“What attention would death pay to his pathetic voice? He was powerless without her.”

“If you want to make people pay attention to what you're saying, you don't raise your voice but lower it: this is what really commands attention.”

“He always apologized, and sometimes he would even cry because of the bruises he'd made on her arms or legs or her back. He would say that he hated what he'd done, but in the next breath tell her she'd deserved it. That if she'd been more careful, it wouldn't have happened. That if she'd been paying attention or hadn't been so stupid, he wouldn't have lost his temper.”

“Last night, I thought we were going to begin.”“Begin what?”She let out a soft sigh and said, “You know, begin”His voice held a smile when he replied, “We did, Abby. Couldn’t you tell?”She pulled his pillow to her chest and whispered, “Not really.”“Then you weren’t paying much attention” he muttered.”

“His passion she had expected, even his expertise, for a man of his years would not have been without women. She had even, in the long days of yearning, suspected his tenderness, which led him now to kiss her temples and the inner crook of her elbow with the same attention he gave to her lips and breasts. What she had not anticipated was that he would be vulnerable as well.”

“I would have thought you’d pay more attention to your closest competition.”“I would—if you were competition worth paying attention to.”