J.D. Robb

“I'm not trying to box you in. I'm just trying to live with you.”

“Life has very little even ground.”

“Pop quizzes were killers. Like ambushing assassins they elicited fear and loathing in the prey, and a certain heady power in the hunter.”

“(Eve)"Hold on. You have to give them a gift for moving?""Uh-huh. Plus they're shacking, so it should be a couple thing." She (Mavis) ate another canape, fed on to Leonardo."Why does there have to be a gift for every damn thing?" Eve complained."Retail conspiracy." Roarke patter her knee. "I bet it is," Eve said darkly. "I just bet it is.”

“Love makes saints or sinners out of men.”

“Left with an oncoming headache, went home, and that's verified, to his wife and six-month-old baby. He's three weeks into a big, fat raise and promotion. He doesn't fit for me.""Lucky for Whistler, and likely his mother?""What? Why?""Weak joke. So back to your corporate trio.”

“...those who love suffer when who they love suffers.”

“Eve: "She completely eye-fucked you." Roarke: "I know. I feel so cheap and used." Eve: "Shit. You got off on it. Men always do." Roarke: "True enough, which is why we're so often cheap and used.”

“Eve: "Where's Mister Scary?"Roarke: "Summerset has the night off."Eve: "You mean the house is Summerset-free? Damn shame we have to waste it with work.”

“I had that hole in me, that empty space. I could have lived my life with it, content enough. I wasn’t an unhappy man.”.....................The tears came now. He watched them drip down her cheeks, wondered if she were even aware they leaked out of her. “She was part of my life. You are my life. If I have a regret, it’s that even for an instant you could think otherwise. Or that I allowed you to.”-Roarke”

“i got lucky”

“I‘m very aware that my personal life, my marriage, is the source of speculation and interest in the department and with the public. I can live with that. I’m also aware that my husband’s businesses, and his style of conducting his businesses, are also the source of speculation and interest. I have no particular problem with that. But I resent very much that my reputation and my husband’s character should be questioned this way. From the media, Commander, it’s to be expected, but not from my superior officer. Not from any member of the department I’ve served to the best of my ability. I want you to take note, Commander, that turning in my badge would be like cutting off my arm. But if it comes down to a choice between the job and my marriage, then I lose the arm.”

“Love without trust? It's not love at all.”

“I didn't want to tell you I'd been scared, much less why. I guess that was stupid.""It was.""Aren't you supposed to say something like 'no, it wasn't. Blah, blah, support, stroke, let me get you some chocolate'?""You haven't red the marriage handbook's footnotes. It's another woman who does that sort of thing. I believe I'm allowed to be more blunt, then ask if you'd like a quick shag.""Shag yourself”

“I got you a present.""Did you?""It's a book of poetry--romancy stuff. I thought, 'How schmaltzy is that,' so it seemed like the thing. Then I screwed up and left it in my desk at work”

“Damn it all to hell and back again, you know very well that was a setup. You bloody well know I couldn't put my hands on her.""Yeah, yeah, sure, sure." Eve shrugged off her coat, tossed it aside. "I know a setup when I see it, and I know your face, ace. I didn't see desire on it, I saw annoyance.""Is that so? Is that bloody well so? Well, if you knew it was just what it was, why did you sucker punch me?""Mostly?" She turned, cocked a hip. "Because you're a man."Eyes narrowed on her face, he tried to stanch the blood with the back of his hand. "And do you have any sort of idea just how often I might expect your fist in my goddamn face because of my bleeding DNA?”

“She stepped forward as if to pick up the fur she'd tossed over a chair. Smoothly, she turned to hand it to him. And with perfect timing, flung herself into his arms.The sable fell as he took her shoulders to shove her back.Eve stepped to the doorway to see Magdelana with her arms locked around Roarke's neck, his hands on her bare shoulders--one of the ivory straps sliding to her elbow."Son of a bitch," she said.On cue, Magdelana spun around, her face full of passion and shock. "Oh, God. Oh...it's not what it looks like.""Bet." Eve strode in.Actually, Roarke thought, it was more of a swagger. He had a moment to admire it, before Eve rammed her fist in his face."Fuck me." His head snapped back, and he tasted blood.Magdelana cried out, but even the deaf would have caught the suppressed laughter in the sound. "Roarke! Oh, my God, you're bleeding. Please, let me just--""Don't look now," Eve said cheerfully. "But he's not the only one." She decked Magdelana with a straight-armed jab. "Bitch," Eve added as Magdelana's eyes rolled back and she fell, unconscious, to the floor.Roarke looked down. "Well, now, fuck us all.”

