“Alan had still stopped her in her tracks with one of those slow, devastating kisses at her side door.He hadn't insisted on coming in.Shelby might have been grateful for that if she hadn't suspected it was just part of his planned siege.Confuse the enemy, assail her with doubts, leave her with her nerve ends tingling.Very clever strategy.”

“If there had been any doubt in her mind that John hadn't placed some emotional claim on her, then it was gone in that second. Pure male possession marked his kiss.”

“I stopped. She was bleeding after all. Perfect lines crossed her wrists, not near any crucial veins, but enough to leave wet red tracks across her skin. She hadn;t hit her veins when she did this; death hadn't been her goal.”

“...the only thing that had tethered her to the earth had been him and it was strange, but she felt welded to him on some core level now. He had seen her at her absolute worst, at her weakest and most insane, and he hadn't looked away. He hadn't judged and he hadn't been burned.It was as if in the heat of her meltdown they had melted together.This was more than emotion. It was a matter of soul.”

“Things might have been different if she hadn't been able to drift; if she'd had to concentrate on her next meal, instead of dwelling on all the injuries she felt we'd done her. An unearned income encourages self-pity in those already prone to it.”

“And he stood so closely behind her that she felt his breath feather her neck. Blanche leaped away, putting a polite distance between them, her heart suddenly thundering in her chest. His body hadn't touched hers, but it might as well have, for she had felt his heat.”