“I’m not a gentleman, I’m a nobleman, a distinction I suspect you understand very well.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“You may set your mind at rest, Miss Anstruther-Wetherby." He glanced down, the planes of his face granite-hard. "I'm not marrying you because of any social stricture. That, if you consider it, is a nonsensical idea. Cynsters, as you well know, do not give a damn about social strictures. Society, as far as we're concerned, can think what it pleases—it does not rule us."
"But… if that's the case—and given your reputation I can readily believe it is—why insist on marrying me?"
"Because I want to."
The words were delivered as the most patently obvious answer to a simple question. Honoria held on to her temper. "Because you want to?"
He nodded.
"That's it? Just because you want to?"
The look he sent her was calculated to quell. "For a Cynster, that's a perfectly adequate reason. In fact, for a Cynster, there is no better reason."
He looked ahead again; Honoria glanced at his profile. "This is ridiculous. You only set eyes on me yesterday, and now you want to marry me?"
Again he nodded.
"Why?"
The glance he shot her was too brief for her to read. "It so happens I need a wife, and you're the perfect candidate." With that, he altered their direction and lengthened his stride even more.
"I am not a racehorse."
His lips thinned, but he slowed--just enough so she didn't have to run. They'd gained the graveled walk that circled the house. It took her a moment to replay his words, another to see their weakness. "That's still ridiculous. You must have half the female population of the ton waiting to catch your handkerchief every time you blow your nose."
He didn't even glance her way. "At least half."
"So why me?"
Devil considered telling her--in graphic detail. Instead, he gritted his teeth and growled: "Because you're unique."
"Unique?"
Unique in that she was arguing.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“I'm a Cynster--I've been raised to acquire, defend, and protect. My family is the core of my existence--without a family, without children, I'd have nothing to protect, no reason to acquire.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“You like my kisses - and I like kissing you. Why deny ourselves such innocent pleasure?”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“She drew a swift breath, and let it out on the words: "I love you—more than I've ever loved anyone. I love you so profoundly it goes beyond all reason. And I could never let you go—let you be taken from me—that would be the same as letting life itself go, because you are life to me.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“My brand of persuasion doesn't work well at a distance.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“Sane women did not marry tyrants.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“he'd slumped beside her. " You can't fear losing me half as much as I fear losing you." It had been a grudging admission; he'd thought her already asleep.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“You are riding for a fall, Your Grace,"
"I'll be riding you before Christmas.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“Honoria ground her teeth. "What on earth am I to do with you?"
Devil's features hardened, "Marry me." His voice was a frustrated growl. "The rest will follow naturally.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“It was not the first time she'd been kissed, yet it was.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“They were also invincibly arrogant, a characteristic fueled by the fact that they were, by and large, as talented as they thought themselves, a situation which engendered in less-favored mortals a certain reluctant respect. Not that Cynsters demanded respect - they simply took it as their due”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“It appeared that his sister, usually an irresistible force, had finally met a sufficiently immovable object.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“— Je vous veux. Maintenant. Au cas où il n’aurait pas encore compris son message, elle ajouta : — Ce soir. Devil sentit le désir monter en flèche, triomphant, impérieux. Douloureusement conscient des mains d’Honoria glissant sur son torse gonflé, il s’obligea à demander : — En êtes-vous sûre ? L’exaspération brilla dans les yeux d’Honoria ; il secoua la tête. — Je parle de ce soir. Du reste, il ne doutait pas. Son exaspération ne disparut pas. — Oui ! dit-elle — et elle l’embrassa.”
― Stephanie Laurens, quote from Devil's Bride
“There is no point in delaying crying. Sadness is like having a vicious alligator around. You can ignore it for only so long before it begins devouring things and you have to pay attention.”
― Lemony Snicket, quote from Why Is This Night Different from All Other Nights?
“Making good use of that room?” Lucius asked them, having a laugh with the trollop at his side. Oscar stood unwavering in the center of the hall, forcing Lucius to skirt around him.
“You’re a pig,” Camille replied, but he only squealed and snorted like a sow.
“Either of you figure out yet how we’re going to get home?” Lucius asked. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m perfectly content here for the time being.”
A pair of sloppy-looking men stumbled through the front door, obviously drunk, and howling like wolves. Oscar stepped up beside Camille, blocking her from their view. His shoulders and chest were the perfect shield against whatever misguided attentions the men might show her.
“When did you become concerned about the three of us sticking together?” she asked Lucius. “We haven’t set eyes on you since you disappeared into the orlop deck of the Londoner.”
Lucius nodded over his shoulder. “I’m being nursed back to health, can’t you see?”
She glared at him. Why someone like Lucius had survived the shipwreck instead of a worthier person like her father angered her. Maybe she really was cursed.
“You don’t have a plan, do you?” Lucius asked Oscar, who continued to block Camille from the two men anxiously waiting by the front door for someone to greet them. Lucius snorted a laugh. “Should’a guessed as much.”
Oscar took a step forward, pressing Camille between his chest and Lucius’s.
“What do you mean by that?”
Lucius laced his fingers together and bowed them, cracking his knuckles. “Just that everyone knew you were only good for dishing out orders that came from someone else.”
Camille placed one hand on Oscar’s chest and the other on Lucius and shoved them apart.
“Stop it,” she said. “I liked it better when you were out of sight, Lucius.”
― Angie Frazier, quote from Everlasting
“She couldn't live in denial of her own humanity.”
― Fuyumi Ono, quote from The Twelve Kingdoms: Sea of Shadow
“—¿Qué cuadro es ése? —preguntó el estudiante. —Psiquis.”
― Anton Chekhov, quote from Racconti
“The storerooms are full of hearts.
This is the city of spare parts.”
― Sylvia Plath, quote from Plath: Poems
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