“He should come with a warning fromthe health department: Handle with extreme caution and use at your own peril. Looking will cause palpitations, dizziness, and hyperventilation. Sheknew, for she was having all of those and then some.”

“Because I tried all those voice options, of course. Haven’t you?” She looked at him expectantly, as if scrolling through all the language and voice options in the GPS was a total must. “Frankly? It didn’t occur to me. I stuck with the first one.” She rolled her eyes. “There’s one in Klingon. I used to have it on when I drove my geekier friends to the yearly Star Trek conventions in Vegas. They’d translate for me.”He wasn’t sure which part of her statement was more disturbing to him: the friends that spoke Klingon, or the yearly visits to Star Trek conventions. Or that she had geekier friends. Finally he opted for one. “You have friends that speak Klingon?” She shook her head. “No. Not fluently, no. It helped a lot that from LA to Vegas is for the most part a straight line. You really don’t want to get lost in the Mojave Desert with a handful of bickering Klingons and Vulcans who can achieve global domination with a laptop but can’t figure out how to change a tire on the car.”

“Sex talk? You mean the bee and the flower sex conversation? Your parents should have taken care of that a long time ago. Mine did."She elbowed him. "No, you bozo, I meant the safe-sex conversation where the bee explains in detail to the flower how he's always worn a raincoat while buzzing around, and how he'd never gotten entangled with dubious pollen.”

“My body is covered in marks, Cole.” Big deal. “Mine too, sweetheart.” She snorted. “Yours are war scars.” “Yours too, Christy. I waged war with others while you waged war with yourself. It’s the same. It’s just life; there’s nothing to be ashamed of. We both survived. This body tells its own story, and it’s an amazing story. You are amazing.”

“Where are you going?""You didn't...""No, I didn't, but I'm in heaven deep in you. I want to stay like this. Let's talk."She burst into laughter. "Talk? Are you nuts? I can't talk while lying on top of you with your cock shoved deep inside me." He grabbed her by her waist and, without pulling out, he rose to lean on the wall, rearranging her to straddle him. "There you have it, no more lying.”

“Her eyebrows lifted up. "You came here to seduce me armed with just one condom? What were you thinking?"He breathed out hard. "Oh come on, Tate, don't be nasty. I wasn't sure whether you'd talk to me. I didn't want to jinx it by being cocky and coming here with a string of latex. You know you would have had mt arrogant, self-centered ass for it," he muttered.”

“I haven't had any action since the late seventies, so don't make me jealous. I don't think my heart can handle an erection.”