Lisa Kleypas

"Nature had squandered an unreasonable quantity of male beauty on this undeserving creature."

"Hell was not a pit of fire and brimstone. Hell was waking up alone, the sheets wet with your tears and your seed, knowing the woman you had dreamed of would never come back to you."

"I am running after you, and life, in desperate pursuit. My dream is that someday you will both turn and let me catch you. That dream carries me through every night... I have enclosed a hundred kisses in this letter. You must count them out carefully and not lose any."

"One glance and I knew exactly who and what he was. The classic alpha male, the kind who had spurred evolution forward about five million years ago by nailing every female in sight. They charmed, seduced, and behaved like bastards, and yet women were biologically incapable of resisting their magic DNA."

"All right, then, she snapped, do as you please! Perhaps afterward we could manage a coherent discussion. Twisting beneath him, she flopped onto her stomach. Christopher went still. After a long hesitation, she heard him ask in a far more normal voice, What are you doing?I’m making it easier for you, came her defiant reply. Go on, start ravishing. Another silence. Then, Why are you facing downward?Because that’s how it’s done. Beatrix twisted to look at him over her shoulder. A twinge of uncertainty caused her to ask, Isn’t it?His face was blank. Has no one ever told you?No, but I’ve read about it. Christopher rolled off her, relieving her of his weight. He wore an odd expression as he asked, From what books?Veterinary manuals. And of course, I’ve observed the squirrels in springtime, and farm animals and-She was interrupted as Christopher cleared his throat loudly, and again. Darting a confused glance at him, she realized that he was trying to choke back amusement. Beatrix began to feel indignant. Her first time in a bed with a man, and he was laughing. Look here, she said in a businesslike manner, I’ve read about the mating habits of over two dozen species, and with the exception of snails, whose genitalia is on their necks, they all— She broke off and frowned. Why are you laughing at me?Christopher had collapsed, overcome with hilarity. As he lifted his head and saw her affronted expression, he struggled manfully with another outburst. Beatrix. I’m . . . I’m not laughing at you. You are!No I’m not. It’s just . . . He swiped a tear from the corner of his eye, and a few more chuckles escaped. Squirrels . . . Well, it may be humorous to you, but it’s a very serious matter to the squirrels."

"You think I'd cheat on you? I demanded with all the innocent outrage I could muster. With another guy, no. With a cheeseburger . . . in a heartbeat."

"He shook his head, staring at her like a condemned man who beheld the face of his executioner. Aline, he whispered, Do you know what hell is?Yes. Her eyes overflowed. Trying to exist with your heart living somewhere outside your body. No. It's knowing that you have so little faith in my love, you would have condemned me to a lifetime of agony. His face contorted suddenly. To something worse than death."

"I didn't want to give you the one last part of myself that I couldn't take back. And then you were gone... And I realized it was already yours. It had been since the beginning. Except that I hadn't told you. It drove me mad, the thought that you would never know."

"It was finally becoming clear to her that love wasn't about finding someone perfect to marry. Love was about seeing through to the truth of a person, and accepting all their shades of light and dark. Love was an ability."

"I have so much love for you, I could fill rooms with it. Buildings. You’re surrounded by it wherever you go, you walk through it, breathe it...it’s in your lungs, and under your tongue, and between your fingers and toes... His mouth moved passionately over hers, urging her lips apart. It was a kiss to level mountains and shake stars from the sky. It was a kiss to make angels faint and demons weep...a passionate, demanding, soul-searing kiss that nearly knocked the earth off its axis. Or at least that was how Poppy felt about it."

"There are some experiences in life they haven't invented the right words for."

"For thousands of nights I dreamed of making love to you. No man on earth has ever hated sunrise as I do."

"Most lives are not distinguished by great achievements. They are measured by an infinite number of small ones. Each time you do a kindness for someone or bring a smile to his face, it gives your life meaning. Never doubt your value, little friend. The world would be a dismal place without you in it. (tweaked version of a passage from Scandal in Spring)"

"The letter had been crumpled up and tossed onto the grate. It had burned all around the edges, so the names at the top and bottom had gone up in smoke. But there was enough of the bold black scrawl to reveal that it had indeed been a love letter. And as Hannah read the singed and half-destroyed parchment, she was forced to turn away to hide the trembling of her hand. —should warn you that this letter will not be eloquent. However, it will be sincere, especially in light of the fact that you will never read it. I have felt these words like a weight in my chest, until I find myself amazed that a heart can go on beating under such a burden. I love you. I love you desperately, violently, tenderly, completely. I want you in ways that I know you would find shocking. My love, you don't belong with a man like me. In the past I've done things you wouldn't approve of, and I've done them ten times over. I have led a life of immoderate sin. As it turns out, I'm just as immoderate in love. Worse, in fact. I want to kiss every soft place of you, make you blush and faint, pleasure you until you weep, and dry every tear with my lips. If you only knew how I crave the taste of you. I want to take you in my hands and mouth and feast on you. I want to drink wine and honey from you. I want you under me. On your back. I'm sorry. You deserve more respect than that. But I can't stop thinking of it. Your arms and legs around me. Your mouth, open for my kisses. I need too much of you. A lifetime of nights spent between your thighs wouldn't be enough. I want to talk with you forever. I remember every word you've ever said to me. If only I could visit you as a foreigner goes into a new country, learn the language of you, wander past all borders into every private and secret place, I would stay forever. I would become a citizen of you. You would say it's too soon to feel this way. You would ask how I could be so certain. But some things can't be measured by time. Ask me an hour from now. Ask me a month from now. A year, ten years, a lifetime. The way I love you will outlast every calendar, clock, and every toll of every bell that will ever be cast. If only you—And there it stopped."

"I no longer believed in the idea of soul mates, or love at first sight. But I was beginning to believe that a very few times in your life, if you were lucky, you might meet someone who was exactly right for you. Not because he was perfect, or because you were, but because your combined flaws were arranged in a way that allowed two separate beings to hinge together."

"When you are in love' hypocrisy won over principle."

"You think you want me now. But you'll change. Someday you'll find it damned easy to forget about me. I'm a bastard. A servant, and not even an upper servant at that--"You're the other half of me." (Again The Magic)"

"I tried to curl around him, holding him with my arching body. His mouth was slow and searching, the kisses hard at first, then loosening as if unraveling from their own heat. The pleasure thickened, hard flushes rising through me, bringing the desire to full-slip ripeness."

"You can never be truly happy in a life unless you have known a sorrow. All terrible things we have gone through in life have created spaces inside us where happiness can live Not to mention love."

"Morality is only for the middle class, sweet. The lower class can't afford it, and the upper classes have entirely too much leisure time to fill"