Sarah MacLean famous quotes

I had a perfect life in my reach once, and it was a crashing bore. Perfect is too clean, too easy. I don't want perfect any more than I want to be perfect. I want imperfect.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Perfect #Want #Easy

Oh, Callie-mine," Anne said, her voice taking on a tone she'd used when Callie was a little girl and crying over some injustice, "your white knight, he will come." One side of Callie's mouth kicked up in a wry smile. Anne had said those words countless times over the last two decades. "Forgive me, Anne, but I'm not so certain that he will." Oh, he will," Anne said firmly. "And when you least expect." I find I'm rather tired of waiting." Callie laughed half-heartedly. "Which is probably why I've turned my attentions to such a dark knight.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Girl #Tired #Dark

Ralston looked down his long, elegant nose at the vile creature at his feet, and said, “You just impugned the honor of my future marchioness. Choose your seconds. I will see you at dawn.” Leaving Oxford sputtering on the ground, Ralston spun on one elegant heel to face Benedick. “When I am done with him, I am coming for your sister. And, if you intend to keep me from her, you had better have an army at your side.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Army #Your Side #Oxford

You are my siren,” he said, running his hands along her thighs and down her calves, feeling the shape of her even as the silk of her gown kept them both from what they wanted. “My temptress . . . my sorceress . . . I cannot resist you, no matter how I try. You threaten to send me over the edge.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Running #Hands #Feelings

He called me a pie!” she announced, defensively. There was a pause. “Wait. That’s not right.” “A tart?” “Yes! That’s it!
-- Sarah MacLean

#Pie #Waiting

I . . . hit him . . . elsewhere.” “Where?” “In his . . .In his inguine.” “Oh, dear God.” It was unclear whether Ralston’s words were meant as prayer or blasphemy. What was clear was that the woman was a gladiator. “He called me a pie!” she announced, defensively. There was a pause. “Wait. That’s not right.” “A tart?” “Yes! That’s it!” She registered her brother’s fists and looked to Simon. “I see that it is not a compliment.” “No. It is not.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Brother #Prayer #Pie

Juliana?” the words were low and far—too calm for her husband, who had found that he rather enjoyed the full spectrum of emotion now that he had experienced it. “Yes?” “What are you doing twenty feet in the air?” “Looking for a book.” “Would you mind very much returning to the earth?” “What are you thinking, climbing to the rafters in your condition?” “I am not an invalid, Simon, I still have use of all my extremes.” “You do indeed—particularly your extreme ability to try my patience—I believe, however, that you mean extremities.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Husband #Book #Believe

Yes, she was a scandal. Her brother simply didn’t know it. “I fell in the Serpentine today.” “Yes, well, that doesn’t usually happen to women in London. But it’s not so much of a scandal as it is a challenge.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Brother #Challenges #London

Kisses should not leave you satisfied.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Kissing #Should #Satisfied

The most confident of women are those who believe in every scrap of fabric they wear. They are the ones who are as happy wih their drawers as they are with their gowns. You can tell the difference between a woman who wraps herself in beautiful silks and satins and she who wears...otherwise.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Beautiful #Believe #Differences

But she had dreamed of being his for too long. He had quite ruined her for a marriage of convenience. She wanted everything from him: his mind, his body, his name and, most of all, his heart.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Heart #Names #Long

It was a terrifying feeling. And if it was love, he wanted none of it.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Feelings #Wanted

What do you think of this" he asked, indicating the painting nearby. She gave him an odd look. "I think it's an enormous painting of a dog." He made a show of considering the picture and nodded seriously. "An astute observation.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Dog #Thinking #Looks

Would you like to cross another item off this list today?" "I should like that very much. Which do you propose?" "I think it's time to try riding astride". "You can't mean..." "Oh, but I do, indeed, mean, Empress.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Mean #Thinking #Trying

Ralston stiffened at the reference to the stupid wager that caused so much pain and unhappiness. He ignored Oxford's proffered hand, and instead met the baron's concerned gaze, and said, "Keep the money. I have her. She's all I want.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Pain #Stupid #Hands

