“
Gamble everything for love, if you're a true human being.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
“
I love you. I would die to protect you. I would make you hate me to keep you safe because damn it, Avery—some things are too precious to gamble.
”
”
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3))
“
Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being. If not, leave this gathering. Half-heartedness doesn’t reach into majesty.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Essential Rumi)
“
I hated men because they didn’t stay around and love me like a father: I could prick holes in them & show they were no father-material. I made them propose and then showed them they hadn’t a chance. I hated men because they didn’t have to suffer like a woman did. They could die or go to Spain. They could have fun while a woman had birth pangs. They could gamble while a woman skimped on the butter on the bread. Men, nasty lousy men.
”
”
Sylvia Plath (The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath)
“
Marriage: a hopeful, generous, infinitely kind gamble taken by two people who don’t know yet who they are or who the other might be, binding themselves to a future they cannot conceive of and have carefully omitted to investigate.
”
”
Alain de Botton (The Course of Love)
“
Everything's a gamble, love most of all.
”
”
Tess Gerritsen (The Sinner (Rizzoli & Isles, #3))
“
Strangers when you meet, strangers when you part -a gymnasium of bodies namelessly masturbating each other. People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lacked the ability to feel or to love. So they became swingers. The dead fucking the dead. There was no gamble or humor in their game -it was corpse fucking corpse. Morals were restrictive, but they were grounded on human experience down through the centuries. Some morals tended to keep people slaves in factories, in churches and true to the State. Other morals simply made good sense. It was like a garden filled with poisoned fruit and good fruit. You had to know which to pick and eat, which to leave alone.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Women)
“
Never show anger at slight, tell nothing. Earn respect from everyone by deeds, not Words. Respect the members of your Blood Family. Gambling was Recreation, not a way to earn a Living. Love your Father, your Mother,
your Sister but beware of Loving any other Woman than your Wife. And a Wife was a woman who bore your Children. And once that happened to You, your Life was Forfeit to give them their daily bread
”
”
Mario Puzo (The Last Don (The Godfather))
“
I love you. I would die to protect you. I would make you hate me to keep you safe because damn it, Avery-some things are too precious to gamble.
”
”
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3))
“
You cheated!”
He looked at her, wide-eyed with feigned outrage. “I beg your pardon. If you were a man, I would call you out for that accusation.”
“And I assure you, my lord, that I would ride forth victoriously on behalf of truth, humility, and righteousness.”
“Are you quoting the Bible to me?”
“Indeed,” she said primly, the portrait of piousness.
“While gambling.”
“What better location to attempt to reform one such as you?
”
”
Sarah MacLean (Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Love By Numbers, #1))
“
Kestrel’s laugh was white in the cold. “We could gamble for your coat.”
“Ah, love, why don’t we skip to the part where you win and I give it to you?
”
”
Marie Rutkoski (The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy, #2))
“
You don't need to follow every impulse in life; you don't need to take on every gamble. But some, even ones that have burned you before, well some of them you do. Some of the sweetest moments in life come from second chances.
”
”
R.K. Lilley (Lovely Trigger (Tristan & Danika, #3))
“
Yes. He. Was. Just. Here. Spreading his goodwill and love all around Max’s entryway. It’s a wonder there aren’t cherubs flying around sprinkling rose petals and rainbows erupting through the windows, an aftermath of his delightful visit.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (The Gamble (Colorado Mountain, #1))
“
Tell me you love me.
”
”
Kristen Ashley (The Gamble (Colorado Mountain, #1))
“
To get the best out of life here ...Good grief. There's plenty of it about, so indulge. Give yourself some thing to remember. Fall in love. Fall out of love. Gamble. Get drunk. See how long you can stay awake. Go for long walks at night. Discover what you're afraid of doing, and then do it.
”
”
Philip Pullman
“
You can't possibly conduct a proper affair without a lot of deliberating, scheming, speculating, and conniving. It's a delicate balance where the excitement must equal the guilt and sex must be as bright as the future you gamble.
”
”
John Dufresne (Love Warps the Mind a Little)
“
There. That is the answer to this riddle. The promises I can make, and the one I can't. Gwen. I will never leave you willingly. Life is a risk, and so love is, as well. But I swear to God, you will not regret the gamble.
”
”
Meredith Duran (Wicked Becomes You)
“
Life is a gamble. There are no sureties. If you want something badly, you'd have to trust your heart and your instincts and then take a leap of faith.
”
”
Alyssa Urbano (The Billion-Dollar Marriage Contract)
“
Love is a gamble and sometimes it hurts, but whether you win or lose being in love is a beautiful thing.
”
”
M.J. Abraham (Happenstance (A Second Chance, #1))
“
People with no morals often considered themselves more free, but mostly they lacked the ability to feel or to love. So they became swingers. The dead fucking the dead. There was no gamble or humor in their game - it was corpse fucking corpse.
”
”
Charles Bukowski
“
I´ve always wanted him to love me the way I loved him. He did love me, I know he did. Just not the way I wanted him to.
"And it´s so different for a lot of people I´ve known. One partner doesn´t love the other enough to stop drinking, or gambling, or running around with other women. One is the giver and one is the taker. The giver wishes the taker would stop."
"But the taker never changes," Luke says, though he wonders if this is always the case.
"Sometimes the giver has to let go, but sometimes you don´t. You can´t. I couldn´t give up on Jonathan. I seemed to be able to forgive him anything.
”
”
Alma Katsu (The Taker (The Taker, #1))
“
Sometimes being crazy is a demon. And sometimes the demon is me. And I visit quiet sidewalks and loud parties and dark movies, and a small demon looks out at the world with me. Sometimes it sleeps. Sometimes it plays. Sometimes it laughs with me. Sometimes it tries to kill me. But it’s always with me. I suppose we’re all possessed in some way. Some of us with dependence on pills or wine. Others through sex or gambling. Some of us through self-destruction or anger or fear. And some of us just carry around our tiny demon as he wreaks havoc in our mind, tearing open old dusty trunks of bad memories and leaving the remnants spread everywhere. Wearing the skins of people we’ve hurt. Wearing the skins of people we’ve loved. And sometimes, when it’s worst, wearing our skins.
”
”
Jenny Lawson (Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things)
“
What if...fuck, I don't know. What if it's worth risking everything to be together?
”
”
Linda Kage (To Professor, with Love (Forbidden Men, #2))
“
The Bonaccorso brothers are serious muscle, though if they were any dumber they’d be dumber than rocks.
