“I can think of something else that would make me feel even better.”She raised her eyebrows. “Oh?” With a nod he gave her a wicked smile. “Yeah. It’s warm…and it feels really good when I’m in it…and I love how it’s always wet for me…”“You think so, huh?” she smirked.“Well yeah. A shower is usually wet when I—”She slugged him in the shoulder and he laughed out loud."Van!”

“So which hand?” Van asked him. “I’m being really nice giving you an option.”“Jesus! You’re gonna break my fucking hand?”“I told you I would. Maybe next time you’ll think twice about hitting a girl.”“You don’t even know what the fuck hap—”“Which hand?” Van growled again. “Five, four, three…”

“Help me. Please?”She gave him an abashed nod (but not nearly soabashed as she ought) and turned to Harriet. “I think that Lord Winstead refers to the rhyming qualities of the title.” Harriet blinked a few times. “It doesn’t rhyme.”“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Elizabeth burst out. “ Finstead Winstead?”Harriet’s gasp very nearly sucked the air from the room. “I never noticed!” she exclaimed.“Obviously,” her sister drawled.“I must have been thinking about you when I wrotethe play,” Harriet said to Daniel. From her expression, he gathered he was meant to feel flattered, so he tried to smile.”

“I know why she stormed out of here."Decebel's and Jacque's heads both whipped around. "You do?" they both asked at the same time.Fane raised an eyebrow at Sally's words.Sally in turn eyeballed Decebel. "Jen never really learned how to use an inside voice. So, Decebel, why don't you share how she asked you if you were involved with Crina, and how you never really gave her an answer but instead taunted her, and then nearly made her hyperventilate with desire."Decebel's head cocked to the side, his eyebrows drawn together. "How -""I would say it's a gift, but really I'm just nosy as hell. And damn, boy, the look you were giving her nearly had me in a puddle.""Shut up!" Jacque squealed. "Are you telling me Jen stormed out of here because he got her all hot and bothered?"Sally was grinning from ear to ear. Decebel looked like he would be perfectly happy if the universe would just swallow him whole."She was angry when she left," Decebel defended. "She left because she was mad.""Yeah, mad because she's got it bad for you, Sherlock," Sally told him, rolling her eyes."Really? She likes me?"Jacque laughed at Decebel's cocky smile."Um, if you aren't her mate that's not a good thing, Casanova," Jacque reminded him.Sally nodded in agreement, scrutinizing Decebel. "Let's just hope that she finds her mate at Mate Fest so she can get over you."Decebel took a step towards Sally. Fane stepped around Jacque and laid a hand on Decebel's chest, stopping him. "Easy, Beta."Decebel closed his eyes taking slow breaths, leashing his wolf. Then Sally's words worked past the jealous fog. "Mate Fest?" he questioned.Sally grinned. "Jen deemed it.""Naturally," Decebel muttered with a slight smile.”

“Anson looked searchingly at her. His eyes moved over her body. He thought: you meet a woman and she starts a chemical reaction in you. You think there is no one like her in the world, then something happens, and it is finished. She means less to me now than the used plate after a good meal, and how little can that be?”

“I love you, too,” she said.He took her face in his hands and kissed her, once,deeply, on the mouth. “I mean,” he said, “I really loveyou.”She quirked a brow. “Is this a contest?”“It is anything you want,” he promised.She grinned, that enchanting, perfect smile that was soquintessentially hers. “I feel I must warn you, then,” shesaid, cocking her head to the side. “When it comes tocontests and games, I always win.”“Always?”Her eyes grew sly. “Whenever it matters.”He felt himself smile, felt his soul lighten and his worriesslip away. “And what, precisely, does that mean?”“It means,” she said, reaching up and undoing the buttonsof her coat, “that I really really love you.”

“My love has eyes blue as the sky.Her warm, bright smile makes me want to tryTo give her the world,And when she's curledUp in my arms where I can feel her touch,I realize again that I love her so much.My world has turned from black to white.Kissing in starlight, basking in sunlight, dancing at midnight.'~John's poem for Belle”