Becca Fitzpatrick

The only thing a boyfriend was good for was a shattered heart.

Arrogance can be deadly._ The corners of his mouth crept up. __ut you didn__ hear me say that.

You're making an admirable go of it, but in the end, loyalty is about taking aside.

Every time you strip my sword, I owe you a kiss. How's that sound?" I bit my lip to keep from giggling. "That sounds really dirty." Patch waggled his brows. "Look whose mind just rolled into the gutter.

And here I thought they were called Peeping Toms." I didn't need to see him to know he wore a smile. "Stop laughing," I said, my cheeks hot with humiliation. "Get me down.""Jump.""What?""I'll catch you.""Are you crazy? Go inside and open the window. Or get a ladder.""I don't need a ladder. Jump. I'm not going to drop you.

Patch tipped my chin up. "If I could make this go away, I would. If I could stand in your place, I wouldn't hesitate. But I'm left with one choice, and that's to stand by your side through the end. I won't waver, Angel, I can promise you that.

I was terrified of what might have happened to you," I choked

My mom's coming home soon," I said. "We should go to your place."Patch ran a hand across the shadow of stubble along his jaw. "I have rules about who I take there." I was getting really tired of that answer. "If you showed me, you'd have to kill me?" I guessed, fighting the urge to feel irritated. "Once I'm inside, I can never leave?"Patch studied me a moment. Then he reached into his pocket, twisted a key off his key chain, and slipped it into the front pocket of my pajama top. "Once you've gone inside, you have to keep coming back.

I have a free couple of hours," I told him, walking toward my car, which was parked on the next block. "There's a very private, very secluded barn in Lookout Hill Park behind the carousel. I could be there in fifteen minutes." I heard the smile in his voice. "You want me bad.

Ready?"Despite the grim mood, I smiled and cracked my knuckles. "Ready to wrestle with my gorgeous boyfriend? Oh, I'd say I'm ready for that."Amusement softened his eyes. "I'll try to control where I put my hands, but in the heat of things, who knows what could happen?" I added. Patch grinned. "Sounds promising.

Patch leaned back against the booth and arched his eyebrows at me. The gesture said it all: Pay up."You got lucky," I

I tilted my chin up a fraction. "You can't f-force me to stay here." I'd only agreed to come this far because I didn't want to stand out in the downpour, for one, and I had high hopes of finding a phone, for two. "That sounded more like a question than a statement," said Patch. "Then ans-s-swer it."His rogue smile crept out. "It's hard to concentrate on answers with you looking like that."I glanced down at Patch's black shirt, wet and clinging to my body. I brushed past him and shut the bathroom door between us.

It was a smile that spelledtrouble. With a promise.

-Do you want to posses my body?-"I want to do many things to your body but that's not one of them

There's nothing wrong with the fire.. if you don't get too close. - Patch

His smile was sexy and warned of trouble, but I'd made up my mind that not all trouble was bad.

If I'd wanted you dead five minutes ago, you'd have died five minutes ago.

There was nothing wrong with fire _ as long as you didn__ stand too close. Something to keep in mind.