Shannon Pritchett

“And you're not going to tell me she didn't make a move on you. At least test the waters."

"The waters," he said, "were not receptive."

"If they had been, I'd have drowned her in them already.”
― J.D. Robb, Innocent in Death

“She stepped forward as if to pick up the fur she'd tossed over a chair. Smoothly, she turned to hand it to him. And with perfect timing, flung herself into his arms.

The sable fell as he took her shoulders to shove her back.

Eve stepped to the doorway to see Magdelana with her arms locked around Roarke's neck, his hands on her bare shoulders--one of the ivory straps sliding to her elbow.

"Son of a bitch," she said.

On cue, Magdelana spun around, her face full of passion and shock. "Oh, God. Oh...it's not what it looks like."

"Bet." Eve strode in.

Actually, Roarke thought, it was more of a swagger. He had a moment to admire it, before Eve rammed her fist in his face.

"Fuck me." His head snapped back, and he tasted blood.

Magdelana cried out, but even the deaf would have caught the suppressed laughter in the sound. "Roarke! Oh, my God, you're bleeding. Please, let me just--"

"Don't look now," Eve said cheerfully. "But he's not the only one." She decked Magdelana with a straight-armed jab. "Bitch," Eve added as Magdelana's eyes rolled back and she fell, unconscious, to the floor.

Roarke looked down. "Well, now, fuck us all.”
― J.D. Robb, Innocent in Death

“She would be a sparkling accent on his arm. She speaks flawless French and Italian, and has a limitless supply of charm when she wishes to dispense it. And'd she'll use him. She'll take, take more. If it was necessary, or if she simply had the whim, she'd toss him to the wolves to see who'd win."

He finished the whiskey. "You, Lieutenant, are often crude, you are certainly rude, and have very little sense of how to be the wife--in public--of a man in Roarke's position. And you would do anything, no matter what the personal risk, to keep him from harm. She will never love him. You will never do anything but.”
― J.D. Robb, Innocent in Death

“I had that hole in me, that empty space. I could have lived my life with it, content enough. I wasn’t an unhappy man.”.....................
The tears came now. He watched them drip down her cheeks, wondered if she were even aware they leaked out of her. “She was part of my life. You are my life. If I have a regret, it’s that even for an instant you could think otherwise. Or that I allowed you to.”

-Roarke”
― J.D. Robb, Innocent in Death