Lord Of Scoundrels Quotes
"What heart he had was devoted to his lands, particularly Athcourt, the ancestral estate in Devon. His property was his mistress."
"She was spoiled, proud, passionate, and quick-tempered. She was recklessly extravagant, talked too much and too loudly, and mocked his commands. Worst of all, her uninhibited behavior in bed appalled him."
"Generations of Ballisters had borne this mark."
"In his darker moments, he believed his young wife was Satan’s handmaiden and the boy the Devil’s spawn."
"His mama did that sometimes, when she was in a happy mood, but his papa never did."
"Then, one day, when Sebastian was eight years old, his mother went out with her maid and didn’t come back."
"God will forgive her," Cook said firmly. "If He is just and merciful, He will."
"But he dared not cry, because he was no longer a baby, and crying only made his father angrier."
"Thenceforth, he decided, he must take his motto from Horace: 'Make money, money by fair means if you can, if not, by any means money.'"
"Sebastian listened in stony silence, then went out and picked a fight with Wardell."
"Women deal in a higher mathematical realm than men, especially when it comes to gifts."
"It’s for my grandmother. For her birthday."
"I could not fail to hear," said Dain. "I was listening attentively."
"Indeed, it’s thoroughly shocking. I shall be obliged to cut your acquaintance. I cannot allow myself to be corrupted by virtuous companions."
"Oh, yes. You are the wickedest man who ever lived. And you eat small children for breakfast, their nannies tell them, if they are naughty."
"It is not breakfast time, and I am hardly a small child."
"Women do not lie, my lord Dain. It merely seems so because they exist in another reality."
"I pay a whore a few coins. She gives me exactly what I require. And when it’s done, it’s done."
"This is not merely a beauty, monsieur. This is la femme fatale."
"I am not a dead language to play in, Miss Trent. You are treading perilously close to dangerous waters."
"It would appear that you have dipped into Publilius."
"I have observed many times how men’s wits utterly desert them once auction fever takes hold."
"I shall gladly give it to you, my lord. No one gives me anything."
"The Marquess of Dain has been seen in the company of a lady. He has been seen and heard wooing her."
"If you do not release my hand this instant, I shall kiss you. In front of everybody."
"Don’t pay it any mind, Dain. She does that to all the chaps."
"Since words cannot express my relief and gratitude, actions must speak louder."
"Pardon one offense, and you encourage the commission of many."
"I see. You’re brave enough to throw a porter half your size into the street, but you—"
"I am not chivalrous, Miss Trent, and I am not sweet, confound your impertinence!"
"I shall say whatever I please, and at this moment, it pleases me exceedingly to infuriate you."
"I recommend you try to fasten your buttons by yourself at present."
"He felt, if the humiliating truth be told, like a starving beggar boy with his nose pressed to the window of a pastry shop."
"Once you let a lady—virtuous or not—fasten upon you, you become the owner of a piece of troublesome property."
"I’ve wanted you in my arms since the moment I met you."
"She was soft and warm and she tasted of rain, and it was sweet, unbearably sweet."
"At Madame Vraisses’ party, Mr. Beaumont had made a few sly remarks about Dain. Jessica, whose nerves were still vibrating with the aftershocks of one stormy embrace, had answered far too sharply."
"Because there was only one way the Marquess of Dain could care about any woman, and that was for as long as it took to tumble her onto a bed—or a tavern table—unbutton his trousers, dispatch his business, and button up again."
"Though Jessica very much doubted Dain had any feelings to be wounded, she was also aware that Genevieve had several decades’ more experience with men. A great many men."
"He had very little doubt that every self-righteous blockhead in Paris was praying for his defeat—the more ignominious, the better—at her hands."
"It wasn’t amusing, either, to know it was better he didn’t come, and to want him here all the same and to hate herself for wanting it."
"She had scarcely finished convincing herself that the intelligent thing to do was to leave Paris immediately, when Lady Wallingdon’s invitation arrived."
"It was a primitive display, Jessica told herself. On the scale of social development it was about one notch above hitting her over the head with a club and dragging her away by her hair."
"But if he did, it caused him no hesitation, for he boldly grasped her waist and, on the next upbeat, whirled her out."
"She knew it hardly mattered that Dain hadn’t ravished her. What mattered was that it had been Dain with whom she’d been caught."
"Instead, she abandoned herself, as she had been tempted to do the first time she’d seen him, and as she’d been more painfully tempted when he’d unbuttoned her impossible glove."
"There is no animal more invincible than a woman, nor fire either, nor any wildcat so ruthless."
"If the law regarded women in a proper light, the process would not be endless. The punishment would be severe and swift."
