Sicily

“I would say"—he shaped the words close to her mouth, as if each of them was its own kiss, a private prayer—"I love you as a man loves a woman, but we both know that love is not bound by such narrow terms. So instead let me simply tell you that I love you. I love you with the unfading flame of my friendship. With every drop of ardour in my blood. I love you with my soul, as some reserve their faith for absent gods. I love you as I believe in what is right and hope for what is good. I love you with everything I am and ever was—and if you will only let me, with every day that comes, and every self that I could ever be.”
― Alexis Hall, A Lady for a Duke

“fucked her when she was too out of it to consent, but that was before consent got fashionable. Those kinds of incidents used to be considered “funny.” Even “hilarious.” The worse you felt, the louder you laughed. The laughter was necessary because it put you back in charge. You didn’t remember, so you created a memory you hoped was the truth.”
― Liane Moriarty, Apples Never Fall

“The world teaches men to listen only to what they want to hear and women to tell it to them.”
― Alexis Hall, A Lady for a Duke

“remembering all the glorious moments, one after the other after the other, her children’s ecstatic faces looking for their parents in the stands, looking for their approval, looking for their love, knowing it was there, knowing—she hoped they knew this—that it would always be there, even long after she and Stan were gone, because love like that was infinite.”
― Liane Moriarty, Apples Never Fall