Two more quotations from The Song of Achilles
"I am going to free you," I said.
Up close I saw how dark her eyes were, brown as richest earth, and large in her almond-shaped face. Her gaze flickered from the blade to me. I thought of frightened dogs I had seen, backed small and sharp into corners.
"No, no," I said quickly. "We will not hurt you. I am going to free you."
She looked at us in horror. The gods knew what she thought I was saying. She was an Anatolian farm-girl, with no reason to have ever heard Greek before. I stepped forward to put a hand [on] her arm, to reassure. She flinched as if expecting a blow. I saw the fear in her eyes, of rape and worse.
I could not bear it. There was only on thing I could think of. I turned to Achilles and seized the front of his tunic. I kissed him.
When I let go again, she was staring at us. Staring and staring.
I gestured to her bonds and back to the knife. "All right?"
She hesitated a moment. Then slowly offered her hands.
The Song of Achilles, pp. 227-28
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Achilles was looking at me. "Your hair never quite lies flat here." He touched my head, just behind my ear. "I don't think I've ever told you how I like it."
My scalp prickled where his fingers had been. "You haven't," I said.
"I should have." His hand drifted down to the vee at the base of my throat, drew softly across the pulse. "What about this? Have I told you what I think of this, just here?"
"No," I said.
"This surely, then." His hand moved across the muscles of my chest; my skin warmed beneath it. "Have I told you of this?"
"That you have told me." My breath caught a little as I spoke.
"And what of this?" His hand lingered over my hips, drew down the line of my thigh. "Have I spoken of it?"
"You have."
"And this? Surely, I would not have forgotten this." His cat's smile. "Tell me I did not."
"You did not."
"There is this, too." His hand was ceaseless now. "I know I have told you of this."
I closed my eyes. "Tell me again," I said.
The Song of Achilles, p. 182
(No copyright infringement intended. Both quotations are the work of Madeline Miller from her book The Song of Achilles.)