”
”
A.G. Russo (Bangtails, Grifters, and a Liar's Kiss (O'Shaughnessy Investigations Inc. 2))
“
Love renders all of our plans and all of our hopes a gamble
”
”
Elizabeth Gilbert (Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage)
“
This act of total surrender is not merely a fantastic intellectual and mystical gamble; it is something much more serious. It is an act of love for this unseen person, who, in the very gift of love by which we surrender ourselves to his reality also makes his presence known to us.
”
”
Thomas Merton
“
I can’t get clean.” “That’s because you’re polishing a diamond. How much more brilliant do you want it to shine, my lovely?
”
”
Kristen Ashley (The Gamble (Colorado Mountain, #1))
“
Above all, he liked it that everything was one's own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared
”
”
Ian Fleming (Casino Royale (James Bond, #1))
“
Marriage: a hopeful, generous, infinitely kind gamble taken by two people who don't know yet who they are or who the other might be, binding themselves to a future they cannot conceive of and have carefully omitted to investigate.
”
”
Alain de Botton (The Course of Love)
“
Are we truly obeying the command to love our neighbor as ourselves if we're storing up money for potential future needs when our neighbor is laboring today under actual present needs?
”
”
Randy Alcorn (Money, Possessions, and Eternity: A Comprehensive Guide to What the Bible Says about Financial Stewardship, Generosity, Materialism, Retirement, Financial Planning, Gambling, Debt, and More)
“
How is it that one woman is…enough…for three men?”
“I don’t know.”
“She must be a very talented courtesan.”
“Callie.”
“Well, that was what she was. Wasn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“How very fascinating!” She smiled brightly. “I’ve never met a courtesan, you know.”
“I could have surmised as such.”
“She looked just as I imagined they did! Well, she was rather prettier.”
Ralston’s eyes darted around the room as though he was looking for the quickest escape route.
“Callie. Wouldn’t you rather gamble than talk about courtesans?
”
”
Sarah MacLean (Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Love By Numbers, #1))
“
For a permanent solution to easing tension and soothe the rough waters of the world that cause people to go to drugs, drinking, gambling, pornography, overeating, or anything that will give them some temporary relief, you can’t beat the support and encouragement of a friend.
”
”
Jonathan Anthony Burkett
“
I can never gain something without losing everything I had before.
”
”
Nadia Scrieva (Fathoms of Forgiveness (Sacred Breath, #2))
“
I love you, Bridget. I’m pretty sure you feel the same way about me, and screw the whole dating thing. Let’s get married.
”
”
J. Lynn (Tempting the Player (Gamble Brothers, #2))
“
Small Man can be a very funny or a very tiresome Tour Companion, depending on how this kind of thing grabs you. He gambles, he drinks too much and he always runs away. Since the Rules allow him to make Jokes, he will excuse his behaviour in a variety of comical ways. Physically he is stunted and not at all handsome, although he usually dresses flamboyantly. He tends to wear hats with feathers in. You will discover he is very vain. But, if you can avoid smacking him, you will come to tolerate if not love him. He will contrive, in some cowardly way, to play a major part in saving the world.
”
”
Diana Wynne Jones (The Tough Guide to Fantasyland)
“
When I save, I lay something aside for future need. If I sense God's leading, I will give it away to meet greater needs. When I hoard, I'm unwilling to part with what I've saved to meet others' needs, because my possible future needs outweigh their actual present needs. I fail to love my neighbor as myself.
”
”
Randy Alcorn (Money, Possessions, and Eternity: A Comprehensive Guide to What the Bible Says about Financial Stewardship, Generosity, Materialism, Retirement, Financial Planning, Gambling, Debt, and More)
“
You don’t have any control over anyone’s feelings.
You can’t make your parents feel proud of you.
You can’t make anyone like you.
You can’t make anyone love you.
You can make it easier for them, by sacrificing your time and energy, but you cannot MAKE THEM, you can only make it easier for them— and yet again, what have you gained? Nothing. You’re gambling. Putting trust coins into a slot machine hoping that love comes out.
”
”
M. Kirin
“
most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” Elizabeth Kubler Ross
”
”
Sandi Gamble (Broken: An Extraordinary Story of Survival by One of Australia’s Forgotten Children)
“
This may be crazy, but what the hell, right?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black box, and Bridget felt faint as he cracked it open. An emerald set in a silver band winked up at her. "I love you, Bridget. I'm pretty sure you feel the same way about me, and screw the whole dating thing. Let's get married.
”
”
J. Lynn (Tempting the Player (Gamble Brothers, #2))
“
There's one other thing I'd like to remind you of, my dear. There've been many times when you've sworn to me that after all that life has dealt you, it was no longer possible for you to believe in anything. I replied that both life and my studies had led me to the same conclusion. I asked you, 'What is a person permitted, once he's realized that truth is unattainable and consequently doesn't exist for him?' Do you remember your answer?"
"I do, ibn Sabbah. I said something like this: 'If a person realized that everything people call happiness, love and joy was just a miscalculation based on a false premise, he'd feel a horrible emptiness inside. The only thing that could rouse him from his paralysis would be to gamble with his own face and the face of others. The person capable of that would be permitted anything.
”
”
Vladimir Bartol (Alamut)
“
John knew the best love stories were the ones that were never told. For no medium—no book, no poem, no play or movie—could ever tell a love story in its entirety, its full span and depth, from the exhilarating beginning to the tragic ending of all love stories. He didn’t mind if his life was forgotten—it had never occurred to him to want to be remembered—as long as he had truly lived, and to live life without experiencing one great love story was to not live at all.
”
”
Ray Smith (The Magnolia That Bloomed Unseen)
“
But Carol had not betrayed her. Carol loved her more than she loved her child. That was part of the reason why she had not promised.
She was gambling now as she had gambled on getting everything from the detective that day on the road, and she lost then, too. And now she saw Carol's face changing, saw the little signs of astonishment and shock so subtle that perhaps only she in the world could have noticed them, and Therese could not think for a moment.
”
”
Patricia Highsmith (The Price of Salt)
“
Parents who spoil their children out of 'love' should realize that they are performing acts of child abuse. Although there are no laws against such abuse--no man-made laws anyway--this spiritual mistreatment may result in as much long-term personal and social damage as the worst physical abuse.
