You're always looking for some new way to tell the same story, but it's how they get to the happy end that is the challenge and the fun for a writer.

To Cam surprise, she was smiling up at him steadily, her eyes midnight. His expression turned quizzical. "What's so amus­ing?" Amelia toyed with a button on his coat. "I was just thinking . . . tonight those two old hens will probably go to their beds, cold and alone." An impish grin curved her lips. "Whereas I will be with a wicked, handsome Rom who will keep me warm all night.

If you won’t marry me for the sake of your own honor, then do it for the sake of everyone who would have to tolerate me otherwise. Marry me because I need someone who will help me to laugh at myself. Because someone has to teach me how to whistle. Marry me, Lillian… because I have the most irresistible fascination for your ears.

The truth is, you can never really know a man until you've loaned him money. And you can never know a woman until you've slept in her bed.

He stared at me with bitter understanding. We both knew there was no room in this for friendship. Nothing left but childhood history.

For thousands of nights I dreamed of making love to you. No man on earth has ever hated sunrise as I do.

I had never ironed anything in my life. The proper pressing of a shirt was a mystery of the universe akin to black holes and dark matter.