“Valek leaned back in his chair and said to me, “I don’t think I would have made it past the audition,Yelena. I probably would have set my hair on fire by this point.”“What’s a singed head for the sake of art?” I teased. He laughed.”

“Your mother sounds like a formidable woman," Valek said into the silence."You have no idea," Leif replied with a sigh."Well, if she's anything like Yelena, my deepest sympathies," Valek teased."Hey!"Leif laughed and the tense moment dissipated.Valek handed Leif his machete. "Do you know how to use it?""Of course. I chopped Yelena's bow into firewood," Leif joked.”

“For God's sake!" Hart sprang to his feet.Everyone at the table stopped and stared at him, including Ian. "Do I have to be made a mockery of in my own house?"Mac leaned back in his chair, his hands behind his head. "Would you prefer we made a mockery of you in the street? In Hyde Park, maybe? In the middle of Pall Mall? The card room in your club?""Mac, shut it!”

“Morning, Ms. Mary, I will be back to help as soon as I get changed.” Ms. Mary cut her eyes toward me and back toward the table with a frown. I followed her gaze. Leaning back in a kitchen chair, looking ridiculously sexy for seven in the morning, sat Jax. He gave me a crooked grin, and my heart went into frenzy. “Hey,” I said this without sounding affected by his presence. I know he’d said he would be hanging out in the kitchen more often, but I hadn’t realized he meant this early in the morning. “What? Why are you here?” He raised his eyebrows and grinned at me. “I would have thought that would have been obvious.” I knew I was blushing.”

“Don’t kiss me,” she said warningly.“I don’t intend to,” he replied, smiling a little. “I don’t have my whip and chair with me.”

“I have nothing, so I think having something would mean everything to me. But I don’t want to get to the point where I have everything, so having something would mean nothing to me.”