Kristen Ashley

“Sadie?""What?""You with me?"I blinked in confusion and said, "Yes." And I was, wasn't I? I was standing in his arms for goodness sake."This is Sadie?" Hector went on.I blinked again. "Yes.""My Sadie?" he kept at it.This time I blinked for a different reason.His Sadie? Was there a Hector's Sadie? Was I Hector's Sadie? Did Hector think I was his Sadie?Oh…my…God.Before I could process what he said or get close to processing what that meant, I watched him smile, then he bent his head and kissed my lips."Yeah," he said, his face an inch away. "It's my Sadie.”

“I was beyond Ice Princess. I was Sorceress of the Antarctic and a bitchy one at that.”

“I know she’s in there and I’m warnin’ you, Sadie, I’m gonna pull her out.”

“Another reason to watch him avidly for he might pull himself out ofthe pool, his whole body slick and those shorts plastered on him was not a sight to see. It was asight to prove there was a God and that God might just be Tate.”

“Then and now, beautiful, I’ll take you any way you come to me … Any way. I love this Sylvie, I loved that Sylvie. I just love you, baby.”

“Shut your fucking trap, Hawk”

“Baby,” another voice came into my ear and this was my man’s, “shut the fuck up, concentrate and don’t sit there muttering into your tits makin’ it look like you’re waitin’ to fuck over some asshole. He sees you doin’ that shit, these guys we’re hunting will take you out and tonight is not my night to lose you.”

“Come back to me,” I begged, the tear slipping over my eye and gliding down my cheek.”

“We been through a lot and you earned a piece of my heart, babe. It’s all yours and always will be.”- Knight.”

“I’ll take this. I’ll take this every day and every day I’ll know in the end I beat that bastard. He might not have been alive to see it, but I bet his goddamned, motherfucking ass.”Seriously, he was hot when he was being all vengeful badass.”

“Beauty,” he whispered. “What?” I asked.“Beauty. It’s pure beauty you don’t wanna be away from me. I don’t like that, baby. I love it”

“Just so you know, I speak English. You don’t have to macho-speak with shit like ‘you with me’ after you macho-speak with a bunch of bossing me around. I get you. I’m with you. Or if I’m not, I’ll tell you.”“Noted,” he muttered but sounded like he was smiling. I made the diplomatic decision not to look.”

“Some people get to live life. Some people survive it. We’re survivors. We can carve out our piece of happy, and, I swear to God, baby, right now, you got my vow, for you and for me, the rest of our lives, I’ll bust my ass to carve our piece of happy.”

“I gave you up once. It killed me. it was figuratively but it still killed me. I’m not doin’ that shit again.”

“Honest to Christ, give you anything. Anything, baby. But lost enough time. Can’t give you that. Space , maybe. Time. No.”

“I would work with him to make Knight’s troubles go away. In the meantime, I could jump a hot guy whenever I felt like it.This was not a bad deal.”

“I stopped opposite the counter and looked back up at him. “Have I told you you’re an asshole today?”“You just got up, so, no.”“You’re an asshole.”He grinned again.”

“He crossed his arms again and requested, “You wanna stop aiming your weapon at me?”Actually, no. I didn’t. I wanted to keep aiming my gun at him and I might also want to pull the trigger.”

“How you feel about marrying me?" he asked in my ear.”

“It’s always you and me.” I nodded again and felt my lips quivering. He kept whispering, “Always me and my Sylvie, yeah?” “Yeah,” I whispered.”

“But me, my jeans, tank, boots and socks, commando and braless, walked right out the door and, like we had many, many times before, we took on the night.”

“You need me. You won’t stay away and you won’t let me go because, baby, you can’t breathe without me.”

“Born to love you, baby,” he repeated. “Die lovin’ you, my Sylvie.”

“You love me?” he asked quietly. I dipped my face close and answered quietly, “On a cold night, a long time ago, you put your hands almost exactly where they are right now and, I might have been six years old, but I fell hard. So, yeah. For over twenty-seven years, every day, every minute, every second, I’ve loved you, Tucker Creed.”

“And, just like then, after she started singing, it hurt to listen.But it was a beautiful pain.”

“…when you talk about Mike, you look like a woman who’s talkin’ about a guy she likes. You talk about Cal, you look like a woman who’s talkin’ about the man she needs to breathe.”

“Get out here, babe, I wanna kiss you.”

“You keeping me alive tonight?”He’d opened and was out the door but he turns, his eyes locking on mine.“Even if I die doin’ it.”

“You tore my sheet.”“I’ll buy you a new one.”“I don’t want a new one. I think I’m going to have this one bronzed.”

