“I’d say over my dead body, but I think you already made that point,” Michael snapped. “Thanks for the visit. Now fuck off, man.”

“Over my- I was going to say, 'over my dead body,' but- - michael”

“Shane, in case we don’t … don’t come out of this, I wanted to say…”He glanced over at her, and she felt her whole body warm from it. She remembered that look. It made her feel naked inside and out, but not in a creepy kind of way. In a way that felt…. Free. “If what you say is true, and I guess it has to be, I think I know why we’re … together,” he said. “I think I’d fall for you no matter what, Claire. You’re kind of awesome.”

“I added pieces the same way I’d constructed my body, from the inside out: boy-cut panties first (lacy), bra (sheer), stockings (thigh high), knee-length leather skirt (black), lime green midriff-baring shirt (polyester). David leaned against the wall and watched this striptease-in-reverse with fabulously expressive eyebrows slowly climbing toward heaven, I finished it off with a pair of strappy lime green three-inch heels, something from the Manolo Blahnik spring collection that I’d seen two months ago in Vogue.He looked me over, blinked behind the glasses, and asked, “You’re done?”I took offense, “Yeah. You with the fashion police?”“I don’t think I’d pass the entrance exam.” The eyebrows didn’t come down. “I never knew you were so…”“Fashionable?”“Not really the word I was thinking.”I struck a pose and looked at him from under my supernaturally lustrous eyelashes. “Come on, you know it’s sexy.”“And that’s sort of my point.”

“I’d kiss you, too, if I was closer.”(claire)“I wouldn’t,” Michael said. “I don’t love you that way.”“That’s not what you said last time.”(shane)“Ass.”(michael)_________________________“No,” Shane said. “I’m not leaving you two here alone. We stick together.”“I’m still not kissing you,” Michael said.“Tease.”

“Dammit, Michael, get out of my room, you pervert!” Could you even be a pervert if you were dead? She supposed you could, if you had a working body half the time. “I swear, I’m going to start taking my clothes off!”The cold spot stayed resolutely put until she got the hem of her T-shirt all the way up to her bra line, and then faded away. “Chicken,” she said, and paced the room, back and forth.”

“Oh, come on, just this once," Eve said. "Protects your neck. As in your arteries and veins?That's kind of crucial, right?""Thanks for the thought, but it doesn't go with my shoes.""You're seriously going to worry about what people think right now?""No, I'm worrying about people taking pictures and putting them on Facebook. That crap never dies. Kind of like you, Mikey."Michael, straight-faced, said, "He's got a point, because I would definitely take pictures. So would you."Eve had to grin. "Yeah, I would. Okay, then. But you'd look glam. I could fix you up with silver eye shadow to match.”