“Ien stopped her voice with more kisses, more promises of a world filled with only them.”

“Romance is a tender kiss with a lingering promise of more to come.”

“He had to kiss her. He had to. It was as basic and elemental as his breath, his blood, his very soul. And when he did...The earth stopped spinning.The birds stopped singing.Everything in the world came to a halt, everything but him and her and the feather-light kiss that connected them.”

“He answered her with a kiss. It was more than hungry; it was filled with months' worth of fear and uncertainty and longing. It was a thousand I'm sorrys and ten thousand I love yous.”

“Alice watched and listened and focused beyond the words the actress spoke. She saw her eyes become desperate, searching, pleading for truth. She saw them land softly and gratefully on it. Her voice felt at first tentative and scared. Slowly, and without getting louder, it grew more confident and then joyful, playing sometimes like a song. Her eyebrows and shoulders and hands softened and opened, asking for acceptance and offering forgiveness. Her voice and body created an energy that filled Alice and moved her to tears. She squeezed the beautiful baby in her lap and kissed his sweet-smelling head.The actress stopped and came back into herself. She looked at Alice and waited.“Okay, what do you feel?”“I feel love. It’s about love.”

“The pleasures of the world are deceitful; they promise more than they give. They trouble us in seeking them, they do not satisfy us when possessing them and they make us despair in losing them.”