Sarah Chamberlain > Quotes

“Now I brushed a quick kiss over her ruby-colored mouth that tempted me beyond belief. "You should wear lipstick more often."
She snorted. "Why, because you like getting it all over your face?" She rubbed her thumb over my bottom lip and showed me the crimson stain she'd left behind.
"You can get all over my face anytime, darling."
Her cheeks blushed a lovely complementary shade of pink. "Promises, promises."
I grinned at her. "You know I'll keep them.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“You have princess hair," he said, pressing his lips against the strands.
The word "reverent" popped into my head, but I pushed it away. "I'm no princess." If I was anything, I was the scrappy orphan, making my way in the world with only my wits.
He gave me a slow, wicked smile. "Then why do I want to kneel for you?”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“My sweet, big-hearted, loyal Puck, who I'd thought would ruin my life for fun but actually made it infinitely better. Every day now held a lot more laughter, a lot more joy, a lot more delicious food that I didn't have to make myself. Sure, we disagreed and debated and sometimes threw up our hands at each other's stubbornness, but I knew that he'd never walk away if I argued back, and I'd always be on his side, even if he made me slap my forehead sometimes. Every time we worked things out, we added another brick to our foundations, and marrying him would make what we'd built even stronger.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“Since you're not enjoying yourself, perhaps you and Ms. Salazar would like to leave?"
"That's probably wise." Kieran was glaring at me, and I said to Nicole, "In-N-Out sound good to you? I'm starving."
Bull's-eye. Kieran opened his mouth, but Mrs. Hutton clamped her hand onto his forearm.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“Her hair was so silky, and up close I could see all the streaks of champagne and wheat and caramel that made it blond. It smelled like clean laundry and citrus. Not lemon, but something greener.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“As soon as I saw you, I knew a grand adventure was about to happen.
I looked up at the gray stone facade of Ross & Co. and shifted the straps of my overloaded camping backpack, a smile forming on my lips as I remembered Winnie-the-Pooh's immortal words.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“He dug his thumbnail into the blushing peel and pulled until the dark red fruit appeared, spraying citrus oil everywhere. As he pulled the fruit into its sections, it glowed like rubies. It made the fruit I'd bought at the supermarket for our ill-fated experiment look dry and stale in comparison.
"Why do you have to show me now?"
I stopped cold, because he'd grabbed my chin. His fingers were soft, insistent.
"Because I want to. Open," he said. He was smiling, but there was something in his eyes I hadn't seen before. Determination?
When I gaped at him, he popped the orange segment in my mouth.
I bit down, and my eyes fluttered shut. Sweet-sour fireworks exploded across my tongue, and I couldn't help but moan a little bit. I tasted orange, of course, but there were raspberries and a little bit of rose petal, too.
"That's incredible," I said once I'd swallowed. "Like eating a sunset."
When I opened my eyes, he was staring at my mouth. I felt fireworks again, this time in my stomach. But a second later, he smiled big and said, "I was going to say a party in my mouth, but I guess that's why you're the writer.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“See, you find it very easy to just accost someone and ask for things, but you need to remember that I'm British."
She raised her eyebrows. "So what, you're just going to hang around politely drowning because you're scared of inconveniencing people?"
It was a very tidy summary, and I could hear how silly she found the whole concept. "Well, yes."
She snorted. "Someone needs to explain to me how you all conquered and pillaged a quarter of the world's surface, because I'm not seeing it right now.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“Her cheeks blushed a shade of cherry-blossom pink I wanted to capture in watercolors, a wash of spring on snowy paper. I wanted to see that blush on the rest of her skin too, wanted to follow its path with my hands and my mouth.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“You are my spring. You are soft green grass, all the flowers blooming and the sunshine on my face. If you leave me for good, it may as well be winter forever.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“Flowers! Dozens of bunches of flowers against black backgrounds. Walls full of spring, captured in the Netherlands almost four hundred years ago according to the explanation on the wall. Tulips, red and yellow, solid and striped. Peonies and roses and irises. I felt gleeful at the wealth of color compared to the gloom outside. If I could, I would have bathed in the richness. I took out my phone and carefully snapped a few of the paintings for future tattoo inspiration.
Finally I let myself look at the painting Leo was studying. The bouquet was mostly blowsy pink and white flowers, peonies and roses, but then suddenly I saw the daffodils tucked into the heart of the arrangement, their trumpets yolk orange and their petals sunshine yellow. I involuntarily glanced down at the matching blossom on my forearm. They had been my mom's favorite flowers--- to her they'd represented joy and energy, sunshine and optimism.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“What is it about you and my hair?" I asked, half laughing as I pulled out the first pins and put them in my pockets. "It's just wavy and brown."
"You see brown." He pulled the rubber band off the end of the braid when it fell and started to unravel it. "I see chocolate and nutmeg and cinnamon..."
I raised my eyebrows. "I think you might need some non edible adjectives. It's like you really want to eat me."
He raised his eyebrows back. "Don't I?"
A giggle bubbled up. "Touché.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“I'd parboiled potatoes for too long and wrecked my plan to roast them and serve them alongside prime rib. But I'd thought fast, crushing the potatoes and frying them into little cakes topped with sour cream and salmon roe, then scattering everything with fresh dill.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“It felt like chicken soup when I had a snotty mess of a cold, like a glass of icy apple juice when my body was on fire with fever. I didn't disappear into his embrace like I had in Max's, but he was still strong and comforting and almost like relief. I buried my face in his shoulder, and he found the sweet spot on my back again, rubbing it until I wanted to purr.
But then my skin prickled, and suddenly I genuinely felt feverish. It was only supposed to be a hug with a friend, not me climbing him like a tree.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“Bay leaves, spices, his watchful, quiet, they drew my attention even more than the cheerful woman holding up the latest Sarah J. Maas on the screen.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“Her smile was brittle. "Well, I know Kieran's achieving something if someone like you is willing to be in a relationship with him."
"Someone like me?"
She gestured to me from head to toe. "Respectable. Elegantly dressed, if a little flamboyant with color. Beautiful manners, well-spoken. Clearly you listened to your parents when they told you how to behave."
I choked back a snort at the thought of my biological father being Mr. Manners. The sheer audacity of it.
"Kieran probably hasn't told you about all the times we had to get him out of trouble," she continued.
I blinked, confused. "No."
She ticked off on her fingers as she spoke. "He skipped classes, he stole money out of my wallet, he crashed our cars more than once. Not to mention the drinking, my God. He couldn't hold his liquor at all. We were so ashamed."
I held back my eye roll. It was like having a conversation with a steamroller. As she continued to list Kieran's crimes, I realized that she relished this monologue, all the ways he'd done them wrong. Like she never wanted him to grow up because then she'd have to stop being a martyr.
"But anyway, that's all in the past. Finally, he's become who we always wanted him to be, and we can hold our heads up."
The thought of being a source of pride to these snobby, plastic people made me want to drink ten flutes of prosecco, climb onto their dining room table, and do Amy Winehouse karaoke, Diane's advice about polish and presentation be damned. But all I needed to shock them was the truth.
"I haven't seen my father in over twenty years," I began. "As far as I know he's still the lead singer of the second-best hair metal band in Spokane. My mother's salary was for keeping herself in clothes and boyfriends. Sometimes I had to break into my piggy bank so that I could by Cup O' Noodles at 7-Eleven for my brother and me. I've made a good life in spite of my parents, not because of them. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with your son. I knew he was a survivor, too. But thank you for the compliments. Now, if you'll excuse me.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“As he stroked between my thighs, he trailed his mouth up to my ear, told me with a voice like dark chocolate and smoke that I was everything he'd ever wished for, so perfectly soft and hot and slick on his fingers, how he'd tortured himself in his lonely bed thinking of my sexy little sounds, how hard he was going to fuck me once he made me scream.
"Oh God, Leo, please," I begged as I pushed my hips into his hand.
He groaned. "Yes, that's right. Let me make you feel good, love. Let me give this to you.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“Oat milk and one sugar, just how I liked it, and the comfort of it made me sigh. "It's like I made it myself. Thank you."
He gave me the kind of look that would burn my clothes off. "I like knowing what you like, darling."
Jesus, I didn't know an old-fashioned endearment could be so suggestive.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“Last night flashed like an erotic flip book, our bodies rising and falling in lines and curves.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“I don't judge other people for doing what they need to do. But you know what sex does? It makes oxytocin. Bonding hormones. Running around your system willy-nilly and making things all warm and fuzzy. Anyone who thinks that they can have sex more than once without catching at least some kind of feelings is delusional, because catching feelings is biology."
I put my hands up. "OK, Einstein, I take your point."
"Einstein wasn't a biologist."
I laughed, all disbelief. "I'm telling you that I want to be naked in your bed, and you're being a smartass?"
