“We all have a sea inside us; can you hear it? Can you hear the ocean roaring?”

“How can you lose me? You’ve owned me from the first moment I saw you.”

“I love your independence, I love that you don't swoon, I love that you'll fight me with your last breath if you think I'm wrong, and if I ever have to catch you, I swear I'll make sure you're standing on your feet as quickly as you can manage it.”

“God damn it, don’t you do this. You have no idea how badly I want you right now. I’d love nothing more than to bury myself inside you, and feel you lose yourself around me as you scream my name; the very idea of fucking the woman I love, finally, after ten thousand years – of having you feel just what it is you mean to me – is so hard to bear I’m all but fallen at your feet. But I’ll be damned if it happens here of all places. I’m not going to screw you in Hell, Mary. I gave in and took your blood, and God knows you have the power to bring me to my knees, but when I love-fuck you, I want to do it in my home. So do you think you could humour me just a little longer?”She gaped at him. “Did you just say, ‘love-fuck’?”

“Til death do us part....The words wrap around my mind like soft, silk binds, and I cherish the imagery. Eternity can only be with this man – there will never be another who knows me so well.”

“Do you remember what we just did? Please tell me you remember what we just did."She briefly toyed with the idea of lying and saying no, just to see the look on his face, but she'd had enough of having her brain played with – it wouldn't be too sporting to do the same to him. "Yes, I remember, and don't you think for one minute that just because you had me on my back screaming I was 'yours'," she waved four fingers in quotation marks in front of his face, "that it gives you any kind of ownership over me, because it doesn't."He looked annoyed, then relieved, then he laughed. "Yeah, whatever, baby.”

“What in god’s name happened to your nuts?”“They met a jet-powered water hose.”He grimaced.“They’re already healing.”A rare glint of amusement lit Lawrence’s eyes. “You have balls of steel.”“You have inappropriate humour.”