Quotes from romance

A sideblog chronicling the most heart-fluttering quotes from the hundreds of romance novels I've whittled my time away reading. Owner is @larkspurlistens.

[quotesfromromance]

They were more or less reclining against one another now, Curtis on his back and Daniel on his side, which would have been pleasant if Curtis’s spine hadn’t been objecting so strenuously.

“I need to sit up,” he said with regret.

Daniel rolled away. Curtis had no idea what to say to bring him back. He sat up, legs apart with knees bent, and managed, “It’s jolly cold.”

“Should we huddle together for warmth?” enquired Daniel, moving as he spoke to position himself with his back to Curtis, leaning on his chest, seated between his legs. Curtis, heart beating a little too strongly, draped his arms over Daniel’s shoulders, and allowed himself to luxuriate in the closeness.

K.J. Charles, Think of England

[quotesfromromance]

“Are you still angry with me?” he quietly asked.

Without lifting her head from the comfort of his chest she answered, “Yes.”

He chuckled softly in the moonlight. “Should I apologise for being so concerned?”

Beverly Jenkins, Indigo

[quotesfromromance]

The absurd thought came to Curtis that if something had happened to da Silva, if there had been foul play, he would never touch his hair again. His throat tightened crazily then, and he stood alone in the desolate folly, choked by the absence of a man he barely knew.

K. J. Charles, Think of England

[quotesfromromance]

“I truly hoped you wouldn't come here.” He leaned forward again, resting his head against Curtis’s chest, and whispered, “I dreamed that you would.”

K. J. Charles, Think of England

[quotesfromromance]

“It doesn’t matter. You can wear a wig. Why do you need all this hair anyway? It makes you itch. You’re better off without it.”

“But then—” she sniffed adorably, so he got her his handkerchief. She buried her face and said something.

“What?”

“I’ll be so ugly,” she burst out, looking up at him with her bottom lip quivering. “And unfashionable. You hate unfashionable women!”

If only she knew. If only—he kept his eyes above her collarbone. “That’s irrelevant, Poppy.” He said it in his most friendly voice. “Your mother told you the truth about men: we don’t stay attracted to one woman very long. I love you, and I want you to be comfortable. I don’t care about your hair!”

She sniffed again and wiped away a few more tears.

“That doesn’t sound as if you love me.”

“Well, I do.” He grabbed the scissors. “I would love you even if your hair was as short as that possum’s.”

Eloisa James, An Affair Before Christmas

[quotesfromromance]

“She doted upon me,” Lydia told him, her blurry gaze still upon the page.

“Why shouldn’t she?” he said. “In your own dreadful way, you can be adorable.”

Loretta Chase, The Last Hellion

[quotesfromromance]

She eyed him and then said, “Don’t watch.”

He leaned back and closed his eyes. “I put all that behind me, remember? Besides, I have never had fantasies about women covered with dirt.”

Then he watched her from under his lashes because frankly, he was having his first fantasy about a woman covered with dirt.

Eloisa James, An Affair Before Christmas

[quotesfromromance]

She had reared not only her brother, she explained, but ten boy cousins as well—because she was the only one who could “manage the lot of ignorant savages.” Yet not one of the ingrates would take her to a professional match.

“Not even Polkinhorne’s bout with Carr,” she told Dain indignantly.

That famous match had also taken place in Devonport, two years ago.

“There were seventeen thousand spectators,” she said. “Would you please explain to me how one female would attract notice in such a crowd?”

“You are bound to attract notice, even amid seventy thousand,” he said. “You are the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen, as I distinctly recall telling you in Paris.”

She sat back, startled, her smooth cheeks turning pink. “Good grief, Dain, that was a flat-out compliment—and we’re not even making love.”

“I am a shocking fellow,” he said. “One never knows what astonishing thing I’ll say. Or when.”

Loretta Chase, Lord of Scoundrels

[quotesfromromance]

He threw open the door to the room and stopped, frozen on the threshold. Then he stepped through the doorway and closed the door behind him.

"Well, well, well," he said.

"Don't wake her," Elijah said.

Jemma looked utterly delectable, of course. She appeared to be wrapped in little more than a blanket, and was sleeping as soundly as a babe in his friend's arms. At least Elijah had a dressing gown on.

Eloisa James, This Duchess of Mine

[quotesfromromance]

Kate’s face was a touch too long, her chin a hair too pointed, her eyes a shade too big. Everything about her was too some thing. Even her mouth, which vexed him to no end with its endless stream of insults and opinions, was too full. It was a rare event when she actually had it closed and was treating him to a moment of blessed silence, but if he happened to look at her in that split second (for surely she could not be silent for much longer than that) all he saw were her lips, full and pouty, and—provided that she kept them shut and didn’t actually speak—eminently kissable.

Kissable?

Anthony shuddered. The thought of kissing Kate Sheffield was terrifying. In fact, the mere fact that he’d even thought of it ought to be enough to have him locked up in an asylum.

And yet…

Anthony collapsed in a chair.

And yet he’d dreamed about her.