Ralston didn't care. He turned on his brother as the surgeon knelt next to him and inspected the wound. "She could have been killed!" And what about you?" This time, it was Callie who spoke, her own pent-up energy releasing in anger, and the men turned as one to look at her, surprised that she and found her voice. "What about you and your idiotic pland to somehow restore my honor by playing guns out in the middle of nowhere with OXFORD?" She said the baron's name in disdain. "Like children? Of all the ridiculous, unnecessary, thoughtless, MALE things to do...who even FIGHTS duels anymore?!
-- Sarah MacLean

#Brother #Children #Fighting

You should see what she’s wearing, Callie. It’s velvet. Canary yellow velvet. Turban to match. She looks like a furry banana.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Yellow #Looks #Bananas

This new world was already turning her into a cabbagehead, and she'd only been a part of it for an evening
-- Sarah MacLean

#World #Evening

I do not traditionally speak ill of women, but your governess is a cabbagehead
-- Sarah MacLean

#Speak #Ill

Let me be clear. Last I was aware you were neither my husband nor my father nor my King. Therefore, any control you may imagine you hold over me is just that- imaginary
-- Sarah MacLean

#Kings #Husband #Father

Men are not nearly as evolved as women are, nor as intelligent, evidently
-- Sarah MacLean

#Intelligent #Men

Lord Nicholas St. John was their only hope, and she had been on the roof when he arrived, for heaven's sake. Ladies did not go traipsing about on rooftops. And certainly gentlemen did not frequent the homes of those ladies who did traipse about on roortops. It did not matter if the rooftop in question was in dire need of repair. Or that the lady in question had no choice.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Home #Heaven #Choices

Do you think me horselike, my lord?" Realizing the threat to his personage, Blackmoor wiped the smile from his face and replied, "Not at all. I said I think you charming." "A fine start.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Thinking #Faces #Realizing

You cheated!” He looked at her, wide-eyed with feigned outrage. “I beg your pardon. If you were a man, I would call you out for that accusation.” “And I assure you, my lord, that I would ride forth victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness.” “Are you quoting the Bible to me?” “Indeed,” she said primly, the portrait of piousness. “While gambling.” “What better location to attempt to reform one such as you?
-- Sarah MacLean

#Humility #Men #Gambling

How is it that one woman is…enough…for three men?” “I don’t know.” “She must be a very talented courtesan.” “Callie.” “Well, that was what she was. Wasn’t it?” “Yes.” “How very fascinating!” She smiled brightly. “I’ve never met a courtesan, you know.” “I could have surmised as such.” “She looked just as I imagined they did! Well, she was rather prettier.” Ralston’s eyes darted around the room as though he was looking for the quickest escape route. “Callie. Wouldn’t you rather gamble than talk about courtesans?
-- Sarah MacLean

#Eye #Men #Rooms

She can't force us to go to the ball. We're grown men, for Lord's sake!" Will cocked an eyebrow at his younger brother. "You don't think she can force us? We are speaking of the same mother, correct? Small frame, enormous will?
-- Sarah MacLean

#Mother #Brother #Men

So, are you... intrigued ... by Stanhope?" "Intrigued by him?" "Indeed. Do you find him ..." he paused. "Intriguing?" she teased. He sent her an exasperated look.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Looks #Intriguing #Intrigued

First, I thought we'd already established that I am not a gentleman. That ship sailed long ago. And second, you'd be surprised what gentlemen do...and what ladies enjoy." ~Lord Bourne
-- Sarah MacLean

#Long #Gentleman #Ships

She was all he wanted. He would give everything for her. Without thought. Without regret.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Regret #Giving #Wanted

Sometimes, love was not enough.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Sometimes #Enough #Sometimes Love

Truth is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether or not they believe it." The logic in the words grated. "The first rule of scoundrels?
-- Sarah MacLean

#Believe #Firsts #Logic

She looked up at him and said,"What did you say?" "You have beautiful eyes." "You told my father that he has beautiful eyes?" He smiled. "No. You distracted me. I told your father that, while I was very grateful for the lesson, I doubt I would ever need of it again- because I was planning to court only one woman in my lifetime.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Beautiful #Father #Grateful

You are beautiful and brilliant and bold and so very passionate about life and love and those things that you believe in. And you taught me that everything I believed, everything I thought I wanted, everything I had spent my life espousing--all of it...it is wrong. I want your version of life...vivid and emotional and messy and wonderful and filled with happiness. But I cannot have it without you.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Beautiful #Life And Love #Believe

