Quotes from Teresa Denys

I knew that love would not turn the silver devil into an angel. He would remain what he was--subtle yet childish, unfeeling yet passionate, lost irretrievably to everything but his own desire. But he loved me--and I loved him, now and forever.

He held his hand out to me without speaking; and it was then, as I went to him like a falcon flying to his fist, that I realized I loved him.

In moments the whole assembly was rocking with jeering laughter as I stood ridiculously before them. My hands clenched uncontrollably; I had been prepared for any humiliation but the martyrdom of laughter.

I will not have you hazard your life, Felicia. It is too precious to me." "And is yours less so to me? Domenico, whether you live or die, let me share it!

He sat on his horse unmoving, a somber black figure in startling contrast to the vivid colors about him, the sun dazzling on his white gold hair. Unlike the duke and his bastard, there was no laughter in his face, and his eyes were not searching the housefronts for diversion-instead, he was staring intently straight up at my window.

She stared at him breathlessly, seething. It was like hurling herself against a wall of granite, she thought disjointedly; fighting against him hurt her. But if she yielded to the unreasoned impulse of her love at this moment and flung herself into his arms in contrite tears, she would never come so close again to the citadel in his soul that he let no one approach unscathed.

Between the sheets he is a monarch, a very god.

I knew then, looking up at him, that I had been deceiving myself, calling this feeling by any name but love. Lust for the beautiful animal who had seduced me, fear of the vicious tyrant, compassion for the haunted man who cried like a lost child in my arms—they were only part of what I felt for him.

Kindness is a painless thing to give, and easy, a sop to those you do not need. Friendship and kindness have nought to do with this.' For a moment, the look in his eyes, as brilliant as an eagle's in the harsh inscrutability of his face, terrified her. 'I am not kind to the air I breathe, nor the food I eat, nor to you.

I forbid you to go." "I am not yours to forbid. Comfort your pride with your conquest!

I did not dare look back at Domenico. Sprawled catlike in the silver chair, he was watching me; I could feel his eyes resting on my bare shoulders as actual as a touch.

The duke nodded, his beautiful face full of catlike satisfaction. "But since then I have conquered a sterner fortress." His eyes mocked me. "And now I enter it freely.

I am not kind to the air I breathe, nor the food I eat, nor to you.

Those fierce animal passions of his were his masters, not his slaves, and he was as much their victim as those he punished when he was in their grip. And despite what he had done to me tonight, I knew that his desire was real. Even if all his need was for a living body and arms to hold him, it was still a bitter desperate need.

I tell him of damnation, but I doubt he fears anything but the darkness in his own mind.

He was watching me scientifically; there was no emotion in him at all. There was an assessing gleam in the hooded black eyes, a satiric set to his mouth, and I knew with fatal clarity that I had been duped. The rapturous tenderness was only a ploy to win my response

If you don't love your characters who else will?

Screw the punch; you want a knock-out, don't you?

A great ruff brushed his firm jaw; his supple prowl had become a conscious elegance, as though he had put on majesty as a whore puts on paint, as a mask and as a weapon.

Now I had new fears; not of him but of myself and of the drugging rule my body could exert over my mind. ...I was lost to hungers I had not known I possessed.

Then, with sensation of plunging into an unknown sea, I moved to lay my lips on his, unurged, uninvited, kissing him for the first time entirely of my own will.

He was wearing black, only the starched ruff relieving the deathliness of it—but the look on his face was amused, carefree, beauty and charm wiping out all the cruelty, his ruffled hair shining like floss against the horse's flank. He turned and saw me, and his eyes narrowed.

Domenico's smile was breathtakingly beautiful, but his devil's look blazed behind it.

Domenico's lashes drooped, veiling his eyes.