“You are a cad,' he told himself. 'A cur. A bounder. A scoundrel. A ... human thesaurus.”

“Time had come to formulate a reason to abandon the gardens and leave Miss Bower to leech onto some other gentleman, preferably one who had a certain fondness for parasites.”

“Humans looked at the stars and they wished and they dreamed. He looked at the stars and knew they didn't matter. The stars were just chunks of glass in the black sky. No, the stars were meaningless.”

“Did you ever think"..."That Keenan didn't fall because he was being punished?"..."Maybe..."..."Just maybe he fell because he was favored.”

“And, because you are so enamored with our captain,” he held out his hand and grabbed hers, breaking her out of the trance. “I’m Royce, resident bad ass, all around swell motherfucker, and every woman's dream come true. Very nice to meet you.”

“He was realist enough to know he might never find the life partner he longed for, and dreamer enough not to quit looking”

“I hatethat moment when Aaron and I split – each time it happens, and ithappens a lot. He storms off, or I walk out on him and I have asplit second where I feel I’ve lost my grip, I’m falling off the edgeof the world, I’m yelling, “Help!” and no one hears me. I’m alone.But later, when you get a distance and you start to think it through,it feels like it might not be so bad.”