“Death isn't peaceful; it is just nothing. Everything is gone. No more sunrises, no more hopes, no more fears. Nothing.”

“He unsnapped her jeans and said, “I want you just like this.” Then he kissed her.There was nothing romantic about Diaz, no murmured sweet things, no gallant gestures, just this kiss that went on and on, deep and voracious. She’d never been kissed like this before, with an intensity that stripped everything down to the simplest components: male, female. He held her with his hand burrowed into her hair, her skull gripped in his palm, her head tilted back while he fed from her mouth. That was what it felt like, a taking. And yet he gave, too. He gave pleasure. She burned with it, the flames fueled by nothing more than his mouth and tongue.”

“Pleasure was a siren, luring her to experience more”

“But never had he felt more enthralled than he was right now, sitting beside Evie on a weathered old dock, with a blazing afternoon sun, almost brutal in its clarity, bathing everything in pure light. Sweat trickled down his back and chest from the steamy heat, and his entire body pulsed with life. Even his fingertips throbbed. It took all of his formidable self-control to prevent himself from pushing her down on the dock and spreading her legs for his entry.”

“Minor detail. I’m going to kiss you, Marlie—”“I’ll bite you again,” she swiftly warned.He shrugged. “I always have had more guts than sense,” he said, and very gently brushed her mouth withhis.”

“Okay, let me get a pen." There were rustling noises. "I can't find one." More noises. "Okay,shoot.""You found a pen?""No, but I have a can of Cheez Whiz. I'll write your number on the counter with it, then find a pen and copy it."Jaine recited her number and listened to the spewing noise as Shelley Cheez-Whizzed it on her countertop.”

“Oh, Jesus,” he said, wheezing with the effort it took to controlhimself. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “You littleinnocent. I’m fluent in French, but it isn’t my first language.” Itwas plain by the mortified expression in those green eyes that shedidn’t understand, so he explained. “Baby , if I can still thinkclearly enough to speak French, then I’m not totally involved inwhat I’m doing. It may sound pretty , but it doesn’t meanany thing. Men are different from women; the more excited we are,the more like cavemen we sound. I could barely speak English withyou, much less French. As I remember, my vocabularydeteriorated to a few short, explicit words, ‘fuck’ being the mostprominent.”To his amazement, she blushed, and he smiled at this furtherevidence of her charming prudery. “Go to sleep,” he said gently.“Lindsey didn’t even rate a replay.”