“Eccolo!” he exclaimed. At the same moment the ground gave way, and with a cry she fell out of the wood. Light and beauty enveloped her. She had fallen on to a little open terrace, which was covered with violets from end to end. “Courage!” cried her companion, now standing some six feet above. “Courage and love.” She did not answer. From her feet the ground sloped sharply into view, and violets ran down in rivulets and streams and cataracts, irrigating the hillside with blue, eddying round the tree stems, collecting into pools in the hollows, covering the grass with spots of azure foam. But never again were they in such profusion; this terrace was the well-head, the primal source whence beauty gushed out to water the earth. Standing at its brink, like a swimmer who prepares, was the good man. But he was not the good man that she had expected, and he was alone. George had turned at the sound of her arrival. For a moment he contemplated her, as one who had fallen out of heaven. He saw radiant joy in her face, he saw the flowers beat against her dress in blue waves. The bushes above them closed. He stepped quickly forward and kissed her…”
“I kissed her and forgot death.”
“How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said.”
“Charles went to kiss her shoulder. -Leave me alone! she said, you re creasing my dress.”
“My whole body sank forward into his arms. His lips moved against mine, exploring my mouth so gently. I tried to mimic his movements--slowly, uncertainly, until I didn t have to think about it at all. It just felt right. He let out a soft moan at my reaction and cupped his hands behind my head, pulling me closer until I couldn t tell where my mouth ended and his began. A liquid sensation swooped throughout my stomach. It was the most amazing thing I d ever felt and it kept growing, the vibrating heat expanding outward. I was surprised I was still able to stand.”
“He closes his eyes. Our lips brush lightly. If you ask me to kiss you , I will, he says. His fingers stroke the inside of my wrists, and I burst into flames. Kiss me, I say. He does.”
“Everybody winds up kissing the wrong person goodnight.”
“He kisses like he s dying of thirst, and I m water.”
“When he kissed me, it was like he was reaching for my soul.”
“It s hard to say goodbye for good at any time or any place. It s harder still to say it through a meshed wire. It crisscrossed his face into little diagonals, gave me only little broken-up molecules of it at a time. It stenciled a cold, rigid frame around every kiss.”
“The slowest kiss makes too much haste.”
“I saw the sunset-colored sands, The Nile like flowing fire between, Where Rameses stares forth serene, And Ammon s heavy temple stands. I saw the rocks where long ago, Above the sea that cries and breaks, Swift Perseus with Medusa s snakes Set free the maiden white like snow. And many skies have covered me, And many winds have blown me forth, And I have loved the green, bright north, And I have loved the cold, sweet sea. But what to me are north and south, And what the lure of many lands, Since you have leaned to catch my hands And lay a kiss upon my mouth.”
“I have a mouth for kisses / No one to give or to take / I have a heart in my bosom / Beating for nobody s sake.”
“I had kissed her at odd times, in out of the way corners, in the manner of a mountain guide, nothing more.”
“So maybe now I might be imagining what it would be like to kiss him again, but that didn’t mean anything.”
“If you feel like you have to have them for some reason, tell me and we ll take them out together. Promise? If you promise not to tell the whole school about this. I won t tell them anything. Deal? Deal. I think we should seal it. I gave a jittery laugh. With a handshake? I was thinking more like a kiss.”
“Charlie ... have you ever kissed a girl? I shook my head no. It was so quiet. Not even when you were little? I shook my head no again. And she looked very sad. She told me about the first time she was kissed. She told me that it was with one of her dad s friends. She was seven. And she told nobody about it except for Mary Elizabeth and then Patrick a year ago. And she started to cry. And she said something that I won t forget. Ever. I know that you know that I like Craig. And I know that I told you not to think of me that way. And I know that we can t be together like that. But I want to forget all those things for a minute. Okay? Okay. I want to make sure that the first person you kiss loves you. Okay? Okay. She was crying harder now. And I was, too, because when I hear something like that I just can t help it. I just want to make sure of that. Okay? Okay. And she kissed me. It was the kind of kiss that I could never tell my friends about out loud. It was the kind of kiss that made me know that I was never so happy in my whole life.”