Sherry Thomas Quotes

The hero is a secret agent? Well, who gives a crap about the rest of his case once he has met the heroine. Time for moody angst! ~ Sherry Thomas

Sometimes limbs must be re-broken to set properly, her heart too needed to shatter anew before it could truly heal. ~ Sherry Thomas

And that is why You do not trifle with the Master of the Domain. ~ Sherry Thomas

Someone loved this girl, this utterly useless girl, loved her enough to go on wooing her, even though she was being paraded before all of Europe for takers. A moment of stark despair descended upon her that she would never know such love, that she would go through life sustained only by her facade of invincibility. Then she came to her senses. Love was for fools. Gigi Rowland was many things, but she was never a fool. ~ Sherry Thomas

Once the
exhilaration of their reunion wore off, once the newness of their lovemaking was no longer so
new, how would she see him? No matter how careful he was, invariably someday he would
do something to make her angry. What then? Would all the old unhappiness rush to the fore?
Would she remember that he had once betrayed her and regret that she'd ever given him a
second chance?
Or would she protect herself from the beginning by keeping a certain distance from him, so
that their closeness would always fall short of true communion, always denying him that final
forgiveness so that he could never hurt her again? ~ Sherry Thomas

That's what Papa counting on, no doubt. But romantic love is . . .I don't wish to say that romantic love itself is a fraud - I'm sure the feelings it inspires are genuine enough, however temporary. But the way it's held up as this pristine, everlasting joy every woman ought to strive for - when in fact love is more like beef brought over from Argentina on refrigerated ships: It might stay fresh for a while under carefully controlled conditions, but sooner or later it's qualities will begin to degrade. Love is by and large a perishable good and it is lamentable that young people are asked to make irrevocable, till-death-do-we-part decisions in the midst of a short-lived euphoria. ~ Sherry Thomas

She had grown so accustomed to this exterior that she didn't always remember what truly lay underneath. Nor did she particularly want to. Why fester in disillusion, bewilderment, and anger when she could float above and pretend to be this sunny, charming girl instead? ~ Sherry Thomas

If all I have to do is remain awake to be considered romantic, than I can promise you a great deal of romance in our marriage. ~ Sherry Thomas

She felt as if she'd been hugging puppies all day. ~ Sherry Thomas

Fortune favors the brave."
Another moment of silence. And then, Iolanthe found herself shouting at the top of her lungs, her voice nearly drowned by the bellow of all the rebels present, "And the brave make their own fortune! ~ Sherry Thomas

Even the boy who cried wolf was right about the wolf once. ~ Sherry Thomas

For the next three seconds, he still dared to let himself hope.
Perhaps she was making a grand entrance. Perhaps she would be carried in like Cleopatra, hidden in a roll of fine carpet.
Perhaps
Three porters, grunting, pulled in a handcart.
A crevasse opened before him and in fell his heart. No need to remove the tarpaulin wrapping. He recognized the stone slab
by its size and weight.
She had returned his present. She would have nothing more to do with him. ~ Sherry Thomas

Because being in love does not give you any excuse to be less than honorable, Lady
Tremaine. ~ Sherry Thomas

She should laugh at such ambitions on his part: nothing about him held any romance for her, not his crown, not his black heart, not his beautiful liar's face. ~ Sherry Thomas

Here's to going into the fire." - Kashkari ~ Sherry Thomas

I am not "just" a girl - no woman is. And if Heaven has deposited me at this time and place, then I am meant to deal with these problems, no matter their scale or consequence. ~ Sherry Thomas

She wanted to run her hands over him as he whispered the impassioned corollaries of non-Euclidean geometry. ~ Sherry Thomas

He felt like a pilgrim standing on the shores of Lake Sahara, having walked barefoot over hundreds of miles, yet all the hardships forgotten, filled with only wonder and reverence at the marvel of it all. ~ Sherry Thomas