”
”
Randy Alcorn (Money, Possessions, and Eternity: A Comprehensive Guide to What the Bible Says about Financial Stewardship, Generosity, Materialism, Retirement, Financial Planning, Gambling, Debt, and More)
“
But ultimately there comes a moment when a decision must be made. Ultimately two people who love each other must ask themselves how much they hope for as their love grows and deepens, and how much risk they are willing to take. It is indeed a fearful gamble. Because it is the nature of love to create, a marriage itself is something which has to be created, so that, together we become a new creature.
To marry is the biggest risk in human relations that a person can take. If we commit ourselves to one person for life this is not, as many people think, a rejection of freedom; rather it demands the courage to move into all the risks of freedom, and the risk of love which is permanent; into that love which is not possession, but participation. It takes a lifetime to learn another person. When love is not possession, but participation, then it is part of that co-creation which is our human calling, and which implies such risk that it is often rejected.
”
”
Madeleine L'Engle (The Irrational Season (Crosswicks Journals, #3))
“
When we reach our highest potential, we will find our highest love.
”
”
Jennifer Ott
“
Random intermittent positive reinforcement can be found in gambling... and bad relationships.
”
”
José N. Harris (MI VIDA: A Story of Faith, Hope and Love)
“
She gambled again and again with her own life, not out of a fervent nationalism for her own country, but out of love and respect for the freedoms of another.
”
”
Sonia Purnell (A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II)
“
Now the evening is beginning and I will discover a human being to court or to be courted by, an adventure with caprice and desire, and while gambling I might find love.
”
”
Anaïs Nin (Seduction of the Minotaur: The Authoritative Edition)
“
When you put your whole heart in something you risk just that. Your whole heart. It's a high roller's type of gamble. I can tell by your letters that you love with your whole heart.
”
”
Suzanne Hayes (I'll Be Seeing You (I'll Be Seeing You, #1))
“
I believe in love, but I’m a realist. You could love someone with your entire being, but it doesn’t guarantee they’ll love you in return. It’s a gamble, and I don’t like to make bets I might lose.
”
”
Liz Tomforde (The Right Move (Windy City, #2))
“
Life is short, but I never thought my life would end this way. I have myself to blame for that. I saw all of the red flags, but I ignored them one at a time. Every time I ignored them, I was buying more time, I received more time, and I gambled with the time that I was given. It shows you that buying time is temporary because sooner or later time runs out.”
~Love is respect ♥~
”
”
Charlena E. Jackson (In Love With Blindfolds On)
“
You entered,
Abrupt like “Take it!”,
Mauling suede gloves, you tarried,
And said:
“You know,-
I’m soon getting married.”
Get married then.
It’s all right,
I can handle it.
You see - I’m calm, of course!
Like the pulse
Of a corpse.
Remember?
You used to say:
“Jack London,
Money,
Love and ardour,”--
I saw one thing only:
You were La Gioconda,
Which had to be stolen!
And someone stole you.
Again in love, I shall start gambling,
With fire illuminating the arch of my eyebrows.
And why not?
Sometimes, the homeless ramblers
Will seek to find shelter in a burnt down house!
You’re mocking me?
“You’ve fewer emeralds of madness
than a beggar kopecks, there’s no disproving this!”
But remember
Pompeii came to end thus
When somebody teased Vesuvius!
Hey!
Gentlemen!
You care for
Sacrilege,
Crime
And war.
But have you seen
The frightening terror
Of my face
When
It’s
Perfectly calm?
And I feel-
“I”
Is too small to fit me.
Someone inside me is getting smothered.
”
”
Vladimir Mayakovsky
“
Time is both free and priceless. The person you are now is a consequence of how you used your time in the past. The person you’ll become in the future is a consequence of how you use your time in the present. Spend your time wisely, gamble it intrinsically and save it diligently.
”
”
Steven Bartlett (Happy Sexy Millionaire: Unexpected Truths about Fulfilment, Love and Success)
“
A true champion of love and sport wears it proudly in all aspects of life.
”
”
Jennifer Ott (Love and Handicapping)
“
It is unfortunate that for some, kindness is an unwarranted expenditure, compassion an avoidable weakness, and love an unnecessary gamble.
”
”
Wayne Gerard Trotman
“
I would not ask for things to be different, because it is not in my power to know if that would be better or worse than what I have today. I am not prepared to take that gamble.
”
”
Barbara "Cutie" Cooper (Fall in Love for Life: Inspiration from a 73-Year Marriage)
“
Matthew raised his chin. There was a terrible look in his eyes, the sort of look her father had when he had lost a great deal at the gambling table. “Am I so hard to love?
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Chain of Thorns (The Last Hours, #3))
“
amusement in her eyes and had to grin.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, his voice dropping to a low, intimate tone that excluded everyone else in the cafe and made several women draw in their
breath.
Her mouth quirked in that self-amusement that made him want to grab her to him.
"This isn't one of my good days. The only thing holding me together is static cling."
"Come home with me, and I'll take care of you."
She looked him in the eye and said quietly, "Give me one good reason why I should."
Right there in front of God and most of Crook, Montana, he drew in a deep breath and took the gamble of a lifetime, his words plain and heard by all, because no one was making even the pretense of not listening.
"Because I love you."
Maddie blinked, and to his surprise he saw her eyes glitter with tears. Before he could start forward, however, her smile broke through like sunshine through a cloud bank. She didn't take the time to go around the counter; she climbed on top of it and slid off on the other side.
"It's about time," she said as she went into his arms.
”
”
Linda Howard (Duncan's Bride (Patterson-Cannon Family, #1))
“
Pleasure isn't the only thing that can make you float, Daniel." It sounds as though Archer is talking from a long way away. "Pain can, as well, when it's given to you by a loving hand.
”
”
Cari Waites (Gamble Everything (Gamble Everything #1-7))
“
They did a study and found that countless men would choose gambling over love if given the chance. Even more would choose pornography over love if given the chance. We are cavemen; and it seems like that will never change. I wonder if the men they
studied have ever really been in love? I wonder how corporations will use this information to their advantage? “Hallmark cards and boxes of Fanny May chocolates will save humanity,” or something to the effect. It depresses me to think about it.
”
”
Pete Wentz (Gray)
“
Mom, for example, is Procter and Gamble’s perfect repeat customer. Renovation contractors send her personalized Christmas cards. She lives for the Sunday edition of our local newspaper. She thumbs through the “Modern Home” section. She mopes through the rest of the day, unhappy with all her outdated things.
