Nora Roberts Quotes

She walked with a ghost of herself, one full of potential and possibility. One who was fearless. Where had that girl gone?

Told you not to tell her."
"That's not how I work things. That's not how you build a relationship."
"Build a relationship." Ryder snorted as he sent the drill whirling again. "You've been reading again."
"Blow me.

Oh, God. God, isn't that perfect? He's Dad. He's Dad with a layer of nerd. Solid, steady, chipping away so patiently, you don't even know you've had your shields hacked down until you're defenseless. It's the type." "You're not in love with a type, you're in love with a man," Penny corrected. "Or you're not.

If it winds up earlier, you should have a movie picked out. This is assuming she isn't sending you the 'let's go back to my place' signals. In that case - "

"Don't go there, Bob. Let's just not go there.

What the hell are you tryng to do?"
She gave him an innocent stare. "Why, have a conversation. I suppose you're out of practice."
He glared,narrow-eyed, then turned away. "I'm going for a walk," he muttered.
"Lovely." Gennie slipped her arm through his. "I'll go with you."
"I didn't ask you," Grant said flatly, stopping again.
"Oh." Gennie batted her eyes. "You're trying to charm me by being rude again. It's so difficult to resist.

You're a killer, Keeley.You'd tease a man to death."
He didn't mean it as a compliment, but to her it was a revelation. "I've never tried it before. Now one's ever attracted me enough.You do,and I dont even know why."
When she dropped her hand,he took her wrist. It surprised him to feel the gallop of her pulse there, when her eyes, her voice had been so cool, so steady. "Then you're a quick learner."
"I'd like to think so.If I come to you, you'd be the first."
"The first what?" Temper wanted to stir, especially when she laughed. THen his mind cleared and the meaning flashed through like a thunderbolt. His hand tightened on her wrist, then dropped it as though she had turned to fire.
"That scared you enough to shut you up," she observed. "I'm surprised anything could render you speechless."
"I've..." But he couldn't think.
"No,don't fumble around for words. You'll spoil your image." She couldn't think just why his dazed expression struck her as so funny,or why the shock in his eyes was endearing somehow.
"We'll just say that,under these circumstances, we both have a lot to consider.And now,I'm way behind in my work, and have to get ready for my afternoon class."
She walked away,as easily, as casually, Brian thought numbly, as she might have if they'd just finished discussing the proper treatment for windgalls. She left him reeling.
he'd gone and fallen in love with the gentry,and the gentry was his boss's daughter. And his boss

Why did they make babies so damn small? And loud. Surely better arrangements could be made for the propagation of the human race.

Life--you have to live it as it comes.

I do not feel obliged in my reading. I read to be entertained and to relax, and to go into another world, not because it's good for me.

grandmother's, and even as her lips curved,

As
calmly as she could, she turned away from the cop who was interviewing her and walked toward him.
He grabbed her fast enough, hard enough to knock the breath out of her. Nothing had ever felt so
safe. "I was hoping you'd come. I was really hoping."
"Did you get banged up any?

The need to take her was raging, some fatal drug that stabbed into his veins, speeding up his heartbeat and clouding his mind.

We're as different as that water and hot glass, Rogan."
"And as able to make something strong between us.

He wanted to be a poet,' someone else put in while Maggie hugged Tim and patted his back. 'Said he'd only lacked the words to be one.

I'm told my father cemented a number of profitable deals in this room." Alan eased down beside her.
Shelby opened her eyes to slits. "I imagine he did.By the time he was through, he could've reduced most normally built men to puddbles." Idly the trailed a fingertip down Alan's thigh. "Do you ever use saunas for vital government intrigue, Senator?"
"I'm inclined to think of other things in small hot rooms." Bending,he brushed his lips over her bare shoudler-the touch of a tongue,the quick pressure of teeth. "Vital,certainly, but more personal."
"Mmm." Shelby tilted her head as he trailed his lips closer to her throat. "How personal?"
"Highly confidential.

To protect your investment. It

Tucker, you tell that girl when I offer to have a brandy with a Yankee, that Yankee better drink.

