“Wait for me.” If his voice was just a bit hoarse, she didn’t seem to take note of it. She looked at him as though he had reached over and slapped her. “You don’t trust me? After all that talk of taking me for my word—” “This isn’t about trust.” “That is precisely what this is about.” Her fingers fisted in her skirts. “Because I’ve trusted you.” It hurt him to hear it. He didn’t know what else to do. He had no contacts left. He was walking around now like a blind man. He didn’t need the added weight of her safety on his conscience. Caine’s eyes fell away again. “Maybe you shouldn’t.” That earned him a flustered: “You told me to!” LoveRomanceTrust Author:V.S. Carnes
“He squinted at her. He recalled the tears in her eyes that had not fallen into her teacup. No, it wasn’t a revelation. Not even to him. Yet, this was the same woman who had stolen a camel right out from under the Anti-Zionist army’s nose. She’d taken his hand, thrown herself down a sand dune on a dare, and then beaten him back up it. She’d glared at him and refused to part from his side. A coward? “Never,” he said again.” LoveCourageAdmiration Author:V.S. Carnes
“Better this way, what remained of his battered sensibilities told him. He was no good for her, anyway. She didn’t understand him. She didn’t understand that he was cursed. And, selfish as he was, he’d rather she hate him than he hate himself any more than he was already going to. Any more than he already did.” LoveRomanceHeartbreakHeartache Author:V.S. Carnes
“Caine might have smiled at her, had his heart not been breaking to smithereens inside of him.” LoveRomanceHeartbreakHeartache Author:V.S. Carnes
“By now, she was far from the scorch of these sands. After the ransom deal, she would be safely married in England. To Ashton. And Caine, who had hurt her far more than anything Abdullah had planned for her with that long, curved dagger, deserved no better than this torment of knowing it.” LoveRomanceHeartache Author:V.S. Carnes
“She’d said she loved him. She'd put that impossible, unimaginably beautiful gift in his hands and he’d thrown it back at her. To save her. To save himself.” LoveHeartPreservation Author:V.S. Carnes
“Because you have my heart, Virgilia Wessex.” Softly, almost achingly. “Every black ounce of it. Scars and all.” LoveHeartRomance Author:V.S. Carnes
“She wondered how a man could look into a woman’s eyes and lie so completely, so convincingly. She wondered how he could have looked and not seen the love that had glowed there, the blind faith, the unconditional devotion. She wondered how he would sleep at night, knowing he had betrayed her so effortlessly.” LoveChristianRomanceHistorical Author:V.S. Carnes
“I know I am flaky, I accept that—and I know, as well, that I can mangle the good king’s English like no one else in my or the next ten governesses’ acquaintances, but that will not prevent me from speaking! I may not be as wise as you in the ways of the world, I may not have wounds that run as deeply or scars to wear upon my chest like medals of valor, but at least I don’t retreat and hide the moment a soul comes within reach of my fingers!” LoveRomanceFearBitterness Author:V.S. Carnes
“No fairy tale, this. This was by no stretch of the imagination a polished fantasy. This was a searing, living force, rough around the edges, unfamiliar and bittersweet. And precious.” LoveRomanceFantasy Author:V.S. Carnes
“She accepted it uncertainly. “This will help?” Without waiting for an answer, with that unsettling trust of hers, she popped open the lid and dug in her finger, smearing the slick substance on and around her mouth. Going outside of the lines, as he deduced she did with most everything in her life. When she was done, she looked absolutely ridiculous. Caine barely resisted smiling at her. “It will help immensely.” LoveRomanceWindKiss Author:V.S. Carnes
“And what was to become of what he had taken from her? He had dashed her heart to the ground and danced on it with combat boots. Did he sit in that seditious palace day after day and not even bother to scrape it off of his soles with a passing thought of her?” LoveBetrayal Author:V.S. Carnes
“The horizon was indistinguishable from the inky black, which fell upon the desert like a sorcerer’s mantle shot through with diamonds. The stars were so tiny, so far away, and yet, at the moment, with her fingers curled around his, he almost felt as though he could reach up and snag one by the tail.” LoveInspirationHopeStars Author:V.S. Carnes
“Remind me to thank God I don’t have a sister.” Caine eyed him critically. He was a filthy heap of blood and soot and sand stuck to the gun oil on his face. “Yeah,” without much enthusiasm. “I’ll thank Him for ya.” LoveFriendshipSister Author:V.S. Carnes
“Southern gentleman,” he said aside to him in Arabic. “Do you wish for me to continue this for you?” Caine’s temper shifted to a low simmer in his chest. “Your way takes too long.” “Ma’aleyk, and your way hurts my ears,” he argued.” LoveRomanceFriendship Author:V.S. Carnes
“I will not marry Ashton. However bound by honor to do so, I will not marry Ashton. I will not marry, ever!” “Why not?” “Because I love you, you idiot!” LoveMarriage Author:V.S. Carnes