”
”
Michael Benzehabe (Zonked Out: The Teen Psychologist of San Marcos Who Killed Her Santa Claus and Found the Blue-Black Edge of the Love Universe)
“
The prison population consists of heterogeneous elements; but, taking only those who are usually described as 'the criminals' proper, and of whom we have heard so much lately from Lombroso and his followers, what struck me most as regards them was that the prisons, which are considered as preventive of anti-social deeds, are exactly the institutions for breeding them. Every one knows that absence of education, dislike of regular work, physical incapability of sustained effort, misdirected love of adventure, gambling propensities, absence of energy, an untrained will, and carelessness about the happiness of others are the causes which bring this class of people before the courts. Now I was deeply impressed during my imprisonment by the fact that it is exactly these defects of human nature--each one of them--which the prison breeds in its inmates; and it is bound to breed them because it is a prison, and will breed them so long as it exists.
”
”
Pyotr Kropotkin (Memoirs of a Revolutionist)
“
Despite the earnest belief of most of his fans, Einstein did not win his Nobel Prize for the theory of relativity, special or general. He won for explaining a strange effect in quantum mechanics, the photoelectric effect. His solution provided the first real evidence that quantum mechanics wasn’t a crude stopgap for justifying anomalous experiments, but actually corresponds to reality. And the fact that Einstein came up with it is ironic for two reasons. One, as he got older and crustier, Einstein came to distrust quantum mechanics. Its statistical and deeply probabilistic nature sounded too much like gambling to him, and it prompted him to object that “God does not play dice with the universe.” He was wrong, and it’s too bad that most people have never heard the rejoinder by Niels Bohr: “Einstein! Stop telling God what to do.
”
”
Sam Kean (The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements)
“
He brought his hands to the side my face, then the back of my neck, and I felt his touch through every square inch of my body. "I love you. I would die to protect you. I would make you hate me to keep you safe because damn it, Avery - some things are too precious to gamble.
”
”
Jennifer Lynn Barnes (The Final Gambit (The Inheritance Games, #3))
“
I lie in a bathtub of cold water, still sweating and singing love songs to myself. I put the gun to my head and cock it.
I think of my Grandma and remember that old feeling of being so in love that nothing matters except seeing and being seen by her. I drop the gun to my chest. I'm so sad and I can't really see a way out of what I'm feeling but I'm leaning on memory for help. Faster. Slower. I think I want to hurt myself more than I'm already hurting. I'm not the smartest boy in the world by a long shot, but even in my funk I know that easy remedies like eating your way out of sad, or fucking your way out of sad, or lying your way out of sad, or slanging your way out of sad, or robbing your way out of sad, or gambling your way out of sad, or shooting your way out of sad, are just slower, more acceptable ways for desperate folks, and especially paroled black boys in our country, to kill ourselves and others close to us in America.
”
”
Kiese Laymon (How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America)
“
At the age of forty the life you have lived so far, always pro tem, has for the first time become life itself, and this reappraisal swept away all dreams, destroyed all your notions that real life, the one that was meant to be, the great deeds you would perform, was somewhere else. When you were forty you realized it was all here, banal everyday life, fully formed, and it always would be unless you did something. Unless you took one last gamble.
”
”
Karl Ove Knausgård (A Man in Love)
“
We would all be together on the journey then, our destination the village at the end of the road where people gamble day and night but never lose their money, eat but never fill their stomachs, drink but never leave their minds.
”
”
Louise Erdrich (Tracks (Love Medicine. #3))
“
I’m a real bastard without him,” Jace apologized, and Nick
gulped some water and nodded.
“Yeah, I hear that. Why?”
Jace looked at him in outrage because the question was… was
self-explanatory. “Because! Because he’s… he’s Quent!
”
”
Amy Lane (Gambling Men)
“
The best time to do anything, get drunk, surf, run, take a walk, gamble, make love, get high, watch a movie, read a book, is on a Monday, when everyone else is at work, as their depression will heighten your celebration, of not being them.
”
”
Robert Black
“
The time came to put Iris Duarte back on the plane.
It was a morning flight which made it difficult. I was
used to rising at noon; it was a fine cure for hangovers
and would add 5 years to my life. I felt no sadness
while driving her to L.A. International. The sex had
been fine; there had been laughter. I could hardly
remember a more civilized time, neither of us making
any demands, yet there had been warmth, it had not
been without feeling, dead meat coupled with dead
meat. I detested that type of swinging, the Los
Angeles, Hollywood, Bel Air, Malibu, Laguna Beach
kind of sex. Strangers when you meet, strangers when
you part—a gymnasium of bodies namelessly
masturbating each other. People with no morals often
considered themselves more free, but mostly they
lacked the ability to feel or to love. So they became
swingers. The dead fucking the dead. There was no
gamble or humor in their game—it was corpse
fucking corpse. Morals were restrictive, but they were
grounded on human experience down through the
centuries. Some morals tended to keep people
slaves in factories, in churches and true to the State.
Other morals simply made good sense. It was like a
garden filled with poisoned fruit and good fruit. You
had to know which to pick and eat, which to leave
alone.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Women)
“
Half-Heartedness Gamble everything for love, if you are a true human being. If not, leave this gathering. Half-heartedness does not reach into majesty. You set out to find God, but then you keep stopping for long periods at mean-spirited roadhouses.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (A Year With Rumi)
“
If a person realized that everything people call happiness, love and joy was just a miscalculation based on a false premise, he'd feel a horrible emptiness inside. The only thing that could rouse him from his paralysis would be to gamble with his own face and the face of others. The person capable of that would be permitted anything.
”
”
Vladimir Bartol
“
She is gambling that he is good. There on the table, neither frozen nor yet moving, Lane Dean Jr. sees all this, and is moved with pity and with also something more, something without any name he knows, that is given to him to feel in the form of a question that never once in all the long week's thinking and division had even so much as occurred -- why is he so sure he doesn't love her? Why is one kind of love any different? What if he has no earthly idea what love is? What would even Jesus do? For it was just now he felt her two small strong hands on his, to turn him. What if he is just afraid, if the truth is no more than this, and if what to pray for is not even love but simple courage, to meet both her eyes as she says it and trust his heart?
”
”
David Foster Wallace (The Pale King)
“
Love is a gamble, the stake is the human heart. The lover holds his or her cards close, lays them out one at a time and watches each move of the other player. To whom do you go first? This is the ‘tell’ of love. When a thing happens, be it good or bad, when you pick up the telephone or push through a crowd, who is it you most want to reach?
