J. Kenner Quotes

#1. We're moving so fast." "No," he said gently. "We're just moving at the speed of us.

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#2. Men fuck up, you know. Except for Damien," she adds with a completely straight face. "He's perfectly perfect." She manages to hold it together for a minute, and then we both laugh.

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#3. I'd forgotten the depth of my own weakness, and it's never safe to think that you're stronger than you are.

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#4. I'm going to fuck you, Nikki. Pleasure? We're going to blow the roof off pleasure. I'm going to make you beg for it. I'm going to claim you. I'm going to tease you. I'm going to torment you. And you're going to come for me like you've never come in your life.

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#5. I saw the hurt on your face when you escaped the party with Evelyn. And each smile, each frown, each laugh, and each flash of pain in your eyes were like wounds to me, Nikki, because I wasn't the one sharing them with you.

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#6. You're like the portrait," he says. "A vision of erotic beauty. But a portrait isn't flesh, and its beauty can't feel pleasure.

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#7. He wants his lover to trust him. To surrender herself to him completely. To let him orchestrate the pleasures of her body. But he leaves the ultimate choice up to her. He lets her have one hand free, and that is the moment Blaine captured on the canvas.

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#8. It's too big, too powerful. There is no start and no end, nothing with which I can measure the length and breadth of what I feel for you.

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#9. Because I see you, he said simply. What I heard was, Because I love you.

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#10. Wherever I am, you belong. You're mine. Say it.

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#11. And so I struggle against my bonds, not because I want to get free, not even because I want the pain. I want what it represents. That I am Damien's. Bound to him. Marked by him. Claimed by him.

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#12. Secrets, he'd said, and I shiver, afraid that Damien's going to have to face that darkness. But I'll be there when he does, and we'll face the darkness together."
"I can. Because when Damien's beside me, I'm no longer afraid of the dark.

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#13. I nod, understanding the unspoken message: No matter what, he will never stop looking out for me. I can't argue with him about that, after all, I feel the same way.

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#14. I don't want you to have to handle it. That's the horror of my past. But you ... you're the reality of my present. You're the proof I survived. The prize in the cereal box.

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#15. Damien is my anchor to this world, and I am his. But if we are going to keep each other, we have to fight the shadows of
our pasts to move forward into our future.

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#16. Nikki, darling, light of my life. Can I have my driver take you to work?

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#17. He spent so long building walls to protect his privacy that I think he forgot to build a door.

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#18. Please, Damien. You can't control the world? So what? Control me.

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#19. Maybe you aren't as smart as you think you are, Mr. Stark."
"Nonsense. I'm fucking brilliant. Or haven't you heard?

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#20. Because I can. Because I want you. Because I don't want to court my way up to our first fuck. And because I don't want to play games.

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#21. There are a lot of ways to pleasure a woman," he said, and his tone suggested we hadn't even begun. "Hard and raw, soft and sentimental. How can I know what she wants until I see how she reacts?

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#22. He began to walk slowly around me, as a man in a museum might circle a statue.

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#23. some more general discussion about the

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#24. I want to touch your breasts, Nikki. I want to touch your nipples. I want to lower my mouth and suck until you come without me even touching your clit. Do you want that, Nikki?

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#25. You have captured me utterly, and you hold my heart in your hands. Be gentle with it. It's more fragile than you might think.

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#26. Possess. Have. Hold. Enjoy. Control. Dominate. Pick your verb, Ms. Fairchild. I intend to explore so very many of them.

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#27. There's only one woman in the world who can bring me to my knees. So tell me, Ms. Fairchild. Will you do me the greatest honor? Will you be my wife?

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#28. There is an excitement to being bound. To being helpless. A sensual thrill that comes from trusting fully and abandoning modesty at the command of your lover.

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#29. Everyone should feel alive. Should smash up against passion and danger, against temptation and anticipation. You have to push the envelope sometimes,because otherwise how do you know what your limits really are?

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#30. I believe a megalomaniac is someone who suffers from delusions about their own power. Trust me," he says, and this time I am certain I see mirth dancing in his eyes, "I suffer no delusions about the extent of my power.

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#31. He is not a man who hurts the woman he loves.

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#32. I assumed he knew that your coach was abusing you. I realized in the limo that he didn't."
For a moment, there is only silence. When Damien speaks, his words are ice cold. "He knew.

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#33. So I balanced the weight of my past against the promise of my future.