That's right. Carrington didn't want to marry the likes of me. He had to be dragged kicking and screaming
to the negotiation table."
"Did you enjoy the dragging?" He glanced down at her.
"Yes, I rather did," she confessed. "It was amusing threatening to strip his house bare to the last plank on the floor and the last spoon in the kitchen."
"My parents are convinced of your grief." She heard the smile in his voice. "They said tears streamed
down your face at his funeral."
"For nearly three years of hard work down the drain, I cried like a bereaved mother. ~ Sherry Thomas

Believe me, I've thought long and hard about leaving things alone. But then there will always be this wall between us." "It's all ugly things behind the wall," I said, not looking at him. "I'm not afraid of what's behind the wall, only the wall itself." But the wall was my exoskeleton. It was what held me up. Sometimes it was the only thing that held me up. ~ Sherry Thomas

I wonder now how we got by when you weren't here."
"I have no doubt the devastation was widespread, the suffering universal."
"Indeed, it was the Dark Ages in the annals of Mrs. Dawlish's house. Ignorance was thick on the ground, and unenlkghtenment befogged all the windows. ~ Sherry Thomas

There was no such thing as a marriage with one happy spouse. Both must be or neither. ~ Sherry Thomas

So far I have restrained myself. For how much longer, I do not know.
I have never known such happiness, shot through with such misery. Only four days have passed, they tell me. But that is not true. It has been decades since I saw
you last.
You will find me a stooped old man when we meet again. Perhaps I might even need a pair of spectacles to recognize your veil.
But I remain always,
Your servant,
C.
One of Christian's onesided letters to the Baroness ~ Sherry Thomas

You've changed, Fitz.'
'It's been eight years. Everyone changes.'
'I haven't changed.'
The insight came to him like a match flaring. 'I can see how you've tried to remain the same. But no, you have changed, too. Once you thrilled to new horizons. Now all you want is to live in a monument to the way things might have been. ~ Sherry Thomas

a drunk did not expect the bottle to love him back,and she only wished to drink him in whenever she could. ~ Sherry Thomas

He climbed into bed himself and kissed his way up her legs. Instincts she didn't even know she possessed made her clench her thighs together. Without any hesitation, he pushed them apart, exposing her to his gaze.
The doors of the temple, darling, never close to the devout acolyte. ~ Sherry Thomas

A woman who has nothing left to lose can prove dangerous. ~ Sherry Thomas

Then she spied the cauldeon, sitting upright at the very bottom of the crater, filled with the most beautiful exiler she'd ever seen, like distilled starlight. ~ Sherry Thomas

They say that when an elemental mage called forth flame, she stole a little from every fire in the world. That would make Iolanthe Seabourn quite the thief. ~ Sherry Thomas

The explanation for her absence had been staring him in the face all the while, but he hadn't wanted to acknowledge it: The affair meant nothing to her. He'd been the only one bewitched body and soul. For her, he'd been but a temporary source of entertainment, a way to pass the otherwise tedious hours in the middle of an ocean.
He'd been the one to press for a continuation of their affair beyond the voyage. He'd been the one to offer his heart, his hand, his every last secret. She never even gave her real name.
And, of course, never showed her face. ~ Sherry Thomas

Why didn't they say anything to me?'
'Probably because they knew you wouldn't listen to reason.'
'That is pure hog swill.'
'Would you have listened to them?'
'They would have tried to persuade me with conventional thinking - not at all the same as *reason*. Not all of us live by the same logic.'
'Yet you still have to abide by the same set of rules as the rest of them. The consequences won't be any different for you.'
'You say it as if I don't know what the consequences are.'
'You know exactly what the consequences are. But you don't believe they could happen to you. ~ Sherry Thomas

The prince set her down and dismissed his valet. The latter left with a bow and closed the door. Leaning against the wall, the prince pulled off his stockings. As he walked toward the amethyst tub, he yanked his shirt over his head.
He was lean and tightly sinewed. Her little bird heart thudded.
He glanced at her, his lips curved in not quite a smile. The next thing she knew, his shirt had flown through the air and landed on the cage, blocking her view toward the bathtub.
"Sorry, sweetheart. I am shy."
She chirped indignantly. It was not as if she would have continued to watch him disrobe beyond a certain point. ~ Sherry Thomas

Still scared witless?"

