Rachel Gibson

“I didn't want to be there. I wanted to be here.”

“There's something about you, Maddie," he said as he looked into her eyes. "Something more than the way you make love. Something that makes me think about you when I'm pouring drinks or watching Travis strike out in T-Ball.”

“He wrapped his arms around her waist and looked at her through those intense brown eyes she loved. "I wanted you when I thought you'd pull a bag over my head and snuff out my life. I wanted you more than I've wanted anything. I love you more than I've loved anyone. You burst into my life like sunshine and made me see how lonely I was. I don't want to live that way anymore." He pressed a kiss to her hairline. "I will love you with my last breath.”

“I want to be with you." He straightened and brought her against his chest. "I like being with you," he continued. "When I'm not with you, I'm thinking about you. No one else. Just you.”

“Shelly, what is this?" "What?" "This." She shook her fork. "A Rocky Mountain oyster." "Is it a shellfish?" "No, it's a testicle." "Oh, my God!" She dropped the fork as if it had suddenly zapped her. "Whose?" Dylan burst out laughing. "Not mine." "They came from the Rocking C. I bought 'em during castration season," Shelly told her. "You bought them? Oh, my God!" "Well," Shelly answered as if Hope were the crazy one, "they don't just give away free oysters, you know." "No, I don't know. I'm from California. We eat real food. We don't eat cow ball.”

“He'd already planned on checking out the house for her, but what he hadn't planned on was her hooking her hand around the back of his belt and urging him forward like a human shield. Now, there were times in Dylan's life when he hadn't minded women using his body, but they'd always been naked a the time. He didn't know how he felt about being used as a target so Hope could run like hell if anything hit him first.-Dylan”

“As a kid, he would have given just about anything to touch a naked Barbie, but he'd never been lucky enough to get within ogling distance. Now that he was afforded a good look at her, he discovered she had a scrawny ass and her knees made weird crunching sounds.”

“He wanted the word "Daddy" added to his list of names. He wanted to teach his son to skate, just as he'd been taught by Ernie. Like every other father in the world, he wanted to stay up late on Christmas Eve and put together tricycles, bicycles, and race-car sets. He wanted to dress up his son as a vampire, or a pirate, and take him trick-or-treating.”

“I remember exactly what you were wearing, [...] Dark suit, red tie, gold watch, and a blond woman.”

“Between the lapels of his subdued charcoal suit, he'd worn a silky red tie. A gold Rolex had circled his wrist, and an overblown blonde had been bonded on his side like a suction cup. The man clearly liked to accessorize.”

“You never learn the first time. You always have to get hit twice before you see it coming.” He was seeing now what he’d seen that first night at Pure. A bright shiny light he wanted to catch in his hands and hold forever. If she let him.”

“His lids lowered and he brushed her cheek with the tips of his fingers. "What if I fall in love with you?" She turned her face into his palm. "You won't.”

“He can trade me to a team below five hundred if he wants to, or worse, I could find myself wearing a duck on my sweater.”

“I want to try with someone who loves me enough to try with me. I want to grow old looking at the same face every morning. I want to grow old looking at the same face every night at the dinner table. I want to be one of those old couples you see still holding hands and laughing after fifty years of marriage. That's what I want. I want to be someone's forever.”

“As he walked out into the North Carolina sunshine, Lola's hand in his, a smile curved one corner of his lips. Not so long ago, he'd stood on the burned-out bridge of the Dora Mae, thinking himself cursed with a beautiful underwear model and her sissy little dog. He'd always believed Lola Carlyle would be the death of him."We never did get around to watching Pride and Prejudice," she said, a teasing glint in her beautiful eyes.Yeah, she would most definitely be the death of him, but what a way to go.”

“I've found something more exciting than blowing things up, something sweeter than an adrenaline rush. Something that is truly worth fighting for.""What?""A beautiful woman who makes me laugh and feel more alive than I've ever felt in my life." He swallowed past the lump in his throat and the burning in his chest. "I've waited my whole life for you, even though I didn't know I was even waiting. You and I are different sides of the same coin, and you make me feel complete.”

“Have you ever been married?""Nope. I was close once.""You were engaged?""No, but I came close to thinking about it."She didn't believe close to thinking about it counted. "What happened?""I got a good look at her mother and ran like hell.”

“Joe certainly didn't seem concerned with his own enlightenment, but he did seem more intelligent than the average muscle neck. Then he raised his arm, bent his head, and sniffed his pit.Gabrielle looked at the plates in her hands. She should have used paper.”

“You want the fairy tale." "I want a chance at it.”

“One of the most difficult things he'd ever done was turn away and leave her standing in the shadows.”

“We’ll have sex all night. Half the morning too. And just when you think you can’t take anymore, we’ll go at it again.”

“So tell me, Jane, are you cold?” His lips brushed hers and he said through a hot breath, “Or turned on?”