Other lives just fascinated her.

Anyone who has loved has been touched by magic.

I'm used to keeping things to myself, it's habit.And then...And then I kept things from you because the harder I fell in love with you,the more terrified I was. Look,damn it, I didn't want to depend on anyone for-" He broke off to drag a hand through his hair.
"For what?"
"For being there when I needed them," he said on a long breath.

The kid's driving me bat-shit," Cam complained as he stalked into the kitchen. "You can't say boo to him without him squaring up for a fight."
"Mm-hmm."
"Argumentative, smart-mouthed, troublemaker."
"Must be like looking in a mirror."
"Like hell."
"Don't know what I was thinking of. You're such a peaceable soul.

Did you ever climb into one of those suits of armor?"
"Caine did once-it took me over an hour to pry him out."
Shelby gave a murmur of sympathy as she framed his face with her hands. "You were such a good boy." Her laugh was muffled against his lips in a sudden searing kiss.All heat,all fire, without a moment's warning.
"He climbed in," Alan continued as he tugged her hair back to deepen the kiss, "because I suggested it might be an interesting experience."
Breathless,Shelby stared up at him. When would she be prepared for those sudden dangerous turns of his nature? "An instigator," she managed.
"An objective leader," he corrected before he released her. "And I did manage to get him out...after he'd scared the wits out of Rena."
For a moment she leaned against the wall watching him, while the throbbing in her body slowly, very slowly, lessened. "I don't believe you were nearly as well-mannered as you once told me.You probably deserved that broken nose."
"Caine deserved it more."
Shelby laughed again as they moved down another corridor. "I like your family."
"So do I."
"And you enjoyed watching me go nose-to-nose with your father."
"I've always been fond of drawing-room comedies."
"Drawing room? It's more like a throne room.

Every time I hear writers talk about 'the muse,' I just want to bitch-slap them. It's a job. Do your job.

Her heart was the one thing she'd always been sure of. Often she imagined of how it would be like to lose it, the thrill and the anxiety of the fall. She'd always wondered who it would be who would make everything inside her yearn. How they would be together
for in her dreams he loved her as well.

Where there is a great deal of light, the shadows are deeper.

She called on Hecate, on Brighid, on Morrigan and Babd Catha, summoning the strength and power of the goddesses.

Men shake hands after they beat each other up; we eat chocolate.

I learned you must always accept love when it's offered, always give it when it's needed. There might not be a second chance. And I know, too, that until your heart's been broken, you never know the full beauty of love.

It takes a lot of spine and stomach to make yourself into something when no one gives you a foundation.

High. The stone around his neck flamed

The man who loses the boy is a sad and serious man.

Everything she'd ever read about love was true, she discovered. The sun shined brighter, the air smelled fresher. Flowers were more colorful, the songs of birds more musical.

We'll have to keep on being disappointed in each other, won't we, Ma?

You said you survived, Anna, but you didn't. You triumphed. Everything about you is a testament to courage and strength."
When she stared at him, obviously stunned, he smiled a little. "You didn't get either from a social worker or a counselor. They just helped you figure out how to use it. I figure you got it from your mother. She must have been a hell of a woman."
"She was," Anna murmured, near tears again.
"So are you.

The way he saw it, poker and life had a lot in common. You played the cards you were dealt, figured the odds, took the gamble or not. And when your cards were shit, you bluffed if the pot was worth it, and if you had balls.

With the hug. It's so good to see you. We've got pitchers of tea outside, and plenty of beer. And four bottles of champagne - your mama

Nature was as full of cruelty as of beauty, he knew all too well.

At the counter, she winced at what the poking cost

And yet, anything real, anything strong, was never easy. She'd been taught from an early age that the things that mattered most were the hardest to obtain.

And when he did, all bets were off, but it took a lot of pushing to get him off the ground. But

I figure if you've got to take someone down or set them straight, you might as well enjoy it on some level.
Malcom

To my mind, reaching out, reaching for one another doesn't make what happened to those girls less of a tragedy, or make anyone less heartsick for them and their families. But point taken.You don't want me to listen.You don't want me to hold your hand. So that makes the need to do those things about me, not you.

