Loretta Chase

“I am not in love with you," she said. "It is an infatuation. I have heard of such derangements happening to elderly spinsters.”

“It's about time you saw how fortunate you are. You have ... the most virile man in the world." He grinned, and in his eyes, black as sin, she saw the devil inside him laughing. But he was her devil, and she loved him madly."The most conceited, you mean," she said. He bent his head until his great Usignuolo nose loomed as inch from hers, "The most virile, " he repeated firmly. "You are pathetically slow if you haven't learned that by now. Fortunately for you, I am the most patient of tutors. I shall prove it to you.""You patience?" she asked."My virility. Both. Repeatedly." His black eyes glinted. "I will teach you a lesson you'll never forget. "She tangled her fingers in his hair and brought his mouth to hers. "My wicked darling," she whispered. "I should like to see you try.”

“He'd forget all that, just as he would forget this night.The memories would linger for a time, but they'd grow dull. The ache he felt now, the frustation and anger and sorrow - all those would fade too.She'd given him a night to remember, but of course he'd forget.”

“I deserve passion," she said. "I deserve to be loved- in every way. I deserve a man who'll give his whole heart, not the part he isn't using at the moment..”

“I expected a good deal more from you," Marcelline said, "You bungled it.""Yes," he said. "What else could I do? I was asking the wrong woman to marry me.”

“Oh, it's ridiculous. I ought to laugh. But I can't. You won't believe it.""Of course we will," Sophye said."He offered you a carte blanche," Leonie said."No, he asked me to marry him."There was a short stunned silence.Then, "I reckon he's in a marrying mood," Sophy said.”

“...it was hard to hide one's emotion from one's own kind.”

“Hell, what was one more scandal?”

“I'm in a mood to knock someone down, and you'll do very well.""Don't tell me," Longmore said. "The dressmaker doesn't want you, either. By gad, this isn't your day, is it? Not your week, rather.”

“I'm no good at being good.”

“I have a plan," he said."Yes," she said."Let's get married," he said."Yes," she said."Let's conquer the world," he said."Yes," she said. No one in her family had ever been accused of dreaming small."Let's bring the beau monde to its knees.""Yes.""Let's make them beg for your creations.""Yes," she said. "Yes, yes, yes.""Is tomorrow too soon?" he said."No." she said. "We've a great deal to do, you and I, conquering the world. We must start at once. We've not a minute to lose.""I love hearing you say that," he said.He kissed her. It lasted a long time. And they would last, she was sure, a lifetime. On that she'd wager anything.”

“She'd read in novels of people who couldn't speak because their hearts were too full and she'd always thought, Not my black heart. But now she couldn't speak, because it was too much, whatever it was.”

“Then he recalled whose daughter she was, and wondered why he wondered.Then he recalled who it was who had a child.A child, Noirot had a child!”

“Get off," she said. "Get off now."Before its too late, and I decide to celebrate a narrow escape from death in the traditional manner of our species.”

“No its you," she said. How far away her voice sounded, as though it had traveled to London already, ahead of her. "Your ducal self assurance. Everything will give way to you. Even Satan's own storm.""You are definitely improving," he said. "Full mocking sentences.”

“She swallowed it. So bitter."Vile," she said. "Vile.""I know, but it helps. Trust me. I know.""Trust you," she said. "Hah.""Clearly you are not dying.""No. Devil won't take me."The low chuckle again. "Then we're all safe.”

“Life had a way of wrecking her careful plans, again and again. Roulette was more predictable than life. Small wonder she was so lucky at it.Life was not a wheel going round and round. It never, ever returned to the same place. It didn't stick to simple red and black and a certain array of numbers. It laughed at logic.Beneath its pretty overdress of man-imposed order, life was anarchy.”

“Bung upwards, she means, Your Grace," a tart called out.”

