"You pigs, you. You rut like pigs, is all. You got the most in you, and you use the least. You hear me, you? Got a million in you and spend pennies. Got a genius in you and think crazies. Got a heart in you and feel empties. All a you. Every you..."

"What the hell's the matter with you...? D'you think love should be deep, dark, gloomy, despairing, like one of those old Russian plays? I didn't think you were that juvenile."

"And yet she did make the sun stand still in a timeless lovers' limbo. In the darkness she seemed to be a hundred women with hundreds of hands, mouths, and loins. She was a Black with thick lips that engulfed him, and hard, high buttocks that clutched him. She was a Wasp virgin, supine, helpless, yet trembling with joy.

She was a succulent, crooning in his ear while her mouths drank arpeggios from his skin. She was an outworld animal emitting guttural grunts as he bestialized her. She became an inflated synthetic mannequin, squeaking and buzzing the sounds of a pinball machine. She was tough, tender, demanding, yielding, always unexpected.

And she inspired lurid fantasies in him. He was being whipped, crucified, drawn and quartered, branded with glowing irons. He thought he could see them together in impossible tangles reflected in magnifying mirrors. He panicked as he heard the front door being hammered while muffled voices shouted threats. His loins seemed to mount into a volcano of endless eruptions. Yet through all this he imagined he was carrying on a sparkling conversation with her over champagne and caviar as an erotic prelude to lounging before the fire to share love for the first time.

...

In the darkness he seemed to be a hundred men with hundreds of hands, mouths, and loins. He was a Black with a thick tongue that choked me, and hard, high strokes that shuddered deep into me.

He was a succulent, crooning in my ear while his mouths drank arpeggios from my skin, before, behind, between, above, below. He was an outworld animal emitting guttural grunts as he bestialized me and wrenched ecstatic moans from my belly. He was tough, tender, demanding, savage, macho, macho, macho. My loins trembled in an earthquake of endless spasms.

And yet through all this we were carrying on a sparkling conversation over champagne and caviar as an erotic prelude to lounging before the fire to share love for the first time, and after the first kiss he placed a ring on the third finger of my left hand, a pink-gold seal ring engraved with a Virginia flower."

"Listen to me... In the first place, I'm grateful. When someone offers love it's like the end of the rainbow, and not many of us find that treasure. In the second place, I could love you right back, but you have to understand why... When love is given, the response is love; it's a kind of beautiful blackmail."

"Suddenly they became aware that they were nude, lying close, no longer separated. She fell silent but did not move. He clasped her, almost angrily, and enveloped her with a desire that was no less than hers.

When dawn came, he saw that she was lovely: long and lean with smoky red hair and a generous mouth.

But when dawn came, she saw his face."