No, he said to himself, don’t fool yourself. You do not know how he was before; but you do know that he is going bad fast and without hiding it. When he starts to hide it, he will have made a decision. Remember that, he told himself. The first friendly thing he does, he will have made a decision.
Sayfa 16Kitabı okudu
Eliminate the nonessential
“Remember, you can’t accomplish anything if you’re trying to accomplish everything. Concentrate on the essential. Get rid of the rest”
Sayfa 55Kitabı okuyor
Pain doesn’t matter, though. The girl lying helpless in front of me does. I lean over and place a chaste kiss on her dry lips. “I’m here, sweetheart. I’ll always be here.”
“I love you, Aiden.” It’s barely a whisper, but it hits me straight to a sombre corner in my soul.
She loves me.
Elsa fucking loves me.
I’ll never get enough of hearing those words out of her mouth.
I take her hand in mine and place a kiss on the palm. “Stay with me, Elsa. You promised, remember?”
“Do you love me?” she whispers.
I capture her cracked mouth in a quick kiss, nibbling on her bottom lip longer than needed.
“Tell me, Aiden… T-tell me…”
“I will when you open your eyes.”
“I said it many times. You’re not fair.”
I chuckle at the lines forming on her forehead. She’s frowning and being stubborn even when feverish.
“What I feel for you isn’t only love, obsession, or addiction. It’s all of those and more. Do you know what that means, sweetheart? It means I can’t live without you, so don’t you fucking dare leave me.”
So when it comes down to a specific answer, it’s easy. “Everything,” I say.
“Everything?” she asks, voice laced with confusion.
“Your passion, your darkness, your fire, and even your damn stubbornness. I find all of them sexy and there isn’t a thing I would change about you. So yes, everything.”
Her lips part and her eyes soften with deep affection before she turns her gaze away as if hiding her reaction.
“You’re touched, aren’t you?” I poke her arm.
“Shut up.” Her cheeks turn crimson.
I smile. “Pay me back, sweetheart.”
“Pay you back?”
“Yeah. Tell me what you like most about me.”
“No.”
It’s my turn look at her twice. “No?”
She lifts her chin in defiance, eyes glinting. “It’s a secret.”
“You don’t get to keep secrets from me.”
“Yes, I do.” She lay her head on my arm. “I can’t have you lose interest in me.”
“Believe me, that will never happen.”
“Still no. You need a challenge, remember? I’ll be that challenge and more.”
I smile to myself. This is why Elsa is one a kind. This is why she’ll always be mine.
No one understands me as much as she does.
Every fireman, sooner or later, hits this. They only need understanding, to know how the wheels run. Need to know the history of our profession. They don’t feed it to rookies like they used to. Damn shame. (...) Only fire chiefs remember it now. (...) I'll let you in on it. (...)
When did it all start, you ask, this job of ours, how did it
Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he condemns me? Let him live with me in the interchange of kindness, and instead of injury I would bestow every benefit upon him with tears of gratitude at his acceptance. But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery. I will revenge my injuries; if I cannot inspire love, I will cause fear, and chiefly towards you my archenemy, because my creator, do I swear inextinguishable hatred. Have a care; I will work at your destruction, nor finish until I desolate your heart, so that you shall curse the hour of your birth."
Sayfa 132
