Colleen Houck

“His eyes drifted leisurely back up to my face and he smiled at me appreciatively, “Kelsey, when a man spends time with a beautiful woman, he needs to pace himself. I quirked my eyebrow at hi...”

“As a man, I instantly became aware of the gold in her hair, her height measured against mine, and how easily she'd fit in my arms. ~Ren”

“I warn you, Kelsey, that I’m an extremely patient man. I’ve had extensive practice in waiting out the enemy. My life as a tiger has taught me that attentive persistence and focused diligence...”

“I could still feel the ghost of him hovering in the quiet, dark recess of my heart. It was as if he was just waiting for me to be lonely, or to let my guard down, so that he could surface an...”

“You think I wanted to fall for you? I stayed away from you! I gave him the chance to be with you! But there’s another part of me that asks what if? What if you’re not supposed to be with Ren...”

“How could I remain unyielding? His words penetrated the flimsy barriers I’d set up around my heart. I’d meant to set up a barbed wire fence, but the barbs ended up being covered with marshma...”

“You once asked me if I wanted a home and a family. I didn’t think that I’d ever want one without Yesubai, but seeing you like that in my dream, with that little baby…yeah. I want it. I want...”

“Now turn around and go to sleep. I'm warning you that I plan to sleep with you in my arms all night long.”

“There was a large sting near his upper lip. I touched it lightly. “Does it hurt?” My gaze moved from his lips up to his eyes. He was looking at me in a way that made me blush. “Yes,” he resp...”

“I stared into his handsome face and let those feelings overwhelm me and in that fleeting time I felt the ghost of our emotional connection. It was just a mere whisper, like a scent on the br...”

“Looks like Kelsey wins the award for early riser. And doesn’t she look purtier than a pat of butter meltin’ all over a stack of griddle cakes?”

“I don’t understand how I could have believed you were a warm, affectionate, and tenderhearted person! You’re obviously as prickly as a porcupine and any man who comes close to you will end u...”

“The fuse is lit. You can run all you want to but you leave a trail of gunpowder in your wake. There’s going to be a reckoning eventually.”

“A handsome prince, such as yourself, deserves someone who is no less than one hundred percent dedicated to him.”

“Long dormant feelings poured through my dried-up limbs and wound through me, slowly filling the emptiness. Like an irrigated field, I felt myself blossom and grow with new vigor. He was the...”

“What is real and what is not is for your heart to decide and for your heart to know.”

“Don’t make a feller wait too long. A feller waiting on a gal can get ornery’er than a huntin’ dog that’s tree’d it’s squirrel.”

“(...)normalcy is an illusion. Each person is utterly unique. A standard of normalcy is something that most people of the world simply will never access.”