Dee Tenorio

“Who needed facts when fiction was so much more titillating?”

“Sweetheart, I’ll be a Marine ‘til they bury my cold, dead, decrepit ass in the ground a good fifty or sixty years from now.”

“Rhubarb, I would have proposed when you were in pigtails and bobby sox.”

“Hey, Rhubarb, we may need to rethink our approach.”“No, we don’t.”“I’ve only got one hand here, kiddo. Maybe if I grab the middle-”“If you grab the middle, it’ll be the last thing that hand ever does!”He pondered that as if it explained something. “So I’m guessing then you don’t get a lot of company down here.”“Bobby, so help me, I will rip your arm off and beat you with it, do you hear me?”“Okay, geez. Let me just get a look—” He picked her skirt up and pulled it over his head.“Bobby!” She was actually too mortified to even scream so it came out like a squeak from a dying rat.“Dammit, there’s no light under here, can’t see a thing.”Thank God for small blessings. “Get out of there!”“Tell you what, how about you use your spare hand and I use mine on either side of your hips and we yank together.”

“Bobby’s eyes widened. Then he swallowed like there was an anvil in his throat.“You want me...”She waited for him to continue but he didn’t seem capable. So she shifted and the pain brought him back from wherever his glazed gaze had taken him.“You want me to rip your underwear off?”Given the need to clamp her thighs together, she didn’t care how he worded it. She nodded.“I think I’ve died and gone to Heaven,” he murmured.“You will if you don’t watch it, Wichowski. Just...reach under...”

“She eyed him but said nothing. Why did he always have to pull out the truth?“It’s not like I haven’t seen you pee before. Go ahead.”“Eww, you have not!”“Yup, you were six and you had to go and there was no one else to take you.”Oh God...she’d been so humiliated she must have blanked it from her memory.”

“I hate you. You are the reason fungus exists. You are the slime that grows in swamps that even acid can’t break down—”“How long do you plan to keep this up, Rhubarb?”“Why?”“Because I was going to hail down a bottle of beer and I figured you might get thirsty having your mouth open so much.”“Make it a white wine and I’ll keep it short.”“No, you won’t, but it might slow you down. Be right back.”

“The line in the sand was drawn. A man did not sleep with his friend, especially not a man like him, one utterly incapable of caring for a woman outside of the bedroom. He couldn’t treat Cass that way. He would not touch the friend. No licking the friend, either. If he could get away with not looking at her, he’d do it.”

“I feel you. Inside. In the parts of me I crushed the night my mother died. No matter how I tried to keep you out, you got in and I couldn't let you leave me behind. So listen to me when I say this. My life is yours. You're the reason I'll stay alive. The only goddamn reason.”

“You could stand to work on your manners there, Sunshine.”“That’s not my name.” She kept walking.He glared at the back of her pack. “How about sweetheart, then?”“How about you kiss my ass?”

“I want you, Delilah Anne. Never doubt that. I want a life with you. With your voice and your touch and your thoughts and your arguments. I want your grace and your mistakes and your promises and your everything, all twisted up with mine. I want it so bad that I feel like I can’t breathe whenever I think about being without you.”

“Fine!' she snapped, the desperation to have him growing exponentially now. 'I missed you. Only you. No man could ever make me feel like you do. I'm ruined for all others. I renamed all my vibrators after you and none of them get me off like you can. Happy now?'His eyes glazed for a second. '*All* your vibrators?'-Convicted”

“I'm *fine*. I'm alive and believe me, I gave as good as I got, if not better. You don't need to go kill anyone.''I'm not killing anyone. I'm just going to shoot them all several times. If they die, that's their fault.'-Convicted”

“I'd make you my favorite jungle gym if you'd let me.'- Katrina, 'Convicted”

“You know why I’ve always liked your mouth, Rhubarb?” he asked in that whispery voice again, but it was twice as intimate as before. He let go of his prizes and reached up his free hand to rub his thumb over the bottom edge of her lip. Those shivers started again. “Even when you’re calling me names, it’s the perfect shape for kissing.”“There’s no shape for kissing.” She wasn’t quite sure how the words came out. Her brain was completely disconnected and so her mouth had to be on auto-pilot. Which explained why it didn’t do anything when his eyes closed and his lips descended to hers.”

“I’ve known since the first moment I saw you and every day after has only made me surer. I see who you are, right down to your soul. I know you’re the kind of woman who gives of herself, completely. I know the promises you make mean more to you than the cost. I know that family is the most important thing to you in the entire world. But most of all, I know that you feel exactly the same thing I do—we belong together, Del. You’re the piece of me that’s been missing all my life and I can tell just looking that I’m the same for you.”

“He finally pulled away, not letting her get further than a few inches, their hips still pressed tight, her gaze held willing captive by his. “It’s me,” he murmured. “And I’m telling you right now, Delilah Anne McGavin, if I have my way, it’s going to stay me for the rest of our lives. You’re mine now and I’m going to do everything in my power to prove it to you.”

“He finally moved, walking those few feet between them. Without hesitation, his hands slid around her waist, pulling her flush against him. Her hand slid up his arm all by itself, grasping the hard muscles there. The warmth that seemed a natural part of him spread into her. Smoothly, his mouth found hers, gently grazing her lips before settling more firmly. She moaned as he tasted her, coaxing her to open for him. When she did, her eyelids fluttered shut and the whole world utterly disappeared.”

“Usually, when he came in these dreams he woke up still thrusting into ruined sheets, his face pressed into a pillow. This time, he was most assuredly still balls deep inside Delilah McGavin, his face pressed into the mass of silken black hair now that they’d fallen to their sides on a bed far too nice to be his. Like him, she was gasping, trying to catch her breath. She was also bonelessly limp, her sweat slick body slathered over his, their legs tangled, their sexes still throbbing against each other, fitted together like a lock and a key.”

“Delilah cried out, lifting her head. The only truth that mattered right now was how much she needed him. Powerful thighs flexed against her own as he began to move. He reached for her, pulling her up, against his chest, his hands clasping her breasts, mouth open on the back of her neck. He drew hard, pumping up into her relentlessly, meeting her rocking motion back to him. Her head fell back on his shoulder, her own hands latching over his. Their fingers wove together, their bodies moving as if they’d been lovers for years.As if they’d been made for each other.”

“If there's one thing you should understand better than the humans, it's that females should never be ruled out by virtue of strength. Some of us have ways to equalize the equation.”