Unveiled Quotes

“Her lips found his and a stab of exquisite desire shot through him. This is what he's been waiting for all this time. Not a stolen embrace. A gift, freely given. One that he would keep forever in some small part of his soul.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“They want a woman who is a canvas, white and empty. Standing still, existing for no other purpose than to serve as a mute object onto which they can paint their own hopes and desires. They want their brides veiled. They want a demure, blank space they can fill with whatever they desire.”

“Miss Lowell, you magnificent creature, I want you to paint your own canvas. I want you to unveil yourself.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“You matter," she whispered to him. "You are important. And you are the single most magnificent man I have ever had the honor of meeting.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Ash Turner seduced her with the promise of her own self.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“It would have been easy to shut her eyes and let him kiss her. To have the choice taken from her in one heated, passive moment, with nothing for her to do but comply. But he was asking for more than her artless submission. Not deference, not docility, but...defiance.
'I want you to choose me,' he said, 'well and truly choose me of your own accord. I don't want you to wait at the crossroads in the hopes that I will force the choice upon you.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Defiance. He swallowed. It wasn’t enough for him—not anymore. He wanted to be more than her defiance. He wanted to be her strength, her amusement. He wanted to be her lover. He wanted to be her every wicked desire and her safe haven, all at once.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“She didn’t need to be received as nobility to be noble.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“This feeling, this tentative flutter in her belly - this was hers. This was sunlight on her face. It was the warmth she'd dreamed of. It was a curl of honest attraction, the first she'd experienced in years.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“No doubt she was wondering how to fight him off. That made him feel like some sordid roué, thinking of nothing but his own pleasure. But as little as he’d been in polite company, even Ash knew better than to issue a clarification. “No, Miss Lowell,” Ash could imagine himself saying, “I would never force myself on you. I mean to seduce you into willingness. That’s all.” That would get him a fork stabbed through his hand, by the black look she gave her pudding.
Thank God the knives had been removed along with the beef.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“And she’d discovered she wasn’t empty inside. She was magnificent. Even if nobody yet recognized it.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“It was not lust itself he felt, but the premonition of desire, as if the wind that whipped around his cravat were whispering in his ears. /Her. Choose her./”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“He was talking, politely, with those around him. But even as he conversed, he scanned the crowd. When his eyes rested on her, he stopped. He’d been smiling before, in a friendly fashion. But what lit his face when he saw her was more than a smile, more than a grin. It was as if someone had thrown aside the curtains of a sickroom on a glorious morning, to let sunlight spill into every darkened corner. What was he doing? Everyone would know how he felt. He simply made no effort to hide it. She could feel the heat of his expression, even from halfway across the room.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Margaret had always thought a man seduced a woman by making her aware of his charms: his body, his wealth, his kisses. How naive she had been. Ash Turner seduced her with the promise of her own self.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Do you suppose I would learn you the way a scholar learns a book? That you are nothing to me but a collection of suppositions, to be stored in my memory and written down for verification? No, Margaret. I know you.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“She wanted him to be right. She needed him to be wrong. And while that sounded as if she were confused, confusion implied uncertainty. And Margaret was dead certain that he was both the last man on earth that she should kiss, and the only one she dreamed of holding.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“It reminded him of the cacophony of an orchestra as it tuned its instruments: dissonance, suddenly resolving into harmony. It was the rumble, not of thunder, but its low, rolling precursor, trembling on the horizon.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“She wanted never again to have to fill another man's bed, telling falsehoods with her body until her mind could no longer track her own desires. She wanted to rid herself of the murk and the mire that had filled her. This life had bound her as effectively as if she were a falcon tied by a leather shackle, and she wanted to be free.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Did you know, when you left that room, you took all the light with you?”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Third, as the ladies have clearly mastered the female art of chastity, our masculine inability to control our urges rather weakens our claims to be the stronger sex.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“The great benefit I see to marrying you is that I would be married to you. I”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Ash.” Margaret knew her voice was trembling. “Why are you doing this?” “Because I adore you. Because you looked so stricken when I saw you and I couldn’t bear not to comfort you.” His voice was warm breath against her skin. “Did you know, when you left that room, you took all the light with you?”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Ash’s smile grew darker, and he looked at the woman. “I knew the instant Margaret spoke that she intended to use me as a weapon. What you fail to understand is this: I am her weapon to use.” Margaret’s lungs burned. So much for not occasioning gossip. But she couldn’t fault him. She couldn’t reprimand him. She couldn’t even stop her own smile from spilling out, stupidly, over her face, the truth writ large for anyone to see.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“Margaret had seen Ash cheerfully powerful, as talkative as a jaybird. She’d seen him silently powerful while he was listening to those around her. She didn’t like seeing him vulnerable. It made her feel odd inside—hotly angry on his behalf, and enraged that someone had made him feel that way.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“I’m not stubborn,” Ash said. “I’m right. There’s a difference.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“It was hardly the first time she had confused him. He knew just enough to understand that he didn’t understand her.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“His voice was low. “Damn their bonnets. Damn their rules.” “What do you want?” Her hands were shaking. “Why are you doing this to me?” “Miss Lowell, you magnificent creature, I want you to paint your own canvas. I want you to unveil yourself.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“But the sort of honor Richard was talking about was flattery, not truth. It wasn’t real. Honor that was given to you because of how you were born—that was just a delusion. She wasn’t going to rely on Parliament—or the people around her—to provide an assessment of herself. They were fickle and untrustworthy.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“One could push a pack of truths together to make one despicable falsehood.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“It was not lust itself he felt, but the premonition of desire, as if the wind that whipped around his cravat were whispering in his ears. Her. Choose her.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled

“He just looked at his brother and very slowly shook his head, as if to reprove him. 'Ash' was all he said.
The elder Turner reached out and ruffled his younger brother's hair. Mr. Mark Turner did not glower under that touch like a youth pretending to be an adult; neither did he preen like a child being recognized by his elder. He could not have been more than four-and-twenty, the same age as Margaret's second-eldest brother. Yet he stood and regarded his brother, unflinching under his touch, his eyes steady and ageless.”
― Courtney Milan, Unveiled