“Michael, Eleanor is without a doubt the most beautiful woman who has ever or will ever live. If you could take a nighttime thunderstorm and turn it into a woman, you would have a very good idea what she looks like. And a fairly good idea how she behaves as well.”

“She seemed like the type of woman who'd help you forget about your headache by setting your bed on fire.”

“Once upon a time,” Nora said, as she fluttered a series of kisses over his shoulders that sent every nerve in his body reeling, “a very poor girl from a fucked-up family became a famous writer with a wicked pen and an even more wicked tongue who made seven figures a year. And she went everywhere she wanted to and did everything she wanted to. And nobody ever tried to stop her. And she had her own pet Angel who needed to learn how to talk. So guess what she did?” “What?” Michael asked. He laughed in surprise as Nora slammed him down onto his back and slid on top of him. She brought her mouth onto his and forced his lips apart. “She gave him her tongue.”

“I won't ask you to stay," he said. Eleanor could barely look at him althought there was nothing more she wanted to do than memorize every line and angle of his face. "But I want to."She inhaled sharply and forced a smile."I won't say 'yes' if you do ask...but I want to.”

“How easily you forgive, Eleanor. How freely youabsolve the sins of others. Tell me, little one, when thetime comes, how will you absolve yours?With the first lash of the whip Nora felt a strip of fireburn across her back. She cried out from a pain soferocious she nearly choked on it.Like this, Søren, she dared answer only in her mind.This is how.”

“My, my, my…” She sighed, affecting a Southern drawl she no doubt stole from Wesley. “I see temptation has come a knockin’ and you have answered the door…”

“I’ll come back,” she promised. “I’ll always come back to you.”“I know,” he said with cold, calm arrogance. “If I didn’t believe that, I wouldn’t let you go.”“Believe it. It’s true.” She took a step back. Then another. “Always.”“Eleanor, if you have any mercy in that dark heart of yours, when you leave right now, you willwalk and not run.”... ...crawl and she didn’t fly.She ran. Down the hall she ran as if the hounds of hell nipped at her heels. She ran as if Godhimself had ordered her to. She ran as if her life depended on it and in that moment she mighthave sworn that it did.She didn’t know why she ran. She didn’t know who or what waited for her in the White Room.She only knew she had to get there as fast as she could and whoever it was, he was worthrunning to.”