“Summer Hawthorne was simply more trouble than she was worth. At least as far as anyone with any sense would realize.Unfortunately, Taka's common sense seemed to have deserted him in the last few days.”

“Your holiness!" She raised her voice, forcing herself to sound tearful andsupplicatory. "If we are to die, would you let me kiss him one last time?"She half expected Taka to react to her uncharacteristic behavior, but he didn'tmove, didn't look at her. He was kneeling in the frozen dirt beside her, every inch of him alert, and she was probably the least of his concerns."You want to kiss the man who tried to kill you? You are a very foolish youngwoman," the Shirosama said. "Go ahead."Taka turned to her, his eyes dark and unreadable, waiting. She reached up, put her mouth against his and whispered, "I have a knife that's fallen down the front of my shirt, you son of a bitch. See if you can get it." The feel of his lips against hers was agony. The sickness deep inside her was that she wanted to kiss him anyway, no matter what he'd done.”

“To her surprise, Jilly appeared to have handed over the telephone and a momentlater Taka ended the call. No, maybe it shouldn't surprise her. Jilly would have resisted bullying, but Taka's calm control was very…seductive.”

“He was accustomed to women wanting him. What shocked him was the simple fact that he wanted her.Not hot, energetic sex. Not a blow job from a novice. He wanted her with aperplexing intensity he hadn't felt in years. He was the King of Death, and she was his consort.And no amount of common sense could distract him.”

“Have you not explained to your friend? She seems confused.""I've told her what she needs to know.""I would suspect, Nephew, that she needs to know more. Particularly when I seehow you look at her."Taka gave another sudden start, but didn't turn. What did his uncle see when he looked at her? Murderous tendencies? Vast annoyance? Or something else?"And she looks at you the same way," the old man added, and it was Summer'sturn to jump. Definitely vast annoyance, then. And something else.”

“Takashi had no choice, and he'd always known it. This was one reason he'd triedso hard not to care about anyone, one reason why he'd known immediately just how dangerous Summer Hawthorne could be. Because now she was the one he couldn't sacrifice, couldn't walk away from, no matter how high the stakes. He could die for what he believed in. He just couldn't let her die as well.”

“She looked away, meeting Taka's dark, pitiless gaze. Silently, he mouthed something unbelievable. She was sure it was, "I love you.”