”
”
Aminatta Forna (Happiness)
“
Love us a gamble and sometimes it hurts, but whether you win or lose being in love is a beautiful thing
”
”
M.J. Abraham (Happenstance (A Second Chance, #1))
“
God created us to love people and use things, but materialists love things and use people.
”
”
Randy Alcorn (Money, Possessions, and Eternity: A Comprehensive Guide to What the Bible Says about Financial Stewardship, Generosity, Materialism, Retirement, Financial Planning, Gambling, Debt, and More)
“
NINA
Your life is beautiful.
TRIGORIN
I see nothing especially lovely about it. [He looks at his watch] Excuse me, I must go at once, and begin writing again. I am in a hurry. [He laughs] You have stepped on my pet corn, as they say, and I am getting excited, and a little cross. Let us discuss this bright and beautiful life of mine, though. [After a few moments' thought] Violent obsessions sometimes lay hold of a man: he may, for instance, think day and night of nothing but the moon. I have such a moon. Day and night I am held in the grip of one besetting thought, to write, write, write! Hardly have I finished one book than something urges me to write another, and then a third, and then a fourth--I write ceaselessly. I am, as it were, on a treadmill. I hurry for ever from one story to another, and can't help myself. Do you see anything bright and beautiful in that? Oh, it is a wild life! Even now, thrilled as I am by talking to you, I do not forget for an instant that an unfinished story is awaiting me. My eye falls on that cloud there, which has the shape of a grand piano; I instantly make a mental note that I must remember to mention in my story a cloud floating by that looked like a grand piano. I smell heliotrope; I mutter to myself: a sickly smell, the colour worn by widows; I must remember that in writing my next description of a summer evening. I catch an idea in every sentence of yours or of my own, and hasten to lock all these treasures in my literary store-room, thinking that some day they may be useful to me. As soon as I stop working I rush off to the theatre or go fishing, in the hope that I may find oblivion there, but no! Some new subject for a story is sure to come rolling through my brain like an iron cannonball. I hear my desk calling, and have to go back to it and begin to write, write, write, once more. And so it goes for everlasting. I cannot escape myself, though I feel that I am consuming my life. To prepare the honey I feed to unknown crowds, I am doomed to brush the bloom from my dearest flowers, to tear them from their stems, and trample the roots that bore them under foot. Am I not a madman? Should I not be treated by those who know me as one mentally diseased? Yet it is always the same, same old story, till I begin to think that all this praise and admiration must be a deception, that I am being hoodwinked because they know I am crazy, and I sometimes tremble lest I should be grabbed from behind and whisked off to a lunatic asylum. The best years of my youth were made one continual agony for me by my writing. A young author, especially if at first he does not make a success, feels clumsy, ill-at-ease, and superfluous in the world. His nerves are all on edge and stretched to the point of breaking; he is irresistibly attracted to literary and artistic people, and hovers about them unknown and unnoticed, fearing to look them bravely in the eye, like a man with a passion for gambling, whose money is all gone. I did not know my readers, but for some reason I imagined they were distrustful and unfriendly; I was mortally afraid of the public, and when my first play appeared, it seemed to me as if all the dark eyes in the audience were looking at it with enmity, and all the blue ones with cold indifference. Oh, how terrible it was! What agony!
”
”
Anton Chekhov (The Seagull)
“
All you need do is refrain from smoking, drinking and the use of drugs. Eat only wholesome,low-fat foods, with the emphasis on vegetables, grains and fish. Seek work. Work hard. Show up on time. Do more than is expected. Think of ways to make the job efficient. Don't complain. Shave, bathe and wear clean clothes. Be cheerful. Don't gamble. Live within your means. Save. And then, when you have all this in balance, study things of substance. Read to satisfy your curiosity. Don't father children out of wedlock or bear them as a single mother. Exercise. You will find that you will be promoted - perhaps not knighted, but promoted. Is that doesn't happen, look quietly for a better position. Find a husband or a wife whom you love and who has the same good habits. Invest. Assume a mortgage if you must. Teach your children the virtues. And then, having become the means of production, you will own your share of the means of production, and if you do those things, all of which are within your power, you will live your own lives."
They looked at him as if he were an armadillo that has just spoken to them in Chinese. Not having assimilated a single phrase, they all got up and went to the bus.
”
”
Mark Helprin (Freddy and Fredericka)
“
It's never too late for love. If you're in a relationship that doesn't satisfy, start asking for what you want and need and just give them more love. Over time they will, they must, respond in one of two important ways. (1) They will leave you for they cannot rise to your higher call for love or (2) They will surprise! They will rise to your higher call. Either way you win. You get another chance to get it right.
”
”
Kate McGahan
“
Won’t you look at me, Camilla Hect?”
Camilla murmured something that Nona could not hear. The body said, “I died, and you carried me. I gambled, and you covered my bet. You kept the faith, and were the instrument of both my vengeance and my grace. And now I have fought through time, and the River, and Ianthe the First—fought and bested Ianthe the First, and I hope I never fight her ever again…Will you not look at me now, Cam, and know me?”
Camilla raised her chin. She looked at the dead face. She said quietly—“Yes Warden. I will always know you.”
Their foreheads touched. Camilla reached out with her slippery hand, and Palamedes clasped it with Ianthe Naberius’s cold, gloveless one. Because both of their hands were very messy, it made an embarrassing squelch, but neither of them appeared to notice or care. Nona had to look away.
She heard Palamedes say, in the voice of Ianthe Naberius—“Pyrrha, I can barely do anything. I’m only the hand in a sock puppet. I don’t think I could unpick a single ward, and I can’t do a damn thing for Cam’s bleeding—thank God nothing’s protruding.”
Cam said, without opening her eyes, “Don’t worry about me, Warden. I’ll walk it off.”
“Yes, thank you for your input,” said Palamedes pleasantly. “I’ve taken it under advisement and will add it to the next agenda.”
Camilla smiled that wonderful hot-metal smile that Nona loved as long as she had been alive.
“Jackass.
