“but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering.”

“Then I heard footsteps on a stairs, and in a moment the thickish figure of a woman blocked out the light from the office door. She was in the middle thirties, and faintly stout, but she carried her surplus flesh sensuously as some women can. Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering. She smiled slowly and, walking through her husband as if he were a ghost, shook hands with Tom, looking him flush in the eye. Then she wet her lips, and without turning around spoke to her husband in a soft, coarse voice: “Get some chairs, why don‟t you, so somebody can sit down.”

“... and it seemed to her that time stopped, that her body melted into his as if she were without nerve or bone or will, and his kiss was like fire and ice on her lips.”

“It thrilled through her like her nerves were channeling starlight. He was safe.”

“Not kink, she'd purred into his ear, sending every nerve in his long neglected body firing. But not vanilla, either.... Zach understood now why some people were afraid of her. He was afraid of her....”

“What have I done thins time?" he paused to ask before continuing with his oral expedition about her body: her husband, the intrepid explorer.”