And sometimes I believe your relentless analysis of June leaves something out, which is your feeling for her beyond knowledge, or in spite of knowledge. I often see how you sob over what you destroy, how you want to stop and just worship; and you do stop, and then a moment later you are at it again with a knife, like a surgeon.What will you do after you have revealed all there is to know about June? Truth. What ferocity in your quest of it. You destroy and you suffer. In some strange way I am not with you, I am against you. We are destined to hold two truths. I love you and I fight you. And you, the same. We will be stronger for it, each of us, stronger with our love and our hate. When you caricature and nail down and tear apart, I hate you. I want to answer you, not with weak or stupid poetry but with a wonder as strong as your reality. I want to fight your surgical knife with all the occult and magical forces of the world.

Say my name.""No." She tipped her head up, her breath sawing out of her lungs. __on__ stop, please._ He languidly stroked her. __ won__ stop, but I won__ take you there unless you say it._ Her voice locked in her throat. He stroked into her again at the same time giving her the pressure she desired with his thumb. __ have all night.

He drew in an answering breath, and she waited to hear the quip, the joke, the dab of levity for the most intense moment they__ ever shared. But he only dropped his head into the crook of her neck and laid his mouth over her leaping pulse as they found their unhurried rhythm in the dark.

You__e killing me in this proper little suit,_ he said, skating a heated look over her shirt. __y place or yours?_ She swallowed thickly, the hand against his chest beginning to sweat. __-I__ busy._ __ou__e gonna be,_ he said, smiling. __eed to know what bed you__e gonna be in, though. Bringing my A game._ __on__ you think_?_ __bout you underneath me? Only every other minute. Now answer me, or else I__l throw you on the nearest desk._ Heat burst onto her cheeks. He noticed. __h, really?_ He smiled down at her.

Lily?__he couldn__ see his face, but she knew his eyes were on her. She could feel them. A beat passed. Then another. He flicked the flashlight on, his eyes zooming in on her mouth. __on__ suppose you__e scared enough of the dark to leave._ She shook her head. __ don__ suppose you__e planning on leaving me on my own._ A smile, then, __ou might cheat._ He tugged their linked hands and leaned the slightest bit closer. __rue,_ she breathed, mirroring his movement. __ wouldn__ trust you if our roles were reversed._ Inches from his face, she admired the curve of his top lip. __hat are you doing, Black?_ __ think,_ he whispered back, his warm breath fanning over her lips, ____ going to have to kiss you, McIntire.

This is good,_ he told her.__he gave him a slow blink. __ou like wine?___oesn__ everyone?___ou strike me as a beer-from-the-can kind of guy.___ am.__