She looked like a somewhat frightened and helpless woman, and yet he knew she was a deadly assassin. The same as he was. She was like one of those startlingly beautiful creatures in the wild – colorful and attractive, but deadly when touched.

I knew you were looking down my shirt,” she said, her voice sounding all prim and scandalized. God, it turned him on. Because she looked tough and dirty, not at all innocent. The voice of a virgin and the body of a sinner.

How was I supposed to stop you, Dane?” she cried. “I’d given you everything, and it wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.

You didn’t stop loving someone you’d been attached to for so much of your life, even when you’d had a falling out. You always grieved the friendship lost. And now that she had him in her life again, she didn’t want to lose that connection.

My God, I feel so many confusing things when my eyes meet this girl’s. She’s like a little sister to me – and she’s not like a sister at all. She’s someone I want to protect, and someone I want to taste and touch and hold.

Recognition hit Victoria like an unexpected encounter with a bat.

Victoria started to text something else, but then she shoved her phone in her pocket and yanked open the door. Why was she trading insults with him on a phone when he was right there?

Words are cheap. Words are meaningless. And yet I know there is value in them, when they are sincere.

Words mean nothing.

Loving someone didn’t mean you were capable of having a relationship with them, especially if they didn’t have the same level of commitment to it as you.