Conspiracy Game

He pulled away abruptly - self-preservation required it - and pressed his brow to hers, breathing deep. "You remember one thing. You decide you want to get married, it's going to be me."
Briony watched him stalk outside, slamming the kitchen door behind him. Both eyebrows raised, she turned to Ken.
"Close your mouth, honey. That's just Jack trying to be romantic and failing miserably. Don't let him get away with that shit either. If he's going to ask you, make him do it all they way. You know - down on one knee, looking stupid."
Briony nearly choked. "That's just mean, Ken."
He leaned close to her. "If you do it, Briony, tell me first so I can videotape it. I could blackmail him for the rest of his life."

"You just like to piss me off," Jack said.
"Well, there's that. On the other hand, we'll find out really fast just how much of a bastard you're going to be to live with your woman around. You get out of line, and I'll have to take you out behind the barn."
"We don't have a barn."
"I told you we needed a barn, damn it," Ken said. "You had to have a shop. It doesn't sound the same saying I'm taking you out behind the shop."

"I should have known you'd side with them. It's some sort of of male bonding thing to think women aren't capable of running their own lives."
He nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. "It's ego and sheer desperation. We have to keep you thinking we're the superior species."
"News flash, Jack - no women on the face of earth believes that anymore."
He trailed kisses down her cheek. "But men don't know women know that. We still live in our fantasy world, so don't muck  it up for us."

He glanced at Ken. "Why the hell does a women complete a family?"
Ken shrugged and exchanged a small smile with him. "I don't know, but let's keep her. She's mellowed you out, and I didn't think that was possible."
"I've always been mellow."

And of course I'm a chauvinist, but it isn't my fault."
"It isn't?"
"No, Jack was born first and I share his genes. I can't help it if he infected me inside the womb."
Briony burst out laughing. "I should have known that would be your excuse."

And Ken said I can't marry you."
Jack felt his heart jump in his chest. He glanced at his sleeping brother. "Did he say why?"
"Yes." She kept her voice sober. "He said you have to ask me properly."
Relief made him weak. His pulse beat at his temples, throbbed in his neck. For one moment his fingers closed in her hair in a tight fist. "Properly? If I ask, you might say no, so I'm thinking we'll just start off right and I'll tell you and we'll get the thing done."
"Get the thing done?" Briony echoed.
Ken snorted aloud. "Jack, I'll take over watch and you get some sleep. I think you fried your brain up there on the roof."
"Pipe down over there." Jack said. "You're already stirring up trouble."
"Get the thing done?" Briony repeated slowly. "The thing being what exactly?"
"The ceremony. The paperwork. Whatever the hell it takes to make it legal."
Briony sat up and glared at him. "Take your 'it' and shove it, Jack."
"There's no need to be getting upset, Briony. We can't exactly go around with a bunch of kids and not do whatever the hell it is one does to make it legal."
"Whatever the hell it takes to make what legal?"
He shrugged. "How the hell would I know? I've never done this before. Sleeping together I guess."
"So you are going to marry me so it's legal to sleep with me?"
"This isn't coming out right."
"You think?"
"Don't get upset, baby,. I don't understand why you're getting upset."

"I absolutely love you, Briony, and I am on my knees. So we're getting married - right? But say it fast before we get shot."
Only Jack would ask - if you could call it asking - in the middle of a battlefield, with a man lying dead at his feet.

Always a Scoundrel

Perhaps his next task should be to concoct an eighth deadly sin. Or he could work toward finding even a dozen. The devil knew he'd worn out the original seven.

"I don't want a well-ordered life.... I would die from boredom in a fortnight."
"So you intend to spend the remainder of your life whoring, drinking, wagering, and being as outrageous as you can manage?"
Bram shook himself. He made it a point to be serious as little as possible, and neither did he want to argue with two newly married men about the meruts of being leg-shackled."Please Phin," he said aloud. "I would never think so small. You know my ultimate goal is to lower the standards of morality enough that everything I do becomes acceptable.

Don't Tempt Me

He cleared his throat, "Zoe, I think you said you love me."
"I did say it. I do love you with all my heart."
"I see." There was a long pause, then he said, "For how long has this been going on?"
"I don't know," she said, "Sometimes I think it started a long, long time ago."
"You might have mentioned it."
"I didn't want to encourage it," she said, "I thought it was a bad idea."