“And you're not going to tell me she didn't make a move on you. At least test the waters.""The waters," he said, "were not receptive.""If they had been, I'd have drowned her in them already.”

“She would be a sparkling accent on his arm. She speaks flawless French and Italian, and has a limitless supply of charm when she wishes to dispense it. And'd she'll use him. She'll take, take more. If it was necessary, or if she simply had the whim, she'd toss him to the wolves to see who'd win."He finished the whiskey. "You, Lieutenant, are often crude, you are certainly rude, and have very little sense of how to be the wife--in public--of a man in Roarke's position. And you would do anything, no matter what the personal risk, to keep him from harm. She will never love him. You will never do anything but.”

“I can handle it. But it stinks, if you ask me, really stinks, that you get to go out somewhere drinking beer while I'm stuck at Baby Central. Just because you have a penis.""We'll think fondly of you over beer, me and my penis."She ate a little more, then smiled slowly. "You've still got to be in the birthing room when she pushes it out.""Shut up, Eve.""Your penis won't save you then, Pal.”

“The worst, the very worst requirement of friendship, in Eve Dallas's opinion, was sitting through an entire evening of childbirth classes.What went on there--the sights, the sounds, the assault on all the senses--turned the blood cold.”

“Maybe he does have a choice to make, but everything I feel, everything I know says absoloutely that choice will be you""She speaks French and Italian.""That bitch.”

“You were forthcoming, articulate, and gave the details. You're alibied up to your gonads--Oh, sorry.""Not a problem, I like knowing that part of my anatomy is protected.”

“Far be in from me to dictate how you should assuage your guilt. Do you have a lot of it?"She bit his good shoulder. "You're about to find out."She toppled them both off the bench and onto the mat. "Well, ouch. I take it guilt doesn't bring out your gentler side.”

“What kind of a maniac needed over five thousand plates?”

“I have to say you don't look anything like a policewoman." Maxia's perfect eyebrows arched as she gave Eve's dress a quick scan. "Leonardo dresses you, doesn't he?""No, I usually do it myself.”

“He stepped to her again, laid his lips on her brow. "But I want children with you, my lovely Eve. One day.""One day being far, far in the future. Like, I don't know, say a decade when...Hold on. Children is plural."He eased back, grinned. "Why, so it is--nothing slips by my canny cop.""You really think if I ever actually let you plant something in me--they're like aliens in there, growing little hands and feet." She shuddered. "Creepy. If I ever did that, popped a kid out--which I think is probably as pleasant a process as having your eyeballs pierced by burning, poisonous sticks, I'd say, 'Whoopee, let's do this again?' Have you recently suffered head trauma?""Not to my knowledge.""Could be coming. Any second.”

“Have McNab take the edge if you need one. Can he handle bad cop?""He does it really well during personal role-playing games when I'm the reluctant witness.”

“Every minute with you, Darling Eve, is a minute to treasure."She slid a glance toward him as she uncoded the seal. "You really do want sex.""I'm still breathing, so that would be yes.”

“Hold on a minute." She leaned out the window, shouted at the messenger who'd nearly sideswiped her vehicle with his jet-board. "Police property, asshole. If I had time I'd hunt you down and use that board to beat your balls black.""Darling Eve, you know how that kind of talk thrills and excites me. How can I keep my mind off sex now?”

“What's your status?" she asked him."Healthy, wealthy, and wise. What's yours?""Ha. Mean, crafty, and rude.”

“Peabody, you never cease to amaze me.""One day I'll tell you about my granny and her five lovers." "Five lovers isn't abnormal for a woman's lifetime." "Not in her lifetime; last month. All at the same time." Peabody glanced up, deadpan. "She's ninety-eight. I hope to take after her.”