"I may appear a negligible, dried-up spinster to you, my lord, but yours, I assure you, is the minority view. I am unwed by choice, not for lack of offers."
"You may have destroyed my honor in the eyes of the world, but you will not destroy it in fact."
"I find the prospect of a life of poverty and obscurity in a remote outpost of civilization singularly unattractive. I can think of nothing more absurd than living so merely for the sake of my pride."
"If you refuse me and attempt litigation, you’ll only humiliate yourself. Everyone will believe you’re a money-hungry slut."
"I am not a pocket watch," she said tightly. "I am a human being, and you will never own me, no matter what you pay."
"I shall, undoubtedly—eventually." (In response to being told to go to blazes.)
"You’re the one who insisted upon the grand wedding at St. George’s, Hanover Square, then left it all to me. You haven’t made the smallest pretense of helping."
"I paid for you. You’re mine. I look after what’s mine."
"Killing oneself on account of a man is inexcusably gauche."
"But one must be practical. You’ll want all your strength for the wedding night."
"It was very well done. Now I think of it. The red and black garments. The Lady Macbeth voice."
"Easier to hide in his dark wasteland of a heart the real reason: that it was a tribute, its symbolism as mawkish as any the jeweler’s clerk had proposed. A bloodied stone for the brave girl who’d shed his blood."
"They could play anything. They’d been trained by a circus equestrian, and they loved to perform."
"Her gazed lifted to his. Silver mist shimmered in her eyes. 'It’s beautiful,' she said softly. 'Thank you.'"
"She was trying to ignore Nick and Harry’s Steeds of Death performance by concentrating on her betrothal ring."
"When I do something, I want to do it well. Actually, I always want to be the best."
"I had to beat my brother and cousins at everything, including sports, or they wouldn’t respect me."
"Jess, m’lady, I believe I’m castaway. Lucky you."
"When I set out to impress you, my lady, believe me, intellect will have nothing to do with it."
"‘My lord,’ he said, and swept her a theatrical bow."
"‘If you are not afraid to try it, I promise close to full recovery by the time we set out,’ she said."
"I understand that one of the trilithons fell not so very long ago," she said.
"Seventeen hundred ninety-seven," he said. "A friend at Eton told me about it."
"You don’t brawl," she said. "You’re a most scientific fighter. Intellectual, I should say."
"I’m sober," she said. She leapt onto the stone. "Come, let’s see if I’m quick enough."
"Come down, Jess. You look like a complete addlepate."
"Hurt me?" he echoed. "Do you actually believe you can hurt me with that?"
"No, I don’t," she said. "There was I in the arms of a dark, dangerous hero, amid the ruins of Stonehenge, an ancient place of mystery."
"I’m not romantic," he said tightly. "And I most certainly am not high-strung."
"Then you must have been snoring with your eyes open," she said as she returned to her place beside him.
"You’ll tumble down the stairs," Dain said gruffly. "At any rate, we’re nearly there."
"I’m awake," she said, her voice heavy with sleep. "I can walk the rest of the way."
"I had no idea we had one about. Where is it?" "In Her Ladyship’s sitting room, my lord."
"But he couldn’t because he wasn’t alone. He did not have to take his eyes from the portrait to know his wife was in the room."
"Luckily, the North Tower is cool and dry," she said. Her voice was cool and dry as well."
"He would have been content merely to look at his beautiful, impossible mother."
"You don’t know what her life was like," she said. "You were a child. You couldn’t know what she felt."
"Left… to endure… and pay, dearly, for what others took for granted: tolerance, acceptance, a woman’s soft hand."
"I shall be much astonished if I can find my way about when I return."
"You’re going away?" Her tones remained steady."
"Neither solitude nor the bath calmed her down, and napping was impossible."
"Barely three days wed, and the great jackass was abandoning her."
"Yes, I do," she said. "If you leave this house, I will shoot your horse out from under you."
"I’m not going to wrestle with you," he said. "Or quarrel. You will go to your room. Now."
"She had come prepared for a battle royal, and she would fight this one to the bitter end."
"She wanted to resist, to remain angry, but she wanted this more."
"Hell and damnation," Dain muttered as he gingerly withdrew from her. "I’ll never make it to Chudleigh in time for dinner now."
"I thought we might dine here. It would save the bother of dressing for dinner."
"I’m not used to having a female about. It’s… distracting."
"You do not dictate to me," he said levelly. "You do not tell me where I may and may not go—or when—or with whom."
"You are the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen, as I distinctly recall telling you in Paris."
"I thought it was me they knew about. That I was… besotted. I was. I told you so."