“As Hardy Cates stood there looking at me, really seeing me for the first time, it felt like the whole world had been snatched up in a great unseen hand, its motion arrested.”

“I'd sell my soul to have you. In my whole life, you'll always be what I wanted most."~ Hardy Cates”

“I think you could probably thaw out a glacier, honey." -Hardy Cates”

“It seemed to be a matter of general agreement that Hardy Cates was born for trouble, and sooner or later he would find it.”

“Hardy Cates," I said, coming into the room, "you behave, or I'll step on your tube."The nurse seemed taken aback by my unsympathetic bedside manner. But Hardy's gaze met mine in a moment of bright, hot voltage, and he relaxed, reassured in a way that cooing sympathy could never have done. "That only works if it's a breathing tube," he told me.”

“I had to admit the man looked amazing in jeans. The ancient denim clung lightly to his hips and followed the long lines of some remarkable thigh muscles. And although I made a point of not checking out his rear view, my peripheral vision was having a very good day.” ~ Haven Travis on Hardy Cates”

“Bitterly I wondered if Hardy was going to overshadow every relationship for the rest of my life, haunting me like a ghost. I didn't know how to let him go. I'd never even had him.”