“Celeste grabbed his arm. “You see, you are running away from the truth. Why won’t you talk about it?”“Take your hands off me. Now.”She had gone too far. She knew it would be insane to push him further, but she knew with certainty that was exactly what she was going to do. Celeste tilted her head and met his stormy eyes. “No.”

“Kissing gave a man all sorts of immoral ideas. Such ideas were, in Madame Hera's world, the province only of men. That Ainsley herself had had ideas - her mind boggled, trying to imagine what Madame would say to that. In fact, those very ideas cropped up in several of the letters Felicity had forwarded to her, variously referred to as 'unnatural desires,' 'longing,' 'carnal stirrings,' fever of the blood,' 'indecent thoughts' and even, memorably, 'an irrepressible need to scratch an itch.”

“Was your magic carpet out of commission?”

“She was riding a camel, in the most beautiful desert, in the kingdom belonging to this most beautiful man. A man who thought she had the most delightful rear. A man who wanted to kiss her every bit as much as she wanted to kiss him. "I know that I will regret saying this, but at this moment in time, I think I could manage anything.”

“There is an old saying, that in the desert a camel is more useful than a kingdom," he said ruefully, "but as a location for lovemaking, it leaves a lot to be desired.”

“I thought I had to be alone to be free. But I am only ever truly myself when I am with you, Azhar. I know, that is such an -- an extravagant thing to say, but it is true. I have to realize that freedom means having the ability to choose. To choose to share your life, to choose to love unconditionally. The two are inseparable. There is no freedom without love and there is no love without freedom.”

“It is terrifyingly beautiful," Julia said softly. "Terrifying?" "Nature at its most beautiful and most lethal. It is like standing on the edge of one of those lakes in Switzerland, so blue and so calm and so deep and so dangerous. You have the overwhelming urge to plunge in, even though you know the cold will kill you. This desert - your desert - it makes me want to walk into it and keep walking. You probably think I'm being ridiculously fanciful." "I would not have put it in those words, but they are exactly how I feel about Qaryma. Terrifyingly beautiful.”

“I supposed you've already kissed him? Don't deny it, that guilty look is a complete giveaway. Did you like it?" "Felicity!" "Well?" "Yes." Ainsley laughed. "Yes, I did." "Was it a good kiss? The kind of kiss to give you confidence that your Mr. Drummond would know what he was doing? The kind of kiss that made you want him to do more than kiss you?”

“So you wish me to forget that you are a sheikh and a prince and a crown prince and soon to be King? That is a lot to forget.”

“He picked up the hairbrush and handed it to her. "What were you planning to do with that, comb me to death?”

“Where is your Revolutionary spirit?""Beheaded," Celeste said.”