Tiffany Reisz

“Romance is sex plus love. Erotica is sex plus fear.”

“Stop writing what you know and start writing what you want to know.”

“If it’s an abomination, Dad, you’re just doing it wrong. Bear down hard, then release. It’ll fit better.”

“You have no idea who he is, Suzanne. If you judge him by his actions, you will never know him.”

“Once upon a time,” Nora said, as she fluttered a series of kisses over his shoulders that sent every nerve in his body reeling, “a very poor girl from a fucked-up family became a famous writer with a wicked pen and an even more wicked tongue who made seven figures a year. And she went everywhere she wanted to and did everything she wanted to. And nobody ever tried to stop her. And she had her own pet Angel who needed to learn how to talk. So guess what she did?” “What?” Michael asked. He laughed in surprise as Nora slammed him down onto his back and slid on top of him. She brought her mouth onto his and forced his lips apart. “She gave him her tongue.”

“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been…” “Eight days,” Søren supplied. “Eight days since my last confession. Let’s see… where to start?” “Pace yourself, Eleanor. If you forget something, I will remind you.”

“I'd always thought there was something wrong with me," he confessed. "I thought I was wrong to want this."And she knew he wasn't weeping because of the sadness or shock, but because all babies cry when they're born.Nora & Michael”

“It's not morning until you're awake. And it's not night until you're asleep in your bed under my roof. And I could go on and on but hope is a horrible thing, and I love you too much to give you any.”

“Wesley looked down at her and Nora could barely meet his brown eyes, which bored into her with the fiery love of a guardian angel. God probably had eyes like Wesley's.....anyone who looked into them wanted to immediately apologize for any and all sins ever committed.”

“God, I love a man who reads”

“Excuse me," Zach began, trying to regain control of this conversation, "but didn't I repeatedly insult you this morning?""Your kvetching was very fetching. I like men who are mean to me. I trust them more." -Zach to Nora”

“Michael, Eleanor is without a doubt the most beautiful woman who has ever or will ever live. If you could take a nighttime thunderstorm and turn it into a woman, you would have a very good idea what she looks like. And a fairly good idea how she behaves as well.”

“My confession begins," Father S said, "as the confessions of many men begin - with three words""Father forgive me?" Michael hazarded a guess. Father S signed."I met Eleanor.”

“And although two people can love each other deeply, sometimes love alone doesn’t cut it. We can only sacrifice so much of ourselves in a relationship before there’s nothing left to love or be loved.”

“Are you threatening me, Ms. Sutherlin?”Sutherlin only smiled.“No. Of course not. All I’m saying is that I’ll do anythingto protect him. Anything at all. But there’s no need to worry.I’ve hurt people. I’ve hurt them badly. I’ve left permanentscars on some clients. Some outer scars. Some inner. But allthat pain I’ve inflicted…it was all consensual. I’ve never hurt anyone without their permission. All I’m saying, Ms. Kanter, is…” Sutherlin leaned forward and pressed the lightest, softest, most terrifying kiss onto Suzanne’s lips before pulling back an inch and whispering, “There’s a first time for everything.”

“I’m here, little one,” came a voice made for coaxingsecrets from the heart. “Sleep now. We’ll talk when it’stime.”“Yes, sir,” she said, now knowing where she was. Shesurrendered to sleep again.The most familiar darkness…her darkness…she washome.”

“How easily you forgive, Eleanor. How freely youabsolve the sins of others. Tell me, little one, when thetime comes, how will you absolve yours?With the first lash of the whip Nora felt a strip of fireburn across her back. She cried out from a pain soferocious she nearly choked on it.Like this, Søren, she dared answer only in her mind.This is how.”

“That is Kingsley Edge. And he is the opposite of boring. And if you three have any sense you’ll stay away from him.”“What sense I had just took her panties off and laid down in front of him,”

“I’ll come back,” she promised. “I’ll always come back to you.”“I know,” he said with cold, calm arrogance. “If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t let you go.”“Believe it. It’s true.” She took a step back. Then another. “Always.”“Eleanor, if you have any mercy in that dark heart of yours, when you leave right now, you willwalk and not run.”... ...crawl and she didn’t fly.She ran. Down the hall she ran as if the hounds of hell nipped at her heels. She ran as if Godhimself had ordered her to. She ran as if her life depended on it and in that moment she mighthave sworn that it did.She didn’t know why she ran. She didn’t know who or what waited for her in the White Room.She only knew she had to get there as fast as she could and whoever it was, he was worthrunning to.”

“Whatever,” he said. “Like you care. I’m gone. Have a nice motorcycle ride back to your church where you can have fun pretending to be some kind of saint we all know you aren't.”

“This was our house. Mine and hers. I know she’d sneak over to the rectory every once in a while and let you wail on her for a night. But I got her the rest of the time. I cooked her breakfast. I answered her fan mail. I put her to bed when she fell asleep at her desk writing. I rubbed her back when she was sore from overworking herself. And when she got all wrought up over you, it was me she cried on. No, she and I never had sex. That’s true. But we had love, real love that didn’t take anything out of us, that didn’t bruise us or break us. I loved her without hurting her. You asked me if I, a virgin, could teach her what sex should be? No, course not. Hell no. But at least I can teach her what love should be like. And she knows it too.”