“He cleared his throat, "Zoe, i think you said you love me.""I did say it. I do love you with all my heart.""I see." There was a long pause, then he said, "For how long has this been going on?""I don't know," she said, "Sometimes i think it started a long, long time ago.""You might have mentioned it.""I didn't want to encourage it," she said, "I thought it was a bad idea.”

“Then came her voice in his ear: "I give myself to thee. I give myself to thee. I give myself to thee."And at last she sank onto him, and he wrapped his arms about her and savoured the delicious peace. The stray, funny thought came: we're married, and he laughed out loud.”

“Even now the wicked spirit lurked there, a glint of mischief in the darkness of heat and desire. It made her smile, and she brought her smile to his mouth and gave it to him. "Miss you," she whispered. "So much.”

“Good God!" she cried. She rolled off him, tugging down her clothing. "Are you mad?"He blinked and dragged in air. "Well, yes," he said thickly. "Lust does that to a man.""You thought we could-you would-do...that? In public?"I wasn't thinking about where we were."Her eyes widened."I'm a man," he said with what he was sure must be, in the circumstances, saintly patience. "I can do one or the other. Lovemaking or thinking. But not both at the same time.”

“Out of the darkness came Mr Carsington's deep voice, cool and calm. " Pray don't trouble yourselves, gentlemen. It is merely a villain come to cut our throats, rob our stores and ravish our women. No need for alarm. Mrs Pembroke has the matter in hand.”

“The boat lurched.He fell against her, and she fell back, onto the divan.For onwe glorious moment she lay under him, her magnificent bosom crushed against his chest. His heart leapt into a gallop and his privy councilor leapt to attention. He lifted his head and looked down at her. She looked up at him, eyes wide and dark as an evergreen forest. He felt her breath on his skin, and heard it, soft and hurried. Her lips parted. He lowered his head.She shoved a fist against his chest, and "Get off!" she snapped. "Get off, you great lummox! Someone's coming!”

“It was unsettling. For a moment he believed she could see straight through his brain. Not that there was much to see. Still, he doubted she'd feel more amiably toward him if, for instance, she could discern how vast an amount of mental space his fantasies of seduction occupied, compared to the cramped corner devoted to the problem of murdered guides and corrupt police.”

“Don't you remember telling me that you're the brain and I'm the brawn? Naturally I expect you to do all the talking. And naturally I shall knockheads and toss people out of windows as required. Or did I misunderstand? Did you want me to think, too?”

“If she had been a normal female, she would have swooned. But she was not normal, never had been.“Good grief, you are impossibly handsome,” she said breathlessly. “I vow, I have never experienced the like. For an instant, my brain stopped altogether. I must say, my lord, you do clean up well. But next time, I wish you would call out a warning before you come into view, and give me a chance to brace myself for the onslaught.”Something dark flickered in his eyes. Then a corner of his hard mouth quirked up. “Miss Adams, you have an interesting — a unique — way with a compliment.”The trace of a smile disoriented her further. “It is a unique experience,” she said. “I never knew my brain to shut off before, not while I was full awake. I wonder if the phenomenon has been scientifically documented and what physiological explanation has been proposed.”

“Just because I squeezed my gigantic bottom into men’s trousers, you needn’t assume my brains have shrunk to masculine size.”

“Bathsheba looked at Benedict. "You never told me they were matchmaking.""He didn't notice!" said his father before Benedict could answer. "He didn't notice handsome young misses of unexceptionable family. He didn't notice beautiful heiresses. We tried bluestockings. We tried country girls. We tried everything. He didn't notice! But Bathsheba Winngate, the most notorious woman in all of England, he noticed.""We notorious women tend to stand out," she said.”

“She was a dreamer and a schemer & one didnt dream and scheme without hope.”

“I am not insane," he said. "A woman of your highly advanced intellect ought to be able to perceive that I am in love. With you. I wish you had told me. It was deuced embarrassing to find it out from your *brother*.”