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#34. One million dollars, Ms. Fairchild. You get the cash, and I get you.

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#35. Being together came close to destroying both of us once already," he says. "But I don't fucking care. You are the memory that gets me through my days, and the fantasy that saves me in the night.

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#36. I want to soothe him, want to stroke his cheek and run my fingers through his hair. I want to pull his head to my breast and whisper soft words, and I want to make love to him slowly and sweetly until the shadows of the night are gone and the morning light bathes us in color.

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#37. I am like a switch, and all it takes is the slightest contact from Damien to send a wild current through me. To light me up and make me shine.

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#38. Maybe this man does have secrets and skeletons. But right now, I'm seeing his heart. And I like what I see.

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#39. Damien, wake up." I shake his shoulder. "Either we really set the sheets on fire, or something out there is burning.

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#40. A game, yes. But I like it. In this game, there are no losers.

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#41. I love you, Nikki. I say it with every touch, with every look, with every breath that I take. I love you. I love you so much it hurts.

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#42. I like Damien Stark. He's not what I expected, but there's something compelling about him - and it's more than just the fact that he's hotter than sin and got me worked up into quite a lather. He seems perfectly comfortable in his own skin.

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#43. You didn't find something you liked last night?" Carl asks. "I wouldn't say that," Stark answers, his eyes on me. "But I'm still not satisfied.

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#44. Wishing I had the words to truly describe the way my heart swells with both relief and gratitude when I think about how even the tiniest snip of the threads in the tapestry of time could have sent our lives spiraling down different paths.

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#45. Your parents are your first conception of love, the first object of your love. You love them wholly and unconditionally, and expect that back. When you don't get that in return, it colors everything.

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#46. Your breasts. Your nipples. The insides of your thighs. I want you wet for me, baby. A little drunk and a whole lot wet.

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#47. I'm not spiraling down. I could never spiral down with you beside me. You hold me up, Damien.

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#48. Does it involve getting naked and going back to bed, and you assuring me that you didn't marry me for my culinary skills?

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#49. He steps closer, still not touching me, but so close that I can hear my own heartbeat echoing against the hard breadth of his chest. You are.

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#50. Free will, Nikki. Tell me to stop, and I will. But tell me fast, because I'm going to kiss that damnable mouth of yours, and goddammit, Nikki, I'm doing it to keep you quiet.

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#51. He picks me up and carries me to bed, then eases up to spoon behind me, his arms around my waist. I sigh, lost in the pleasure of being so well attended to.

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#52. It is suddenly very, very hot in the limo,

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#53. You're amazing, Mr. Stark. You just blink and things happen.

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#54. But - I cut myself off. The truth is I don't give a fuck what happens

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#55. In Dallas, June is hot, July is hotter, and August is hell. Not

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#56. Date?" I hear the hardness creeping into his voice. "I've escorted a lot of women around this town, and I've fucked a hell of a lot of them. But I didn't date them.

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#57. Do you know what passion is?"
I blink, confused.
"Most people think it only means desire. Arousal. Wild abandon. But that's not all. The word derives from the Latin. It means suffering. Submission. Pain and pleasure, Nikki. Passion.

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#58. He is power and poetry, grace and perfection, and I feel my body tighten in response to the beauty that is Damien.

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#59. Mostly, it will make me feel better. Please, Nikki. Right now I'm asking. Don't make me demand.

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#60. He won't be happy until he's banging the next big thing. And while he'd prefer a female, I think he'd fuck anything that moves if he thinks it'll ease his climb to the top. Male, female, or small farm animal.

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#61. Poor you." I twist in his arms and plant a gentle kiss on his chin as he tightens the sash around my waist. "Just like Alexander. No worlds left to conquer.

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#62. There's nothing good about an atomic reaction,

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#63. This excited you, doesn't it? Not knowing where we're going next. What's going to happen. Who might turn that corner. Not knowing if I'm going to kiss you or fuck you. I'll give you a hint, Angie. I'm going to do both.

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#64. So maybe we're both broken," I said. "Maybe we make each other whole.

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#65. I swear to god, Angie, you're like Kryptonite - you fucking break me.

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#66. A reminder that circumstances and the world can be controlled, no matter how futile and lost some moments might feel.

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#67. I don't want an icon. Not on my wall, not in my bed. I want the woman, Nikki. I want you.