Of course she was. He'd had to remind her there was a citron tart on the premises. ~ Sherry Thomas

He admired her surety. She knew her own worth and did not pretend otherwise for those who judged her on her parentage. But by refusing to tolerate fools and play nice, she'd condemned herself to a solitary path, both in defeat and in victory. ~ Sherry Thomas

Outwardly, other than her hair, she had not changed much. She was still more or less the same cool, aloof woman who garnered more respect than affection. On the inside, however, it had been impossible to return to the person she used to be. ~ Sherry Thomas

Some turn the soil and plant seedlings. We garden with words and nurture affinity. ~ Sherry Thomas

Why allow all the old memories to have supremacy? Make new ones, memories of such luster and beauty that, should the old ones come back, they would be pallid and impotent in comparison. ~ Sherry Thomas

At her incendiary words, he drove deeper - far deeper - into her, unable to help himself.

"So," she said, her fingers on his cheek, "now I've made you mine."

He took her fingers in hand and kissed them one by one. "You made me yours long ago, but now you finally claimed me. ~ Sherry Thomas

One could say lightning is the marriage of fire and air." "One could say mud is the marriage of water and earth," he said dismissively. ~ Sherry Thomas

He'd gone into their marriage determined that she would never be alone again. In the end,
she'd made him as alone in the world as she. ~ Sherry Thomas

I guess what I'm really trying to say is that you used to shatter easily. But
now you've become less brittle. ~ Sherry Thomas

Love will make you weak and indecisive, remember?" she murmured.
What a fool he had been. For a journey like theirs, love was the only thing that would make him strong enough.
"Don't ever listen to an idiot like me," he answered. ~ Sherry Thomas

And suddenly she resembled not so much a bland dish of pudding as the surface of a well-known, yet never explored lake, and he, standing on the banks, had just seen a movement underwater, an enigmatic shadow that disappeared so quickly he wasn't sure he hadn't imagined the whole thing. ~ Sherry Thomas

We will never accomplish anything worthwhile in life if we require the guarantee of success at the onset. ~ Sherry Thomas

Her aunt would be appalled at her forwardness. But Penelope had long ago decided that while the meek might inherit the earth, the non-meek enjoys far more interesting conversations - to say the least. ~ Sherry Thomas

Are you sure? I might take it as permission to further push my company on you. ~ Sherry Thomas

How do you find the grace to face
the shadows? ~ Sherry Thomas

Don't worry, darling. I'll look out for myself. And I've reached an age when I have no problem telling someone to fuck off. ~ Sherry Thomas

What is courage but strength in the face of fear? ~ Sherry Thomas

You have been all my moments of grace. ~ Sherry Thomas

I always think I cannot love you more if I tried, but I always do. ~ Sherry Thomas

His voice, however, was utterly velvety - if an upholstered wrecking ball
could be called velvety. "I won't need to try, my dear. My touch will burn away his."
She couldn't breathe.
"You were always quiet in his bed," he went on, "but you won't be in mine. You will scream with pleasure - and you will do it again and again. ~ Sherry Thomas

What do you do when you despair, and there isn't an August Rain to drown your sorrow? ~ Sherry Thomas

A messy business, rescuing princes. ~ Sherry Thomas

Or perhaps I've already despaired - and decided that while despair is fine as an occasional indulgence, it can't be served three times a day. ~ Sherry Thomas

For what is the Void but the beginning of Light? What is Light but the end of Fear? And what am I, but Light given from? What am I, but the beginning of Eternity? ~ Sherry Thomas

