«Blinded by her tears Varia had no idea what he was about until she felt his fingers tilting her chin. Then suddenly his lips were on hers and he kissed her- a quite, deep, somehow surprisingly gentle kiss.
A kiss that had seemed so complitely different from any kiss that she had ever known before.
Ian's mouth holding her captive, and yet so gently that it brought a strange peace both to her heart and mind…»

«She opened her eyes.
The water, the sky, the islands, the mountains in the distance, were all blue. It was breathtakingly beautiful, but Varia saw none of it…
She was deep in the world of her own darkness, a world lonely and empty in which she had no-one to turn to, no-one to whom she belonged.»