“James had been acting a little weird. After waking up yesterday, he'd been a little bit distant. It might just be the stress of the trip. It was probably hard on James to be in charge of the little group. He was responsible for the welfare of his lover, a nun, and a talking horse. That couldn't be easy.”

“He didn't care if Matt made him cuddly or made him hornier than he'd ever been or even made him a lovesick fool. James was keeping him. Hopefully Matt would want to keep James too.”

“He turned to Matt and gave a huge smile, one hand on her withers. James reached out and pulled Matt to him, and they stood there in a little circle. It felt disconcertingly like… a family reunion. Matt turned away from James‟s bright smile and looked at Miz in something akin to horror. Was she their… child? Miz nipped him. Hard. While snorting horse mucus all over him. Damn thing couldn‟t even blow her own damn nose. Would she ever grow up?”

“I thought you wanted to leave me." Jurgen sounded dazed.Nik patted his chest. "My poor, big, dumb asshole." He sighed, kissing Jurgen's neck. "Why didn't you just ask me?"Nik could feel the dumbfounded rising up from Jurgen's skin. "I don't know," he said slowly. "I didn't need to ask you if I knew how to fix it.""Oh, Jurgen." Nik patted him some more, petting his sternum. "We could probably spend a few years and thousands of dollars in psychologist's fees figuring you out, couldn't we?”

“He made me pick a safe word." Nik peeked between his fingers. Sam's mouth was hanging open."Oh." Sam's voice was a whisper. More of the throat clearing. "What did you pick?"Not the question he'd been expecting. Nik looked up at Sam from under his hand."Lemonade.""Lemonade?" Nik nodded. "Do you like lemonade?""Does it matter? Yes, I like lemonade.""Shouldn't you have picked something you didn't like, to make sure there were no, um, inadvertent exclamations at an important moment?"He dropped his hand and stared at Sam. "Who screams out 'lemonade' in the middle of sex?"Sam blushed. Nik was momentarily grateful for his dark skin. "You'd be surprised," Sam mumbled.”

“I got hard and he was there and the next thing I knew he was on his knees. I mean, I was going to step away, but he licked me.”

“Sam. I've got news for you. Not every childhood trauma can be healed by finding the right penis."Sam looked devastated. He opened and closed his mouth, eyes wide, then suddenly slumped back against the railing, unable to support himself anymore. "You mean," his voice was barely a whisper. "All those romance novels lied?”