21
" She shifted her grip on him so her arms linked around his neck. “I love you.” And kissed him, soft, slow, deep. “I love you. I love you. I’m just going to keep saying it,” she told him as she pressed her body to his. “Racking them up, so I have a supply built up for when I forget to say it. I love who you are, what you are, how you talk, how you look at me.”
Her lips roamed over his face, down his throat, along his jaw, coming back to his with soft, sumptuous seduction. “I love your body, how you make me feel. I love your face, your mouth, your hands. Put your hands on me, Roarke. Put your hands on me. "
― J.D. Robb , Promises in Death (In Death, #28)
22
" I’ve got nothing.” Eve swiveled around to him. “Zip. You’ve got something. What?”
“Apparently, it’s not coffee,” he said with a glance at his empty mug.
“What am I, a domestic droid?”
“If so, why aren’t you wearing your frilly white apron and little white cap, and nothing else?”
She sent him a pained look of sincere bafflement. “Why do men think that kind of getup is sexy?”
“Hmm, let me think. Mostly naked women wearing only symbols of servitude. No, I can’t understand it myself.”
“Perverts, your entire species. What have you got?”
“Besides a very clear picture of you in my head wearing a frilly white apron and little white cap?”
“Jesus, I’ll get the damn coffee if you’ll cut it out. "
― J.D. Robb , Promises in Death (In Death, #28)
24
" Not in the mood for pasta?” He narrowed those bold blue eyes to give her a critical study. “You must’ve hit your head harder than we thought.”
“I was going to do it—get dinner, I mean. One of the fancy things you like, because—Hell.” She gave up, hurried to him to wrap her arms around him. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I was so pissed off at what happened, at myself, I didn’t think.”
He stroked a hand down her hair first, then gave the choppy ends a quick tug. “I’m not angry with you.”
“I know. You could be, but you’re not. So I have to be even sorrier.”
“Your logic is fascinating, and elusive.”
“I can’t pay you back with sex or salt-crusted sea bass or whatever because you’re too busy taking care of me. So now I’ve got this black mark in my column against the bright shiny star in yours, and—”
He tipped her head up. “Are we keeping score?”
“No. Maybe. Shit.”
“How am I doing?”
“Undisputed champ.”
“Good. I like to win.” He brushed her bangs back to study the injury himself. “You’ll do. Let’s eat. "
― J.D. Robb , Promises in Death (In Death, #28)
27
" Did Morris put anybody on Coltraine, specifically?”
“Clipper.”
“Die-For-Ty? Talk about the sex. How come so many death doctors are wholly iced?”
“A mystery I’ve pondered throughout my career.”
“No, seriously. Clipper’s like ummm. He’s gay and has a partner, but a yummy treat for the eyes. His partner’s an artist. He paints people, literally I mean. Body painting. They’ve been together about six years.”
“How do you know all this stuff?”
“Unlike you, I enjoy hearing about people’s personal lives, especially when it involves sex.”
“At least since Clipper’s not into women, you won’t be troubled by sexual fantasies.”
Peabody pursed her lips in thought. “I can work with it. Two naked guys, body paints, me. Oh yeah, endless possibilities. "
― J.D. Robb , Promises in Death (In Death, #28)
30
" When he came to fear and detest you, it was worse. He ordered three hits on you that I know of.”
Roarke continued to stroll. “There were five, actually.”
“Why didn’t you ever retaliate?”
“I don’t need the blood of my competitors. Or even my enemies. He was, for some years, nothing to me. But he should never have touched my wife. I’d have done him for that, if you’re interested. For putting a mark on her.”
“You didn’t, and he lives.”
“Because doing so would’ve put another mark on her, as that’s who she is.”
“You let him live to protect your wife?”
Roarke paused, looked Alex in the face. “If you think the lieutenant needs protection, mine or anyone’s, you’ve severely misjudged her. I let him live out of respect to her. And I became convinced living, as he is condemned to live now, was worse than death. "
― J.D. Robb , Promises in Death (In Death, #28)