She took a deep breath, looking up at the ceiling for a long moment. A raindrop moved slowly down her neck; he watched as it turned down the slope of her breast to disappear inside the collar of her shirt. He was seriously contemplating becoming jealous of a droplet of water. Yorkshire was obviously damaging to his sanity.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Jealous #Long #Water

And as the bullet ripped through his flesh, Ralston was consumed by a single thought: I never told her that I loved her.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Flesh #Bullets

So what's your second suggestion?" "Tread lightly." "That's it? That's the best advice you can give me?" "All right, tread very lightly.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Giving #Advice #Suggestions

I never meant to hurt you, Isabel. Had I known what I would find when I came north, I would never have agreed to Leighton's request... That is a lie. Had I known that I would find you when I came north, I would have come years ago.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Hurt #Lying #Years

But there, in that remarkable room, surrounded by a laughing, rollicking, unseeing collection of London's brightest and wickedest, Pippa's knowledge of anatomy expanded. It seemed there was such a thing as a broken heart.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Heart #Broken #Laughing

In fiction, as in real life, love might inspire acts that are at best foolish and at worst life-threatening, but in the best romances, love is the final, secret ingredient that turns mere mortals into heroes and heroines.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Real #Hero #Love Life

But it didn't stop him from loving her just a little. From loving all women-all shapes, all sizes, all walks of life. Their soft skin and softer curves, the way they gasped and giggled and sighed, the way the wealthy ones played their coy games, and the less fortunate ones looked at him, stars in their eyes, eager for his attention. Women were, without a doubt, the Lord's finest creation. And, at twenty-three, he had plans for a lifetime of worshipping them.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Stars #Eye #Loving Life

I, for one, have no interest at all in having my heart stolen.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Heart #My Heart #Stolen

When you are soul-centered, you can focus your attention where and when you want to, easily, without distraction. You know to look for what you want to see and experience. You know that what you seek you shall find, and what you focus on in life will be more prominent in your awareness. You know your awareness is powerful and creative.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Powerful #Creative #Meditation

Meditation is an essential travel partner on your journey of personal transformation. Meditation connects you with your soul, and this connection gives you access to your intuition, your heartfelt desires, your integrity, and the inspiration to create a life you love.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Integrity #Inspiration #Journey

why couldn't someone , somewhere , want her for her ?
-- Sarah MacLean

#Want

Love isn't one-sided and selfish.It is full and generous and life-altering in the best of ways.Love does not destroy, Gabriel.It creates.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Selfish #Gabriel #Way

My whole life . . . two and two has made four.”... “But now . . . it’s all gone wrong.” She shook her head. “It doesn’t make four anymore. It makes you.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Two #Four #Gone

To be honest, I thought it was similar to animal husbandry." Sally's tone turned dry. "Sometimes, my lady I'm afraid it isn't that different." Pippa paused, considering the ords. "Is that so?" "Men are uncomplicated, generally," Sally said, all too sage. "They're beasts when they want to be." "Brute ones!" "Ah, so you understand." Pippa tilted her head to one side. "I've read about them." Sally nodded. "Erotic texts?" "The book of Common Prayer....
-- Sarah MacLean

#Prayer #Book #Men

Temptation turns you. It makes you into something you never dreamed, it presses you to give up everything you ever loved, it calls you to sell your soul for one, fleeting moment.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Giving Up #Soul #Temptation

Colleen McCullough taught me that desire is the heart of romance.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Heart #Romance #Desire

He was struck dumb at the words though he should not be surprised; his wife kept him in a perpetual state of speechlessness.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Wife #Dumb #States

And... as long as they need me, it's easier to forget that I am alone.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Long #Needs #Forget

You must be mistaken," Isabel said, unconcerned by the insult that the words carried. "I assure you i am not. Voluptas is nearly always portrayed wrapped in roses. If that were not enough, her faces confirms her identity." "You cannot tell a goddess from a face carved in marble," she scoffed. "You can tell Voluptas by her face." "I've never even heard of this goddess, and you know what she looks like?" "She is the goddess of sensual pleasure." Isabel's mouth fell open at the words. She could not think of a single thing to say in response. "Oh
-- Sarah MacLean

