Frankie Rose

“He fixed her in his gaze and set his jaw, his hands twitching at his sides. "You feel something for me," he said, daring her to try and deny it. There was no point trying to hide it now. She looked away, numb. "You can't feel that way about me." He lowered his voice. "It'll only get you hurt.""Oh, come on! That's so cliche! What's that even supposed to mean?" "It means my life is one that prevents me from the luxury of silly romantic notions. I can't have you look at me the way you just did. I don't care what Agatha's told you, or what she thinks she knows. This isn't going to happen, okay?"Silly romantic notions? Farley's embarrassment quickly moved aside to make room for her anger. "Agatha hasn't told me anything. None of you ever do. You're right, I do feel something for you, but don't worry. From your reaction, it's pretty clear that the feeling's not mutual. I'm not some crazy stalker. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't flatter yourself into thinking that I'm completely head over heels in love with you. So just go!" she screamed, destroyed by his words and the feelings of rejection that coursed through her. "You don't understand.""I think I do.""No! You don't!" The hard look in his eyes morphed into something more pained and desperate. He stepped forward and grabbed her roughly by the arms, the same way he had done in the silo. "I sat there and watched you for months. Months! I watched you everywhere you went; I watched you when you didn't go anywhere at all! When you were so low you couldn't even leave the house. I watched the most beautiful person I'd ever seen get screwed over by the cops and have her life threatened on a daily basis without her even knowing it."Farley stared up at him-frozen and unblinking-his words barraging her."How do you think I felt when I found you bleeding and broken on the floor of Aldan's room? I thought you were dead!" He stood, his eyes on fire, with something terrible strewn across his face. His voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. "We've got a war about to be unleashed here-one that I'm going to die for. One where you and I are an impossibility. So I don't get to tell you that I love you. And you don't get to look at me like that.”

“You can't have 'ass' as a word." Tess declared. She picked up Farley's tiles and thrust them back into her hand."You're forgetting the rules. You're supposed to put down words that you know relate to Oliver.Like hockey. Or six pack."Farley pulled a face."Unless you're commenting on the fact that he has a really great ass, in which case ewww, but okay.”

“He paused and caught her in the flash of his eyes. The term green with envy sprung to mind for some reason, though that wasn't the particular sin that burned through her when he locked her to the spot. Nope. That would be lust, her conscience whispered. She scowled. Was it possible for your own body to turn traitor on you? If it was, then hers most certainly had.”

“And what do I smell like?""Like arrogance and self-adoration," she snapped. "I can smell it a mile off.Why bother saying you didn't help me when it could only have been you?”

“There's something really interesting in the way you shy away from virtuous touch," he said."I don't mind the virtue part. It's you I mind.”

“The thing about car chases is this: if you're traveling through downtown LA at lunchtime, you can forget about them. In that kind of traffic, all you can hope to have in the way of a highway pursuit is a crawling affair where the object of the chase has plenty of time to make a distress call.”

“Promise not to kill me?"A razor smile spread across his face."Will you at least try?"He arched an eyebrow. "I can try.”

“You should come with me.""What? I'm not going anywhere with you!""I think you should," he replied."And why would I do that? You just told me you're following me!""No, I didn't. I said someone was following you. I was following them.”

“A sharp rap at her window startled her even further, and her blood rushed in a charge from her head to her feet. She blinked and blinked again, but the tall figure at the window didn't appear to be going anywhere."It's really wet out here, y'know," came a muffled voice from the other side of the glass. "Are you going to ignore me for much longer?”

“Fate must hate her. He was far too good-looking to be someone she had just crashed into.”

“Can you meet me?" "Sure I can. What else are friends for but swooping in to the rescue when their girlfriends are are being stalked by creepy strangers?”

“Come on, there's no one there. You want coffee?" Tess asked."Yeah, sure, why not? I'm only on the brink of a nervous breakdown. I don't imagine why caffeine wouldn't help this situation.”

“It's a beautiful dream, love. But some dreams just cost too much.”