”
”
Tamsyn Muir (Nona the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #3))
“
One day in the future, I will show my child her great-grandmother’s jade, the little gold rabbit with the ruby eyes. I will tell her that this will be hers. I will tell her all the stories about how our family survived, about the wars, and the gambling dens, and, yes, eventually even the golf club. I will tell her that when the sky falls, she should use it as a blanket. And then I will give her the shining thing, the thing that none of us got, the thing that only I, in all of my resilient power, can give. The thing that all this pain has given me. I will hold her tight and tell her that I love her more than anything in the world. That she can always come to me for anything at all, and I will fix it if it needs fixing or just listen if she needs to be listened to. And as long as I live, I will never leave.
”
”
Stephanie Foo (What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma)
“
I think about all of the times I’ve knocked on death’s door. The flashbacks give me the strength to want to fight, but they always make me realize I was given chance after chance to change my life. I guess I thought I was untouchable, and life would continue to toss a coin— when I tossed a coin in the air, I always use to say heads, and there it was—I won. Therefore, I always gambled with my life, and now I do not have room to gamble anymore, because I am here. Life is kicking my ass because the only thing I can do is think of the past and think about the what-ifs.”
~Love is respect ♥~
”
”
Charlena E. Jackson (In Love With Blindfolds On)
“
Quent pulled back and smiled. “You’re going to have to bet that
this thing you feel, this thing you know I feel, that it goes beyond us. You’re going to have to bet that love’s a deep hand, Jason. That there’s
more to life than numbers and research, more than just the cards you see. You’re going to have to bet that when the players are off the table, the game’s still there. Can you do that?
”
”
Amy Lane (Gambling Men)
“
Have you ever been to a funeral where the preacher stands before the friends and loved ones of the deceased and talks about how shitty the person was? How he fucked around on his wife? Or spent his family’s life savings to feed his gambling addiction? How about during his bachelor party when he snorted coke off a hooker’s ass? Me neither. Why is it that we’re fucking saints the moment we die?
”
”
Shantel Tessier (I Dare You (Dare, #1))
“
Above all, he liked it that everything was one's own fault. There was only oneself to praise or blame. Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of up to the hilt. But it had to be understood and recognized for what it was and not confused with a faulty appreciation of the odds, for, at gambling, the deadly sin is to mistake bad play for bad luck. And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared. Bond saw luck as a woman, to be softly wooed or brutally ravaged, never pandered to or pursued. But he was honest enough to admit that he had never yet been made to suffer by cards or by women. One day, and he accepted the fact, he would be brought to his knees by love or by luck. When that happened he knew that he too would be branded with the deadly question-mark he recognized so often in others, the promise to pay before you have lost: the acceptance of fallibility.
”
”
Ian Fleming (Casino Royale (James Bond, #1))
“
Put your hands up against the wall as well,” you snarl and your voice is
so close now – I can feel your hot breath against my neck. The proximity
makes me feel even hornier.
I comply immediately, feeling instantly more vulnerable this way and
loving the increased jeopardy. I know you want me as much as I want you,
but to prove the point, you push your frame up against me. Your body is
hard and I feel your cock straining against my ass through your trousers.
Automatically I arch my hips and grind myself against you. It’s a gamble I
am likely to be punished for, but the sensation is so good I am willing to
take the risk.
”
”
Felicity Brandon (Destination Anywhere)
“
I have nothing to complain of. For three days I have tramped the desert, have known the pangs of thirst, have followed false scents in the sand, have pinned my faith on the dew. I have struggled to rejoin my kind, whose very existence on earth I had forgotten. These are the cares of men alive in every fibre, and I cannot help thinking them more important than the fretful choosing of a night-club in which to spend the evening. Compare the one life with the other, and all things considered this is luxury! I have no regrets. I have gambled and lost. It was all in the day's work. At least I have had the unforgettable taste of the sea on my lips.
I am not talking about living dangerously. Such words are meaningless to me. The toreador does not stir me to enthusiasm. It is not danger I love. I know what I love. It is life.
”
”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (Wind, Sand and Stars)
“
Tate was probably on his way back to the nation’s capitol right now, she thought miserably. He would have protected her, and her child, but she’d sent him off in a fury. Great going, Cecily, she told herself. What a headline they’ll have now! Former Teenage Love Slave Killed By Vengeful Gambling Syndicate. That would give people something to read with their morning coffee!
”
”
Diana Palmer (Paper Rose (Hutton & Co. #2))
“
no song no picture or words will make you love me ,, may be you will never know ,, or may be you knew and felt sorry for me or thought it was sweet ,,but nothing will make me more than just a passing thought or a name you try to put for a face ,,,for me you are an exiting pain ,something that i involuntary need to share with the world how i suffer every time i hear a song or see a love them ,,after all this i need to see the facts ,,i gambled and i lost ,, i had to let the thought of you go ,, it is hard ,,it is painful ,,but it something i need to do ,, for me
”
”
Un knowing
“
She was a Victorian girl; a girl of the days when men were hard and top-hatted and masculine and ruthless and girls were gentle and meek and did a great deal of sewing and looked after the poor and laid their tender napes beneath a husband’s booted foot, and even if he brought home cabfuls of half-naked chorus girls and had them dance on the rich round mahogany dining-table (rosily reflecting great pearly hams and bums in its polished depths). Or, drunk to a frenzy, raped the kitchen-maid before the morning assembly of servants and children and her black silk-dressed self (gathered for prayers). Or forced her to stitch, on shirts, her fingers to rags to pay his gambling debts.
Husbands were a force of nature or an act of God; like an earthquake or the dreaded consumption, to be borne with, to be meekly acquiesced to, to be impregnated by as frequently as Nature would allow. It took the mindless persistence, the dogged imbecility of the grey tides, to love a husband.
”
”
Angela Carter (Shadow Dance)
“
He wept when his father died and sobbed when he lost his mother, but way before that he told us only stupid men hide emotion. There’s strength in being who you are and feeling what you feel and not giving a shit what people think. He said one of the worst things a man could be is inauthentic. He told us never to willfully break a woman’s heart because there’d come a time when a woman would break ours and we’d feel what we’d made her feel and we wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt. He loved us and he showed it. He was proud of us and he showed it.” Johnny Gamble talking about his father
”
”
Kristen Ashley (The Hookup (Moonlight and Motor Oil, #1))
“
WOODEN CAGES
I may be clapping my hands, but I don't
belong to a crowd of clappers. Neither
this nor that, I'm not part of a group
that loves flute music or one that loves
gambling or drinking wine. Those who
live in time, descended from Adam, made
of earth and water, I'm not part of that.
