom with no tribe. No matter how hard you look, you can never find a home. Because to us, home is not a building or a tent or a vardo... home is a family.”

“Merripen, despite his fear of heights, had often climbed a ladder to wash the second floor window for her. He had wanted her view of the outside world to be clear.He had said the sky should always be blue for her.”

“He loved her beyond earth, heaven, or hell. Every moment out of her company was agony; every moment with her was the only peace he had ever known. Every touch of her hands left an imprint that ate down to his soul. He would have killed himself before admitting it to anyone. The truth was buried deep in his heart.”

“Good Morning," she said."We all have our own opinions about that, Mrs. Rayne.”

“Is that how you play?" Daisy asked breezily. "I just envision how I want the bowl to go, and then I roll it.”

“Daisy has a unique spirit. A warm and romantic nature. If she is forced into a loveless marriage, she will be devastated. She deserves a husband who will cherish her for everything she is, and who will protect her from the harsher realities of the world. A husband who will allow her to dream."-Westcliff”

“You can't love someone new withoutgetting over the last one.”

“It was often in small moments that significant things were revealed.”

“Was parenting ever going to get easier? Did you ever reach a point where you could stop worrying?”

“It wasn't just coffee...it was an experience. Smooth, roasted, buttery notes gave away to a velvet finish.”

“SEEN IT ALL, HEARD IT ALL, DONE IT ALL. JUST CAN'T REMEMBER IT ALL.”

“And although there were countless single dads who were raising daughters, no one could deny that there were milestones that a girl wanted a mother for.”

“If I listened to your advice, I'd be making your mistakes instead of my own.”

“But one wrong half turn of a steering wheel, one patch of wet road, one out of control moment, and the amount of life measured out to Victoria Nolan had run cruelly short.”

“Lucy waited patiently, knowing that he did want to talk, or he wouldn't have put on such a performance when he came in. Heath's door slamming was always an announcement that a conversation was in order.”

“As he looked up and saw is audience poised on the staircase, he gave a curt nod that barely passed for a greeting."Well," Lucy said, "it looks as if you Christmas spirit has undergone a beating.”

“A toast to the engagement on your former fiance and your former best friend. Tell me, how hard did you have to grit your teeth?" As Lucy refused to answer, he laughed softly. "Forgive me. I don't mean to detract from your noble gesture.”

“And he raised his glass to her. It could have been a compliment. Or the most sarcastic gesture anyone had ever made to her.”

“I was..sorry that you had been in prison camp..""A reassuring sentiment, coming from my wife. Anything else?”

“He's a good man.He's staightforward and he knows exactly what he wants-""Yes. You must favor your mother."She smiled reluctantly at the gentle taunt.”

“Thank you," Emerson said, bowing his head and accepting the box with the tender hands of a parent holding a child. "I am indebted-""Don't be.This doesn't mean I like you or your politics any better," Heath said gruffly.”

“Alors, he is a virile man, she is a beautiful woman . . . why are they not making salad together?”

“Why did you call me that?""Cinda? Because no one else does.”

“Someday I'm going to throw you across his back and ride off west with you...and you'll learn to make a coffee in a tin pot over a fire, and we'll sleep underneath a wagon and look out at the stars-”

“Everyone's looking," she whispered, letting him lead her to the center of the waltzing couples, several of which moved to allow them plenty of room."Everyone's been looking at you all night," he said wryly. "Especially me.”

“The purpose of the latest series of intellectual meetings, which were held in various parlors in Concord, was to talk about Reconstruction with objectivity, sensibility, and a lack of prejudice. As everyone had expected, the meetings were far from objective, seldom sensible, and never unprejudiced.”

“Don't do that with your fiance," Heath said. "He'll be asking where you learned it.”

“Believe me, when my ‘personal endowments’ are being discussed, I always pay attention.” ~ Cam Rohan”

“I rarely dislike people for things they can't change, they usually give me sufficient cause to dislike them for other reasons.”

“I don't share my body heat indiscriminately.”

“The baby woke up before you did. I took him to the other room to let you get a little more sleep. We've been watching a game.""Did he cry?""Only when he realized the Astros were having another first-round play-off flame out. But I told him there's no shame in crying over the Astros. It's how we Houston guys bond.”