Suzanne Brockmann

You have no idea how much I appreciate your friendship,_ Jules said. Sam held out several bills. __eah, actually I do,_ he said. __t__ probably as much as I appreciate yours.

I love the fact that so many of my readers are intelligent, exceptional, accomplished people with an open-minded love of diversity. But even more than that, I love it when my readers find lasting friendship with others of my readers - knowing that they met through their mutual affection for my books and characters makes me happy!

The lust and attraction are often a given in a romance novel - I want to dig into the elements of true friendship that form a foundation for a solid, gonna-last-forever romantic relationship.

Marriage equality is coming, and not merely to a theater near you.

Dare, dream, dance, smile, and sing loudly! And have faith that love is an unstoppable force!

Are you one of his teamm

He's getting older," Charles said darkly. "Shall I hit him with my walker or my oxygen tank?

Was it really called dry humping, if they did it underwater? Probably not. Crying shame that they both had their jeans on, because this was definitely one of those adrenaline-fuelled moments of passion with a total loss of inhibition, where need and desire trumped all reason.

As Ian looked at her, he felt something in his chest slip and shift. The pressure came with a blood-tingling rush of triumph and satisfaction, pride and a deeply burning sense of possessiveness. His inner caveman warrior had been awakened and wanted to rush around the room, peeing into the corners, marking it__nd her__s his own, while shouting Mine! and randomly smashing things for emphasis.But he knew that was he was feeling was the equivalent of emotional and hormonal indigestion. He hadn__ done this in a long time. And he particularly hadn__ done it with a woman he liked as much as this one. In fact, he__ never had sex with anyone that he genuinely liked as much as he liked Phoebe.

[describing Aaron, hero's brother] His hair was shorter and lighter, and his eyes were more green than blue. And even though he was tall, he wasn__ quite super-sized. He was more sculpted, more _ elegant. more slender and beautiful and less raw-boned. Less Stone Age and more Bronze Age__ut till the kind of man who enjoyed living in a cave.

I__ not the one who kissed you in the bathroom. In case you__e thinking I forgot about that, or somehow missed it, or ___ind of hard to miss,_ Ian agreed. __our lips, mine. A distinct smacking sound. Yup, that was me kissing you. Still, it was short__uickly over and done. A kiss good-bye. The subtext was I hope we don__ die, but if we do, it was nice meeting you. Not at all like that under-the-dock kiss._ He paused. __he one where you jumped me. The first time. So far._ He narrowed his eyes at her, much the way she__ done to him. __aturally I__ suspicious. Did you intentionally leave my clothes behind?

What she wanted was right there, between them, pressed against her stomach__o big and accessible and user-friendly__eatly covered and ready to go.

Why does it not surprise me that you talk during sex?

Then it__ a deal, we__e friends.___]__an we just make one conditional rule here? That if we get into a situation where we know__bsolutely__hat we__e going to die, we can have___he pulled her hand away. __on__ say it!__e did. __ex.__he glared her disbelief. __ou are such and asshole!___ am,_ Ian agreed. I__ afraid that accepting me for who I am comes with the territory when talking friendship.___tay in the shadows, asshole,_ she said, then turned to stalk up the lawn toward the deck.__hank you,_ he said as he headed for the shrubs. __ appreciate our open-minded acceptance of my asshole-ishness.__nd he wasn__ sure, but he could__e sword that he heard Phoebe laugh.

We shouldn__ do this,_ he said again as he looked up into her eyes. __ut, God, I want to. I just _ He closed his eyes, exhaled hard. __heeb. I__ a bad bet. There__ no future here. I know this feels big, this thing between us, right now it feels huge__nd shh, don__ make a dick joke, I__ serious. But it__ not going to feel as big or special tomorrow, or, shit, even later tonight. I mean, yeah, I can make you feel good. I know it. And God knows you can make me _ Jesus, you__e so beautiful, I just ___he stopped him there, again, with a kiss, and just like that, it was as if something snapped.

This is what we, in the con business, call making a spectacle of ourselves. Let__ try to avoid that from now on.___xcept [_] Mr. No-Sex-in-the-Bathrooms is going to describe two probably drunk people who staggered in. Plus, he thinks I__ a prostitute. We can double down on that by _ She stopped him, glancing back into the store throught the big plate-glass windows. Ian looked, too, and sure enough, the clerk was still watching them warily.__erfect, she said, and the made what was, absolutely, the international two-handed gesture for sexual intercourse. She then added a couple of exaggerated hip thrusts, saying, __ want to make this absolutely clear, because this guy__ kind of an idiot._ She then rubbed her fingers together, after which she held out her hand, palm up, as if to say Pay me.Ian cracked up. __hat__ actually kind of scary. Sex with a mime. Do I have to pay extra to make sure you don__ do the trapped-in-a-box thing while we__e doing it?

As Ian popped the lock and opened the car door, he turned to Phoebe. __an you do me a favour?__he immediately stepped toward him, fully embracing their new mature relationship. __f course.__an looked pointedly over his own shoulder and said, __ell me the truth. Does this car make my glowing ass look fat?__he__ naturally followed the direction of his gaze, but now she looked up, hard, into his eyes. And she smiled back at him despite herself. She even laughed. __ou__e an idiot.___hen things get too serious, I get a rash.__he pointedly looked back down at his nether regions, despite the fact doing so made her blush. Still, she spoke coolly, dryly. __ot on your ass.__f Ian believed in love, that would__e been it for him. Instantly. Enthrallingly. Eternally. Instead, he just laughed. __hank God for that. See if there__ anything remotely clothinglike in the backseat or the trunk.

I figured it was probably best for me to leave that bicycle back there for a real emergency.