She didn't want to date anyone.
A relationship, if indeed she decided to cultivate one, was three years down the road. Minimum. She would never make the mistake ... [to] depend on someone else for emotional and financial support. First, she would make certain she was solvent, solid, and secure. And then, if and when she chose, she would think about sharing her life.

We're going to get a couple pretty, fluffy inches in the morning for a gorgeous December evening wedding. Go get ready for rehearsal."

"I'm afraid of rehearsal. My voice is going to squeak. I think I'm getting a zit right in the middle of my chin. I'm going to trip coming down the aisle. It's okay if Carter trips. People expect it. But –"

…

"Carter isn't nervous. "Mac narrowed her eyes in a scowl. "I could hate him for that."

"Mackensie." Parker turned from the computer. "I was in the kitchen this morning when Mrs. G made him sit down and eat some breakfast. He put maple syrup in his coffee."

"He did?" She threw up her arms in a cheer. "He is nervous. I feel better.

He decided there was no point in telling her he'd looked in the fridge and seen none of these things. There'd just be some variation of his mother's standard crack about Male Refrigeration Blindness Syndrome.

Moments came and went, she thought. It was love that bound them together into a life.

Flowers that had bloomed brilliant from spring through autumn blackened under the killing frost.

Today should always be outlawed in favor of tomorrow

Caught him grinning at her. Why do you purposely aggravate

it, at least for a while.

The blue butterfly fluttered across her range of vision to land on the head of a butter yellow dandelion in Emma's bouquet. The surprise and pleasure struck the three faces in that triangle under the white roses almost as one. Mac pressed the shutter. She knew, knew, the photograph wouldn't be blurry and dark or fuzzy and washed out. Her thumb wouldn't be blocking the lens. She knew exactly what the picture would look like, knew her grandmother had been wrong after all. Maybe happy ever after was bull, but she knew she wanted to take more pictures of moments that were happy. Because then they were ever after.

Bet it was some ride." Theo manfully swallowed the prickly lump in his throat. There was a
jittering inside his chest that came as much from seeing his father break apart as from anxiety over
Maddy. "I'll haul her in, Dad. You're going to wreck your arm

Mrs. G: But marriage? I had mine. I had my Charlie. My one.
Laurel: Do you believe that? That there's one person? One?
Mrs. G: I do, for some of us. For others, if things don't work, or you lose someone, there's another. But for some there's the one, beginning to end. No one else can fit. No one else gets into the heart the same way, and lives there.

He meant what he'd said about taking her home. His home. When she didn't argue the point, he
figured she was more shaken than she'd admitted.

Circumstances change. Bend or break...

Don't mix up who I am and what I am," she told him quietly. "You have to be honest with me, or the rest of it means nothing.

She hoped the Quinns would allow her a few moments alone with Seth, so she could judge for herself, without influence, how he was feeling.
She hoped she could steal a few moments alone with Cam, so she could judge for herself how she was feeling.

Will you just tell me, Brian.I need you to tell me you love me."
"I'm getting to it." He turned back. "I never thought I wanted family.I want to make children with you,Keeley.I want ours. Please don't cry."
"I'm trying not to.Hurry up."
"I can't be rushed at such a time.Sniffle those back or I'll blunder it.That's the way." He moved to her. "I don't want to own horses, but I can make an exception for the gift you gave me today.As a kind of symbol of things. I didn't have faith in him, not pure faith, that he'd run to win.I didn't have faith in you, either.Give me your hand."
She held it out, clasping his. "Tell me."
"I've never said the words to another woman. You'll be my first, and you'll be my last.I loved you from the first instant, in a kind of blinding flash. Over time the love I have for you has strengthened, and deepened until it's like something alive inside me."
"That's everything I needed to hear." She brought his hand to her cheek. "Marry me, Brian."
"Bloody hell.Will you let me do the asking?"
She had to bite her lip to hold off the watery chuckle. "Sorry."
With a laugh, he plucked her off her feet. "Well, what the hell.Sure, I'll marry you."
"Right away."
"Right away." He brushed his lips over her temple. "I love you,Keeley, and since you're birdbrain enough to want to marry a hardheaded Irish horse's ass, I believe it was, I'll go up now and ask your father."
"As my-Brian, really."
"I'll do this p

