#ewan condry

[readtilyoudie]

“I felt you,” he said, low enough that only she would hear. “I know you touched me.”

Impossible. He’d been dosed with laudanum. Still, she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “Not me.”

“It was. It was you,” he said, softly, advancing on her with slow, predatory grace. “You think I would forget your touch? You think I wouldn’t know it in the darkness? I would know it in battle. I would walk through fire for it. I would know it on the road to hell. I would know it in hell, which is where I’ve been, aching for it, every day since you left.”

- Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean

[readtilyoudie]

Her wine red lips curved into a little, knowing smile. “Are you offering to ruin me, Your Grace?”

He met the smile with one of his own. “Are you asking to be ruined?”

Her smile did not waver. Still not Grace, but Grace’s mask, the kind that would not easily be moved. “Who says I’m the one who would be ruined?”

He almost missed a step. “Are you offering to ruin me?”

“Are you asking to be ruined?”

Yes.

- Daring the Duke by Sarah MacLean

[readtilyoudie]

“There is nothing cheap about my revenge. They took everything from me.”

She scowled at him. “They took nothing from you. They built a kingdom from nothing--a world of good people who know your brothers’ kindness and generosity and loyalty. Loyalty of which you can only dream. And you...” she spat. “You have tried to strip them of it. And I won’t have it.”

Surprise flashed. “You won’t?”

The wind whipped her skirts about her legs as she came to her full height. “I won’t. Whit has spent a lifetime worrying about what might happen when you come for him. And here is the truth of it--you would do well to heed it--it is you who should worry. Because if you harm them, these good men with good hearts and strong minds, I will come for you. And there is no past between us to keep you safe.”

- Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean

[readtilyoudie]

“I love you.”

In her years of bareknuckle fighting, Grace had taken countless unexpected blows, but never anything like that one--which pulled the air from her.

And he did not stop.

“Yes, I loved you the moment I set eyes on you a lifetime ago, but what that was--it pales in comparison to how I love you now. You are perfect--strong and bold and brave and brilliant, and the way I ache to be near you is only made worse when I am near you, because I cannot have you. Because every time I reach for you, you slip through my fingers...like fucking fantasy.”

- Daring and the Duke by Sarah MacLean