Friendship is untenable for people in our position. ~ Sherry Thomas

This is the story of a girl who fooled a thousand boys, a boy who fooled an entire country, a partnership that would change the fate of realms, and a power to challenge the greatest tyrant the world had ever known. Expect magic. ~ Sherry Thomas

That the loss of a man, even if he had been the love of her life, was not the end of a woman's existence. ~ Sherry Thomas

Do not undervalue what you are ultimately worth because you are at a momentary disadvantage. ~ Sherry Thomas

Now what I want to know is what happened when you found Bryony, Leo," said Will.
"Did you just say your sister sent me, pack up everything and come with me this moment?"
"More or less."
"And she came away with you?"
"More or less." Leo tossed Bryony a mischievous look. "Although there might have been
laudanum, drugging, and a midnight abduction involved."
"Now that's a much better story," said Matthew. "I would pay to read that one."
"And for his knavery, Leo lost one of his - more important parts," said Bryony.
"No!" Matthew and Will shouted in unison.
"Bryony!" Callista squeaked.
"Kidney," Leo cried. "It was just a kidney. A man can live a perfectly vigorous life with
one kidney."
"You can call it a kidney if you want," said Bryony. ~ Sherry Thomas

Dreams are not real; but when you are inside a dream, it is real to you. ~ Sherry Thomas

The worst thing about falling in love with her so early in life was that he'd been an absolute snot at fourteen, at once arrogant and self-pitying. Almost as bad was the fact that he'd been nearly half a foot shorter than she at their first meeting - she'd been five foot nine, and he barely five foot four. Though she was only a few weeks older than he was, she'd looked upon him as a child - while he broiled with the heat and anguish of first love.
When nothing else garnered him her attention, he turned horrid. She was disgusted by this midget who tried to trick her into broom closets to steal kisses, and he was at once miserable and thrilled. Disgust was better than indifference; anything was better than indifference. ~ Sherry Thomas

He had wanted marriage, children, and an upstanding life. He still had the children, thank God, but a man who had salvaged his greatest treasures from the smoldering ruins of his home remained in the middle of smoldering ruins. ~ Sherry Thomas

To be thought of as the perfect woman for a man isn't a compliment to a woman, it's more about how a man sees himself. Should we marry, either I will be exhausted trying to keep his illusion intact - or Lord Bancroft will be severely disappointed in his choice. Likely both. ~ Sherry Thomas

He took a strand of hair that had fallen loose from her chignon between his fingers. The gesture shocked her, not because his self-control seemed to have snapped, but the exact opposite - it felt like a deliberate choice on his part. ~ Sherry Thomas

Trust ran both ways. How could he ask her to trust him when he hardly trusted her?
He would trust her, in her love, in her strength, in her decency and fortitude.
And when the time came, he would find the strength in himself. ~ Sherry Thomas

Some things in life were truly difficult. Finding the source of the Nile, for example. Or exploring the South Pole. But falling out of love with a man who never looked at her twice, why should that prove an insurmountable challenge? ~ Sherry Thomas

My beloved,
I write to you from Rawalpindi, with the help of a Turkic-speaking imam, a kind man with a twinkle in his eyes and a soft spot for lovers. Now two years after I left Chinese Turkestan, I am about to embark on a solo journey there to find you, and my heart shakes with both hope and dread.
If I do not find you, then I will leave this letter in our cave, and pray that God willing, someday, as you ride by, you will be moved by an inexplicable urge to see the place where we had been so happy.
I was a fool to leave. If you can forgive me, please come and find me in Rawalpindi. Ask for Arvand the gem dealer at the British garrison, and they will know where to direct you.
I enclose a bar of chocolate, a packet of tea from Darjeeling, and all my fervent wishes for your well-being and happiness.
The one who loves you, always ~ Sherry Thomas

Then he made love to her not only as if he had never experienced lovemaking before, but no one had. ~ Sherry Thomas

