Nalini Singh

“As an example of wealth, good taste, and subtle intimidation, it took first prize.”

“You want to play? Come find me angel boy.”

“Reason without emotion is often a mask for cruelty; emotion without reason can allow people to excuse all sorts of excesses.”

“Go then, mere jaan." My life. Because that was what she was. The best part of him. "Just remember - the next ten or so lifetimes, you're spending with me.”

“The fear is like metal on my tongue—I’ve known him but a fragment of time, and yet I’m certain if I accept his suit, it will destroy a part of me when he leaves.”Keir reached forward to tuck her hair behind her ear. “We’re all a little broken.” Quiet. Potent. “No one goes through life with a whole heart.”

“Fine. But remember, little rabbit, not a word to anyone." He moved close enough that the dark heat of him lapped against her in a quiet threat that made her glad for the blade. "I'm not a nice man when I'm angry." She held her position, a ragged attempt to erase the humiliation of the panic attack. "I'm fairly certain you're not a nice man at all." His answer was a slow smile that whispered of silk sheets, erotic whispers, and sweat-damp skin. The unhidden intent of it had her heart slamming hard against her ribs. "No" she said. Voice raw. "A challenge.” He wasn't touching her and yet she felt caressed by a thousand ropes of fur, soft and lush and unmistakably sexual. "I accept”

“Sleep Red, I've got you." - Vaughn to Faith”

“Venom’s pupils contracted the instant before he slid his sunglasses back on.She couldn’t help it. “Why isn’t your tongue forked?”“Why can’t you fly?” A smirk. “Those things on your back aren’t accessories you know.”

“Come make me sticky.Dimitri to Honor”

“Are your eyelashes like your hair?”“Yes. They’re very beautiful—want to see?”Her lips twitched. “Vanity is a sin,Bluebell.”“When you have it, flaunt it, I say.”-Elena and Illium”

“You're walking funny," Lucy said, a shit-eating grin on her face. Five days of out of this world sex with a starving man could do that to a girl. "You're just jealous." Brenna pushed through the door into DarkRiver's business HQ.Lucy made a mournful face. "Yes, I am. Goddamn but your man is hot. And he smiles at you! I've seen him do it, even if no one believes me.”

“Aren‘t you going to get up?"He put a hand on the curve of her hip, a possessive gesture that had already becomefamiliar. "No. Let‘s have more sex.”

“Riley." Kisses on her cheek, along her jaw. "So, how many brat-lets do you want?" "As many as it takes to drive you insane.”

“If I were to splay you out on my desk and thrust my fingers into you right now, I think I’d find different.”

“Stay with me. I’ll show you things that’ll make you laugh in delight, scream in passion, cry for the sheer joy of it.”

“Part of you is the wind,” he murmured. “Oui, that is true. But even the wind sometimes rests.”Shaking her head, she slid her hand around the back of his neck, soaking in the intrinsically male heat of his skin. “Then consider me an endless storm.”

“You know how spooky Ashwini is. She called an hour ago to tell me she has a secret stash of handheld grenade launchers she thought I might want to know about. My response was, 'What the fuck?”

“Sara held up a hand. 'How exactly did you "decline" his offer?''By slitting his throat.”

“Thought you were--''--Raphael said--''I said, no way in hell--''Damn straight--''--and Ransom was ready to come--''--woke up and I had wings!”

“Somehow the idea of Montgomery as a fairy doesn't have the same effect on me as it appears to have on you.-Raphael”

“As her skin sizzled under the delicious heat, she supposed she should’ve been giving serious thought to the lunacy of what she was doing playing with a vampire, who was, for all his charm, as lethal as a stiletto across the throat. But then again, most of her friends already thought she was half a nut short of a fruitcake. Why disappoint?”

“The woman rolled her eyes. “DarkRiver males are damn possessive and complete exhibitionists during the mating dance.”Sascha ran through her dictionary of changeling terminology and could find no fit. “Mating dance?”Mercy whistled. Dorian winced. Tamsyn suddenly got interested in her dough. Clay and Vaughn mysteriously disappeared. Behind her, Lucas’s body was a hard wall of heat. “I think we need to discuss this upstairs.”

“Oh my God! I'm crushing an angel. Let me up!”

“You do realize this makes your wings even more unique.""Are you saying you shot me as a cosmetic procedure?”

“Option 1: Attempt to back out.Probable result: Death after painful torture.Option 2: Do the job and hope.Probable result: Death but probably no torture (good)”

“Illium, with his wings of silver-kissed blue and a face designed to seduce both males and females, not to mention his ability to do the most impossible acrobatics in the air, would provide a worthy diversion. The fact that he’d decided to ditch half his clothing was just icing on the cake.”

“God, you’re sexy when you talk Psy.”

“When you want something so bad it hurts,” he said quietly, “and you bury it, bury it so deep that you convince yourself it no longer matters . . . and someone tells you you can have it, it's terrifying. What if you take the chance and you're wrong? What if you let yourself feel the loss and it's this huge pain and you can't put it back in the box?”

“Lo que está roto puede arreglarse.”

“What about your freedom?" he whispered in her ear over a minute later, bracing his hands palms down on the wall beside her head. He made no move to stop her as she stroked and petted every inch of that sinfully gorgeous chest, all hard muscle and gleaming skin overlaid with silky-rough strands of dark hair. "Idiot." She nipped his jaw with her teeth. "The only freedom I ever wanted was the right to love you.”