“You wanna be friends?"Click click. Was that so impossible? Was he so mad, suddenly disliked her so much again, that he didn't want to be in the same building? "Yes.""Friends like before or after we had sex on the floor?"Her thumb stopped. "Before.""Not interested.""Why?""Because I don't want to be your friend.""Oh." She swallowed her disappointment. It might be for the best, but she suddenly didn't want what was for the best. She didn't want to hate Sam and have Sam hate her. What choice did she have? "Okay.""I want to be your lover. I can't pretend I don't want more. I want to be with you, Autumn. I want to get you naked and throw your legs over my shoulders"She dropped the pen."I want to leave a mark on the inside of your thigh.”

“For the first time since she'd pieced her heart back together, she felt a small tug at one of the strings. She dropped her hands to her sides and took a step back. The one word she'd waited to hear could destroy her carefully constructed life. "Don't."Don't make me forget. Don't make it better. Don't make me love you again. - Autumn Haven”

“You’re not some woman I picked up in a bar, Chelsea. You’re not a one-night stand. Don’t sneak out on me.”

“Sometimes God has His own plan. Sometimes shit happens for a reason.”

“What is the politically correct term for ‘retarded’?”“I think the words you’re fishing for are ‘mentally disabled.’ And no. I’m not mentally disabled.”

“You asked me once what I see when I look into my future.” He slid his palm down her shoulder and took her hand. “I see you”

“I have friends. I want more from you than that. I’m a selfish guy, Jane. If I can’t be your lover, if I can’t have all of you, then I don’t want anything.”

“I don’t think you know what you want.”“Yes. I do. I want you, and being with you feels a hell of a lot better than being without you. I’m not going to fight it anymore.”

“You’re a complication I don’t need.” He followed, placed his hands on each side of her head, and planted his knee between her thighs. “But you’re a complication I want. One I’m going to have.”

“I want to make love to you, and if you don’t stop me now, that’s exactly what’s going to happen.”

“I thought if I quit looking around for you, I would forget you. I thought if I avoided you, I could get you out of my head. But it didn’t work.”

“Ask me again why I don’t want you traveling with the team.”“Why?”He slid his thumb across her bottom lip. “Because you drive me insane.”

“You healed my heart and taught me that forgiveness is about love. I used to think that any man of mine had to live up to a list of my expectations. I was wrong. Love has no list. You are the pinch in my heart. The catch in my breath. The reason my stomach tumbles and why I lie awake at night just to look at you. And every time I look at you, I know that I want to look at you forever”

“You are the pinch in my heart. The catch in my breath. The reason my stomach tumbles...”

“Kiss me, babe."'"No, really." Beneath the light of a sixty-watt bulb on her porch, Adele Harris placed a hand on the chest of her latest date. "I've had enough excitement for one night.”

“Devon Hamilton-Zemaitis was a beautiful woman. Being dead didn't change that.”

“I know. I know I’ve been a jerk, and I don’t have a good excuse. But touching you and loving you, and knowing you were planning to leave me, made me crazy. After we made love the second time, I began to think maybe you’d decide to stay with me. I started to think about you and me waking up every day together for the rest of our lives. I even thought about kids and taking some of those breathing classes when you got pregnant. Maybe buying one of those mini-vans.”

“as far as he was concerned , Henry's sudden interest was a case of too little too late”

“Do you really think that I don’t have anything better to do than to spend my time thinking about you? Digging up a little of the goods on Luc Martineau?”Fine lines appeared at the corners of his eyes and he laughed. “Sweetheart, there is nothing little about Luc’s goods.”

“He’d spent so much time in the penalty box for fighting last season, he’d been tempted to hang a picture and maybe set up a lava lamp, it had felt so much like home”

“she’d packed up her mother’s life in boxes for storage”

“You'll have to go get laid by a random stranger."Bo pointed to the television. "Can I wait for a commercial or do I have to git-'er-done right now?""You can wait.”

“I don't want to let you go," he said just above a whisper. "I've tried and I can't. The thought of it twists me in a knot.”

“What scares you?" She looked into his eyes and said, "That I have fallen in love with you, and there is no future for us. That you burst into my life suddenly only a short time ago. That it's too fast, too soon, and you will leave the same way you came into my life. I'll turn around one day and you'll be gone.”

“Don't leave." He leaned his forehead against the door next to hers. "I'm a real bastard, I know, but don't leave, Lola.”

“Forget it." She turned to the closed door of the bathroom. "Forget I said anything. I take it back." Just as she pulled the door open, he was behind her, slamming it shut. With one hand planted in front of her face, Max said next to her ear, "You can't take it back now." "Yes, I can." "No." He leaned his big body into her and shoved her against the door. "I heard you." His hot breath brushed her temple. "You love me Lola. I won't let you take it back. You can't ever take it back.”

“Do you know what else I think? I think I like the idea of Lola Carlyle worrying about me." He slid his knuckle along her jaw to her chin and she held her breath.”

“I love you Daisy," he said without looking at her. "It's enough.”