Even they would think you a monster were you to
orchestrate a divorce right after my confinement."
"How long do you recommend I wait, then?"
"A long time. I know what happens when a divorce is granted:
The woman never gets anything. And I will not be parted from my child."
"So you will contest the divorce?"
"To my last penny. And then I'll borrow from Fitz and Millie."
"So we'll be married 'til the end of time?"
"The sooner you accept it, the sooner we are all better off."
His ancestors would have appreciated her hauteur: a fit wife for a de Montfort. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must have enough rest."
He gazed at her retreating back. Foolish woman, did she not realize that he'd already accepted it from the moment he'd said "I do"? ~ Sherry Thomas

What stupid children they had been, to cause each other such pain and then to hold on to their wounds so fiercely. She ~ Sherry Thomas

Did the
two of you marry again? Please tell me yes. If he is my brother-in-law again, he is less likely
to kill me for what I did."
Bryony looked at her a moment, then leaned in and whispered in her ear. "He won't kill
you. He just wants you committed to an asylum. ~ Sherry Thomas

And why, exactly, was she in no danger from him? Why didn't he want her with the fervor of a thousand over-heating engines? She ought to be constantly ogled and groped, having to beat him off with her parasol, her fan, and maybe one of her walking boots. ~ Sherry Thomas

You might be the scariest girl I've ever met," he told her.
"Let's not be dramatic," she said drily. "I'm the only girl you can remember ever meeting. ~ Sherry Thomas

A reflection of
their story: imperfect, but to him the most beautiful of stories. ~ Sherry Thomas

Nothing," he said. "Just that I have loved you, even when I was nothing and no one to you, when you didn't know my name and barely knew my face. ~ Sherry Thomas

But sometimes the males of the species brought home shiny, beautiful things,
with hope burning in their hearts. ~ Sherry Thomas

The next minute he realized what had happened to him, but not before she'd caught him staring.
For a decade, I was fixated by her beauty. I wrote an entire article on the evolutionary significance of beauty as a rebuke to myself, that I, who understood the concepts so well, nevertheless could not escape the magnetic pull of one particular woman's beauty.
She knew. With surgical precision, she had peeled back his layers of defenses, until his heart lay bare before her, all its shame and yearning exposed.
He could have lived with this if only he'd kept his secret whole and buried. But she knew. She knew. ~ Sherry Thomas

What is withdrawal?"
"Let's see, since you know your scripture so well, was that Onan? Yes, that bugger. What he did."
"Spilling his seed on the floor?"
"Yes," continued her husband, "it would be lovely if I could take you and spill my seed somewhere else. Not on the floor, mind you. But perhaps on your very soft belly. Perhaps even on your splendid breasts. and perhaps, if I'm in a really terrible mood, I'll make you swallow it.
- Vere to Elissande ~ Sherry Thomas

He put his hand over hers. "Am I a coward?"
"Because you are afraid? No. Only fools are never afraid. ~ Sherry Thomas

He glanced at her. "You were the moon of my existence; your moods dictated the tides of my heart."
The tides of her own heart surged at his words, even though his words were nothing but lies. ~ Sherry Thomas

Tenderness, that most alien and disconcerting of emotions, swelled and billowed in her. She picked up a cherry and stared down at the soft, bright-red fruit. "I love you."
The last time she'd declared her love he'd thrown it right back in her face. She waited uncertainly for his response. She didn't even have to wait a second. He leaned over and kissed her on the mouth. "I love you more."
- Gigi and Camden ~ Sherry Thomas

Her hand reached up and took a strand of his hair between her fingers. "Simple as that."
She gently pulled on that curl and let it go. "It's so springy."
They'd barely grazed at the truth, but I she was satisfied - and distracted. By his hair, of all things.
"I feel like a sheep that has been overlooked during spring shearing," he murmured.
"Yes, adorably fluffy."
Another time he might have protested the use of that adjective. But now he was all too relieved. "Would you like me to pull my chair closer, so you may fondle my hair with greater ease?" he asked.
She beamed at him. "Why, yes, I'd like exactly that. ~ Sherry Thomas

