" He smiled as the men cheered and then headed out. He stopped Gabe. "I'm riding with you." Are you sure, Tony, I mean, you haven't been out from behi...d that desk in a while." Gabe ducked the hand that reached out to slap him."I was carrying a gun when you were still sucking on your momma's tit." The captain slipped his off duty weapon out of its holster and then pushed it back in, snapping it securely."I'll take bad movie lines for two hundred dollars, Alex." He grinned at his boss."Just shut. However, Jacopo insisted on following him, and Dantes did not oppose this, fearing if he did so that he might incur distrust. Scarcely, however, had they gone a quarter of a league when, having killed a kid, he begged Jacopo to take it to his comrades, and request them to cook it, and when ready to let him know by firing a gun. This and some dried fruits and a flask of Monte Pulciano, was the bill of fare. Dantes went on, looking from time to time behind and around about him. Having reached the. . . well, the truth is, it was his hands – the roughness of them. I suppose it’s the work he does, but all the surfaces of his hands were really hard and when they rasped against my skin . . . Well, they were so different from Philip’s – and anyone else who’s touched me there – well, I just melted inside. And then, when he took hold of my nipples and rolled them against these roughened fingers . . . .’ Her voice trailed away and one of her hands slid off the table and, again, pushed hard. ‘So the stick is that you’re tired of selling books?’ Tim nodded. ‘Tired of traveling, tired of selling people things that I’m not always sure they want.’ ‘So what’s the carrot.’ ‘I want to write the kind of children’s books that should be written. I mean, that there should be more of. You may have noticed that I only laid out classic titles today.’ ‘Yes, I was wondering why there weren’t more current ones.’ ‘These are the ones I remember from my childhood. I got to thinking a few months ago,.