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn

[quotesfromromance]

Lydia had stood outside St. George’s Church, Hanover Square, on Dain’s wedding day. Like her fellow journalists, she’d come only for the story. But when Dain had emerged from the church with his bride, his ebony eyes glowing in a most unsatanic way while his lady looked up so lovingly into his dark, harsh countenance…Well, the long and short of it was, Lydia had come perilously near bawling—in public, amid a crowd of her fellow reporters, no less.

Loretta Chase, The Last Hellion

[quotesfromromance]

“Since you made it clear you didn’t want to hear anything about him, I was obliged to act behind your back.”

“I understand. You had no choice.”

“And I should not distress you now, if I were not obliged to do something that you might never forgive.”

He swallowed nausea and pride in one gulp. “Jess, the only unforgivable thing you can do is leave me,” he said. “Se mi lasci mi uccido. If you leave me, I’ll kill myself.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” she said. “I should never leave you. Really, Dain, I cannot think where you get such addled ideas.”

Then, as though this explained and settled everything, she promptly returned to the main subject. 

Loretta Chase, Lord of Scoundrels

[quotesfromromance]

He took her hand and began to peel off her glove.

“You’d better stop that,” she said. “You’re only going to make matters worse.”

He pulled away the glove, and at the first glimpse of her fragile, white hand, all thoughts of negotiation fled. “I don’t see how matters could become worse,” he muttered. “I am already besotted with a needle-tongued, conceited, provoking ape leader of a lady.”

Her head jerked up, her grey eyes widening. “Besotted? You’re nothing like it. Vengeful is more like it. Spiteful.”

He went to work with speedy efficiency on the other glove. “I must be besotted,” he said evenly. “I have the imbecilic idea that you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. Except for your coiffure,” he added, with a disgusted glance at the coils and plumes and pearls. “That is ghastly.”

She scowled. “Your romantic effusions leave me breathless.”

He lifted her hand and pressed his mouth to her wrist.

“Sono il tuo schiavo,” he murmured.

He felt the jump of her pulse against his lips. “It means, ‘I am your slave,’” he translated, as she snatched her hand away. “Carissima. Dearest.”

She swallowed. “I think you had better stick to English.”

“But Italian is so moving,” he said. “Ti ho voluto dal primo momento che ti vedi.”

I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you.

“Mi tormenti ancora.”

You’ve tormented me ever since.

Loretta Chase, Lord of Scoundrels

[quotesfromromance]

Sascha had faced down a Psy butcher who’d killed without remorse, but she couldn’t continue speaking to Amara Aleine, couldn’t stand to listen to her sly whispers. Getting up, she walked out. Lucas came after her as she strode toward the woods. “I am not an emotional vampire!”

Her mate didn't miss a beat. “No, you’re not. And she’s a sociopath who you really shouldn’t be listening to.”

“I don’t pretend!” She turned, pushed at his chest. “I love you so goddamn much it tears me to pieces. Why the hell would I feel that if I was pretending?”

“Again,” Lucas said, holding her to him with his arms around her waist, “consider the source.”

She muttered and yelled some more, releasing the anger, before collapsing against his chest.

Hostage to Pleasure by Nalini Singh

[quotesfromromance]

“I love you,” she whispered.

He stroked his hand down her back. “Yeah, you do.”

“You’re supposed to say it back,” she said, pretending to be offended because the silliness kept the hope/fear at bay.

“Why?” He scowled at her. “You know you’re my heartbeat.”

Mine to Possess by Nalini Singh

[quotesfromromance]

His arms tightened around her. "Don't cry."

"I shall cry if I want to," she said fiercely. "Oh God, I suddenly understand widows' weeds."

"You mustn't—"

But she didn't listen to him. "Because if you die, I shan't want to wear anything but black," she said, a great sob rising in her throat. "I shall cry for a year and a day in my blacks, and no one can fault me."

This Duchess of Mine by Eloisa James

[quotesfromromance]

“I’ve actually been thinking I ought to provide Edwina with a dowry.”

The irony of the gesture was not lost on him. Back when he’d intended to wed Edwina, he’d planned to provide a dowry for Kate.

He peeked over at Kate to see her reaction.

He hadn’t, of course, made the offer just to gain her good favor, but he wasn’t so noble that he couldn’t admit to himself that he’d been hoping for a little more than the stunned silence she was displaying.

Then he realized she was near tears.

“Kate?” he asked, not certain whether to be delighted or worried.

She wiped her nose rather inelegantly with the back of her hand. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me,” she sniffled.

“I actually did it for Edwina,” he mumbled, never comfortable with weepy females. But inside, she was making him feel about eight feet tall.

“Oh, Anthony!” she practically wailed. And then, much to his extreme surprise, she jumped to her feet and leaped across the table and into his arms, the heavy hem of her afternoon dress sweeping three teacups, two saucers, and a spoon onto the floor.

“You are so sweet,” she said, wiping at her eyes as she landed rather solidly in his lap. “The nicest man in London.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” he returned, sliding his arm around her waist. “The most dangerous, perhaps, or handsome—”

“Nicest,” she interrupted firmly, tucking her head into the crook of his neck. “Definitely the nicest.”

“If you insist,” he murmured, not at all unhappy with the recent turn of events.

The Viscount Who Loved Me by Julia Quinn