“The people cast themselves down by the fuming boardswhile servants cut the roast, mixed jars of wine and water,and all the gods flew past like the night-breaths of spring.The chattering female flocks sat down by farther tables,their fresh prismatic garments gleaming in the moonas though a crowd of haughty peacocks played in moonlight.The queen’s throne softly spread with white furs of foxgaped desolate and bare, for Penelope felt ashamed to come before her guests after so much murder.Though all the guests were ravenous, they still refrained,turning their eyes upon their silent watchful lordtill he should spill wine in libation for the Immortals.The king then filled a brimming cup, stood up and raisedit high till in the moon the embossed adornments gleamed:Athena, dwarfed and slender, wrought in purest gold,pursued around the cup with double-pointed speardark lowering herds of angry gods and hairy demons;she smiled and the sad tenderness of her lean face,and her embittered fearless glance, seemed almost human.Star-eyed Odysseus raised Athena’s goblet highand greeted all, but spoke in a beclouded mood:“In all my wandering voyages and torturous strife,the earth, the seas, the winds fought me with frenzied rage;I was in danger often, both through joy and grief,of losing priceless goodness, man’s most worthy face.I raised my arms to the high heavens and cried for help,but on my head gods hurled their lightning bolts, and laughed.I then clasped Mother Earth, but she changed many shapes,and whether as earthquake, beast, or woman, rushed to eat me; then like a child I gave my hopes to the sea in trust,piled on my ship my stubbornness, my cares, my virtues,the poor remaining plunder of god-fighting man,and then set sail; but suddenly a wild storm burst,and when I raised my eyes, the sea was strewn with wreckage.As I swam on, alone between sea and sky,with but my crooked heart for dog and company,I heard my mind, upon the crumpling battlementsabout my head, yelling with flailing crimson spear.Earth, sea, and sky rushed backward; I remained alonewith a horned bow slung down my shoulder, shorn of godsand hopes, a free man standing in the wilderness.Old comrades, O young men, my island’s newest sprouts,I drink not to the gods but to man’s dauntless mind.”All shuddered, for the daring toast seemed sacrilege,and suddenly the hungry people shrank in spirit;They did not fully understand the impious wordsbut saw flames lick like red curls about his savage head.The smell of roast was overpowering, choice meats steamed,and his bold speech was soon forgotten in hunger’s pangs;all fell to eating ravenously till their brains reeled.Under his lowering eyebrows Odysseus watched them sharply:"This is my people, a mess of bellies and stinking breath!These are my own minds, hands, and thighs, my loins and necks!"He muttered in his thorny beard, held back his hungerfar from the feast and licked none of the steaming food.”

“It is possible that God is the way Annie Payne used to lean her old head against my shoulder...Drew's arms holding me...Ron Dunham walking out of the woods hand in hand with a child lost, then found. It is possible that God is my neighbor with her pan of brownies standing on my doorstep. It is entirely possible, that is, that the God I serve and worship with all my body, all my mind, all my soul, and all my spirit is love...It's enough. It's all the God I need.”

“I turned around slowly, and looked up at him. He stiffened and sucked in a shallow breath. After a moment, he touched my cheek."Such naked pain," he whispered.I turned my face into his palm and closed my eyes. His fingers threaded into my hair, cupped my head, and brushed the brand. It heated at his touch. His hand tightened at the base of my skull and squeezed, and he raised me slowly to my tiptoes. I opened my eyes and it was my turn to inhale sharply. Not human. Oh, no, not this man."Never show it to me again." His face was cold, hard, his voice colder.”

“Water matted his black hair into spikes and peppered his skin with a fresh sheen. If I shut my eyes I could still see the one who bound me, his smile bright as the white sun as he emerged from our latest dip in the sea. I fought the sudden urge to bury my face in his chest and run my fingers through that hair.”

“I've been thinking about this mouth all day" he said before covering my lips with his. I licked at his bottom lip and he opened for me, letting me leisurely taste him. The gentle pressure of his mouth was perfect and made me a little dizzy. His fingers slip up my thigh until both hands were gripping my butt. One of his fingers traced the edge of my panties. "I really like this skirt," he murmured against my lips. I really liked it too at the moment. My breath was coming in short gasps as he slid one hand inside the edge of my panties. He gripped my bare butt with one hand while he slid his other slowly back down my thigh and shifted closer to my inner thigh. I liked what his next move would be. What I didn't know was if I was going to let it go that far. Then he moaned into my mouth as his fingers touched the inside of my thigh and my leg fell open of its own accord. The slow, easy kiss became frenzied as we both fought to calm our breathing. His hand inched higher and higher up my exposed thigh. The second his finger grazed the outside of my panties, I jerked in his hold, and something very close to pleading squeaked in my throat. Sawyer pulled back, and his accelerated breathing made me tingle with pleasure. I loved knowing I did that to him. He kissed down my neck until he met the curve of my shoulder. He went very still. His warm breath bathed my chest and neck. His hand slowly moved again. One lone finger slipped inside the edge of my panties and made direct contact. He murmured something against my neck, but I couldn't focus enough to understand. My brain was in a foggy haze, and my heart was about to pound out of my chest. The urge to move against the hand, which now cupped the crotch of my panties, was strong. But I waited while he eased his finger farther inside and gently ran it along the folds. "oh, oh, oh my god," I managed to get out in a breathless chant. "God, you're so warm," he whispered in a strained voice as he began kissing the spot where he had buried his head in my neck. When he slipped his other hand over my leg and pulled it farther open then reached down and pulled my panties to the side as he gently stroked me, I started to come apart in his arms. "That's it, baby," he encouraged me as I clung to him, calling his name and wanting it to never end.”

“Tuck," I breathe, and then he kisses me.I've been kissed before. But nothing like this. He kisses me with surprising tenderness, for all of his gusty talk. Still cupping my face, he gently brushes his lips against mine, slowly, like he's memorizing what I feel like. My eyes close. My head swims with his smell, grass and sunshine and musky cologne. He kisses me again, a litte more firmly, and then he pulls back to look down into my face.”