“I’m sorry I fought you, Mace,” I whispered. “But now that you’re mine again, I’m never going to let you go.”

“Ally placed her hands over her ears and changed, “La-la-la, not-listening-to-the-story-of-my-brother-proposing-while-doing-the-nasty-one-more-time, la-la-la.”

“Any one of those boys wanted to push me around, I’d say bring it on. Hell, I’d pay for one of ‘em to move into my house. They don’t even have to do me; just walk around so I can watch. Maybe in a towel.”

“I can’t be the star in your sky when you’re the only star left shining in mine.”

“Jules’s eyes turned to Vance. “I’ll go somewhere.”“No,” Vance replied.“I’ll go somewhere safe,” Jules went on.Vance got close to Jules and put his hand on her belly. “You think I’m missin’ a minute of this Princess, think again.”I swallowed hard, hard.“Then keep me safe,” Julies whispered.”

“Broody Mace looks pleased?” I asked. We all knew what that meant. Been there done that, had the t-shirt.Stella had been laid.”

“I’d been tossing on the seas for twenty-eight years, I was used to flipping around on the waves by myself,bailing out the water like a mad fool.How did I get used to an anchor?What if that anchor broke off?”

“They took you away from me."His hand squeezed mine, the pendants and chains digging into my skin."I'm back, baby.”

“You know what love is?"Creed asked that and my eyes shot from the hair on his forehead to his."I..." I swallowed again then, holding his eyes, I whispered, "Yes. I do. I know what love is, Creed."I felt his big hand curl warm on the side of my face before I felt the pad of his thumb sweep across my lips again. He watched it move as he replied, "I do too, baby." His eyes came to mine. "I absolutely do.”

“You get caught up in your chaos, you don’t realize just how much you’re dragging everyone along with you.”

“I’d move here. I’d move to the goddamned, fucking moon to wake up to you in my bed.”

“I’m not what you want, Sylvie, I get that because it’s the same for you as it is for me. I’m not what you want ‘cause I’m what you need.”

“Outside my bike, never has anything important in my life been just mine." My body stilled, so did my heart, and my eyes locked with his. He started moving again, slowly, deeply and he kept talking. "Always castoffs, leftovers, used, sometimes even food from the dumpsters." My heart started beating again, only to trip over itself; my breath came fast, not only from what was happening to my body but what he was saying. "Vance-" His lips came to mine, his hands moved out of my hair and went to the side of my face and he stared in my eyes, pressing deep inside. "Mine," he muttered, his deep voice hoarse, that fierce undercurrent there. His tone caused a shiver to run through me, straight through to my soul. Then he kissed me.”

“I turned to Eddie. "Okay, I've never done this. This is the guy's department. What do I do? We need to get Lee's size and we need industrial strength. Show me which ones to buy."Eddie looked at the display and looked to me. "You're askin' me to help you buy condoms for Lee?"" Industrial strength condoms," I reminded him.Eddie stared at me like he was re-thinking his crush on me."okay," I said, trying to be helpful, "we'll break it down. We'll start with the size."He shook his head. "First, I'm a little worried you're lookin' to me to tell you Lee's size. Lee es mi hermano , but we aren't that close. Second, they don't come in sizes.”

“It was cool to wake up knowing your day would include someone else in a way that was integral to life.”

“Fucking hell, India Savage wants hearts and flowers.”I went up on my forearm. Hearts and flowers! As if! I was a Rock Chick!“I do not!” I snapped.He was grinning at me. “Yes you do.”

“Estás aterrorizada de mí y entraste aquí por ti misma. Nadie te arrastró hasta aquí. No trajiste a nadie para cuidar tu espalda. Nadie te hizo quedarte. No trates de engañarme o a ti misma sobre el hecho de que no quieres explorar esto conmigo. Lo quieres o no estarías aquí. Te tengo peleándolo. Sólo te los estoy diciendo, no vas a ganar.”

“Are you asking me to marry you, honey?”“No, I’m tellin’ you by the end of this year you’ll be wearing my rings, bearing my name and, probably, pregnant with my baby.”

“Have at it. She seems to obey you.”“I don’t obey! He’s an alpha! It’s just that I don’t have any choice!” Dusty shouted to her back.”

“Fuck me, shut the fuck up,” Cal entered the conversation, glaring at both Ryker and Devin. “Caked. Jesus. Seriously? Are we talkin’ about cakes?”

“Jesus, holy fuck,” Rivera murmured, coming to a quick halt and looking up at the tall, hulking, tattoo-sleeved Ryker. “Boy, what’d your Mama feed you growin’ up?” he asked. “Newborn babies,” Ryker answered, scowling down at Rivera.”