“Oh my God, you so should have fainted, and then Cal could have caught you and, like, carried you up the staircase.”

“And the stairs. Oh, the stairs. The staircase in our third-floor walk-up was the steepest, hardest, metal-est staircase I have ever encountered in my life. It was a staircase for killing someone and making it seem like an accident.”

“Do you have my pussy? Oh God, cat!Do you have my cat?”

“You tell Roarke you were tagging me for this? Or is he going to get riled up so I have to kick his ass again?""Oh, is that what you were doing when you had to be carried out of the room unconscious?""I like to remember it that I was just getting my second wind.”

“Cal shrugged. "That's one word for it. I'm not all that thrilled with it either."I pushed the covers off and got out of bed, making sure my nightshirt didn't ride up. "Cal, I already have to deal with an angry dad today. Please don't pull some macho "bethrothed" thing on top of it, okay?"He caught my wrirst. "I'm not. And it's not you I'm pissed at. It's them. They shouldn't have taken you there."His hand was warm on my skin.”

“Oh, you made an impression. Like a stone caught in my boot.”