I kissed his cheek, damp and salty. I could feel his heart beating against my ribs, and wanted nothing more than to stay there forever, not moving, not making love, just breathing the same air.
I kept thinking—how should I tell ye everything, about Geneva, and Willie, and John—will ye know about John?
I hadn't spent so much time in bemused contemplation of a penis since I was sixteen or so, and here I was, preoccupied with three of the things.
I can stand a lot! But just because I can, does that mean I must? Do I have to bear everyone’s weakness? Can I not have my own?
I can bear pain myself, he said softly, but I couldna bear yours. That would take more strength than I have.
He wanted to ask whether she were insane, but he had been married long enough to know the price of injudicious rhetorical questions.
He smelt strongly of woodsmoke, blood, and unwashed male, but the night chill bit through my thin dress and I was happy enough to lean back against him.
He felt a moment’s passionate gratitude to her. He’d seen her look at the boy, and knew how she must feel. She’d known about the lad, of course, but seeing the flesh-and-blood proof that her husband h...
He didn’t speak for a bit, but his weight drew me closer, like a moon pulled near to its planet. I lay quiet, my hand on him, my hip against his—flesh of his flesh.
He came toward us, looking worried. As the birth grew closer, we had both been edgy; Frank irritable and myself terrified, having no idea what might happen between us, with the appearance of Jamie Fra...
He came through the front door just as I barreled into the hallway, and grabbed me round the waist, kissing me with sun-dusty enthusiasm and sandpaper whiskers.
Grey was still in his shirtsleeves; the rain had cut through the cloth to his flesh.
Grey shook his head and, wheezing gently, one hand to his bruised ribs, got awkwardly to his feet and hobbled to the wing chair. You could … have helped, he said to Fraser. Ye managed brawly on your o...
Facing something down doesn´t mean you aren´t afraid of it, I said dryly. Usually quite the opposite.
But Jamie lingered awkwardly a moment, and then, as though suddenly making up his mind to it, stepped forward and bending down, cupped Grey’s face between his hands. Grey felt the big hands warm on th...
Blood of my blood, he whispered, and bone of my bone. You carry me within ye, Claire, and ye canna leave me now, no matter what happens. You are mine, always,
A SERIES OF SHORT, SHARP SHOCKS
Time does not really exist for mothers, with regard to their children. It does not matter greatly how old the child is-in the blink of an eye, a mother can see the child again as they were when they w...
Whom
When had the right to live as one wished ever been considered trivial?