“Please, honey," he whispered, "make tacos. Eat 'em. Watch television. Do whatever. But however it ends, when you go to sleep, crawl into my bed.”

“It was a shit time for you, the worst, but you were there and you saw 'em doin' it. They crawled into this same fuckin' bed with me, so did you, and when you did, you all became mine.”

“You,” he whispered, “in my bed.”… “Yeah,” I whispered back. “With you.”

“The best part, however, was watching Rocky eat a pile of custard-filled, hot fudge-topped profiteroles. He could swear, after the third bite, she was going to have an orgasm and, watching her, he nearly had one.”

“How into you do you think I am?”“Honey, you crawled around on all fours in a pet store, totally unable to cope with bein’ in my space. You’re seriously into me.”

“What are you gonna do?” I whispered.“I’m gonna do whatever I have to do to protect Luke while he does whatever the fuck he wants to do.”

“You have no clue," he whispered."No clue about what?" I whispered back."What you handed me last night."I took in a deep breath and asked softly, "What did I hand you, honey?""What's lyin' in that bed."That was when I stopped breathing."I claimed it," he went on. "But last night you gave it to me. Gift's given, no takin' it back. You get that, Tyra?""I think so," I whispered."Get that, baby, it's important.”