“The question, love, is whether you want me enough to take the risk.”

“I want you," he muttered. "Get rid of him and take me. The only risk is losing someone you don't have anyway. He's not what you need, Ella. I am""Unbelievable," I said in disgust."What's unbelievable?""Your ego. It's surrounded by its own cloud of antimatter. You're a black hole of...of hubris!”

“There were times in life when you had to take a risk that might end in failure. Because otherwise you would be haunted by what you hadn’t done... the paths you hadn’t taken, the things you hadn’t experienced.”

“May be, Churchill had pointed out, I should stop trying so hard not to love Hardy, and accept the some part of me might always want him. "Some things," he said, "you just have to learn to live with.""But you can't love someone new without getting over the last one.""Why not?""Because then the new relationship is compromised."Seeming amused, Churchill said that every relationship was compromised in one way or the other, and you were better off not picking at the edges of it.I disagreed. I felt I needed to let Hardy go completely. I just didn't know how. I hoped someday I might meet someone so compelling that I could take the risk of loving again. But I had serious doubts such a man existed.”

“Then he raised her enough to whisper in her ear, and while his voice was tender, his words were savage. "You're my woman, and no man or God or ghost will ever take you from me.”

“To be honest," I halfwhispered,"I don't feel as safe with him as Ido with you.""I know."A ghost of a smile touched my lips. "Howdo you know?""Think about what safety is, Ella.""Trust?""Yes, partly. But also an absence of risk."He unstuck a strand of hair from my dampcheek and tucked it back. "Maybe you needto take a risk. Maybe you need to be withsomeone who rattles you a little.”

“I saw the animal's body tense expectantly as he saw the treat in my palm. Unfortunately, it seemed in question as to whether the attraction was the biscuit or my hand.”