“Too bad,Elizabeth. You're Stuck with me.Not for a few decades,not for centuries. You're tied to me forever. That boy and girl offspring you talked off? They'll come from me--or no one.”

“His debtors always assumed he'd demand their firstborn. Like I'm fucking Rumpelstiltskin? What would Lothaire do with countless squalling babes? Raise them in a kennel?”

“Lothaire is very much alive.You swear?Often. Though not as much as foul-mouthed Regin. I try not to in front of Bertil. She petted the bat.I meantwill Lothaire live?He will.”

“He sat up, going still. Am I wearing a wife-beater, Lizvetta? He gaped down. Oh, come on!Lothaire”

“Tell me, Lothaire, I want to know. Convince me why I should love you.Because any other female would!”

“When she absently worried her bottom lip with one of her adorable little fangs, he s”

“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.”

“I've always said that idleness dulls the spirit. We have to keep the brain busy, or at least the hands if we don't have a brain.”

“If your workplace was somehow transplanted into the jungle and everyone was forced to survive at a very primitive level, it's safe to say that eventually your boss would rape you.”

“History has been written, but it has not always been right or complete.”

“I want to kiss you again, Tess.Why?He chuckled, low under his breath. Why? Because youre beautiful, and because I want you. And I think you want me too.”

“With every breath I take, I will always love you.”