J.D. Robb

We're standing here, beat to shit, walking away from a crime scene where either or both of us could have bought it, and you're asking me to marry you?""Perfect timing.

What you have with her will save her. Just as it saved you.

Eve: "She completely eye-fucked you." Roarke: "I know. I feel so cheap and used." Eve: "Shit. You got off on it. Men always do." Roarke: "True enough, which is why we're so often cheap and used.

Eve: "Where's Mister Scary?"Roarke: "Summerset has the night off."Eve: "You mean the house is Summerset-free? Damn shame we have to waste it with work.

She didn't want the medi-techs. She wanted a fucking a candy bar.

The security officer smiled and said, __ood afternoon, ma__m,_ to me before Igave him ID.___t__ a sick world, Eve._ He resisted taking her hand for another squeeze. __ sick,sad world.

What other thing, Eve?""I love you. Sometimes it makes my stomach hurt, but I kind of like it. Tired now, come to bed. Love you.

I__ very aware that my personal life, my marriage, is the source of speculation and interest in the department and with the public. I can live with that. I__ also aware that my husband__ businesses, and his style of conducting his businesses, are also the source of speculation and interest. I have no particular problem with that. But I resent very much that my reputation and my husband__ character should be questioned this way. From the media, Commander, it__ to be expected, but not from my superior officer. Not from any member of the department I__e served to the best of my ability. I want you to take note, Commander, that turning in my badge would be like cutting off my arm. But if it comes down to a choice between the job and my marriage, then I lose the arm.

And that, she thought as he left her, summed up the miracle of her life. She had a home with him, and he'd be there.

When I came in and you were sleeping, I thought: There__ my soldier, exhausted from her wars._ He lifted her hand, kissed her fingers. __ow, I look, and I think: There__ my woman, soft and lovely._ Her lips curved as he undressed her. __here do you get this stuff?_ __t just comes to me. I__e only to look at you, and the world comes to me. You__e my life.

The person I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving is Lieutenant Eve Dallas. She kept me safe when I was scared and I was sad. She took me to her house with Roarke and Summerset and Galahad so nobody could hurt me, not even the bad people who killed my family and my friend. She told me the truth. She promised me she would find the bad people and make sure they were punished. And Roarke said she would never stop until she did that. He told me the truth too. She helped me find Richard and Elizabeth and Kevin. They're not my mother, my father, and my brother. But they're my family now, and I know it's okay to love them. It doesn't mean I don't love my mom and dad and my brother. Dallas didn't treat me like a baby. She told me I was a survivor, and that's important. She worked hard, and she even got hurt, but she found the bad people, and she made sure they got punished. She told me the truth. She kept her promise. So she is the person I'm most thankful for this Thanksgiving. Nixie Swisher.

Did she know, could she know what it meant to him when she turned to him, when she opened herself to him like this? In absolute trust. Her strength, her valor remained a constant wonder to him, as did her unrelenting determination to defend those who could no longer defend themselves. These moments, when she allowed her vulnerabilities, her doubts, her fears to tremble to the surface compelled him to take care. In these moments he could show her it wasn__ just the warrior he loved, he treasured, but the woman, the whole of her. The dark and the light.

I want you to take note, Commander, that turning in my badge would be like cutting off my arm. But if it comes down to a choice between the job and my marriage, then I lose the arm.

I said, you're the beat of my heart, the breath in my body, the light in my soul.

Do you remember the first time we made love?" He touched his lips to hers as he said it. "We rode up in the elevator like this and couldn't keep our hands off each other, couldn't get to each other quick enough. I was mad for you. I wanted you more than I wanted to keep breathing. I still do." He deepened the kiss as the elevator doors opened. "It's never going to change.

Peabody, you never cease to amaze me.""One day I'll tell you about my granny and her five lovers." "Five lovers isn't abnormal for a woman's lifetime." "Not in her lifetime; last month. All at the same time." Peabody glanced up, deadpan. "She's ninety-eight. I hope to take after her.

An eye for an eye.___hat's a revenge thing, right? From some play.___he Bible, darling. The Lord of all plays.

What a woman you are,_ he murmured, and she heard the emotion in it, theway the Irish thickened just a bit in his voice. And saw it in those vivid eyes when he drew back. __hat you would think of this. That you would do this.__e shook his head, kissed her. Like the breath, long and quiet.__ can__ thank you enough. There isn__ enough thanks. I can__ say what this means to me, even to you. I don__ have the words for it._ He took her hands,. You stagger me.__e framed her face now, touched his lips to her brow. __ou__e the beat of my heart, the breath in my body, the light in my soul.