V.S. Carnes > Quotes

“I've crossed a world of sand and tears in search of you.”
― V.S. Carnes, Sand for Dreams

“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?”
― V.S. Carnes

“She was an extension of his dreams. A sprinkling of magic dust, of unfeasible wishes, on his stable existence. The one thing-the one bright, marvelous thing-he wanted more than the world, but didn't deserve. However much he was tortured for her sake, however much blood he had spilled to protect her, the bruises to his body and the thrashings to his sanity, it would never be enough to make a wretch like him worthy of such a miracle.”
― V.S. Carnes, Sand for Dreams

“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.”
― V.S. Carnes

“Looking back at him was a man who was battered and broken.
And alive, for the first time in his life.”
― V.S. Carnes, Sand for Dreams

“Because you have my heart, Virgilia Wessex.” Softly, almost achingly. “Every black ounce of it. Scars and all.”
― V.S. Carnes

“Kas was right: a woman could destroy a man. This one could do so, simply by knowing his name. She could do so, simply with her eyes.”
― V.S. Carnes, Sand for Dreams

“It was a question of insurmountable proportions. A single word that held every fear he had ever had-and every wish he had ever made on those cursed stars. She needn't say more. In a single syllable, she had said more than he wanted to hear in an entire lifetime.”
― V.S. Carnes, Sand for Dreams

“He wanted to die. He prayed for it. Through the roar in his ears, he begged for it.”
― V.S. Carnes, Sand for Dreams

“He’d thought it would be the right thing to say, but she scoffed a little… and that, more than anything—more than the prospect of having his ribs crushed in or his face pulled off or his neck stretched on a rope—scared him out of his wits.”
― V.S. Carnes

“She thought she loved him. She was crazy.”
― V.S. Carnes

“I remember every good thing about you. Every sweet and perfect thing. And nothing else.” He touched her chin, tipped it up to look into her wet brown eyes. Even smudged, they were gorgeous. The dawning light in them filled his heart, and healed it. “Nothing else.”
― V.S. Carnes

“Caine might have smiled at her, had his heart not been breaking to smithereens inside of him.”
― 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.”
― V.S. Carnes

“He watched her for her reaction, or possibly watched her just to watch, his eyes hooded by his lashes and his mouth impassive. A faceless man—such as the one she had dreamed of since she was a child—his identity not obscured by mist or flying sand or swirling dust, but by a mask he readily employed whenever he wished. As a shutter closed against a gale. Closed against her, no matter the impact of his words. He seemed to speak them against his will, just as he seemed to care for her against his will.”
― V.S. Carnes

“In a land that knew only dark beauty, she was something of a hybrid no one dared touch. But the tall Arab did not appear in the least daunted by her abnormality. No, she saw his eyes. He was not daunted in the least.”
― V.S. Carnes

“I’ve crossed a world of sand and tears in search of you. I love you. I’ve done nothing in my life worth more than that.”
― V.S. Carnes

“He smelled the salt on his own lips and the orange blossoms in her hair. Real ones, he could see now, tucked into the curls with cheap, native combs. The sight of them gave him hope.”
― V.S. Carnes, Sand for Dreams

“There are still many souls to be won for Christ,” she answered with quiet dignity, eyes downcast—but not, he figured, in humility. “Even here. Perhaps, especially here. Where better to spread his love, than a country just recently ravaged by war?”
“Where better to be kidnapped and sold into slavery, than a country just recently ravaged by war?” with a discernible sneer.”
― V.S. Carnes

“Anger swirled in him, a tempest readying her strike. And like a helpless vessel caught in her fury, he felt himself dashed against the rocks without mercy.”
― V.S. Carnes

“Oh, Lord, why was she doomed to adore a man steeped in blindness and utter stupidity?”
― 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!”
― V.S. Carnes

“His head snapped sharply aside to collide with his own aching shoulder. The hulking brute he had heard referred to as Abdullah leaned into Caine’s face while his brain was yet reeling, flexing his fingers from the punch just dealt to his jaw, and said in Arabic, “I did not know English women were so strong.”
― 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.”
― 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.”
― V.S. Carnes

“La mu’axsa, but I think I’ll just keep sliding down this greased pole to hell?”
― V.S. Carnes

“The blood dried on his good hand, he passed his palm over her hair. It curled about his wrist and sprung back into displace as the breeze fluttered by. In the firelight, it was golden like the dandelions of which she’d spoken. The ones that had grown along the Franklin riverbank in late summer. The ones he had lost any faith in since he’d committed his first murder there.”
― V.S. Carnes

“This man was no servant. She looked up at him in acute agitation and knew: this man was now her master.”
― V.S. Carnes

“Shifting uneasily, Caine cleared his throat, left to wonder why her eyes would make him so unbelievably uncomfortable now after all that had already passed between them these past few weeks.
“Caine?”
That would be why. It was a question of insurmountable proportions. A single word that held every fear he had ever had—and every wish he had ever made on those cursed stars. She needn’t say more. In a single syllable, she had said more than he wanted to hear in an entire lifetime.”
― V.S. Carnes

“It came as naturally to him as breathing or lying, or worse. His mama had only taught her son to be cautious at all times. Garnette was more than that. Much, much more than that.”
― V.S. Carnes