“Why did you leave him?"The sigh that was Nora’s first answer billowed out in front of her in a cloud of white. "Winter," she finally said, "can be so beautiful and so cruel. Cruel and cold. And if you live in the presence of winter you never have summer." Nora stepped close to him and put her nose at his cheek. "You smell like summer.”

“Hey, bad girl,” came the deep, sexy voice of The Griffin himself. “Can’t believe the Pope letyou out of the Vatican.”

“Fetishes…they’re the pet you feed or the beast that eats you. We’ll feed your beast until it’s tamed.”

“No safe word can protect the heart.”

“Can I take a moment here to tell you both how cute your accents are when you're angry?"Wesley and his father both looked at her, Wesley in shock, his father in disgust."Okay, that's a 'no' then. Carry on.”

“Watch out for those overdue fines..... Oh I think I can afford them”

“Miracles do happen. You just admitted to a mistake. What was your mistake? Not f-cking me sooner?''It was my mistaken-' he turned and met her eyes '-thinking we had all the time in the world.”

“We can only sacrifice so much of ourselves in a relationship before there's nothing left to love or be loved.”

“...Jamison appeared in the doorway with a cooler."Thank you, Alfred," Griffin said, taking the supplies. "There's a thousand dollars in the cookie jar. Go buy yourself something pretty.""I will purchase a firearm and shoot you with it," Griffin's butler said, bowing elegantly. "Master Griffin."He left the room...”

“Alfred, I need ice and that vitamin K goop. To the nursery. Stat.""I loathe you, Master Griffin," came a British accent over the intercom."Thanks, Alfred," Griffin answered and came back to the bed."Is your butler's name really Alfred?""No. It's Jamison, I think. Can't remember. I changed it to Alfred years ago. My first crush on a dude was Batman...”

“Master Griffin, I would marry my own mother for the excuse to stab my eyes out with her brooches than to see anything under your kilt," the man's voice said with an elegant aplomb. "Where would you like your guest's things, sir?”

“Welcome to the world of being owned. You'll like it. Until you hate it." Nora”

“I became obsessed with the one question-when was it, when were we, irrevocable? When did all the little tumblers fall into place and our fate was locked in and it became impossible for us to be anything other than what we became? When was the guilty moment?”

“God, I love a man with a big vocabulary.”

“Watch out. Bras are often booby-trapped.”

“Words are the thread in the fabric of the universe.”

“The same wind that blows us off course can turn and carry us home.”

“Rule #1: Hurt, but do not harm.”

“Zach, this isn't a game, you know. I don't just write it. I live it. I'm a Domme, a female Dominant. There aren't a lot of us around. Most Dominants are men. Technically I'm Switch since I can top and bottom, but if I show up on your doorstep, get ready to say ouch. I'm not good at it - I'm amazing at it. So good at it that I'm as famous down here for my skills with a whip as I am in the straight world for my skills with a pen.”

“Hurt but do not harm?” Zach asked. “What’s the difference?” “Hurt is a bruise on the outside.” Nora sipped her mineral water delicately. “Harm is a bruise on the inside. If you’re a masochist, pain feels like love to you. Not being hurt is what hurts.”

“There are only two reasons why you leave someone you're still in love with - either it's the right thing to do, or it's the only thing to do.”

“Stick them in the Blue Room. And no interruptions for the next couple of hours, please. My guest and I will be fucking. Two hours, Nora?”“At least,” she agreed.“Better make it three, Alfred.” Griffin shifted Nora higher on his shoulder and continued up the stairs.“This is going to be a long summer, isn’t it?” she asked.“Eight and a half inches long, if you’ll recall.”

“Good men don't hit women. Good men only hit the women who want to be hit.”

“Tell me, have you ever had sex in the back of a Rolls Royce?" -Kingsley”

“I want to own you," Griffin whispered into Michael's ear. Michael smiled and for the first time in his life knew exactly what to say and how to say it. "You already do.”

“Can I call you Mick? Michael's too formal. I'm not formal. You're lucky I've even got pants on today.”

“I know you want to fuck me. And I know you wish you didn’t. So how about we compromise and you can sit here and say, ‘No, Nora,’ ‘Don’t, Nora,’ ‘Stop, Nora,’ and I’ll ignore all those protests and slide right down on your cock anyway? And I’ll do it because no and don’t and stop aren’t your safe word. So you can finally get fucked and still sleep like a baby in your big lonely bed tonight feeling all clean and shiny and virginal because, after all, you did say ‘no’ and that awful Nora Sutherlin just wouldn’t listen.”

“Your mind is both fascinating and repulsive.”

“Scar tissue, she'd once read, was the strongest of all tissues. Maybe Soren's heart was so strong because it was so scarred.”