“It was the only way to silence you.”She bristled with outrage. “Silenceme? You took liberties withmy … my … my lips in order to silenceme? That was very impertinent of you,Laird. I won’t allow you to do it again.”6/756He smiled and folded his arms overhis chest. “Aye, you will.”Her mouth gaped open in astonishmentand then worked up and down asshe struggled to speak. “I assure you Iwon’t.”“I assure you that you will.”

“He stared at her and his smile slowly faded. He put his hands on his hips. He took a deep breath and felt tears gather in his eyes. “You’re all I need to be happy, Shelby,” he said. “You’re everything I need…”He actually surprised her. Her arms dropped from over her chest and she gaped at him for a second.“You’re everything,” he said. “It scares me to death, but I want it all with you. I want you for life. I want what you want, and I want it right now. Everything, Shelby. I want you to be the lead in my shoes that keeps me on the ground. The mother of my children. My best friend, my wife, my mistress. It’s a tall order.” He took a breath.“If you won’t quit, I won’t.”

“You remembered what I like,” he murmured.She slammed her glass down harder than she meant to. “Of course I do. The only thing predicable besides your outrageous libido is your stomach. You ordered the same thing each and every time we came here.”A ghost of a flirtatious smile played at Aidan’s lips. “If I don’t clean my plate, are you going to spank me, Mommy?”Emma crossed her arms over her chest. “No, but I will force feed you myself like the damn petulant toddler you insist on acting like!”

“Wow! She's hot." Morrison commented while gaping lewdly at the body lying supine on the bed.Insensitive asshole. I took a deep breath to calm my rising anger. "She's dead agent Morrison. I assure you she's very cold." I rebuked sharply.”

“He unlaced his arms and took a step forward. "You hurt?""Not badly." She tried to smile, but her lips only curved on one side. "My main problem is that I'm stuck to a cactus."(...)"How'd you manage to get tangled up with a cactus?" J.T. crouched beside her and started extricating her from the prickly plant."Well, believe it or not, I was on my way to apologize to you when a prairie-dog hole jumped up and grabbed my shoe heel.”

“She took his length gently between her hands, her arms resting on his thighs, and looked up into his face. “I’m very, very angry with you.”And she opened her mouth over him.”