“How’re the cats?” he asked, smiling a little. He did miss Angel Marie. Hell, he missed them all.“Feral,” Benny sniffed. “And horny. Every time one of us walks in, they all start humping our shoes.”“They’re fixed,” Shane mumbled, but the conversation was oddly reassuring. It sounded normal, and like home.“Tell that to the big fuzzy brown one….”“Orlando Bloom?”“Yeah, whatever. Last time I was there that damned animal violated my knitting.”Shane lost a battle with a laugh and then whined because it hurt his ribs. “Violated?”[...]“Let’s just say that wool is no longer virgin,” she quipped dryly, and Shane’s chest shook.”

“Jeremy laughed. "Well, there was food, a gift, and you spent your time shopping. I'd say it was a date!"Aiden squinted at Jeremy. "That's all we did last Saturday! he said, a little bit of surprise in his voice. "I thought you weren't gay!"Jeremy widened his eyes big enough to look shocked. "Well, I didn't know you were!""God, what a dumbass!" Aiden shook his head. "Jesus, how can you give advice on two guys dating if you don't even know what two guys do if they're not on a date.”

“You’re here!” She repeated, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legsaround his hips. He’d dropped his bags as she’d ran, and now he cupped her bottom in his large hands...His heart gave a giant thump, all the way down from his chest to his stomach,and as she smiled up at him he lowered his head and devoured her mouth,smile and all. Her lips were just as warm, and just as soft as he remembered, and her mouth tasted like peaches and cinnamon and Corinne Carol-Anne and without thought he pushed her back against the hallway wall and kissed her and kissed her and kissed her as though all their time apart would disappear in that frantic mating of tongue and lips and teeth. He wanted to take her into himself, all of her, and keep her warm and safe and happy, just like this moment when sheburst with joy, just to see him.--Wounded(Green and Cory, after being apart)”

“Oh gods... oh gods... I had hurt him... so many times, I had hurt him. By trying to hurt myself, I had hurt him. By trying to push him away, I had hurt him. Every time I opened my mouth and belittled myself with my "turns of rough poetry", I had sliced his heart as fine as my wrists. I did not know why he loved me as he did. I might never know. But as I stood there and held him, my back nagging at me and my leg screaming in protest, I realized that the least I could do was welcome his love with an open heart. And part of doing that was loving myself enough to want to live.”

“God. No wonder it was so easy. He’s been bleeding since he was a baby. He just never told anyone. How do you even know it hurts after all that time?” Because you loved me, and I knew what it meant to feel.”

“You nervous about doing this on camera?”Chance tilted his head a little, considering. “Well, yeah, of course. You don’t know what you look like when you come—for all I know, I’m hella ugly or something. But at the same time....” He trailed off and shuddered, and his eyes got half-lidded. One hand went unconsciously to his stomach, then slid up to his nipples, which were still pointy and puckered. “It’s sort of cool. It’s making my stomach all jumpy, and....” His other hand slid down under the waistband of his shorts, as he made obvious kneading motions on his groin.“It’s turning you on?”“Mmmm....”“Take the shorts off, Chance, and show us.”

“I didn't have time to tell Bracken to care for her. I didn't have time to tell Arturo that I knew why he was hard on me, and it was okay. I didn't have time to tell Green that he was the sun and the moon and the stars. The Goddess gave me just enough time to feel her pain, to let her know I loved her. I had just long enough to say goodbye.”