Tighter Quotes

The whole weekend turned out to be one giant round of excruciating foreplay, and if he doesn't stop stalling and give me some relief pretty damn pronto, there's going to be a girl-parts rebellion the likes of which he's never seen. I'm wound tighter than Jane Fonda's latest facelift, goddammit. ~ Leisa Rayven

I'll only ever worship these lips. I'll only ever worship this body." Gripping the back of her neck tighter, Gavin deepened the kiss. "When I look at you, I feel like I'm looking at the other half of myself. You've filled the empty space in my soul, and because of that, you're a goddess to me. That's the way I'm always going to treat you. For the rest of your life. I promise you that. I fucking promise. ~ Gail McHugh

She clung to him without even opening her eyes. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight as he sat back on the floor of the balcony. Her breath was coming hard. She pressed her cheek against his chest. His heart beat in her ear, thumping nearly as fast as her own. "You are safe now. I have you. You are safe." He held her even tighter. Avelina ~ Melanie Dickerson

Up ahead about two blocks, a massive figure stepped out into her path.
She halted. Took a deep breath. Felt a prickling in her eyes.
On the breeze drifting down to her, John's unmistakable bonding scent was a dark spice that wiped out the stink of the city and the wretched sting of her unhappiness.
She started walking toward him. Fast. Faster ...
Now she was running.
He met her halfway, falling into a jog as soon as he saw her pick up the pace, and they slammed into each other.
Hard to know whose mouth found whose, or whose arms were cinched tighter, or who was the desperate one.
But then, in this they were equals. ~ J.R. Ward

Juliette!" His voice is tighter, higher, laced with anger and terror and denial and betrayal. Realization is a new piece in his puzzled mind.
"He can touch you?"
"Goddamit, Juliette, answer me!" Warner is writhing on the floor, unhinged in a way I never thought possible. He looks wild, his eyes disbelieving, horrified. "Has he touched you? ~ Tahereh Mafi

My daughter, Grace, was not killed by a gun. She died suddenly at age 5 from a virulent form of strep. As I stood stunned in a church at her memorial, one of the hardest things I heard someone say was, 'I'm going to go home and hug my child a little tighter.' 'Well, good for you,' I thought. 'I'm going to go home and scream.' ~ Ann Hood

The ocean turns cold, dark, pressing around me, but the deeper I go the more the iron inside of me twists and pulls and I know that I'm tethered to the boat, that even now the men pull the rope tighter and drag me back to the surface. ~ Kendall Kulper

You're not a thing in the dark," Kelly said under his breath.
"No." Nick clutched his fingers tighter. "But I can be."
Kelly stared at him for a long time, nodding, blue-gray eyes turning to quartz granite. "Then we'll be things in the dark together. ~ Abigail Roux

Well, bloody noses." I hug his coat tighter. "Those are definitely hot. ~ Stephanie Perkins

And because I still feel like I haven't said enough - because I need to prove just how momentous this is for me, I bash down the barriers I've kept up for eight years, unleashing my aura for Anna to see. I shiver as I bare myself, and I feel Anna holding me tighter. I want her to see my love, like I saw hers once upon a time.
"Oh ... " she whispers. "It's beautiful."
I shake my head. Only one thing deserves that word. "You're beautiful. ~ Wendy Higgins

Perhaps it's human nature: We want to shield our children from pain, and what we get instead is life and heartache and lessons that bring us to our knees. Sooner or later we are handed the brute, necessary curriculum of surrender, we have no choice, then but to bow our heads and learn. We struggle to accept that our children's destinies are not ours to write, their battles not ours to fight, their bruises not ours to bear, nor their victories ours to take credit for. We learn humility and how to ask for help. We learn to let go even when every fiber of our being yearns to hold on even tighter. ~ Katrina Kenison

I start to pull back, but he hugs me tighter.
"You love me. You admitted it."
"I do love you."
His body trembles in response, as if he can't contain his emotions at my confession. ~ A.G. Howard