My kin would sooner have a badger in their house than a Campbell."
Alan saw his mother open hermouth and shook his head to silence her. He not only knew Shelby could hold her own but wanted to see her do it.
"Most MacGregors were comfortable enough with badgers in the parlor."
"Barbarians!" Daniel sucked in his breath. "The Campbells were barbarians, each and every one of them."
Shelby tilted her head as if to study him from a new angle. "The MacGregors have a reputation for being sore losers."
Instantly Daniel's face went nearly as red as his hair. "Losers? Hah! There's never been a Campbell born who could stand up to a MacGregor in a fair fight. Backstabbers."
"We'll have Rob Roy's biography again in a minute," Shelby heard Caine mutter. "You don't have a drink, Dad," he said, hoping to distract him. "Shelby?"
"Yes." She shifted her gaze to him, noting he was doing his best to maintain sobriety. "Scotch," she told him, with a quick irrepressible wink. "Straight up.If the MacGregors had been wiser," she continued without missing a beat, "perhaps they wouldn't have lost their land and their kilts and the name.Kings," she went on mildly as Daniel began to huff and puff, "have a habit of getting testy when someone's trying to overthrow them."
"Kings!" Daniel exploded. "An English king, by God! No true Scotsman needed an English king to tell him how to live on his land."
Shelby's lips curved as Caine handed her a glass. "That's a trut

I long for typical days, but rarely get them any more.

The wild splash of red that was her hair tumbled over the vivid green of the bedspread. Shadows from the candle shifted over her face, reminding him of the impression he'd first had of her-the Gypsy-open fires,weeping violins. Her eyes were dark, pure gray,and waiting.
"We MacGregors," he murmured, "have ways of ... dealing with Campbells."
His mouth lowered but paused a whisper from hers.He saw that her lids had fluttered down yet hadn't closed. She watched him through her lashes while her breath came quickly.Slowly he shifted his head to nibble along her jawline.

You're a first-class bastard, Doug." This time he grinned because he'd heard the light trace of respect. "I like first class, Whitney. I'm going to live there the rest of my life.

Don't you fancy having one of your dresses in the Smithsonian, Shelby?"
"Your humor's always been on the odd side, Grant."
"Thanks.

He was one of the many toads you have to go through to find the prince.

People in hell want snowcones.

moment, thought, what the hell?

What the hell are you doing?"

"What the hell does it look like I'm doing?"

"It looks like you're putting pants on that dog."

"Then that's what the hell I'm doing.

Love can kick your ass.

with his partner. Griff's out of Baltimore, too.

I've got me a fascinating, beautiful woman I'm falling for. Falling hard." "Quick work." "In the blood. My mama and daddy barely did more than look at each other, and that was that.

Anyone that has character leaves a mark on another. Would you like to leave the world without making a ripple?

'Motivation matters,' he said again, 'because why you do something connects to how you do it, who you do it to, or for. And maybe what you see at the end of it-if you're looking that far.'

weigh the scale. I'd say

I need to write to be happy.

Continuity, he thought, wasn't the same as stagnation.

If you love someone, when it's the most real, the most important thing in your life, it's not enough to coast. You need to dig in those footers, start building on that base. You want something to last, you put your back into it.

Not bad," he decided.
"I'm overwhelmed by your flattery.

