“She was petite, small in that way that made a man want to slay dragons.”

“Annabel looked down. Her hands were shaking. She couldn't do this. Not yet. She couldn't face the man she'd kissed who happened to be the heir to the man she didn't want to kiss but whos she probably was going to marry. Oh yes, and she could not forget that if she did marry the man she didn't want to kiss, she was likely to provide him with a new heir, thus cutting off the man she did want to kiss.”

“I want you. I want you now, in every way a man can want a woman.”

“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.”

“She was so beautiful it made her teeth ache.He made a mental note not to attempt poetry.”

“And, she was able to tell herself with some satisfaction, the man in question - one Colin Bridgerton - felt precisely the same way........His earth shook, his heart leaped, and Penelope knew without a doubt that his breath was taken away as well. For a good ten seconds.Falling off a horse tended to do that to a man.”

“I'm leaving!" she said, with, in her opinion, great drama and resolve.But he just answered her with a sly half smile, and said, "I'm following."And the bloody man remained two strides behind her the entire way home.”