It's hard to know where to start. Things have been a mess for so many years that trying to pin down a starting point is like trying to figure out where your skin starts. All you can ever really know is that it's wrapped around you, sometimes a little tighter than you'd like.
But clearly there have been some mistakes. Bad ones. You can tell that just by looking at him. ~ Jonathan Tropper

If everyone has the same number of hours in the day, why do some people seem to get so much more done than others? How do they do more, achieve more, earn more, have more? If time is the currency of achievement, then why are some able to cash in their allotment for more chips than others?
The answer is they make getting to the heart of things the heart of their approach. They go small. Going small is ignoring all the things you could do and doing what you should do. It's recognizing that not all things matter equally and finding the things that matter most. It's a tighter way to connect what you do with what you want. It's realizing that extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus. ~ Gary Keller

The more the Party is powerful, the less it will be tolerant: the weaker the opposition, the tighter the despotism. ~ George Orwell

So what?" I challenged, pulling the quilt tighter around myself. "All you're telling me is I won't betray my friends or family. If that's a weakness, it's one I want. ~ Julie Kagawa

I'm not in love with someone!" he shouted at her, infuriated because she was right and he couldn't do a thing about it. "I'm in love with you, and damn it,I don't like it."
"You've made that abundantly clear." She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin.
"Don't pull that regal routine on me," Grant began. Her eyes sharpened to dagger points. Her skin flushed majestically. Abruptly he began to laugh.When she tossed her head back in fury,he simply collapsed against her. "Oh,God,Gennie,I can't take it when you look at me as though you were about to have me tossed in the dungeon."
"Get off me,you ass!" Incensed, insulted, she shoved against him, but he only held her tighter. Only quick reflexes saved him from a well-aimed knee at a strategic point. ~ Nora Roberts

Kawasumi-kun is holding tighter than I am. ~ Suu Morishita

Her stomach looped into a series of reef knots, each growing tighter the closer her steps carried her into the center of town. ~ Tracey Alvarez

Loose you're kidding, right? You're wound up tighter than a pissed-off rattlesnake. ~ Ashley Elston

It's a long way back. she said softly.
Nick shrugged and held her hand tighter. Not so far as we've come already. ~ Garth Nix

Cam and I just broke up."
Cam laughed, hugging me even tighter into his side.
I huffed, trying to wriggle free. "What are you doing?"
"Getting back together with you. ~ Samantha Young

He clenched onto her, the way a 3-year-old kid would clench to his doll whenever someone tried to take it away from him. The doll was getting tore a bit every time the kid held it tighter. In the end, when they stopped trying to take it away from him, he looked at it with all the love he had for it. The doll wasn't the same anymore. It had lost all its beauty it had in the beginning. And the kid just wished in silence that if only he could let it go in the beginning. ~ Akshay Vasu

I want to take Justin Bieber for a month and just lock him up in a cage where we sit and make music. He's one of the most successful people in the world, but his music could be so much tighter. ~ Tyler, The Creator

My old father used to have a saying: If you make a bad bargain, hug it all the tighter. ~ Abraham Lincoln

Having him hold me like that was the only good thing out of it all, having him hold me and being right there with me. I just wished he could have held me harder and tighter and made the bad feelings, the dirty feelings, go away. But I don't think you can hold a person that tight, so tight that she's in your heart, way inside your skin, being cleaned and warmed by your blood. (11) ~ Susan Shaw

I don't know what's going on with you,' the man says from across the counter, 'but I'm not taking your money.' He blows into a straw and pinches both ends shut.
I shake my head and reach back for my wallet. 'No, I'll pay.'
He winds the straw tighter and tighter. 'I'm serious. It was only a milkshake. And like I said, I don't know what's going on, and I don't know how I can help, but something's clearly gone wrong in your life, so I want you to keep your money.' His eyes search mine, and I know he means it.
I don't know what to say. Even if the words would come, my throat is so tight it won't let them escape. ~ Jay Asher

