For a while I thought you didn’t know. Maybe I was even hoping you wouldn’t know that I’m homeless. But as always, I’m sure it became apparent. But you kept on smiling long after you knew. Long after you must have known. What does that take?

This was his safe, comforting church. His soul had finally found the arms of his beloved. Kyle.

Cole knew what the chemical smell on the cloth over his nose meant. He took one breath, and his last conscious thought was simple: Kyle.

He was jealous, he was dominant, and he was in love.

I just want to make sure he’s a good fit for her. She has problems – craps her pants, stuff like that. If she needs help, I want to be there.

He was serious. He didn’t want her to hold him close. He didn’t want to pretend she was his mother. He didn’t want to imagine going home in her car to pet her black labs. He didn’t want to dream about sitting down to a home-cooked spaghetti dinner at her kitchen table with her family. Those things would never be his. He watched her eyes switch from hazel to green.

Beckett stood in his office dressed to the nines: his best suit, cufflinks, amazing shoes, and expensive sunglasses. Underneath he had so many weapons that a good speed bump would blow him off the face of the earth.

A lot had to go wrong for this evening to turn out right.

You know, you were the best wrong choice I ever made.

She waved at Marge, the ticket seller, who was knee-deep in a bodice ripper romance book by Debra Anastasia.