“I swear I won't run away again, though. If I have to go, or if you ask me to, I'll walk away after saying goodbye."Tyler' finger closed around his. "Walk slow," he said. "So I can catch up with you.”

“One life, one death. For all of us. Those are the numbers. I'm going to die and there's no avoiding it. I can go looking for it early by driving smashed out of my skull or swimming with sharks, sure, but staying with you isn't like that. It wouldn't be stupid and reckless and dumb, it wouldn't be me missing out on part of my life and skipping to the middle of the book. It'd just be me finding the guy I love early. It'd me hitting the jackpot. I'm not walking away from a piece of luck like that. I'm not walking away from you.”

“Good morning," Owen said pleasantly, glad that he wasn't at all out of breath. "Should I e-mail you my schedule for the week so that you don't miss an opportunity to accidentally bump into me, or can we end this game right now?""I don't want to end it," Sterling said just as pleasantly. "We're just starting. So yeah, feel free to e-mail your schedule. Or not. I'm stubborn I'll figure this out either way.”

“You're stalking me," Owen said.Sterling shook his head. "I prefer the word 'following'; it sounds less creepy.""But that doesn't make it any less annoying." Owen said,raising his eyebrows. "You almost make me wish you were mine to deal with; I can promise you'd be regretting this behavior very soon."That wiped the grin off Sterling's place. "God, I wouldn't regret anything if I was. Yours, I mean. I'd let you do whatever you wanted."'Let me'?" Owen asked pointedly. "Somehow, I think you've misunderstood the definition of submission.”

“Boyfriend?” He was smiling slightly.Karl rolled his eyes. “Not if you’re going to be like that about it.”“What, happy?” Aiden teased. “You supposed to want your boyfriend to be happy, you know.”“I want you to be happy,” Karl muttered. “I just don’t want you to be a smug little bastard about it.”

“His expression softened, which made Sterling's throat tighten just a little. “You've cannonballed into the deep end when you don't know how to swim, haven't you?”Sterling looked at him solemnly and smiled. “Yes,” he said. “Don't let me drown.”

“Shit, Karl, you can’t say that in front of a federal agent,” Aiden protested, his eyes wide.“I’m not. I’m saying it in private to my…” Karl shrugged. “Boyfriend, partner, whatever the hell title you want, if fucktoy’s not acceptable, and I’m guessing it isn’t.”“It really isn’t,” Aiden said, a warning snap in his voice, “and neither is threatening to kill people.”