Mmeguillotine

“What did she think she understood about him? His gorgeous appearance was only the first layer, yet it was one that she savored now as if she had been hungry for it all of her life. Α wealth of lace and silk on a man was something she had always taken for granted. It spoke of power and social status, vital to the structure of society.

Yet Alden had turned it into something else

His appearance was both beautiful and witty, almost as if he celebrated the irony of hiding masculine muscle beneath such essentially feminine frippery. For a woman to put her hand on a man's sleeve and feel the hard tension of his arm beneath the silk was intensely erotic. Perhaps no age had ever been as blatantly sensual as this one. No wonder men like Alden reveled in it, reaping woman after woman like a scythe harvesting flowers.”
― Julia Ross, The Seduction

“I’m not selfless. I’ve led a criminal, selfish life. Not sure I’ve ever cared about anyone.” She watched him put his cigarette to his lips. It looked damp and forlorn, the way she felt, suddenly. “So it came as quite a shock to me to realize that when you love someone, it comes above all other things. All the other little pieces of your life. You just want them to be happy." - Kieran”
― Charlotte Stein, All Other Things

“I had only questions, uncertainties, and shame. A kiss that was not a kiss from a man who was not a man.”
― Alexis Hall, Sand and Ruin and Gold

“Living in outer nature keeps the senses keen, and living alone stirs in them a certain watchfulness.”
― Henry Beston, The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod