Annabelle Greene > Quotes

“Please kiss me. Please touch me. Please hurt me. Just a little. Just enough.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Soldier and the Spy

“Because unlike the Beasts, this is where all the men in my club would end up if caught as you were. No friends in high places.” Mr. Smith crossed through a line of densely written text with a frown. “Just low ones. But there are more low places than there are high ones.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“Give me an inch, and I’ll drape you in diamonds.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“If a man can kiss on a whim, a man can brush hands with another. Yes?” “Yes.” Whether it was a whim or keeping up appearances, both or neither, he didn’t care. “Absolutely.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“Was the morning really going to unfold like this, confession after confession, insight after insight, with no breakfast in sight? Lord, he was starving.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Foolishness. Pure stupidity. Because when Hartley brought his hand to Josiah’s cheek, gently cupping his face, Josiah knew that he would never, ever, forget the feel of it. He would glow with it in his grave.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“All right.” Hartley pulled away. “Now I’m a little more convinced.” “If you need more reassurance...” “At least seven people are looking at us now.” “I don’t care.” “Oh, you.” Hartley smiled. “We’re going to be insufferable.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“I can see why you’re comfortable taking charge of things.” He stroked down to the base, lingering there; Josiah bit his lip, exquisitely frustrated. “What large secrets you keep, Mr. Balfour.” “Very funny.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“Gabriel, the good man. The man Edward always remembered before doing something particularly unforgivable. A kind of better angel. But the angel had fallen. The angel was ripe for taking, in his considered opinion...and here he was, lying in bed, doing absolutely nothing about it.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“If he were to have a heaven on earth, it would be a person. Someone who carried home within him, the sense of being safe and protected from the world’s slings and arrows. Someone who could look at him, take his hand, and seamlessly envelop him in a shared future that could withstand any storm.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“We’re already soldered together,” he whispered in Hartley’s ear. “Bound to one another. Pick any material you like. We’re woven together, knitted together, our roots have grown together. Even when we’re ashes, we’ll be one. Do you understand?”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“In normal circumstances, he would never wear such a thing. It was modest, a little battered, cheap by his exacting, luxurious standards. He never would have looked twice at it in a shop. But in Josiah’s palm, knowing that the man had bought it for him, it was the most precious thing that Hartley had ever seen. “Put it on me.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“Hell, purgatory, heaven? Who knew? Maybe he was just a man on earth, freeing the part of him he’d kept caged all his life.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“I won’t wear my new pin until I see you again. I don’t want it cheapened by other eyes. So do the same, please.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“He jumped as Hartley placed a hand on the small of his back. How strange it was to be touched in public, touched freely, as if it were not only permissible but natural.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“And what happens if I forget myself?” Hartley’s smile grew wider. “Are you—” “Am I what?” “Flirting. As well as interrupting.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“But he couldn’t keep letting fear make choices for him. There were higher feelings there too, glorious ones, and it was up to him to embrace them. “I am afraid.” He spoke with difficulty. “But I want you more than I want fear.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“Gabriel looked at the rings. They were small and thin, of well-beaten gold...and a tiny, whisper-thin gap in each bright circle. “Broken.” Edward’s voice trembled. “Broken, but whole.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“God, why couldn’t he do it anymore? Why couldn’t he be the rake?”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“For the first time in his life, he loved someone good. And to Hartley’s horrified surprise, it had made him good in turn.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“Saying what he wanted in such a bold way felt like undressing in front of Hartley. Revealing every flaw, every scar, and challenging the man to find beauty in something so clumsily built. But Hartley didn’t laugh, or make an arch comment.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“But...love, as I have seen it practised, does not require one to be an expert practitioner when one begins. One learns as one goes. It...it’s one of the only states where the broken can function as well as the whole.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Excuse me, but am I really hearing this correctly?” Maurice’s voice, faint but acid-dripped, rang out over the garden. “Our house is tuning itself to ash, all is lost, Sussex has won, and you are declaring love for one another like—like puppies? We are to be ruined, exposed, probably killed if the man decides to finish the job. Now? You do this now?”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“I wouldn’t leave if you begged me to. I’m astonished I’m actually seeing this place. Lord knows why you never speak of it.” Hartley looked at Gabriel. “The local attractions are astonishing.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Edward turned, staring straight into Gabriel’s faintly amused eyes. Tall, broad-shouldered, dark curls tucked behind his ears... God, the man didn’t even have the decency to look less attractive when required.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“He couldn’t even think of him as Mr. Balfour anymore. Not in this naked, vulnerable light. Master, servant, Mr. Hartley, Mr. Balfour; no rank, no polite form of address, quite held up to scrutiny. Not here. Not now.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“This was his last attempt to push Gabriel away—to put him out of harm’s reach. Because if Gabriel didn’t walk away from this—if he treated him as a man, and not a rake to be condemned or a wretch to be pitied—then he had no defences left.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“And if it wasn’t acting...oh, if it wasn’t, that would mean everything.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“Being spoiled by Hartley was an impossible idea. He would have to take measures to stop him, just as soon as he stopped feeling absolutely delighted.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Servant and the Gentleman

“Thank you.” He paused. “Are you sure there’s nothing else I can do?” “Yes. Stop making your bed in the morning. You do an atrocious job.” Gabriel left the room with a short bow, trying not to smile.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake