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Was there anything in life more pleasurable than the sensation of striking a dark line through an item on one’s list with a pencil? Yes. There was the visceral sensation of taking out one’s pencil and striking a dark line through the last item on one’s daily list.
“Chloe,” he said again. “It’s your decision. But please. Please never kiss a man who doesn’t think you deserve his effort.”
Her eyes stung for a moment. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. He wasn’t supposed to take her worst qualities and turn them upside down in this way.
“I’ll just…wait outside,” Jeremy said, gesturing vaguely behind them. “No,” said Mr. Fong. “You will also eat. You are rich, which means you are weak. You do not have the necessary fortitude to go without meals.”
Her face was sun-warm; her eyes were sun-bright. He never wanted to let her go, and he didn’t even have her yet.
“The place you are,” Mr. Fong said, “is not permanent. Stop waiting. Work with what you have and who you are to make what you want to be. I am waiting to see what you will discover.”
She often felt as if she were coiled into a tightly wound spring, holding on to inconvenient and shameful urges that she dared not let loose. She could imagine what would happen if she let go of all that control.
That had been it for her: the moment at which return had not been possible. It hadn’t been love. It had just been the knowledge that he’d seen her and done her a kindness.
am not cute,” she said between stamps, glaring at him. “I am mean and harsh and you will respect that.”
If you asked me why I wanted you, I wouldn’t be able to give a carefully thought-out account. I could only say that you make me feel like the home I want to live in.”
There were a lot of things he could say. Look, aren’t I useful? That was one of them. By the way, I’m the duke. That was another.
He saw it now, in startling clarity. Some of those vines cared for him, but that didn’t make their poison less toxic.
“Your Grace, if everyone simply gave away their property—” “Then the world would be a much, much better place for everyone except the dukes.”