“Jessica swallowed. "I think you had better stick to English." "But Italian is so moving," Dain said. "To ho voluto dal primo che ti vedi." I've wanted you from the first moment I saw you. "Mi tormenti ancora." You've tormented me ever since.”

“You refuse to listen. Because, like every other man, you can keep only one idea in your head at a time-usully the wrong one.”

“And so I beat him and beat him until he kissed me. And then I kept on beating him until he did it properly.”

“Women don't have a sense of humor. They don't need one. The Almighty made them as a permanent joke on men. From which one may logically deduce tha the Almighty is a female.”

“HOrrible. The most horrible sound on earth. The sound of death and torture and the agonies of a burning hell," Lisle said. "Damn them. It's bagpipes.”

“He knew there were no forevers and there was always a way out, yet he lost his way, lost his balance.”

“Adieu, Lord Dain,” she answered without turning her head. “Have a pleasant evening with your cows.”Cows?She was merely trying to provoke him, Dain told himself. The remark was a pathetic attempt at a setdown. To take offense was to admit he’d felt the sting. He told himself to laugh and return to his… cows.”

“If you try to find a replacement, you'll be sadly disappointed, I can't be replaced. I'm the only man in all the world who possesses the right combination of qualities for you.You can turn your Ballister stare upon me all you like, but you can't petrify me. You can knock me about to your heart's content without worrying about doing any damage. You can perpetrate any sort of outrage your wicked mind conceives and be sure I'll join in, with a will. You're a troublemaker, Lydia. A Ballister devil. Nothing less than a Mallory hellion would ever suit you."- Vere Mallory -”

“I don't know who had the training of you," he continued doggedly, "but your morals are shocking. You spent a night in my bed, remember, after a night in a bawdy house. You go about collecting street urchins and letting inebriated vagabonds kiss you, and then you get into brawls in pawnshops. You are probably past all redemption, but I'm going to reform you anyhow. If you behave yourself, perhaps I'll let you reform me on occasion, but I make no promises.”

“Why must women stay quietly? Why must we be little moons, each of us stuck in our little orbit, revolving around a planet that is some man? Why can't we be other planets? Why must we be moons?”

“He was a man. Men always had lewd thoughts. It was perfectly natural and normal”

“They were perfectly suited. They would speak of books the livelong day and night and bore everyone else but themselves to distraction.”

“Masculine pride is an exceedingly precious and fragile thing”

“Let me explain something to you, he said. If you want to get something out of a man, dashing out his brains against a lamppost isn't the way to do it.”

“We've been wed more than a month. Since it appears you mean to stay, I might as well give you leave to call me by my christian name. It is preferable, at any rate, to 'clodpole.”

“Jessica, you are a pain in the arse, do you know that? If I were not so immensely fond of you, I should throw you out the window."She wrapped her arms about his waist and laid her head against his chest. "Not merely 'fond,' but 'immensely fond.' Oh Dain, I do believe I shall swoon.""Not now," he said crossly. "I haven't time to pick you up.”

“You are well aware of your effect on women, and I'm sure it gratifies you no end to watch them sigh and salivate over your magnificent physique. I do not wish to spoil your fun, Dain, but I do ask you to consider my pride and refrain from embarrassing me in public."Women...sighing and salivating...over his magnificent physique. Maybe the brutal bedding had destroyed a part of her brain.”

“Dain kept his gaze on his plate and concentrated on swallowing the morsel he'd just very nearly choked on. She was possessive... about him.The beautiful, mad creature - or blind and deaf creature, or whatever she was - coolly announced it as one might say, "Pass the salt cellar," without the smallest awareness that the earth had just tilted on its axis.”

“He had relieved whores beyond counting of frocks, stays, chemises, garters, and stockings. He had never before in his life unbuttoned a gently bred maiden's glove. He'd committed salacious acts beyond number. He'd never before felt so depraved as he did now, as the last pearl came free and he drew the soft kid down, baring her wrist, and his dark fingers grazed the delicate skin he'd exposed.”