Carolina

“My body cheerfully informed me that he felt really good pressed against me like that, all hard muscles and smooth contours and ominous bulges. My body liked the air of barely leashed strength and caged mayhem he was giving off. My body thought he smelled really good, like heat and coffee and electricity. My body was going to get me killed.”
― Karen Chance, Tempt the Stars

“You're right", I told him desperately."I can get others to do what you do. They won't be as good, but...okay. It could work. But it doesn't matter because no matter how good they are, they can't replace you. They can't because I don't need you only for what you can do. I need you...for you.”
― Karen Chance, Tempt the Stars

“I hadn't realized how much I'd relied on his scowls or his shrugs or his grudging looks of approval to help me figure something out-until they weren't there anymore. Or how I could talk to some people about a lot of things but only to him about everything. And how unbelievably valuable that was.”
― Karen Chance, Tempt the Stars

“(...) the small of his back slick with sweat, the surprisingly soft hair brushing my body when he took control. And moved over me.
"Stop it", Pritkin grated, his voice somehow cutting through the fog. But he didn't let go. I suppose he was afraid to, because a Pythia or one of her senior initiates could shift without him if there was no contact. But that left us stuck together, and that was becoming really, really-
Awesome, my body piped up enthusiastically.
"I told you, cut it out!" Pritkin said, sounding pissed.
"You first," I snarled, snapping my eyes open to glare at him, because he wasn't exactly helping.
Of course, neither did that.
He must have been jogging, probably his usual early morning ten-mile warm-up before coming to torture me. At least, I assumed that was why the rock-hard abs were outlined by a damp khaki T-shirt, the thin old sweatpants were clinging in all the right places, and the sleeves of the hoodie had been pushed to his elbows, showing the flexing muscles in his forearms. And then there were those hands and those eyes and that mouth...
I shivered again, a full-on shudder this time, and he cursed. But that didn't seem to matter. Because it had come out like a growl, and my body liked that, too. My hips shifted automatically, pressing us together, and I gave a little gasp because it felt so good.
And then gasped again when I was abruptly released.”
― Karen Chance, Tempt the Stars