Stephani

“She wished he’d stop touching her. Not because she didn’t like it but because she liked it far too much. It made her hunger for things that could never be hers. And if someone went hungry for too long, they started to starve. Started to hurt.”
― Nalini Singh, Slave to Sensation

“Sometimes I remember that I can't always protect those I love." Under his fingers, her hair was soft and silky.

She didn't try to tell him that he wasn't God, that he couldn't protect everyone. He knew that.

But knowing and believing were two different things. What she did say succeeded in stopping his heart. "I wish you'd love me."

"Why?"

"Because then maybe you could protect me, too." Haunting sorrow whispered through her tone.”
― Nalini Singh, Slave to Sensation

“I want to see you again." He stopped, took her face in his hands. "I need to see you again."

Her pulse jumped, as if it had nothing to do with the rest of her. "Roarke, what's going on here?"

"Lieutenant." He leaned forward, touched his lips to hers. "indications are we're having a romance.”
― J.D. Robb, Naked in Death

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House