Quotes from Anne Stuart

Besides, the old man was out of shape, smoked and drank--a walking heart attack.

The original Shiro-sama failed, of course, and was ordered by the emperor to commit ritual suicide in his temple in the mountains. He did, and his followers cremated his body and put his bones in a sacred urn to be guarded until the time he was reborn. And that's the Hayashi Urn? she said. A funeral jar? And I kept my cookies in it?

I'm supposed to trust you? No, he said. He picked up the phone. Put her sister on. A second later he handed the small silver device to her. Summer felt a second of panic—after all, this tiny piece of metal and circuitry unlocked doors, turned off death traps and blew up houses. God knows what would happen if she pushed the wrong button.

Taka reached over and put his hand on hers as the plane began to climb. She didn't look his way, didn't open her eyes, but her hand turned beneath his and caught his fingers, entwining them with hers. Until they were high in the sky over the Pacific and she fell asleep and her hand loosened in his. And still he held it. Until he, too, fell asleep.

Have you not explained to your friend? She seems confused. I've told her what she needs to know. I would suspect, Nephew, that she needs to know more. Particularly when I see how you look at her. Taka gave another sudden start, but didn't turn. What did his uncle see when he looked at her? Murderous tendencies? Vast annoyance? Or something else? And she looks at you the same way, the old man added, and it was Summer's turn to jump. Definitely vast annoyance, then. And something else.

Summer Hawthorne was simply more trouble than she was worth. At least as far as anyone with any sense would realize. Unfortunately, Taka's common sense seemed to have deserted him in the last few days.

She looked away, meeting Taka's dark, pitiless gaze. Silently, he mouthed something unbelievable. She was sure it was, I love you.

This man was truly like a scorpion, a poisonous sting when one least expected it.

No soy un caballero y probablemente no sea lo que tú quieres, pero puedes estar segura de que voy a ser lo que necesitas

You've been pinning for him these last three years, God knows why. Admittedly he's gorgeous, but you're hardly the type to be overset by simple beauty. Why? Because he has sad eyes, she could have said. Because he tries so very hard to be bad, to be mean, to be cruel, and all you have to do is look past the studied ennui to see a hurt little boy trying to emerge. And yes, because he's bloody gorgeous.

If she simply stayed in the country she would never have to see him again. Viscount Rohan was notoriously unmoved by the countryside, avoiding it at all costs. If she could just convince Lina to remove to her Dorset estate then soon or later Rohan would go abroad, and maybe he'd fall off a mountain or marry a Chinese princess or be eaten by a tiger.

She felt hot, strong, alive against him, and he found he had this crazy urge to move his mouth down to the side of her neck, to press it against her, to taste her skin. He wanted to feel her breasts, wanted to pull her T-shirt up and feel her hot skin against his. Damn, he wanted her.

He kissed the salty tears from her cheeks, her jaw, her neck. And then he kissed her mouth, slowly at first, tasting her pain and despair. Tasting her desire. He didn't know whether he turned her in his arms, or whether she shifted herself. He only knew she was astride him, facing him, her long legs wrapped around his hips, and the kissing had gone long past comfort.

He slid his arm under her waist, hauled her up, and entered her that way, sliding in deep, so deep, and her guttural cry was a heartbreaking pleasure. He couldn't stop. She wouldn't let him. She twisted her head around and kissed him, and he wanted to keep on and on, to fill her mouth, her body, her soul with him. To have her take everything and then want more.

Come along, my brave one. Your wife and son want to see you.

Mind you she was quite exquisite when she wasn't on a tirade.

A strange stillness had settled over him, as well, a waiting. The earth was shifting beneath him, and he had the hideous suspicion that his entire life was about to change if he didn't get out of there, now. Away from the unexpected, undeniable lure of the dowdy young woman in front of him.

She came at him sideways, away from his legs, reaching down to pull the duct tape away. He didn't even notice the pain, spitting out the rag someone had put in his mouth earlier. She turned, and handed him a bottle of water. You're probably thirsty. The drug I gave you tends to make your mouth dry. No, I think that was caused by the sock someone stuffed in there, he said. Your work?

And she didn't want to escape. She wanted to be kissed in the sunlight by a gorgeous man. She just wanted some other man, not this complicated creature who had more secrets than she could even begin to imagine. But it didn't matter what her brain wanted. Her body, her mouth, her soul wanted him, and she heard a quiet little sound of desire and knew that it had come from her.

He slid his hands under her butt and she could feel him pressing against her, hot and hard and sleek. And then he thrust inside, deep, fast, burying himself inside her, breaking past whatever trace of innocence she still had remaining.

I say a stream leading into a pond, where we can have swans and ducks and absolutely no geese, and we'll live very happily, two old-maid sisters. I do think we should have cats, a great many of them. They won't go after the ducks, will they?" "We'll have cats that are afraid of ducks

He touched her, and she came again at his touch, her mouth pulling at him. He was beyond gentleness. He shoved her back against the blanket of clothes and moved between her legs. He went in hard, fast, deep, only barely able to control himself. She wrapped her legs around his, and he reached down and pulled them higher, up around his hips, so that he was deeper still, and she was tight, clasping, milking him with the power of her climax, which was almost sweetly painful.

I want to wake up with you in the morning, I want to fight with you in the afternoon, and I want to make love on any and every available surface in this place. And then I want to do it all over again. Come upstairs with me, Sophie. I'll keep you warm. I'll keep the darkness away.

You can get an erection less than an hour after I've tried to kill you? she said in disbelief. Just how perverse are you? Let me show you.