“He was forever dwelling on his failures. He held them up to the light and examined them in minute detail, like necklaces that had tangled in a drawer.”

“He cupped her cheek, the muscles of his forearm burning with the slow thrusts inside her. “You’re beautiful.” Unable to have even a few inches between them, he caught her mouth, swallowing her moans. Cheek to cheek, he dragged in her scent. Murmuring her name, he held her as she broke.”

“She turned into his mouth again and her taste bloomed on his tongue. His stroking gentled until he pulled his hand free, cradling her close. No ghosts, no false starts, just them.”

“She looked again at Fitz Alan. He was bent over with his hands in the water as if to wash them, but he looked stuck in the awkward position and did not move so much as a muscle. Curiosity finally loosened her tongue. "What are you doing?""Fishing," he whispered.Kenric gave a snort of laughter. "Ian Duncan is the only man I know who can catch fish that way.""What way?" Claudia asked."With his hands," Kenric answered. "Fitz Alan thinks his face irresistible, even to fish. See how he smiles down at them? He thinks to seduce a fat trout into his arms."Claudia giggled. Even Fitz Alan's smile grew broader.”

“What? Quinn's one of them? I just thought he was an a*shole!”

“Not long after the book came out I found myself being driven to a meetingby a professor of electrical engineering in the graduate school I of MIT. He said that after reading the book he realized that his graduate students were using on him, and had used for the ten years and more he had been teaching there, all the evasive strategies I described in the book — mumble, guess-and-look, take a wild guess and see what happens, get the teacher to answer his own questions, etc.But as I later realized, these are the games that all humans play when othersare sitting in judgment on them.”

“A teacher in class islike a man in the woods at night with a powerful flashlight in his hand.Wherever he turns his light, the creatures on whom it shines are aware of it,and do not behave as they do in the dark. Thus the mere fact of his watchingtheir behavior changes it into something very different. Shine where be will,he can never know very much of the night life of the woods.”