The Sugared Game Quotes

“Scars are always beautiful. They're proof we lived.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“He wished he had words for what Kim was, the aching pain and the starlight, the beauty and the ugliness.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“You need to dress for your own body, not pretend you’ve someone else’s, don’t you think?”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“When people are obliged to keep an eye out for threats, their eyes tend to be sharp. That’s what women’s intuition means, if you ask me: being unconsciously alert for dangerous men.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“I know you’ve thought about this,” Will said. “But there are men in the world who aren’t queer or arseholes. Have you considered marrying one of them instead?”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“I’m sure you’re right about that,” Kim said. “But I really can’t bring myself to regret the man you might have been, given the one you are.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Rubbish," he said. "Firstly, stop talking as if you did anything but what I wanted. Secondly--well, you're a slippery bastard, granted. You've made plenty of mistakes and done a lot of bad things and told an incredible number of lies. You're an utter shit. Sorry, what was I saying? I got carried away.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“You're so busy torturing yourself for your sins, you don't even notice how much you're hurting other people.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“That’s not a relationship!” Will shouted. “That’s not how you treat a friend or a lover or a partner, or any damn thing! ‘Take it or leave it’ is for customers, not people you care about. You’re meant to compromise, and find a way through, not just say this is how it is because you don’t have the guts to face up to things. You’re meant to give a damn when you hurt people!”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Only, while he was around, he’d given Will a taste for starlight.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“You’re sweet to offer, darling, but you can’t punch everyone in the face.” “I don’t mind trying.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Is there anything more terrifying than getting what you hope for?”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“He did want to live decently, in theory. He had always expected a respectable life with the trappings of church, children, brass doorstep, vegetable plot, just as his mother had dreamed of for him. Those were things any man, or most, would want to have. The blood-red uncivilised streak of his nature that had blossomed in the war didn’t want them. That streak wanted someone who would ask him to infiltrate night-clubs and kick people’s heads in. That streak wanted Kim, who offered none of the things that appealed to Will’s respectable ambitions and everything that fed the wolf.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Of course Kim had buggered off as unpredictably as he'd appeared, because he was an untrustworthy shit and a lord. There had never been any other possible outcome. Only, while he was around, he'd given Will a taste for starlight”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“It was absurd that the pulsebeat of desire was as strong as ever. It was absurd that Kim was looking at him now with something raw and painful in his eyes after buggering off for two bloody months. It was absurd that Will couldn't look away.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“But aren’t asking. Should I take a guess?” He flicked over a glance. “I think—I flatter myself—that you want to know if I care for you. No: you must know that I do, so what you want is for me to say so, and I do, Will. I care for you far more than makes me feel safe. I want you, but you’re well aware of that. I feel at peace with you, and I don’t often feel at peace. And without excusing the trouble I have given you, it brings me to my knees that you’re strong enough to bear it. I wish I were worth you, Will.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“We’d probably be better at those if you were able to trust me.” “I could trust you,” Will said. “I truly could. Could you not let me down when I do?” Kim breathed out. “I could try.” “That’s what I want, then. To find out what we’re doing, and to do it a bit better.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Only I didn’t think you were getting on with him very much.” “Sometimes I don’t,” Will said. “When I do, though— It’s like the poem, honestly. When it’s good, it’s very, very good, and when it’s bad, it’s horrid.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Kim stared at him, eyes wide, and Will didn’t even think. He just kissed him, hard, and felt Kim’s mouth responding desperately, hands clutching his shoulders, hanging on for dear life. Kissing in the open because nothing at all mattered at this moment but to know they were together. The rest could wait for later, if there was a later.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Kim was back within the allotted time, which was mildly impressive since he looked as if it hurt to move. Will doubted he’d eaten anything. “Tea?” he said, because the kettle was on and he was furious but not a monster. “God, yes.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“NOON ON A SUNDAY WAS a bloody stupid hour to have a confrontation with a criminal, in Will’s view. There was a reason that people did these things under cover of night.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Christ,” Kim said. “Are you trying to kill me?” “Might be.” “Carry on.” “Pleasure.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“There’s no point waiting for me to do otherwise. There’s no point waiting for me at all.” “I haven’t been waiting for you,” Will said indignantly. “I haven’t happened to meet anyone else I wanted to fuck, but that’s not the same thing.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“And you didn’t think to tell me?” “What, and expect you to sit tamely at home, keeping out of danger, because I said so? You aren’t famous for your obliging nature.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“You don’t know what you’re getting into. I don’t like it.” “Then don’t,” Phoebe said, and her cut-glass voice was sharp enough to hurt. “Because it is neither your business nor your right to tell me what to do. Is it?”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“I expect because she is used to moving defensively through life. When people are obliged to keep an eye out for threats, their eyes tend to be sharp. That’s what women’s intuition means, if you ask me: being unconsciously alert for dangerous men.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Our will and fates do so contrary run.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“I have a bad habit of assuming your feet are so firmly planted on the ground that you can take whatever damned thing I throw at you.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“I don't know what I'm doing. nothing's gone like I thought it would since 1914. And all I can think about is you.”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game

“Kim was taking up an alarming amount of space in his mind. If he was thinking this much about a woman, he’d have no trouble finding a name for it”
― K.J. Charles, The Sugared Game