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#68. I think I understand what Damien needs. Not the pain, but the control.

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#69. We're kindred spirits. And you're strong, Nikki. There's a core of strength and confidence in you that's damn sexy.

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#70. I can paint love and pain and honor and longing and any goddamn emotion you want to name. But saying it? Showing it? I'm not good at that, baby.

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#71. Stay put," he says. "Don't touch yourself. Don't put your legs together. You'll come when I let you, Nikki, but not before. Break my rules, and I promise you won't like the punishment.

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#72. An entire empire needing his attention, and yet in that moment, I am his whole world.

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#73. I have to concede that I have often needed things that are not only bad for, but very, very dangerous.

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#74. He cocks his head to the side as if listening. "There. Did you hear it?"
"What?"
"The clink of coins as I just earned a few thousand more."
I roll my eyes.

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#75. Where Damien and I are concerned, there is never just silence. There is heat and electricity and lust and need, all harnessing the power of the universe to pull us together. And how can I be expected to fight physics?

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#76. A man is never more himself than when he is alone ... That is when the mask comes off. Shut the door, and the persona drops away. Alone, you reveal your soul.

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#77. You humble me, Nikki. Don't you see that? It must be clear from my expression that I do not, because he goes on. If I do all those things for you
soothe you, center you, give you strength
then that is worth more to me than every penny I have earned building Stark International.

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#78. Close your eyes," he orders.
"Why?"
"Because I said to."
I close my eyes.

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#79. A smile is his only answer, but it doesn't matter. I already know how, and it doesn't scare me: Damien Stark can see beneath my mask.

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#80. There is no one else who has the power to tear me apart the way you do, Nikki. No one else who can reach in and squeeze my heart. You are my world, Ms. Fairchild, and I love you desperately.

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#81. Dinner is just the beginning. I want to touch you," he says, his voice low and commanding. "I want to run my hands over every inch of you. I want you wet for me. I want to finish what we started, Ms. Fairchild. I want to make you come.

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#82. I'd rather risk screwing up with you than not even try. - Under My Skin

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#83. Most of all, I think of how much I've needed all of those things, and of the scars I now bear as testament to my weakness.

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#84. - except for the fact that your scars mean you've been hurting, I am one-hundred-percent cool with having them in the painting. Some models, especially the professional ones, it's like painting air-brushed people. Give me something raw any day.

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#85. And the way you look at me, as if there is nothing you could see inside me that would make you want to turn away.

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#86. I have no idea what time it is in London, and have had too much wine to bother with the math to figure it out.

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#87. I see the desire on his face, as vibrant and wild as my own need.

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#88. No, Damien Stark is just one of those dark, quiet types. He's like an iceberg, Texas. The deep parts are well hidden and what you do see is hard and a little bit cold.

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#89. I watch his face silently, waiting for him to explain. "I don't want to be the asshole who keeps you away from your friends," he says. "And I don't want you to feel like you have to keep things from me in order to see them. And I'm sorry because you obviously felt exactly that way.

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#90. Christ, Damien. How am I supposed to do anything today other than want you?" "Sweetheart, there's nothing else today that you need to be doing.

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#91. I bless every sunrise because it marks a new day by your side.

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#92. The man who is both my husband and my friend. My fantasy and my reality.

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#93. There is power in his touch, power in the slightest look. He is a hard man who commands a billion-dollar enterprise, and right now I am simply one more thing that he owns.

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#94. You'll be thinking of me, won't you, baby.

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#95. For a moment his expression reveals nothing. Then I see the smile light his eyes, though it does not reach his lips. He cups my head with his hand and looks at me with an expression of such adoration it takes my breath away. Don't you know, Nikki? No matter where you go, I will always find you.

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#96. Always. Don't argue, Ms. Fairchild, or the game stops now.

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#97. I'm going to make you come harder and longer than you ever have before, baby, and I'm going to feel every shudder, every ripple of that orgasm as it rips through you because I am going to be right here holding tight to you, buried deep inside you. And, Nikki, I'm not ever letting go.

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#98. ... the guy owns half the known universe. I hardly think he'd be all warm and fuzzy. More like dark and dangerous.

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#99. I want it," I repeat. "And not because I need the pain. But because I need you.

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#100. I am not "cured"
I know I never will be. I will always crave that pain to keep me centered. I will always be just a little astounded when I get through a crisis without putting a blade to my flesh.

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