“How many times had she stared up at this same sky and marveled at the view? How many more times would it take before it got old? She hoped she would never know the answer to that question. The gentle gold of Saturn's surface was ever present like a muted eternal sun. The rings, with shades varied from the same gold of the planet's to a brown so dark it might've been black, swept across the planet's fluid surface.”

“Bright green eyes peered at her from underneath long lashes that curled toward Saturn. Despite the so very pretty eyes, he had a strong face with sharp angles that cast shadows from the harsh overhead cargo light. A slight overbite gave the impression of a permanent pout. Dark curls tumbled lazily from his head to his shoulders.In one word: gorgeous. Another word: dangerous.”

“You're not mad at me?" she asked.He leaned to the side and placed a lingering kiss on her neck. "If I pretended I was, would you make it up to me?"Another kiss landed on the sensitive skin of her collarbone, testing the edges of the coveralls. "Um," Jenna stammered. "No.""No?" He leveled his eyes with hers. They sparkled with amusement.She tried to think, but her body had apparently decided her brain was a nonessential system and shut it down. "Yes?”

“Jenna swallowed the lump in her throat. "Good evening, gentlemen.""You'll be hard pressed to find a gentleman in this bunch," a forty-something guy with close-cropped white hair said, laughing. She walked closer to the group and held out her hands in apology. "Sorry, didn't mean to offend.”

“Just what she needed. More filth in her soul. Someday, maybe, she would explode from it, someday maybe, every rotten thing that had every been done to her and every rotten thing she’d ever done would erupt from her in a fountain of sewage and sorrow, all those secrets she kept even from herself spilling out and adding to the muck she could never wash off no matter how hard she tried.She’d never been bound by magic to keep those secrets. Just by her own shame.”

“How the hell was it that she’d always been so comfortable with him before, but as soon as she’d realized she was in love with him, as soon as she told him that … she was nervous all the time?”

“What the hell was the matter with these people? How did they not see that of all the people on the planet, she was probably the least qualified to help them with their emotional problems? It was like asking a dog to do algebra.”