“Don't kiss me", he said, looking into Natalie's eyes. There was a second's silence. "Let me kiss you. I'm old-fashioned that way.”

“Jill would kill me if she thought anyone fancied me," he said with charming anxiety."No, she wouldn't", Natalie reassured him. "We like our men to be fancied. What we do not like is for them to fancy others. That is when you risk wandering into the realm of sudden and violent death.”

“There, I've said it, and I said it in front of all these strange and quite scary women and that guy, because I'm less frightened of them than I am of being alone with you and you turning me down.”

“If you are late, you are wasting precious moments of another person's life. Moments they can never get back!”

“Let even the momentum of tripping help lead you down your path.”

“What the—” This time when I snapped away from him, he let me go. I stared down at his dick, at his torn jeans, and managed to put two and two together. “Oh…”Riley groaned and glanced away from me. “Sorry,” he mumbled, covering his eyes with his hand. “Usually good at controlling myself, but not with you.” His shoulders hunched as the blush all over his body deepened. “I don't have any control when it comes to you.”Not shyness—embarrassment.His other hand began to tap a familiar rhythm against the couch as he kept his gaze averted from me. “Superstrength is such a drag, ya know? Had to replace half my furniture. Just fucked up your wall. And…this. Comic books never talked about how those guys handled hard-ons.”

“We will civilize you yet," she retorted."I don't know," Tristan said abruptly. "I rather like him uncivilized." Then he seemed to realize what he'd said, and went crimson.”