Secret Desires of a Gentleman Quotes

“He tilted her face upward as if he meant to kiss her. Shocked, Maria resisted, glancing toward the people at the table, some of them are smiling, some disapproving, some thoroughly appalled.
She looked back at him, doubtful.
"Does a gentleman kiss a woman in front of other people?"

He tilted her head back.
"This one does," he said and captured her lips with his.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“Marriage is a partnership Phillip, not a feudal kingdom. Until you can accept that I have the right to dictate the course of my on life, I will not marry you. Until you can accept my wishes and my opinions are just worthy of consideration as yours, I will not marry you. Until you can accept that what I would give up to be your wife is just as important as what you offer in exchange, I will not marry you.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“I have never thought you weren't good enough for me. The fear I always had, deep down in my heart, is that I'm not good enough for you."
Murmurs of astonishment rippled through the room but he didn't seem to notice.

"You see, I was never the one who could make you laugh." He glanced at Lawrence, then back at her.
"I was never the one who made coronets of rosebuds for your hair and told you that you were pretty."
He swallowed hard, and his chin lifted a notch, telling her as clearly as any word how difficult it was for him to reveal himself this way.

"I always wanted to say those things, do those things, but I couldn't, for a gentleman is not supposed to behave that way. A gentleman is not supposed to fall in love with the chef's daughter. But right now, today, I don't give a damn what gentlemen do. I'm just a man, and the only thing I care about is you.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“He could feel the only woman he had ever wanted slipping away for the third time, and he knew that this time, the pain of losing her would annihilate her.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“Oh, that anything could feel like this. It was wicked and wanton.
It was wonderful. That Philip, whom she always thought so proper, should know of such things as this. It amazed her.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“I cared,” he said behind her. “But as I said, we should never have been friends. Friendship is not possible between a marquess and the daughter of the family chef. That is the world we live in.” She forced herself to look at him over her shoulder. “No, Phillip. That’s the world you live in.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“Marriage is a partnership, Phillip, not a feudal kingdom. Until you can accept that I have the right to dictate the course of my own life, I will not marry you. Until you can accept that my wishes and my opinions are just as worthy of consideration as yours, I will not marry you. Until you can accept that what I would give up to be your wife is just as important as what you offer in exchange, I will not marry you.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“It's time love," he murmured, nuzzling her throat, kissing her ear.
"I've waited so long. I can't wait any longer have you.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“You were different after your father died. She was wrong, of course. It was true that he’d changed toward her, but she had misinterpreted the cause. It wasn’t his father’s death and his ascension to the title the year before that caused him to shut her out the summer she came home and treat her as a servant rather than a friend. It was the fact that being friends with her had ceased to be enough, and anything more had never been possible.”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman

“Were you the Clarendon’s pâtissier, then?” “Not in name. André allowed me the duties of that position, but he could not give me the title of it. As a woman,” she added with a hint of resentment, “I was not considered worthy of such a responsibility by the owners of the hotel. It’s an axiom of my profession that only men have the talent to be great chefs. A false axiom, but many believe it. That is why I decided to strike out on my own. To prove myself. Why these questions about my bona fides?” She gave him a provoking grin. “Don’t you trust me?”
― Laura Lee Guhrke, Secret Desires of a Gentleman