"I'm overwhelmed" title="Nora Roberts Quotes: Not bad," he decided.
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You're trying to be charming again," Shelby muttered.
"Am I succeeding?"
Some questions were best ignored. "I really don't know how to be more succinct, Alan."
Was that part of the appeal? he wondered. The fact that the free-spirited Gypsy could turn into the regal duchess in the blink of an eye. He doubted she had any notion she was as much one as the other. "You have a wonderful speaking voice.What time will you be ready?"
Shelby huffed and frowned and considered. "If I agree to spend some time with you today, will you stop sending me things?"
Alan was silent for a long moment. "Are you going to take a politician's word?"
Now she had to laugh. "All right, you've boxed me in on that one."
"It's a beautiful day, Shelby.I haven't had a free Saturday in over a month. Come out with me."
She twined the phone cord around her finger. A refusal seemed so petty, so bad-natured.He was really asking her for very little, and-dammit-she wanted to see him. "All right, Alan, every rule needs to be bent a bit now and again to prove it's really a rule after all."
"If you say so.Where would you like to go? There's an exhibition of Flemish art at the National Gallery."
Shelby's lips curved. "The zoo," she said and waited for his reaction.
"Fine," Alan agreed without missing a beat. "I'll be there in ten minutes."
With a sigh,Shelby decided he just wasn't an easy man to shake. "Alan, I'm not dressed."
"I'll be there in five."

Stuck with a beautiful woman who knows me and wants me around anyway. For the life of me, I can't figure out what I did right.

When you reach for the stars, you lose blood and tears. That's something you should remember.

Her mother would be married by then, and just back from her honeymoon.
Maddy and Theo would be her brother and sister, and back in school. She would be planning her own
wedding, though she'd pressured Tyler not to announce their engagement yet.

intelligent woman," he remarked grimly. "You

I love you. I love everything about you. Your voice, your laugh. Your eyebrows when they grow back. Your face, your body, your hard head and your cautious heart. I want to spend the rest of my life looking at you, listening to you, working with you, just being with you. Rowan of the purple lupines.

Who hated as passionately as she loved, who asked questions that couldn't be answered, who

There's nothing worse than having someone moping around feeling sorry for themselves, is there?"
"A damned nuisance," he agreed lightly as he drew her into the private car. "How much did you take me for in there?"
It took her a minute to realize he'd changed the subject. "Oh,I don't know-five,six hundred."
"I'll put breakfast on your tab," he said as the doors opened to his and Serena's suite. Her laugh pleased him as much as the hug she gave him.
"Just like a man," Serena stated as she came into the room. "Waltzing in with a beautiful woman at the crack of dawn while the wife stays home and changes the baby." She held a gurgling Mac over her shoulder.
Justin grinned at her. "Nothing worse than a jealous woman.

I don't give a damn what they say about me, but nobody's going to talk behind their hands about you. Where the hell did you get that skirt? he exploded. Tarts U Us?

When a woman had eyes that big, that brown, that beautiful, she probably got whatever she wanted without saying a word.

She chose a bottle of sauvignon blanc from the kitchen rack and uncorked it. "These are trying times. There have been others, and there will be more." She poured three glasses. "It's essential that we live while we move through them.

With their hands still joined, he laid them on her stomach. "I love you," he murmured, "both."
"Caine." And his name was muffled against his mouth. "I have so much to learn in only seven months."
"We have a lot to learn in seven months," he corrected. "Why don't we go upstairs." He buried his face into her hair and drew in her scent. "Expectant mothers should lie down-" he lifted his head to grin at her "-often."
"With expectant fathers," Diana agreed, laughing when he swept her into his arms.

'You don't have any neuroses, which is annoying. You have quirks, which make up for it a little. But you're mostly irritatingly stable and normal.'

No sooner looked but they loved.

Oh,and the hunk wasn't hard on the eyes, either." Grinning, she gave an obvious and deliberate shudder. "The real physical type.I thought he was going to punch that idiot Tarmack right in the face. Was kinda hoping he would. Anyway,the pair of you made a great team."
"I suppose."
"So,what about those smoldering looks?"
"What smoldering looks?"
"Get out." Mo cheerfully wiggled her eyebrows. "I got singed and I was only an innocent bystander. The guy looks at you like you were the last candy bar on the shelf and he'd die without a chocolate fix."
"That's a ridiculous analogy, and you're imagining things."
"He was going to pound Tarmack into dust for dissing you.Man, I just wanted to melt when he hauled the guy up by the collar.Too romantic.