Don't listen to what I say, as though
these words came from an inside and went
to an outside. Your faces are very
beautiful, but they are wooden cages.
You had better run from me. My words
are fire. I have nothing to do with
being famous, or making grand judgments,
or feeling full of shame. I borrow
nothing. I don't want anything from
anybody. I flow through human beings.
Love is my only companion. When union
happens, my speech goes inside toward
Shams. At that meeting all the secrets
of language will no longer be secret.
”
”
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi (The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems)
“
You know all of the young gentlemen better than I do,” Lady Manston continued. “Are there any we should avoid?”
All of them, George wanted to say.
''What about Ashbourne’s son?''
“No.”
“No?” his mother echoed. “No, as in you don’t have an opinion?”
“No, as in no. He is not for Billie.”
Who, George could not help but note, was watching the mother-son exchange with an odd mix of curiosity and alarm.
“Any particular reason?” Lady Manston asked.
“He gambles,” George lied.
Well, maybe it wasn’t a lie. All gentlemen gambled. He had no idea if the one in question did so to excess.
“What about the Billington heir? I think he —”
“Also no.”
His mother regarded him with an impassive expression.
“He’s too young,” George said, hoping it was true.
“He is?” She frowned. “I suppose he might be. I can’t remember precisely.
”
”
Julia Quinn (Because of Miss Bridgerton (Rokesbys, #1))
“
But you've been distracted for weeks, thinking of nothing but that green-eyed bitch. She's brought you to this."
Garrett.
She wouldn't know he'd been thinking of her at the last moment. She would never know what she'd meant to him. It would make dying so much easier if only he'd told her. But she would do well without him, just as she had before. She was a strong, resilient woman, a force of nature.
He only worried that no one would bring her flowers.
How strange that as his life was spinning down to its end, there was no anger or fear, only soul-scorching love. He was dissolving in it. There was nothing left but the way she'd made him feel.
"Was she worth it?" Gamble jeered.
Gripping the railing behind him, Ethan smiled faintly. "Aye.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Hello Stranger (The Ravenels, #4))
“
Dear New Orleans, What a big, beautiful mess you are. A giant flashing yellow light—proceed with caution, but proceed. Not overly ambitious, you have a strong identity, and don’t look outside yourself for intrigue, evolution, or monikers of progress. Proud of who you are, you know your flavor, it’s your very own, and if people want to come taste it, you welcome them without solicitation. Your hours trickle by, Tuesdays and Saturdays more similar than anywhere else. Your seasons slide into one another. You’re the Big Easy…home of the shortest hangover on the planet, where a libation greets you on a Monday morning with the same smile as it did on Saturday night. Home of the front porch, not the back. This engineering feat provides so much of your sense of community and fellowship as you relax facing the street and your neighbors across it. Rather than retreating into the seclusion of the backyard, you engage with the goings-on of the world around you, on your front porch. Private properties hospitably trespass on each other and lend across borders where a 9:00 A.M. alarm clock is church bells, sirens, and a slow-moving eight-buck-an-hour carpenter nailing a windowpane two doors down. You don’t sweat details or misdemeanors, and since everybody’s getting away with something anyway, the rest just wanna be on the winning side. And if you can swing the swindle, good for you, because you love to gamble and rules are made to be broken, so don’t preach about them, abide. Peddlin worship and litigation, where else do the dead rest eye to eye with the livin? You’re a right-brain city. Don’t show up wearing your morals on your sleeve ’less you wanna get your arm burned. The humidity suppresses most reason so if you’re crossing a one-way street, it’s best to look both ways. Mother Nature rules, the natural law capital “Q” Queen reigns supreme, a science to the animals, an overbearing and inconsiderate bitch to us bipeds. But you forgive her, and quickly, cus you know any disdain with her wrath will reap more: bad luck, voodoo, karma. So you roll with it, meander rather, slowly forward, takin it all in stride, never sweating the details. Your art is in your overgrowth. Mother Nature wears the crown around here, her royalty rules, and unlike in England, she has both influence and power. You don’t use vacuum cleaners, no, you use brooms and rakes to manicure. Where it falls is where it lays, the swerve around the pothole, the duck beneath the branch, the poverty and the murder rate, all of it, just how it is and how it turned out. Like a gumbo, your medley’s in the mix. —June 7, 2013, New Orleans, La.
”
”
Matthew McConaughey (Greenlights)
“
The desert frightens me, I think. It looks too much like the seventh circle of hell. I'm afraid of damnation."
"Why?"
"Why?" Evelyn repeated, peering at Ann from behind her hand. She lay back again and closed her eyes. "I don't know. I've always supposed everyone is."
"Well, they're not. I, for instance, am a hell of a lot more frightened of being saved." Evelyn chuckled.
"I'm serious," Ann protested. "Virtue smells to me of rotting vegetation. Here you burn or freeze. Either way it's clean."
"Sterile," Evelyn said and felt the word a laceration of her own flesh. "I wonder. It's fertility that's a dirty word for me."
"Is it?"
"Yes, I'm terrified of giving in, of justifying my own existence by means of simple reproduction. So many people do or try to. And there are the children, so unfulfilling after all. And they grow up to do nothing but reproduce children who will reproduce, everyone so busy reproducing that there's no time to produce anything. But it's such a temptation. It seems so natural — another dirty word for me. What's the point?"
"You'd have the human race die out?"
"No. We'll multiply in spite of ourselves always. We'll populate the desert. One day there will be little houses and docks all along this shore, signs of our salvation."
"What would you have us do instead?" Evelyn asked.
"Accept damnation," Ann said. "It has its power and its charm. And it's real."
"So we should all get jobs in gambling casinos."
"We all do," Ann said, her voice amused. "What do you think the University of California is? It's just a minor branch of the Establishment. The only difference is that it has to be subsidized."
"Are you talking nonsense on purpose?"
"No, I'm serious."
"You think nothing has any value?"
"No, I think everything has value, absolute value, a child, a house, a day's work, the sky. But nothing will save us. We were never meant to be saved."
"What were we meant for then?"
"To love the whole damned world," Ann said…
"I live in the desert of the heart," Evelyn said quietly, "I can't love the whole damned world." 'Love me, Evelyn.' 'I do.
