“Then, like a scene in a comedy - their lips but a breath away from touching - the door to the library burst open and Sam charged into the room like a bull, a map in his hands and Jasper hot on his heels.Bloody hell, they had brilliant timing.”

“London opens to you like a novel itself. [...] It is divided into chapters, the chapters into scenes, the scenes into sentences; it opens to you like a series of rooms, door, passsage, door. Mayfair to Piccadilly to Soho to the Strand.”

“I wasn’t sure if I was charmed by his reluctance to share a bed with a girl or insulted that, apparently, I wasn’t hot enough for him to charge the mattress like a bull.”

“His brain was simmering and bubbling within the cracking tenement of the skull.Flames burst forth from his skull like a corolla,shrieking like voices: -Hell! Hell! Hell! Hell! Hell!”

“His nostrils flared, he was breathing like a picadored bull.”

“Without warning, Packard reaches out--I think he's going to touch my cheek, but he slides his hand around the nape of my neck and pulls me to him, kissing me warm and strong, lips soft, breath like coffee. The kiss takes me by surprise. My whole body wants to follow deeper into him, but he pulls away, and we're looking into each other's eyes, and the moment stops. And everything seems to fall out beneath me."Good luck," he whispers."Packard--"He opens the door. "It's okay."I stare at the open door. It feels like a closed door. And I leave.”