The Vicar and the Rake Quotes

“Dearly beloved.” He looked at the face of the man he loved, his heart racing. “We are gathered together here, in the sight of God...”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Gabriel looked at the rings. They were small and thin, of well-beaten gold...and a tiny, whisper-thin gap in each bright circle. “Broken.” Edward’s voice trembled. “Broken, but whole.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Excuse me, but am I really hearing this correctly?” Maurice’s voice, faint but acid-dripped, rang out over the garden. “Our house is tuning itself to ash, all is lost, Sussex has won, and you are declaring love for one another like—like puppies? We are to be ruined, exposed, probably killed if the man decides to finish the job. Now? You do this now?”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Edward’s neck was suddenly, improbably free. His mouth dropped open as Buttons, his ears flat against his head, clawed with seemingly deliberate fury at Lambert’s eyes.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“You are right.” He looked at Ginger, who nodded furiously. “Forgive me. You...you know it will be very hard to see, yes? Are you ready?” “No.” Ginger shrugged. “But nothing’s ever waited until I’m ready for it to happen.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“But...love, as I have seen it practised, does not require one to be an expert practitioner when one begins. One learns as one goes. It...it’s one of the only states where the broken can function as well as the whole.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Not all of us are born knowing how to love.” He looked at his friend, half afraid that the man would mock its earnestness. “If the sentiment is not nourished in childhood, it flowers with difficulty when a man is in the prime of one’s life.” He stopped, gathering himself. “But...love, as I have seen it practised, does not require one to be an expert practitioner when one begins. One learns as one goes. It...it’s one of the only states where the broken can function as well as the whole.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Was the morning really going to unfold like this, confession after confession, insight after insight, with no breakfast in sight? Lord, he was starving.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“I’m a terrible friend, and a worse brother. So please, please, when you find some pleasant complication in your own life, do not attempt to banish it. Allow yourself a little of the selfishness I’ve always considered my birthright.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Thank you.” He paused. “Are you sure there’s nothing else I can do?” “Yes. Stop making your bed in the morning. You do an atrocious job.” Gabriel left the room with a short bow, trying not to smile.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“I love you. Edward mouthed the words desperately to Gabriel’s heavy head as the man rested against his shoulder. He couldn’t say the words aloud, yet—but surely it had to work? Loving someone was meant to be like a magic charm, protection against the elements; it was meant to make everything better.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“This was passion, yes, but of a different kind; there was a tenderness, a raw, quivering gentleness, in every kiss and touch given and received. It felt like coming home—or better, coming back to a half-destroyed home that needed patient, loving restoration.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“One could not choose whom one loved. One could not refuse the work of love—the work of loving. And if the man he loved came to him, showed him the wounds of a past that Gabriel had never truly understood, and told him that those wounds made him unlovable...no promise, not even one made to God himself, would keep him from showing Edward exactly how wrong he was.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“He kissed Gabriel. Pulled him into the longest, deepest, rawest kiss of his life, a kiss laced with laughter at the absurdity of it all. How absurd it was, spending years searching in vain for his soul, only to find it in the man he had grown up alongside.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Why not?” Edward felt his old crooked smile returning, and hated himself for it. “Is that your word as a man of God?” “No.” Gabriel cupped his face; Edward sighed at the feel of his fingertips, roughened with work. “It is my word as a man who is yours.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“This was his last attempt to push Gabriel away—to put him out of harm’s reach. Because if Gabriel didn’t walk away from this—if he treated him as a man, and not a rake to be condemned or a wretch to be pitied—then he had no defences left.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“That was the unusual thing about Gabriel, the aspect that always gave Edward pause. Whatever they spoke about, he and Gabriel, whatever they discussed—it was as if they had been talking about it for their entire lives, with only brief intervals of silence.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“I wouldn’t leave if you begged me to. I’m astonished I’m actually seeing this place. Lord knows why you never speak of it.” Hartley looked at Gabriel. “The local attractions are astonishing.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Or perhaps I’m simply planning my attack.” “It’s best not to use words like attack in these situations.” Edward smiled. “It makes one think of teeth.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“that’s what he wanted for Gabriel. A draught of pure sin, in a life of sacrifice.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“This was what it was all for, those wasted nights, those faceless men. He could lay it all at Gabriel’s feet, like an offering, using it all for his pleasure.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“He was no longer a rake. Gabriel was no longer a priest—or perhaps he was, because Edward had to admit the edge of sacrilege only increased his desire. Two men driven to distraction, working on instinct, touching each other in the ways they needed most... Christ, how good it felt.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Gabriel was...competent. Edward had never realised how arousing it was to watch a man sew on a button, harvest carrots, mend a squeaking door and make a cat purr, all in the space of a morning.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“He wished he could remember a more difficult challenge. But looking back at Caroline, prim and furious in her widow’s weeds, he wondered if the Duke of Sussex had been, on reflection, less frightening.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“My husband, God rest his soul, died of natural causes. If you hurt my brother—if you exhibit even a tenth of the callousness spread across the scandal sheets—your death will be an unnatural one.” Edward almost laughed aloud, stopping only through instinctive self-preservation.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“I knew you before. Very well, actually. So let me learn now.” Gabriel brought Edward’s hand to his mouth, briefly brushing his lips against Edward’s wrist. The tenderness of the act, the sweetness of it, made the ache in Edward’s loins all the worse. “Let me learn again. Now wait here, until you can’t hear my footsteps.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Now stay still. Stay still until you can’t bear it.” Gabriel nipped again at Edward’s earlobe, and Edward couldn’t help gasping. “Or until I can’t bear it. Whichever one comes first.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“Don’t stop.” The words came out in a sudden rush, as earnest as a prayer. “Please. Don’t stop.” “Good man.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“The idea of Gabriel having gained experience from any other source sent an unwelcome shiver of jealousy down Edward’s spine. Of course he hadn’t considered it—the idea was repellent to him. He wanted all that passion, that clumsy ardency, for himself alone.”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake

“God, why couldn’t he do it anymore? Why couldn’t he be the rake?”
― Annabelle Greene, The Vicar and the Rake