“If that shit is a Hawaiian print, I'm going to kill you.”

“His feet started in her direction, his body following rather as a dog would its master, with no thought of deviating from the path chosen by her for him—iAm grabbed his arm and yanked him back. “Don’t even fucking think about it.”Trez’s first impulse was to rip himself free, even if he left his own limb behind in his brother’s grip. “I don’t know what you’re talking about—”“Do not make me grab your hard-on to prove my point,” iAm hissed.Numbly, Trez looked down at the front of himself. Well. What do you know. “I’m not going to…” Fuck her came to mind, but God, he couldn’t use the f-word around that female, even in the hypothetical. “You know, do anything.”“You actually expect me to believe that.”Trez’s eyes flipped over to the doorway she’d disappeared through. Shit. Talk about having no credibility on the subject of abstinence”

“I’m right here,” he said. “Dad’s right here. I’m going nowhere. Just gonna wait until you’re ready to come out into the world, and then your mom and I are going to take care of you. So you hang tight, weclear? Do your thing, and we’ll wait for however long it takes.”With his free hand, he took Layla’s palm, and put it over his own.“Your family is right here. Waiting for you…and we love you.”It was totally stupid to talk to what was, no doubt, nothing but a bundle of cells. But he couldn’t helpit. The words, the actions…they were at once totally his, and yet coming from a place that was foreign to him.Felt right, though.Felt…like what a father was supposed to do.”

“I'm glad you like him," he murmured, his hands tugging up her shirt. "Because the two of us are yours. For as long as you'll have us.""That would be eternally," she said as she let herself go. And reveled in all the love.”

“Honestly, what the hell is destiny going to want from me now?” “The same as any endeavor. Blood, sweat, and tears.” “That’s it,” Tohr said dryly. “And here I was thinking it could just be an arm or a leg.”

“Funny, he wasn't handsome, not in a Mr. Perfect kind of way, at least. The guy had a nose that had clearly been busted once or three times, and his hazel eyes were too shrewd and too exhausted to be classified as attractive. But he was like a cocked gun: He has a steely intelligence and a dangerous power about him that you respected. Because the combination was a flat-out killer, literally”

“I surrenderd who I was to who you are..”