She blushed. "Stating facts isn't smartassery. It's pedantry.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“Do that again, darling," he said into my ear. "That was the sexiest little sound."
Darling. No one had ever used that endearment for me before. But it turned out that that word, in Leo's crisp accent, was pure fire, affection, and protectiveness all mixed up together.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“It was like a hand had turned the volume way down on the hum of anxiety that always buzzed in my head. He was all calm competence. He knew what to do, and he'd tell me how in that dark-brown-sugar voice, and I could just be.
I slowly followed his instructions. He leaned in and I got a whiff of white soap and pine forest. "Closer," he said softly. "Cut closer."
He could whisper in my ear, he was that near. His scarred lower lip so close to my skin.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“Because before we'd met, we'd both thought in our own ways that our lives were over just as they'd begun, that we were stuck doing the same things forever. It had taken meeting each other, pushing each other, giving ourselves away to each other, to make us realize that our lives were what we made them. We were each other's spring, each other's new beginning.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, Love Walked In

“After I'd polished off one pastry and was halfway through a second, he asked, "Happy pastry?"
The laugh bubbled up around my mouthful of blackberry jam and vanilla custard. I swallowed and said, "Understatement. Ecstatic pastry. Delighted pastry. I-love-you pastry."
He cracked up. "Wow, strong words. All I had to do was bring you the finest croissants in the land."
I put my plate on the nightstand and crawled to him. "Please don't think you have to buy me fancy pastry all the time so I'll stay in love with you."
"What do I have to do?" He set his plate aside. "Spoil Floyd rotten? Make you shrimp for dinner every day?"
"Be yourself," I said.
His wolfish grin was gorgeous, and when I kissed him, his joy was buttery sweet on my tongue.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“She made her easy way down the outside steps. "Are you trying to catch flies?" she asked, a laugh in her voice. "You must have seen a woman all made up before."
I closed my mouth. I felt like I'd never seen her before. Silky violet fabric hugged her body like it never wanted to let her go, dipping in at her waist and sweeping out at her hip. It ended just above her knees and made her curvy legs look like they went on forever before they got to her gold flats. When her raspberry-pink mouth curled in a warm smile, she glowed, and it was like a light bulb suddenly lit up in my head. I wasn't horny and restless because I hadn't gotten any in almost ten months.
It was because I wanted her. Only her.
I wanted to bite her lush lower lip, suck the sweet curve where her shoulder met her neck. I wanted to bury my face where her neckline curved down. I wanted to bury my face in a lot of other places, too.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“Sex with you is pretty wonderful. It's like when we work together in the kitchen. We fit each other."
Suddenly, he was on top of me, and I squealed, "Kieran!"
He pressed his nose to mine. "Pretty wonderful, huh? What would it take to make it amazing? Fantastic?"
There was my Puck. Testing and playful and impossibly sexy.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“Servers swept across the floor as they could hear invisible music to oohs and aahs from all the tables. Ours presented us with a palm-sized white plate with two teensy golden choux pastry puffs.
"Foie gras spheres with Sauternes jelly," he proclaimed.
The sweet-savory cloud dissolved on my plate, and I couldn't help but hum. "Holy crap, can I have fifty of those and call it a day?" I said. "That's fantastic."
Nicole nudged me with a grin. "Told you."
After the puffs came neatly squared smoked eel sandwiches, the fish's smoky richness bitten off by sharp horseradish. They were delicious, and fairy-sized. So were the next two dishes.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“In the States, the best ones I've ever eaten were at Bedford Street Bakery, in Brooklyn."
"I heard the pastry chef at Qui raving about that place. The woman who runs it is Kiwi, right?"
"Yeah. She bakes these beautiful seasonal pastries. I was there around this time four years ago, and there was one with apricots, crème pâtissière, and toasted almonds, and it was just gorgeous." Her shoulders dropped, and her mouth went slack remembering the pleasure.
I pressed myself back into the hard bench to hold off the wave of horniness that crashed over me. Jesus, Kieran, get a grip. "That was a quality Homer Simpson drooling noise," I said. Jokes were safe. Jokes meant I wasn't turned on.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“This is my number one fantasy, your legs spread wide just for me." The way he looked at me there was almost feral. "You're soft, and pink, and pretty, and I want to eat you up.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn

“I'd heard on a podcast once about a Japanese technique for fixing broken pottery, where the artist would mix gold with glue, binding the cracks together and making them glow.
I wasn't the distraction, Ellie was saying. The book was, and all the burdens that came with it.”
― Sarah Chamberlain, The Slowest Burn