You went from worrying about being weak to wanting a fence with me?"
"I don't give a flying fuck about being weak. You're the only thing I care about. You make me whole. You make me feel. You make me ... " He searched for the word. "Everything." He pulled her tighter to him. "It's always been you, Holly. And it always will be. Say yes."
"Yes," she said instantly. "To everything. ~ Jill Shalvis

Inauguration Security was tighter than Kirstie Alley in a pair of spandex pants. ~ Jay Leno

Wiggy & I were drug buddies. There is no tighter compact for friendship. There is no greater potential for deceit. ~ Pete Townshend

But squeezing her eyes tighter, she concentrated not on her fear but on his expression . . . his eyes . . . his lips . . . his dark brows and the way his dark hair hung over his forehead. She remembered his voice, the words he had spoken to her, and her stomach did that strange flip it often did when she thought about the margrave. Magdalen ~ Melanie Dickerson

If only we could all escape from this house of incest, where we only love ourselves in the other, if only I could save you all from yourselves, said the modern Christ.
But none of us could bear to pass through the tunnel which led from the house into the world on the other side of the walls, where there were leaves on the trees, where water ran beside the paths, where there was daylight and joy. We could not believe that the tunnel would open on daylight: we feared to be trapped into darkness again; we feared to return whence we had come, from darkness and night. The tunnel would narrow and taper
down as we walked; it would close around us, and close tighter and tighter around us and stifle us. It would grow heavy and narrow and suffocate us as we walked. ~ Anais Nin

The way surviving hard winters makes a tree grows stronger, the growth rings inside it tighter ~ Haruki Murakami

You're a talking cat?" Endora asked with a look of disbelief on her face.
"My, my, my, aren't you the bright bulb of the bunch," he replied with a bit of snarky smugness. "Tell me then, bright-bulb, do you suppose that I need your permission to talk just because I'm a cat?" He raised his paw to his face, admiring his newly gnawed manicure. After he observed the last nail, he slapped his paw down on the floorboards, making a low thud sound. "Because I don't," he smirked.
Endora was taken by surprise at his rudeness. She stared back at him, speechless and not quite sure how to respond.
"Are you a magic cat?" Mila busted in with a question that seemed as silly to her as to the cat.
He glared and narrowed his eyes at her. "A magic cat," he said, standing up to arch his furry back. "Is my talking some sort of magic to you? If it is… then I am." He stretched his back higher and let out a long purr that turned into, "Purrhaps, you four little witchy girls should clearly refine your meaning of magic so you know what it means before you say the word magic."
"I rather am quite fond of talking cats," Selena said with a big smile. "Of course, you're the first one I've ever seen."
The cat narrowed its eyes tighter. "Indeed," he said, letting out a yawn as if the whole conversation were a bore. He leapt off the porch and dash away, mumbling and grumbling his way down the corridor.
Selena looked over at Endora. "Rude little snot, isn't he?" she said. ~ Sophie Palmer

Because I Cannot Sleep

Because I cannot sleep
I make music at night.
I am troubled by the one
whose face has the color of spring flowers.
I have neither sleep nor patience,
neither a good reputation nor disgrace.
A thousand robes of wisdom are gone.
All my good manners have moved a thousand miles away.
The heart and the mind are left angry with each other.
The stars and the moon are envious of each other.
Because of this alienation the physical universe
is getting tighter and tighter.
The moon says, 'How long will I remain
suspended without a sun?'
Without Love's jewel inside of me,
let the bazaar of my existence be destroyed stone by stone.
O Love, You who have been called by a thousand names,
You who know how to pour the wine
into the chalice of the body,
You who give culture to a thousand cultures,
You who are faceless but have a thousand faces,
O Love, You who shape the faces
of Turks, Europeans, and Zanzibaris,
give me a glass from Your bottle,
or a handful of being from Your Branch.
Remove the cork once more.
Then we'll see a thousand chiefs prostrate themselves,
and a circle of ecstatic troubadours will play.
Then the addict will be freed of craving.
and will be resurrected,
and stand in awe till Judgement Day ~ Rumi

