PM

“Is there anything you own that you cherish? Or does the ability to buy anything make everything lose its value?”
― Christina Lauren, The Paradise Problem

“Come again?" He turned and looked at her from under his hat.

"You called me madam." Her cheeks turned pink from more than the sun. "But I’m not married."

To her immense surprise, the American finally raised his hat and smiled, hitting her with green, green eyes and a beautiful flash of white teeth against his dark beard.

She heated unexpectedly, grappling with a surge of instantaneous recognition. This was it. The face of every man she’d ever read about that made her heart skip— princes and pirates and heroes, both dashing and dastardly. She hadn’t realized until she turned into a human candlewick: that’s what they all looked like.

"Well, thank you very much, Miss."

"What… are you thanking me for?" Her voice sounded strange to her ears.

He tipped his hat. "The first good news I’ve had since I arrived in London.”
― Erin Langston, The Finest Print

“I despised Judge Lambert with every fiber of my being, the way he addressed me as ma’am and The Defendant as young man, then later as cowboy, compadre, partner. I was twenty-three years old to The Defendant’s thirty-two. I had earned top marks in my first year of law school. I was the young woman, the compadre, closer to his equal than The Defendant, but you never would have known it by the way the judge spoke to him.”
― Jessica Knoll, Bright Young Women

“Fatigue was the enemy of a woman’s sensibilities and sanity, and that was exactly what she was experiencing. An excess of silliness because she was lacking in proper rest.”
― Rebecca Connolly, The Rules of Matchmaking