“Pulped in his crushing strength, his hug is enough to smear me over his body like war paint.”

“After his kisses and hugs it feels like without them my body will fall apart into pieces.”

“Love is like a man who doesn't know his own strength: he means well, but sometimes he crushes you.”

“My brother, Jason, came into the bar, then, and sauntered over to give me a hug. He knows that women like a man who's good to his family and also kind to the disabled, so hugging me is a double whammy of recommendation.”

“... all his strength gathered in his hips and chest and his arms wrapped around me and his breath jabbed soft and hot in my ear and a note of tenderness was there at the end like a lovely curlicue and I liked him because there was no disguising the honest male gladness that went from his body out to mine.”

“I have often thought him since, like the steam hammer, that can crush a man or pat an eggshell, in his combination of strength with gentleness”