#Thinking #Rose #Sensual

Un momento con una donna capricciosa vale undici anni di vita noiosa. A single moment with a fiery female is worth eleven years of a boring life.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Years #Female #Boring

We are a motley bunch. But we more than make up for it with tenacity." ~ Ralston to Simon
-- Sarah MacLean

#Tenacity #Bunch

She winced, knowing what was to come, "Calpurnia." She closed her eyes again, embarrassed by the extravagant name - a name with which no one but a helplessly romantic mother with an unhealthy obsession with Shakespeare would have considered saddling a child.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Mother #Children #Eye

You plan to be a challenge, do you?" Juliana smiled angelically. "I agreed to remain, my lord. Not to remain silent.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Challenges #Silent #Lord

Nick spoke again. "Her legitimacy will be questioned." Gabriel thought for several moments. "If our mother married her father, it means that the marchioness must have converted to Catholicism upon arriving in Italy. The Catholic Church would never have acknowledged her marriage in the Church of England." "Ah, so it is we who are illegitimate." Nick's words were punctuated with a wry smile. "To Italians, at least," Gabriel said. "Luckily, we are English." "Excellent. That works out well for us.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Mother #Father #Mean

She did not want to be that woman - the one of whom they spoke. She had never planned to be that woman. Somehow, it had happened, however...somehow, she had lost her way and, without realizing it, she had chosen this staid, boring life instead of a different, more adventurous one.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Different #Want #Way

I enjoyed every bit of the evening. I may not drink scotch or smoke a cheroot again, but I shall always cherish the fact that I did those things. The adventure is well worth the disappointing experience.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Adventure #Scotch #May

I've spent twenty-eight years doing what everyone around me expected me to do...being what everyone around me has expected me to be. And it's horrid to be someone else's vision of yourself.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Years #Eight #Vision

He raked his fingers through his hair. "She doesn't need me." Ralston smirked. "You are laboring under that mistaken impression that it is their job to need us. In my experience it is almost always the other way around.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Jobs #Hair #Needs

If I am an empress, he is the only man worthy of being my emperor.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Men #Empresses #Worthy

Fortuitous mostly for me,Lady Holloway," she said, her gaze steadfast on her husband. "For without our being childhgood neighbors, I am certain that my husband woud never have found me." Michael's gaze lit with admiration, and he lifted his glass in her direction. "At some point I would have realized what I was missing, darling. An I would have come looking for you.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Husband #Glasses #Missing

I've loved him for a decade. And I had him for one day before I made a complete and utter mess of things. Or he did. I'm still not sure about that.
-- Sarah MacLean

#One Day #Made #Not Sure

..he wanted her. And at another time, as another man, he would have her. Without hesitation. As lover. . . as more.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Men #Lovers #Hesitation

She had wanted more than she could have. She had wanted him, and more... she had wanted him to want her. In the name of something bigger than tradition, bolder than reputation, more important than a silly title.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Silly #Names #Important

Even as she’d come to know the real Ralston—the Ralston who was not cut from heroic cloth—Callie had failed to see the truth. And, instead of seeing her own heartbreak coming, she had fallen in love, not with her fantasy, but with this new, flawed Ralston.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Real #Cutting #Heroic

How could she go on without him? And, at the same time, how could she go on knowing that every moment of their time together had meant so little to him
-- Sarah MacLean

#Knowing #Together #Goes On

do not like this taste for adventure you have developed, sister.” “I am afraid I cannot guarantee I shall be rid of it anytime soon.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Adventure #Taste #Guarantees

Benedick looked to the ceiling as though begging for divine patience. Or for the Lord to strike his sister down. Callie couldn’t quite discern which.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Ceilings #Lord #Divine

Why now? Why not wait for a man to come along and…sweep you off your feet?” She gave a short laugh. “If the man you speak of had ever planned on coming, my lord, I’m afraid he has obviously lost his way. And, at twenty-eight, I find I have grown tired of waiting.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Tired #Men #Eight

It didn’t matter the quality of the writing— Callie’s fantasies about her fictional heroes were entirely democratic.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Hero #Writing #Quality

She tilted her head, considering the sensation. "It is strange." He gave a hiss of laughter at the words. "It only gets stranger, darling. But we shall try for something more.
-- Sarah MacLean

#Laughter #Trying #Strange