Free All the Possibilities by Nora Roberts

laughed into his.
    "The longer we're in here

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    "
    …
    the glass. "The fonder I am of snakes."
    "Yeah, they get to me too. It's the basic aura of evil that's so appealing." Her breasts pressed into his chest as people crowded in on all sides.
    "The original sin," Alan murmured, easily catching her scent over the mingling aroma of humanity. "The serpent tempted Eve, and Eve tempted Adam."
    "I've always thought Adam got off too lightly in that business," Shelby commented. Her heartbeat was fast, and not altogether steady against his, but she didn't back away. She was going to have to experience this before she understood how to prevent it. "Snakes and women took the real heat, and man came off as an innocent bystander."
    "Or a creature who could rarely resist temptation in the form of a woman." His voice had become entirely too soft. Considering it a strategic retreat, Shelby grabbed his hand and drew him away. "Let's go outside and look at the elephants." Shelby wound her way through the people, skirting around babies in strollers as she pulled Alan outside. He would've strolled. She would always race. In the sunshine, she pushed a pair of oversize tinted glasses on her nose without slacking pace. The aroma of animal drifted everywhere, pungent and primitive, on the breeze. You could hear them
    the occasional roar, screech, or bellow. She darted along the paths,
    —
    stopping at a cage, leaning against a retaining wall, taking it all in as though it were her first time. Around them were families, couples old and young, and children with dripping ice cream cones. A babble of languages flowed from both in front and behind the cages.
    "There, he reminds me of you." Shelby indicated a black panther stretched in a path of sunlight, calmly watching the river of people who passed by.
    "Is that so?" Alan studied the cat. "Indolent? Subdued?" Shelby let out her smoke-edged laugh. "Oh, no, Senator. Patient, brooding. And arrogant enough to believe this confinement is nothing he can't work with." Turning, she leaned back against the barrier to consider Alan as she had considered the panther.
    "He's taken stock of the situation, and decided he can pretty much have his own way as things are. I wonder

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    "
    …
    he'd do if he were really crossed. He doesn't appear to have a temper. Cats usually don't until they're pushed too far just that one time, and then
    they're deadly."
    —
    Alan gave her an odd smile before he took her hand to draw her toward the path again.
    "He normally sees that he's not often crossed."
    Shelby tossed her head and met the smile with a bland look. "Let's go look at the monkeys. It always makes me think I'm sitting in the Senate Gallery."
    "Nasty," he commented and tugged on her hair.
    "I know. I couldn't help it." Briefly she rested her head on his shoulder as they walked.
    "I'm often not a nice person. Grant and I both seem to have inherited a streak of sarcasm
    or maybe it's cynicism. Probably from my grandfather on my father's side.
    —
    He's like one of those grizzlies we looked at. Prowling, pacing, bad-tempered."
    "And you're crazy about him."
    "Yeah. I'll buy you some popcorn." In a swift change of mood, she motioned toward a vendor. "You can't wander around the zoo all day without popcorn. That's second only to sitting through a double feature without some. The big one," she told the vendor as she dug a bill from the back pocket of her jeans. Shelby cradled the bucket in one arm as she stuffed the change back in her pocket. "Alan

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    "
    …
    shook her head and began to walk again.
    "What?" Casually Alan reached across her for