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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Julia Quinn
Read between
February 16 - February 17, 2025
“I like when you say my name,” he said.
“Now that’s what a man wishes to hear.”
ICKKKK
His finger floated across her cheek to her temple, and then from there traced her eyebrow, ruffling the soft hairs as it moved to the bridge of her nose. “So pretty,” he said softly, “like a storybook fairy. Sometimes I think you couldn’t possibly be real.”
“I think I’m going to kiss you,” he whispered.
“I think I have to kiss you,” he said, looking as if he couldn’t quite believe his own words. “It’s rather like breathing. One doesn’t have much choice in the matter.”
WAHHHHHHH
“You’re crying,” Benedict said, touching her cheek.
“Oh, Sophie,” he murmured, his voice husky against her lips. “I’ve never felt—”
Benedict touched his fingers to the tip of her chin and tilted her face up. “Don’t lie to me, Sophie. What’s wrong?”
“I want you to come back to London with me,” he whispered, the words tumbling forth before he had a chance to consider them. “Come back and live with me.”
“Be mine,” he said, his voice thick and urgent. “Be mine right now. Be mine forever. I’ll give you anything you want. All I want in return is you.”
“Fine,” he said in a short voice. “Fine. Be my mistress, and have this.”
BOY
“Sophie, Sophie, Sophie,” he groaned, his lips moving frantically along her face until they found her mouth again. “I need you.” He pressed his hips hotly against hers. “Do you feel how I need you?”
His fingers wrestled with the large, poorly made buttons on the back of her dress. “I’m going to burn this,” he grunted, his other hand relentlessly stroking the tender skin at the back of her knee. “I’ll dress you in silks, in satins.” He moved to her ear, nipping at her lobe, then licking the tender skin where her ear met her cheek. “I’ll dress you in nothing at all.”
“But I’m not leaving you to fend for yourself.”
“I can’t help it,” he said with a shrug. “I find myself completely unwilling to let you go.”
“You’re illegitimate,” he said.
CLOCKED HERRR
He touched her chin. “Let me be your anchor.”
“I would request,” he said, “that you be released into my custody.”
BENEDICT
“I can live with you hating me,” he said to the closed door. “I just can’t live without you.”
He shrugged. “She loves me. She’ll make an opening.”
“I only wanted it one way,” he growled.
It felt … nice. And it had been a long, long while since her life had felt nice.
Miss Reiling can spot an unmarried bachelor at fifty paces. Unfortunately for Miss Reiling, she can’t seem to land one.
UNHINGEDDDD
“You are hereby forbidden from marrying anyone who was in attendance.”
“Good idea. That girl could get Napoleon to spill his secrets.”
She’d fallen in love with the wrong man. She could never have him on her terms, and she refused to go to him on his.
And even though she had no idea where she intended to go from this moment on, she had the oddest feeling that her life had just begun.
One corner of his mouth lifted into a lazy, seductive smile. “Your life doesn’t have to be dull, you know.”
oh he wants her baddd
“Every night, I lie in bed, thinking of you, wondering why the hell you’re here with my mother, of all people, and not with me.”
but he needed to know that she was safe and protected more than he needed her for himself.
He certainly hadn’t met anyone since with whom he could even imagine building a life. Until Sophie.
“I know.” He smiled. “I know. I hate it when you think. It always ends badly for me.”
At last, he broke through. She smiled. “Good,” he said. “That’s more like it.”
You will stay right here, and you will keep smiling. Because it breaks my heart to see any other expression on your face.”
“Sophie?” Benedict rushed toward her. “What happened? Are you all right?”
“You’re shaking,” he said, looking at her hands. “Tell me what happened. Did someone bother you?”
“Tell me,” he said, placing his hand over hers. “What do you see?”
He needed to know what she thought of him, that he was important to her. This man, so self-assured and so confident, needed her approval. Maybe he needed her.
“You are …” she began, taking her time because she knew that every word weighed heavier in such a powerful moment. “You are not quite the man you present to the rest of the world. You’d like to be thought of as debonair and ironic and full of quick wit, and you are all those things, but underneath, you’re so much more. “You care,” she said, aware that her voice had grown raspy with emotion. “You care about your family, and you even care about me, although God knows I don’t always deserve it.”
He loved her. He didn’t know how it had happened, only that it was true. It wasn’t just that she was convenient. There had been lots of convenient women. Sophie was different. She made him laugh. She made him want to make her laugh. And when he was with her—Well, when he was with her he wanted her like hell, but during those few moments when his body managed to keep itself in check … He was content. It was strange, to find a woman who could make him happy just with her mere presence. He didn’t even have to see her, or hear her voice, or even smell her scent. He just had to know that she was
...more
He needed her next to him, below him, on top of him. He needed her in him, around him, a part of him. He needed her the way he needed air. And, he thought in that last rational moment before his lips found hers, he needed her right now.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, knowing that the words were hopelessly inadequate.
It had been a slow, sneaky process, quietly coloring his emotions until he realized that without her, his life lacked all meaning.
“You make me smile,” he whispered. “When you don’t make me want to scream, you make me smile.”
“I want you,” he groaned. “You have no idea. No idea.”
“Don’t think,” he murmured. “Just lie back and let me pleasure you.”
AGHHHHHH
“Damn thing is in the way,” he muttered,
said in true benedict fashion
“Oh, Benedict,” she sighed. “This is so perfect. I can’t imagine anything better.”
“I do.” He moved to her ear, nibbling softly on her lobe. “I know exactly what you want. Trust me.”
GOD HELP MEEE
“You’ll get used to it,” he promised. “I plan to get you very used to it.”
let me just float away