I often question your actions, but rarely your reasoning. And this isn't one of those rare instances. ~ Sherry Thomas

What is it?" she mumbled.
"Something that will make my kisses taste like chocolate. ~ Sherry Thomas

For the thousandth time he wished he'd just met her. That they were but two strangers traveling together, that such lovely, filthy thoughts did not break him in two, but were only a pleasant pastime as he slowly fell under the spell of her aloof beauty and her hidden intensity.
…
But no, they'd met long ago, in the furthest years of his childhood. Their chances had come and gone. All they had ahead of them were a tedious road and a final good-bye. ~ Sherry Thomas

The entire point of life was the ability to make one's own choices. Foreknowledge of anything - especially the circular kind, such as Kashkari's presence at Eton because he'd dreamed of it - was terribly limiting and ran counter to the concept of free will. ~ Sherry Thomas

What cricket? Grasshopper? ~ Sherry Thomas

I had this daft idea to come and bury the past. Except the past is not quite dead. ~ Sherry Thomas

Now he could work her likeness into any story of his choosing. Now he could fight dragons for her. And now he could kiss her again. ~ Sherry Thomas

I will keep you safe, he murmured. He meant it. As long as he was safe, she was safe. But how long would he remain safe? ~ Sherry Thomas

I won't bite, you know," he said. "I might lick, but I won't bite."
"I don't want you to lick either."
"I will lick only where you like, how is that? ~ Sherry Thomas

You, sir, are a scoundrel. As if he'd heard her thought, he glanced her way. Their gazes held, a pair of miscreants recognizing each other in a roomful of upstanding people. ~ Sherry Thomas

Mr. Robbins let slip that he had not been
sleeping well. He'd given up his room at the lodging house to a lady traveling by herself,
who'd come into Nowshera too tired to stand, when Nowshera was overrun and beds
impossible to find. When the lady left, the landlord had given the room to someone else,
leaving Mr. Robbins to sleep in rather atrocious places."
"Dear me," said Lady Vera.
"He didn't know it, but that lady was Mrs. Marsden. And I, for one, will always be grateful
that he helped her when there was absolutely nothing in it for him."
Lady Vera set down her tea. She reached forward and took Leo's hands. "Thank you, Mr.
Marsden. Sometimes I forget that beneath Michael's ambition, there is not a void, but much
kindness. Thank you for reminding me. ~ Sherry Thomas

Humans, herself included, held no
interest for her except as living machines, mind-bogglingly intricate, beautiful systems that
somehow housed individuals not quite worthy of the miracle of their physical bodies. ~ Sherry Thomas

Titus's jaw dropped. 'Those caravanists, they were mages?'
'They most certainly were.'
'But one fainted and two reached for their rifles when they saw the sand wyvern.'
'It's a good policy for at least one member of the group to pretend to fall unconscious at a mage sighting. And I always think the rifles are a touch of genius - any time you see someone holding a firearm, your instinct is to dismiss that person as a nonmage. ~ Sherry Thomas

...when an old man dies, no matter how well loved he is, it is easier to accept: death has been in the wings for a while. But when a young man perishes unexpectedly, his devoted wife, who has had every expectation of many more happy years together, suddenly finds herself profoundly alone-- and descends into a powerful grief that lasts for years upon years. ~ Sherry Thomas

Charlotte Holmes. I thought I might see you here."

The voice belonged to Lord Ingram, but slightly raspy, as if he were under the weather―or recovering from a night of hard drinking.

She turned around slowly. "Hullo, Ash."

A complicated pleasure, this man. ~ Sherry Thomas

You are the beginning of Eternity now, she said silently to Master Haywood. You have arrived at the end of Fear. And I will love you always, for as long as the world endures. ~ Sherry Thomas