“No, Nathan, no." She wrapped his face in her hands. "I just need you--all of you--so much that I'm going crazy. I need your laugh. I need your company. I need you to sleep beside me and I need you to wake when I wake. I need you with everything in me.”

“I need a Stetson, so I can ride you like a cowgirl" - Mercy to Riley”

“The one and only time an archangel can Make another angel is when our bodies produce a substance known as ambrosia. Ambrosia,is produced instinctively at a single point in an archangel’s life. It is legend that ambrosia only rises when an archangel loves true.”

“He closed his eyes, dropping his forehead against hers. “You’ll be the death of me, Elena.” She smiled. “You need a little excitement in that boring old life of yours.”

“I don’t want to lose my memories. Don’t make me forget. I would rather die asElena, than live as a shadow.”

“So the big, bad, and able-to-mind-control angel thinks you’re his. Asin ‘I don’t share my woman.”

“Dorian gave a smug grin. “My mate thinks I'm the most gorgeous leopard she ever saw.”“Show us the footage before your head explodes,” Lucas muttered, but his own cat was grinning to see Dorian so happy. The sentinel had been latent most of his life, unable to shift into leopard form. Now that he could, he did so at every opportunity. “Have you managed to catch a rabbit yet?”A single eloquent finger. “Fuck you.”Lucas snickered. “What about trying for a turtle?”Dorian lunged out of the chair and went for Lucas’s throat.”

“I’ll need a sparring partner.” “Karate?” Those completely human-seeming eyes brightened in interest. “Katana.” “Hot damn. Let’s do it.” Lucas coughed. “If you two have stopped flirting, we have business to discuss.” Indigo grinned but stayed silent. Mercy wasn’t so reticent. “So that’s what it takes to get into Dorian’s pants. I’ll let the sentinel-chasers know.” Her packmate’s growl only widened her smirk.”

“Truth was a tool. It should never simply be said. No, it had to be bent, twisted, colored, until it became a weapon.”

“Do you know where Jason is?” she asked Dmitri when they exited the morgue.Dmitri pressed the car remote to unlock the flame red Ferrari parked in the employees-only lot. “Tired of your Bluebell already?” A tendril of champagne circled around her senses, cut with something far harder.Never had she felt that harsh edge in Dmitri’s scent. She pitied the woman he took to his bed today.“Yeah, that’s it. I’m building a harem.”

“Illium, his expression subdued as it had been for too many days, turned to her. “Mind if I have a go?”“Kick his ass.”Stripping off his shirt and boots, Illium held out his hand for one of Venom’s blades. Lips curving, Venom passed it over. “Sure you can handle me, pretty, pretty Bluebell?”“Did I ever tell you about my snakeskin boots?” A savage grin, and she knew Venom was about to bear the brunt of whatever haunted the blue-winged angel.Venom swirled his blade in hand. “I do think I need some new feathers for my pillow.”

“Ransom really looked at the other man for the first time, shook his head, stared again. “Holy hell, your eyes are like a fucking viper’s.”Venom raised an eyebrow. “You have hair prettier than one of Astaad’s concubines.”Ransom gave the vampire the finger.Venom grinned.”

“For the first time in forever, he was stunned to silence. Not by her words, but by the tenderness in her hands, the worry in her eyes. He was an archangel. He’d been wounded far, far worse and shrugged it off. But then, there had been no woman with sun kissed by the sunset and eyes of storm gray to tear into him for daring to get himself hurt.”

“You are mine, Elena. If you choose to sleep in another bed, I will simply pick you up and bring you home.”

“Even as she spoke, silver blue flashed on her other side and then Illium was standing beside her, his wing touching Elena's in an intimacy that made Raphael raise an eyebrow. Illium's lips curved in a wicked smile that did little to hide the intensity of his emotions. I would not watch you die again, Sire. His veins stood out against his skin as he gripped the wrist of one hand with the other.Raphael met those eyes of gold that had stood beside him for centuries. If I had done so, I would have gone knowing you would keep my heart safe.Illium's gaze went to Elena. Always.”

“Riley : "Do you want to claw at me, kitty-cat? Come on."Mercy: "Sorry, I don't beat defenseless puppies.”

“He has a fascination with mortals.Raphael had said that to her before she'd woken with wings of midnight and dawn."Why are you starting at me, Ellie?" Illium said without taking his eyes from the blade dancing around his fingers.The words were instinctive, something she might as easily have said to rib Ransom. "You're so pretty, it's difficult to resist."A flashing grin, a hint of that aristocratic English accent in his response. "It's hard to be me, it's true.”

“Once, he hadn't been able to touch her without causing himself pain. Now, it only hurt when he didn't touch her.”

“What would you like to call me?"That made her pause. "Husband" was too human, "partner" factually wrong for a being as powerful as an archangel, "mate"...perhaps. But none of it was quite right. "Mine," she said at last.He blinked and when he raised his lashes again, the blue was liquid fire. Yes, that will do. "But for public consumption, you are my consort.""Consort," she murmured, tasting the word, feeling it's shape. "Yes, that fits.”

“How long have you been with Raphael?”“You ask a lot of questions for a dead woman.”“What can I say? I prefer to die well-informed.”