”
”
Jane Rule (Desert of the Heart)
“
What You Should Know to be a Poet"
all you can know about animals as persons.
the names of trees and flowers and weeds.
the names of stars and the movements of planets
and the moon.
your own six senses, with a watchful elegant mind.
at least one kind of traditional magic:
divination, astrology, the book of changes, the tarot;
dreams.
the illusory demons and the illusory shining gods.
kiss the ass of the devil and eat sh*t;
fuck his horny barbed cock,
fuck the hag,
and all the celestial angels
and maidens perfum’d and golden-
& then love the human: wives husbands and friends
children’s games, comic books, bubble-gum,
the weirdness of television and advertising.
work long, dry hours of dull work swallowed and accepted
and lived with and finally lovd. exhaustion,
hunger, rest.
the wild freedom of the dance, extasy
silent solitary illumination, entasy
real danger. gambles and the edge of death.
”
”
Gary Snyder
“
You love Robert, not me. You don’t love Lord Stuffy, so I tried to be like Robert.”
The sweet idiot! She felt like weeping again. She began to protest, but he cut her off.
“I don’t drink and I don’t gamble and I don’t have a mistress. I’m dull. You told me so, the first time we met. So I tried to change.” He frowned. “Not the mistress. I’ll never do that.”
“Good,” she whispered.
“I’m trying to be like Robert, but I’m no good at it. I drank wine. And brandy, lots of it. I didn’t like it and it made me sick. I played hazard and I lost.” He looked momentarily cheerful and her heart sank. “But I didn’t like that either. If I was a real man like Mr. Fox, or Robert, I’d have lost thousands.”
The sadder he looked, the more her heart ached, a happy ache.
“I failed you, Caro. I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I’ll always be Lord Stuffy,” he said, and closed his tortured, bloodshot eyes.
”
”
Miranda Neville (The Importance of Being Wicked (The Wild Quartet, #1))
“
Chase took a long breath. “There’s no way around saying this, other than just coming straight out with it. I’ve been an idiot—an ass. Time and time again, I’ve done the wrong thing by you.”
Her mouth dropped open.
“And this whole time I’d been trying to do the right thing by not being with you. I didn’t want to betray Mitch by hooking up with his little sister. I didn’t want to somehow mess up our friendship either, because you have been such a huge part of my life.” He took a deep breath. “And I never wanted to be like my father—to treat you like he treated my mom. And it was stupid—I get that now. Chad was right. Father never loved our mother, but it’s different for me—it’s different for us. It always has been.”
The whole time he spoke, he never looked away from her. She opened her mouth to say something but he rushed ahead. “But all I’ve managed to do is screw things up. That night in the club…I wasn’t drunk.”
Madison shifted uncomfortably. “I know.”
“It was a lame excuse, and I’m sorry. That night—I should’ve told you how I really felt. And every night thereafter,” he said, taking a step forward. “I should’ve told you how I felt the night in that damn cabin, too.”
Her heart swelled as hope grew in a tangle of emotions she could never unravel. All of this seemed surreal. Tears rushed her eyes as she reached behind her, grasping the edges of her desk. “And how do you feel?”
Chase’s smile revealed those deep dimples she loved, and when he spoke, his voice was husky. “Aw hell, Maddie, I’m not good at this kind of stuff. You…you are my world. You’ve always been my world, ever since I can remember.”
At Bridget’s soft inhale, Madison placed a trembling hand over her mouth.
Stepping forward, he placed a hand over hers, gently pulling it away from her mouth. “It’s the truth. You are my everything. I love you. I have for longer than I realized. Please tell me my boneheadedness hasn’t screwed things up beyond repair for us.
”
”
J. Lynn (Tempting the Best Man (Gamble Brothers, #1))
“
Besides, if you wouldn’t duel with Lord Everly when he called you a cheat, you certainly wouldn’t harm poor Lord Howard merely for touching my arm.”
“Wouldn’t I?” he asked softly. “Those are two very different issues.”
Not for the first time, Elizabeth found herself at a loss to understand him. Suddenly his presence was vaguely threatening again; whenever he stopped playing the amusing gallant he became a dark, mysterious stranger. Raking her hair off her forehead, she glanced out the window. “It must be after three already. I really must leave.” She surged to her feet, smoothing her skirts. “Thank you for a lovely afternoon. I don’t know why I remained. I shouldn’t have, but I am glad I did…”
She ran out of words and watched in wary alarm as he stood up. “Don’t you?” he asked softly.
“Don’t I what?”
“Know why you’re still here with me?”
“I don’t even know who you are?” she cried. “I know about places you’ve been, but not your family, your people. I know you gamble great sums of money at cards, and I disapprove of that-“
“I also gamble great sums of money on ships and cargo-will that improve my character in your eyes?”
“And I know,” she continued desperately, watching his gaze turn warm and sensual, “I absolutely know you make me excessively uneasy when you look at me the way you’re doing now!”
“Elizabeth,” he said in a tone of tender finality, “you’re here because we’re already half in love with each other.”
“Whaaat? she gasped.
“And as to needing to know who I am, that’s very simple to answer.” His hand lifted, grazing her pale cheek, then smoothing backward, cupping her head. Gently he explained, “I am the man you’re going to marry.”
“Oh, my God!”
“I think it’s too late to start praying,” he teased huskily.
“You-you must be mad,” she said, her voice quavering.
“My thoughts exactly,” he whispered, and, bending his head, he pressed his lips to her forehead, drawing her against his chest, holding her as if he knew she would struggle if he tried to do more than that. “You were not in my plans, Miss Cameron.”
“Oh, please,” Elizabeth implored helplessly, “don’t do this to me. I don’t understand any of this. I don’t know what you want.”
“I want you.” He took her chin between his thumb and forefinger and lifted it, forcing her to meet his steady gaze as he quietly added, “And you want me.”
Elizabeth’s entire body started to tremble as his lips began descending to hers, and she sought to forestall what her heart knew was inevitable by reasoning with him. “A gently bred Englishwomen,” she shakily quoted Lucinda’s lecture, “feels nothing stronger than affection. We do not fall in love.”
His warm lips covered hers. “I’m a Scot,” he murmured huskily. “We do.”
“A Scot!” she uttered when he lifted his mouth from hers.
He laughed at her appalled expression. “I said ‘Scot,’ not ‘ax murderer.”
A Scot who was a gambler to boot! Havenhurst would land on the auction block, the servants turned off, and the world would fall apart. “I cannot, cannot marry you.”
“Yes, Elizabeth,” he whispered as his lips trailed a hot path over her cheek to her ear, “you can.
”
”
Judith McNaught (Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3))