“Did you really think I didn't see that watch?”

“He watched Warrick walk away across the café, and started sentences in his mind. Don't go yet. I want five minutes, that's all. One minute. I want you. This could be the last time I see you. This really could be the last time. I want you to—”

“So why are you telling me?""Well, for one thing, because I expect that Carnac will try to find some way to mention it, and if I hadn't told you first, you'd be thoroughly pissed off about it when he did."Warrick said nothing. Well, it had been a fifty-fifty bet which way round would prove more hassle in the end."Warrick, if there'd been another way—""No, no. I understand. I was merely contemplating the fact that informing me that you had sex with someone else last night—after drugging him—falls under the heading of your being unusually considerate.”

“The world is so beautiful, when you look at it.So detailed. So sharp. Everything’s just there--so much more than we need. Light we can’t see, sounds we can’t hear. Sometimes I wonder if that’s what it takes to make it real.”

“However much you wanted someone to want you, there was nothing you could do to make it happen. Whatever you did for them, whatever you gave them, whatever you let them take, it could never be enough. Never enough to be sure. Never enough to satisfy them. Never enough to stop them walking away.Never enough to make them love you.”

“Toreth?" Warrick asked softly.He kept still, breathing slightly irregularly, until finally Warrick climbed into bed beside him. Then it was simply a question of timing the movement right so that they met in the middle, accidentally, and Warrick's arm slipped accidentally round him.Why, he wondered sleepily, did he still bother pretending?”

“Could you get off like that without it? Without the chains?"Without the absolute surrender. "No. And not without you. You more than any of it.”