I can't remember when I've spent a more...enjoyable Saturday." She sighed, then teased his tongue with hers.
"Since I don't intend to move for at least twenty-four hours,we'll see how you like Sunday as well."
"I think I'm going to love it." She slid a hand over his shoulder. "I don't like to be pushy, Senator, but when are you going to marry me?"
"I thought September in Hyannis Port."
"The MacGregor fortess." He saw by her eyes the idea appealed to hre. "But September's two and a half months away."
"We'll make it August," he said as he nibbled at her ear. "In the meantime, you and your roommates can move in here, or we can start looking for another place. Would you like to honeymoon in Scotland?"
Shelby nestled into his throat. "Yes." She tilted her head back. "In the meantime," she said slowly as her hands wandered down to his waist. "I've been wanting to tell you that there's one of your domestic policies I'm fully in favor or,Senator."
"Really?" His mouth lowered to hover just above hers.
"You have-" she nipped at his bottom lip "-my full support.I wonder if you could just...run through the prodecure for me one more time."
Alan slid a hand down her side. "It's my civic duty to make myself avaiable to all my constituents."
Shelby's fingers ran up his chest to stop his jaw just before he captured her lips. "As long as it's only me, Senator." She hooked her arm around his neck. "This is the one-man one-vote system.

But not really needing to be rescued sort of makes being rescued more exciting,you know."
"No,I don't know," Keeley snapped. "Go to school,Mo.I've got mucking out to do."
"I'm going,I'm going. Sheesh. You must be low on the caffeine intake this morning.I'll come by later to see how the gelding's doing.I've got a kind of vested interest,you know? See you.

I could come down for a couple of days, Daniel,but I'd like to bring someone."
"Someone?" Daniel's senses sharpened. He leaned forward with the cigar smoldering in his hand. "Who might this someone be?"
Recognizing the tone, Grant crunched o a corn chip. "An artist I know who's doing some painting in New England, in Winty Point at the moment. I think she'd be interested in your house."
She, Daniel thought with an irrepressible grin.Just because he'd managed to comfortably establish his children didn't mean he had to give up the satisfying hobby of matchmaking. Young people needed to be guided in such matters-or shoved along.And Grant-though he was a Campbell-was by way of being family...
"An artist...aye,that's interesting. Always room for one more,son. Bring her along. An artist," he repeated, tapping out his cigar. "Young and pretty, too, I'm sure."
"She's nearly seventy," Grant countered easily,crossing his ankles as he leaned against the wall. "A little dumpy, has a face like a frog.Her paintings are timeless, tremendous emotional content and physicality.I'm crazy about her." He paused, imagining Daniel's wide face turning a deep puce. "Genuine emotion transcends age and physical beauty, don't you agree?"
Daniel choked, then found his voice. The boy needed help,a great deal of help. "You come early Friday,son. We'll need some time to talk." He stared hard the bookshelf across the room. "Seventy, you say?"
"Close.But then true sensuality

It's never simple." Avery slid an arm around Hope's waist. "It shouldn't be. Because being with someone should matter enough to be at least a little bit complicated.

Shelby trailed off when she spotted the goldfish swimming in circles inside the Waterford. "Well, he's come up in the world," she said with a jerky laugh. "I don't think he appreciates it.

I'm going to treat myself to one of these as a reward for not knocking himself unconscious with a skillet.

The polite thing would be to go back inside, give you privacy when you read it. But, I'm just not that mature.'
'It's nothing. Fine.' Feeling foolish, Laurel opened the envelope.
You might think this is over, but you'd be wrong. I've taken your shoes hostage. Contact me within forty-eight hours, or the Pradas get it.

Within months, Ray Quinn had died, but he'd kept his word. He'd kept it through the three men he'd made his sons. Those men had given the scrawny, suspicious, and scarred young boy a life.
They had given him a home, and made him a man.
Cameron, the edgy, quick-tempered gypsy; Ethan, the patient, steady waterman; Phillip, the elegant, sharp-minded executive. They had stood for him, fought for him. They had saved him.
His brothers.