Also love Jane Eyre, after the fire and when Jane flees Thornwood and “hears” him calling out to her.

2) Some Susan Johnston book (???) in which the heroine is kidnapped by a sheik or some such and she’s drugged and offered up for sale to the highest bidder. The Sheik is displaying her “wares” and inserts a plum into the opening of her hoo-ha, coating it with her juice, then takesit out and takes a bite of the plum. The hero buys her and has to have sex with her right there in front of all the others.

3) The scene from the end of The Fiery Cross (Diana Gabaldon) when Jamie tells Claire that if his last words to her [before dying] are not “I love you,” she’ll know it’s only because he didn’t have the time to say them.

4) Voyager by Diana Gabaldon: Claire finds Jamie at the print-shop; he turns around and sees her, thinks she’s a ghost/vision/hallucination…until she touches him, that is, and he passes out from the shock.

5) One of the In Death books…can’t remember which. Roarke and Eve are at home and Eve is going to “make dinner.” Roarke knows this means pizza, so he orders up a bottle of red wine and opens it to “breathe” on the counter. Except Eve turns around carrying plates with some kind of herbed fish and pasta, and Roarke is completely gobsmacked and floundering. I love that she caught him by surprise.

6) Voyager by Diana Gabaldon: Claire shows Jamie pictures of their daughter, and Jamie goes to pieces and starts to cry.

7) Honest Illusions by Nora Roberts: Luke has returned to discover that Max has Alzheimers and can’t really speak. Luke kneels down next to him and tells Max that he loves him and that he was the only father Luke ever knew, and when Luke leaves a tear rolls down Max’s cheek, letting the reader know that he heard and understood, even if he couldn’t respond.

8) Key of Valor by Nora Roberts: 10-year-old Simon tells his mother’s boyfriend Brad that Brad can’t have “the sex” with Simon’s mom unless he wears a condom and protects her. Brad’s shock is priceless, but so too is the fact that his reaction to Simon’s confrontation is a feeling of incredible pride in and love for the boy.

But I do love the overheard conversation between the twins jumping on the bed in ‘Cover of Night’ by Linda Howard.

The party scene where Sugar Beth meets her nadir in ‘Ain’t She Sweet’ by Susan Elizabeth Phillips is hard to forget.

And I love the park bench conversation in ‘Bet Me’ by Jennifer Crusie.

Another H/H first meeting that I love is from Heyer’s Black Sheep. Abigail Wendover has never met Stacy Calverleigh but she knows that he is a fortune hunter after her niece’s wealth. When she hears someone addressed as Mr. Calverleigh, she mistakes Stacy’s uncle Miles for Stacy. The entire scene is funny and presents both characters so fully that you understand exactly who they are and why they fall in love. Definitely one of my favorite of her books.

Aw, Susan/DC, I love that passage from A Company of Swans! Ibbotson's heroines can verge on being too sweet and innocent for words, but they are redeemed by, among other things, not being total prudish ninnies about physical love.

The first memorable scene that comes to mind is the one in Checkmate where Lymond reveals his love. It's electrifying.

I really need to start reading Ibbotson’s Company of Swans. It has been in my TBR list for a month now.

As for Checkmate, ohhhhh, marvelous book and series. There are lots of really memorable scenes in that book which is suppose to be historical fiction and not a romance. The library scene was indeed electrifying and I will always remember what Lymond’s says –

“Gould bydeth ever bright… It would be a pity to cloud it. That is one blasphemy I cannot bring myself to commit. I love you, Philippa, in every way known to man.”

or

“But you know the difference between that and conscience. Every other woman since Eve has asked to be loved more than honour. But not you.”

Then there's also that scene in Lymond's bedroom after the ball when he said,

“But the songs were for her daughter. And the passion, for ever. That is why we are parting.”

or when he was saying goodbye to Catherine -

“But I shall never marry again, nor I think will she. I hope you will find one day what we had. Even if it lasts only an hour, it is worth it.”

Love, just love this series as a whole!

What have you done to me?

So sexy in such a bad, wrong way.

This is not a romance but I know the part where Laurie finally puts together who her father is in Watchmen stayed with me for a LONG time, it was so beautifully drawn, you could hear the thoughts spinning in her head.

And in Heyer’s Frederica, when they are talking about being in love, that it’s being not quite happy when you are away.

Well, if you think about the tones of the scenes they are very different. Jess is a righteous lady in red giving Dain his comeuppance. Mary is (if I remember correctly) rather frightened and the bullet is more of a cold-water dousing to snap Dominic out of it.

True. And while I love both the Devil's Cub and Lord of Scoundrels, I can't even remember the shooting scene in the Devil's Cub until it was mentioned here. Mainly because Mary's action was more natural due to fright. On the other hand, Jessica shooting Dain is something that always stands out in my memory. Very calculating and cleverly done.

The J D Robb books has lots of very memorable scenes IMO. My particular favourite was in Conspiracy In Death when Roarke arrives home and he was thinking about all the treasures he has accumulated by fair means or foul and how Eve does not fully understand the reason behind his delight in acquiring them. Then he comes across Eve and we get this wonderful description of how he felt. “He stepped to the doorway where the most precious of treasures was curled, fully dressed, weapon still strapped to her side, in the chair.”

For those of you who like young adult novels this one was very good.
Helen

One not so happy memorable scene is in one of Suz Brockmann’s older books with Gina trapped on the plane as a hostage and the rape scene with Max on the other side of the phone. It kinda stuck with me and in their HEA story when he’s having to deal with what he heard.

The first memorable scene that comes to mind is the one in Checkmate where Lymond reveals his love. It’s electrifying.

I’m sure I thought the button thing with Roarke was sweet, but the two scenes from the JD Robb series that affect me more were:

1) when Eve goes back to interrogate Roarke after they broke up, and he locks her in at the same time she finally turns and admits she misses him

2) the scene where Eve is teasing Roarke by pretending she’d promised Mavis he’d do a duet with her at a big party – his reaction when she said her first unsolicted “I love you” took my breath away the first time I read it!

And for all those mentioning the condom scene in Howard’s Kiss and Tell, what about that scene in All the Queen’s Men when they think they’re going to get caught ransacking the bad guy’s office?!