Michelle Brown

“I never smiled much." His voice was a low purr in the shadows.
"Don't be silly," she replied, taking a step closer to the next portrait--and farther away from him. "You smile all the time."
"At you," he conceded, "with you, because of you.”
― Olivia Parker, At the Bride Hunt Ball

“He wasn’t good enough for her. But by God, he meant to make her happy while he had her.”
― Anna Campbell, Seven Nights in a Rogue's Bed

“And though she could scarcely even feel them, her lips formed the words, and sound emerged, sounding frayed, and small and cracked, forged in her somehow before she was born, since before time, words meant only for him.
“I love you.”
Three of the most powerful words in the world offered to one of the most powerful men in London in such a small voice.
And at first she thought nothing at all had happened. He didn’t blink. But then she realized she’d somehow set him . . . softly ablaze. Emotion burned from him, and his eyes . . . she would never forget his eyes in this moment.
His hands remained at his sides.
Which is when she noticed they were trembling.
God help her, that’s when she felt tears begin to burn at the back of her eyes.
One got away. And she brushed her hand roughly against it.
And the man who never cleared his throat . . . cleared his throat. And his voice, in truth, wasn’t a good deal louder than hers.
“Then it’s just as well that I love you, Genevieve.”
― Julie Anne Long, What I Did for a Duke

“I know what you think of me, Miles. I know what you--have thought of me. But I have a heart. I do have a heart. I just cannot afford to use it. Don't you see? Why can't you see this? Whereas you--may play at all of this as much as you like. There will always be someone for you. And that is the difference. I cannot afford to use my heart. And you--you choose not to use yours.' - Cynthia Brightley to Miles Redmond”
― Julie Anne Long, Like No Other Lover