“Indeed. That pony collection isn’t nearly complete,” Carter mused. When I dared a look back at him, I saw that the angel was smiling at me. “You see? You aren’t lost. No matter what happens to you, you have a plan. There’s still hope.”

“What kind of sick bastard burns down a Christmas tree?”Hugh and I exchanged glances. “That’s an excellent question,” I said dryly.Peter looked startled. “Was it you?” he asked Hugh.“No,” said the imp. “It was Carter.”“Your Christmas tree was burned down by an angel?” asked Cody.“Yup. The irony isn’t lost on me”

“Seth laughed when he saw me.“Hey,” I said, poking him with my foot, “be nice.”“I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you look anything less than…” He paused, playing with word choice. “Well-planned.”“Why, you silver-tongued romantic devil. That is the look I usually go for. Other women go for sexy or chic or beautiful. But me? Well-planned all the way.”“You know what I mean. Besides, unplanned isn’t a bad look for you. Not bad at all.”His voice sounded deliciously low and dangerous, and something ignited between us as we held each other’s eyes.”

“Sorry, Sage. Last I checked, you aren’t an expert insocial matters...""At least I take action. You? You let the world go bywithout you. You have no spine. You don’t fight back."“You don’t know the first thing about me, Adrian Ivashkov. I fight back plenty.”

“He caught hold of my hand. “Sydney, please don’t do this,” he begged. “No matter how confident you feel, no matter how careful you think you are, things will spiral out of control.”“They already have,” I said, opening the passenger door. “And I’m going to stop fighting them. Thank you for everything, Marcus. I mean it.”“Wait, Sydney,” he called. “Just tell me one thing.”I glanced back and waited.“Where did this come from? When you called me to tell me you were coming, you said you’d realized it was the smart thing to do. What made you change your mind?”I gave him a smile that I hoped was as dazzling as one of his. “I realized I’m in love.”Marcus, startled, looked around as though he expected to see my object d’amour in the car with us. “And you just realized that? Did you just have some sort of vision?”“Didn’t need to,” I said, thinking of Wolfe’s ill-fated trip to the Orkneys. “It’s always been right in front of me.”

“Ever since Dimitri came back...no, scratch that. Ever since you became obsessed with changing him, you've been torn over me. No matter what's happened between us, you've never really given yourself over to our relationship. I wanted to believe what you told me. I thought you were ready...but you weren't.”

“He watched as I slipped one of the shoes on. "You have a guardian angel.""I don't believe in angels," I told him. "I believe in what I can do for myself."Well then, you have an amazing body." I glanced up at him with a questioning look. "For healing, I mean. I heard about the accident...”