“Not the title. Not the riches. Not the bravery. Not the glory. Just the man. The simple man, standing before her, looking into her eyes as if he saw just the woman. For the first time in their lives, they were truly alone.—From The Dulcet Duke”

“He had her alone in the garden. Her moist lips. The moonlight in her eyes. A lesser man would be merely tempted. A greater man would surely resist. A man like him would indulge, and without regret. —From The Dulcet Duke”

“And then I saw the way he looked at her... like he was a blind man, seeing the sun for the very first time.”

“There comes a time in every scoundrel’s life when he catches a glimpse of what he might have been. Only if he catches it in the reflection of the right woman’s eye, is there hope for reform. —From The Dulcet Duke”

“When he looked up at Annabel, he was just a man, looking at a woman, praying and hoping that she loved him the way he loved her.”

“The first time Ree kissed a man it was not a man, but Gail acting as a man, and as the kissing progressed and Gail acting as a man pushed her backwards onto a blanket of pine needles in shade and slipped her tongue deep into Ree's mouth, Ree found herself sucking on the wiggling tongue of a man in her mind, sucking that plunging tongue of the man in her mind until she tasted morning coffee and cigars and spit leaked from between her lips and down her chin. She opened her eyes then and smiled, and Gail yet acting the man roughed up her breasts with grabs and pinches, kissed her neck, murmuring and Ree said, "Just like that! I want it to be just like that!" There came three seasons of giggling and practice, puckering readily anytime they were alone, each being the man and the woman, each on top and bottom, pushing for it with grunts or receiving it with signs. The first time Ree kissed a boy who was not a girl his lips were soft and timid on hers, dry and unmoving, until finally she had to say it and did, "Tongue, honey, tongue," and the boy she called honey turned away saying, "Yuck!”