Remember Me?

Our finger prints don’t fade from the lives we’ve touched

Slightly Wicked

     Sometimes she felt that her heart would ssurely break. But she knew that hearts did not literally break because their owners were unhappy - and foolish. How dreadfully foolish she had been. Yet she clung to the memories as to a lifeline.

"You are planning to marry Miss Law?" his brother asked.
"I am." Rannulf looked at him warily.
"She is," Wulfric said, "despite the plainness of her dress and severity of her hair, quiet extraordinarily beautiful. You have always had an eye for such women."
"There is no one to compare to Judith Law," Rannulf said. "But if you think I see nothing but her physical beauty, Wulf, you are wrong."
"She has been something of a damsel in distress," Wufric said, "in more ways than one. The gallant urge to ride to the rescue can sometimes be mistaken for love, I believe."
"She has never behaved like a victim," Rannulf assured him. "And I am not mistaken. If you are about to recite all the ways in which she is not an eligible bride for me, Wulf, you may save your breath. I know them all and they make no difference whatsoever to my feelings for her. I have position, money, and prospects enough that I do not need a wealthy bride."
His brother did not comment.
"I take it, then," Rannulf said after some moments of silence, "that I will not have your blessing, Wulf?"
"Is it important to you?"
Rannulf thought for a moment. "Yes," he said at last, "It is. You frequently infuriate me, Wulf, and I will never allow myself to be dominated by you, but I respect you perhaps more than I respect anyone else I know. You have always done your duty, and sometimes you go the extra mile for one of us even when it must be distasteful or tedious for you to do it. Like the time a month or two ago, when you went to Oxfordshire to help Eve and Aidan regain custody of her foster children - the orphans of a lowly shopkeeper. And like what you have done for me today. Yes your blessing is important to me. But I will marry Judith with or without it."
"You have it," Wulf said softly.

But parents, she supposed, were not the pinnacle of perfection their children thought or expected them to be. They were humans who usually did the best they could but often made the wrong choices.

Safe Harbor

"Son of a bitch, you're scary," he informed Jackson. "Where the hell did you get that look? Practicing in the mirror every day?"

"He worked at stealing her heart to replace the one she'd taken from him."

"Just remember who you belong to, Hannah. I wouldn't want to have to shoot anyone - or strangle you."
She leaned over to kiss his shoulder. "Why am I the one to be strangled?"
"It's a much more personal death."

"Sarah looked at Jonas. Instinctively she knew, if anyone was going to get Hannah through this, it would be Jonas - but who was going to get him through it?"

"Jonas. Their rock. Shattered into so many shards. Holding himself together through the sheer force of will."

"The house is made up of the spirits of our ancestors. Did you think they would lie idly by while we were under attack?"
"Cuz, yeah, didn't everybody's ancestors rise up and destroy enemies."

"I'm not going to say I can at least collect DNA samples," he muttered, "because every time I open my mouth, the evidence disappears."
With a little sigh, he watched te droplets of blood absorb into the wood and the window reform. "I have to tell you, I've seen some freaky shit around you girls, but nothing like this. I have just one question. Have you told your fiancees about this? Because quiet frankly it scares the hell out of me."
"You never have to be afraid, Jonas," Hannah assured. "The house judges intent."
"Hannah. Honey. Half the time my intent is to strangle you. And I don't doubt whoever ends up with Joley or Elle will want to do worse than that."

"Do you suppose we can take that as evidence? We could cut out the sections."
Jonas snorted, "You can try taking a saw to that house, but personally, I'm not about to get anywhere near it with anything resembling a weapon."

"Do you have a camera?" Jackson asked. "We could get some pictures and may be take a print or two if we're lucky."
Jonas shook his head. "We'd probably get a bunch of ghosts and that would just freak me out."

"Today's my wedding day, Mom," he said softly aloud. "I'm marrying the woman I always told you I would someday."

"It happened. It was frightening and horrible and we both wish it hadn't happened, but it did."

"She was temptation wrapped in casual elegance."

"Joley likes to be scared, and she can't watch them alone."
"I don't know how you can make that sound perfectly logical."

Slightly Scandalous

There had to be a reason why they were not going to marry. They had both been so adamant about it.
What the devil was the reason?