“She turned toward Roarke's office, then stopped in the doorway. He was at his console; captain of his ship. He'd drawn his hair back so it lay on his neck in a short, gleaming black tail. His eyes were cool, cool blue. The colour they were when his mind was fully occupied. He'd taken off his dinner jacket, his shirt was loose at the collar, the sleeves rolled up. There was something... just something about that look that always and forever grabbed her in the gut. She could look at him for hours, and at the end of it, still marvel that he belonged to her."Someone wants to hurt you," she thought. "I'm not going to let them.”

“Three weeks hadn't changed Cop Central. The coffee was still poisonous, the noise abominable, and the view out of her stingy window was still miserable.She was thrilled to be back.”

“He loves me.""You sound surprised.""Nobody ever did. Not like this. It's easy to say, for some people. The words. But it's not just words with Roarke. He sees inside me, and it doesn't matter.”

“Why doesn't it bother her? Seriously, it doesn't. She's not putting on a front. She's in a serious relationship with a guy who has sex with other women for a living, and it doesn't matter to her.""I married a cop." Roarke smiled at her. "We all have our levels of acceptance. He was an LC when they met, just as she was a doctor, and one who often works in dangerous areas of the city."She shot him the same easy smile. "So...if I'd been an LC when we met, you wouldn't have any problem with me banging other guys. Professionally.""None at all, as I'd kick your ass and murder all of them. But that's my level of acceptance.”

“In their eyes, Eve saw the wolf gleam. The story was the prey, ratings the trophy.”

“You're earlier than expected, and appear to have gotten through the day without destroying any article of clothing. I must note this event down on my calendar.""Bitch when I'm late, bitch when I'm early. You could go pro on the bitching circuit.”

“I want to keep you, till the end of days.”

“I'll wait. By the way, sex-me-up shoes?""I was following a theme.""Well." Reo turned her ankles, looked down. "They are pretty fabulous.""They are," Mira agreed."I was going to say the same about yours. What a terrific color.""Could we not talk about shoes in the box that still smells of evildoer?""You started it," Reo reminded her before she turned back to Mira.”

“I think I've just lost five pounds in fear sweat." Peabody mopped at her face. "Now I want a cannoli. I don't know why."With a laugh, Roarke shifted to grin at her. "I'll buy you a dozen, precious.""Cannolis, for God's sake.”

“You go in, I go in.""Listen---"He took her face in his hands."You go, I go. That's non-negotiable. If we're to get blasted to hell or poisoned into lunatics, we do it together.""Crap, Crap. You have to look less rich and gorgeous."God help him, she made him grin. "I'll do what I can.”

“She could and had faced an armed laser in the hands of a mad mutant mercenary with less fear than she faced such unswerving emotion...”

“I want a homing beacon on your vehicle.""There will be.""No, I want one on before we leave the grounds in the morning. I'll see to it."Give and take, she reminded herself. Even when--maybe especially when--give and take was a pain in the ass. "Okay. But there go my plans to slip off and meet Pablo the pool boy for an hour of hot, sticky sex.""We all have to make sacrifices. Myself, I've had to reschedule my liaison with Vivien the French maid three times in the last couple of days.""Blows," Eve said as they slipped into bed."She certainly does.”

“I was just trying to get his attention!" the man protested at the top of his lungs. "If he'da listened, I wouldn'ta had to bash him.”

“Why would I kill someone I don't know, when I know so many people who irritate me, and havent't killed any of them?”

“Grace was in all her steps, heaven in her eyes. In every gesture, dignity and love.”

“Eve: "Keep your mind off sex"Roake: "Why? It's so happy there.”

“Nobody's that naive," she muttered. "Nobody's that guileless.""He's from Nebraska." Peabody scanned her pocket unit."From where?""Nebraska." Peabody waived a hand, vaguely west.... "They still grow them pretty guileless in Nebraska. I think it's all that soy and corn.”

“Peabody: “When a guy’s in the hospital, he wants toys.”Eve: “When a guy gets a splinter in his toe, he wants toys.”