“Sonofabitch answer me!" My voice bounced off the walls, made the whole room whirls around me. My blood pounded in my ears. Adreline poured through my blood, copper winding me tighter and tighter."YES!" he screamed back "yes. i am a fucking virgin, don't shoot me goddammit fucking please!”

“Answer this question very carefully, kid. Are you a virgin?"The silence was so long I thought I was going to have to ask him again."What the hell?" He sounded honestly perplexed."Yes or no? Are you a virgin?" I lost control halfway through. My voice spiraled up into a scream... "Sonofabitch answer me!""Yes!" he screamed back. "Yes, I'm a fucking virgin, don't shoot me goddammit fucking please!”

“My voice wouldn't work right. I made a tiny nod instead, because - how's this for weird? - I didn't want him to let go of me. He'd pulled back a little, with just his lower half, and I was afraid the scorch in my cheeks would set fire to the rest of me, because I had an idea why. Wow. Oh, wow.”

“My legs were on fire. All of me was burning and my back was a solid bar of pain. But it didn't matter.What mattered was Graved next to me, also rubbing my back and laughing like he'd just found Christmas in his pants.”

“No,” he agreed. “You’re not. She never caused me this agony.”What could I say to that? The way he was looking at me was making my head feel funny. Was making me feel funny and not just in that oh God I just almost died way.Christophe leaned in. His mouth was a mere centimetres from me. “She never made me think I would die of heart failure. She never, never made me fear for her this way.”

“I wished Graves would look at me. But he just stood there, glaring out from under his hair. I'm sure he could have painted fuck-off on his forehead and it would have been more subtle.”

“Don’t send me home, it’s boring as fuck-all there.”