“I'll wait. By the way, sex-me-up shoes?""I was following a theme.""Well." Reo turned her ankles, looked down. "They are pretty fabulous.""They are," Mira agreed."I was going to say the same about yours. What a terrific color.""Could we not talk about shoes in the box that still smells of evildoer?""You started it," Reo reminded her before she turned back to Mira.”

“When she brought Mira up, Eve gave Roarke another glance. "Don't talk to him," she warned. "He can get bitchy when he's in this deep. I don't know if we have any of that tea stuff.""I had it stocked, and I don't get bitchy. Bloody, buggering HELL."Eve just rolled her eyes and got the tea.”

“I changed your life.” She looked down at the peach they shared. “You changed min. I’m glad of it.” And back into his eyes. “Every day. I’m glad of it. I’d like a pond, and maybe something to sit on so we could watch the creepy, interesting fish.”“That would suit me very well.”She linked her arms around his neck, laid her cheek on his. Love finds a way, she thought.”

“Peabody, you never cease to amaze me.""One day I'll tell you about my granny and her five lovers." "Five lovers isn't abnormal for a woman's lifetime." "Not in her lifetime; last month. All at the same time." Peabody glanced up, deadpan. "She's ninety-eight. I hope to take after her.”

“She turned toward Roarke's office, then stopped in the doorway. He was at his console; captain of his ship. He'd drawn his hair back so it lay on his neck in a short, gleaming black tail. His eyes were cool, cool blue. The colour they were when his mind was fully occupied. He'd taken off his dinner jacket, his shirt was loose at the collar, the sleeves rolled up. There was something... just something about that look that always and forever grabbed her in the gut. She could look at him for hours, and at the end of it, still marvel that he belonged to her."Someone wants to hurt you," she thought. "I'm not going to let them.”

“She thinks you married me for power,” he said as they walked on. “Renee. As that’s what she would’ve done. The power and the money is one in the same to her.”“She’s wrong. I married you for the sex.” He grinned. “So sure of that am I that I work diligently to hold up my end of it.”

“He Sipped his coffee, watched the flames. "You gave me my life, you did," He insisted when Summerset made a protesting sound. "And I worked-in my fashion- to build this place. I asked you to tend it for me. You've never let me down. But I needed her. The one thing, the only thing that could make this place home.""She's not what I would have chosen for you""Oh, that I know""But she's right for you. The one for you." Despite, or maybe due to, her many flaws""I imagine she thinks the same thing about you".Memory in Death, Roarke and Summerset”