“You Mademoiselle are hardly in a position to remonstrate. The entire world has no doubt been at your feet from the cradle.”“Would you care to join them?” She was teasing but testing her powers too in a feminine display of vanity.She was too perfect he thought, as she stood provocatively nude before him, too exotic, too tempting, too assured of her extravagant beauty. “Perhaps some other time,” his gaze having shuttered slightly, the familiar sardonic half-lidded gaze of the Duc de Vec once again regarding her…”

“…she sipped her drink and tried not to stare at Dalgliesh. But he was murderously handsome, dark as a gypsy, with sleepy, bedroom eyes, his hunter’s gaze shuttered now that he was lounging relaxed in his chair, his brandy glass resting on his chest. His legs were stretched out before him…”

“…‘I haven’t seen you before.’ His voice was velvet soft, lazy with provocation. But his gaze wasn’t lazy; it was predatory, like an animal on the scent. ‘My father and I are down from Scotland’ Zelda replied, half breathless under the unmistakable lust in his eyes, the warmth of his hand still tingling on her skin; her heart suddenly pounding. Their eyes held for a moment-pale blue and amethyst-and a flurry of ripe unguarded expectation shimmered in the air. Hotspur and graphic. Alec recovered first because he wasn’t given to blind impetuosity.”

“After she was gone there would be no one who knew the whole of her life. She did not even know the whole of it! Perhaps she should have written some of it down...but really what would have been the point in that? Everything passed, she would too. This perspective offered her an unexpected clarity she nearly enjoyed, but even with this new clarity the world offered no more explanation for itself than it ever had.”

“There was a part of her she hadn’t yet allowed to be born because it was too beautiful for this place”

“There can be no fooling ourselves into thinking this is something other than what it is—the willful ejection of Molly from our nest. It’s too late for second thoughts, anyway. She has to be moved into her dorm in time for freshman orientation. It’s been marked on the kitchen calendar for weeks—the expiration date on her childhood.”

“She writhed helplessly against his steely grip, her frantic movement only furthering the progress of his softly caressing tongue. In moments, Hazard forced a shuddering moan from her and quivering she gasped in shallow rapturous sighs.”