To distract himself from the pain, he focused his blurring vision on the droplets of moisture collecting like diamonds in her abundant curls. Instead of making her hair heavy and straight, the rain seemed to coil the ringlets tighter and anoint the silvery strands with a darker gloss of spun gold. ~ Kerrigan Byrne

Don't let them get to you,' the pastor told us. 'All they have is hate, and in the end hate is worthless. They want for us to become hateful, too, and to forfeit His love in our anger. When faced with such hate, we can only embrace love tighter. As Paul said, 'Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. ~ David Levithan

The problem here, Gwen, is that the more desperate you are to achieve financial success and the tighter you hold on to what you've got, the greater your chances of losing it. Money's like love in that respect. ~ Tom Robbins

The bond of sisterly love is much tighter than the bond which binds men. ~ Dixie Waters

B-b-but who will I have cleaning marathons with?"
"Casey. I'll be there in spirit."
"She's not neurotic and cranky like you."
"You'll miss that, ay?"
"Hell yes, I'll miss that! When you're obsessive and pissy, you tell those floors who's boss. They won't shine like that when Casey scrubs them. And don't get me started on our Covenant Series discussions. The girl thinks Alex should pick Seth. Seth, Em. How can I clean with someone who isn't Team Aiden? It's like ... madness. Madness on Earth. The fucking apocalypse - "
"Whitney," I chuckled, squeezing her tighter, "I assure you, you'll survive. The second she starts running her mouth about Aiden, just spray her with bleach. That'll teach her a lesson."
-Emma and Whitney ~ Rachael Wade

She broke my heart. My mother broke my heart. If I love Rachel she'll have more power than both of them combined because this overwhelming pulse in my body...this overwhelming need to protect her and hold her close...
I nuzzle into her hair and close my eyes, inhaling the sweet scent of jasmine. I should let her go, let her go, just let her go. Walk away now. Hang on to what's left of my sanity.
But as Rachel presses tighter to me, I know I'm too far gone to stand a chance alone. I'm in love, f*cking in love, and I pray to the God that abandoned me years ago that He doesn't use this to destroy me. "I love you." ~ Katie McGarry

I'm falling in love with you, Mike Haines." As I spoke, with every word his arms got tighter and tighter and his face, already close, became a breath away.
"Angel, you're already gone."
I blinked and asked, "Sorry?"
"I read your diaries. I caught your pass in that hotel room. I listened to your offer to stay. I saw you wave good-bye at the airport and got your call before I'd pulled out of the parking lot. You fell with a kiss. I know, honey, because I was right there with you. ~ Kristen Ashley

A king without a Queen." Kian sighed, breathing mist into the air. He held me tighter, kissing me with a heat that seemed to thaw the very snow on which we stood. "You don't know me as well as you think you do," he said. "What I'm holding back. What I'm capable of. You haven't felt it - how much I love you ... ~ Kailin Gow

I squeeze my eyes shut tighter, trying to imagine another world again. A world where we're happy, where we're together, where we're away from all of this.
A world without a target on our backs.
A world where Naz comes home.
A world where we can live in peace.
A world that's just ours. ~ J.M. Darhower

If I knew how to stop the tears, I would. I don't want him to hear me cry. I don't want him to know how upset I am that we can't have this every day of our lives. I don't want him to ask me what's wrong.
When he feels my tears falling against his chest, he doesn't do anything to stop them. Instead, he simply holds me with a much tighter grip and presses his cheek against the top of my head. His hand brushes softly through my hair.
"I know, baby," he whispers. "I know. ~ Colleen Hoover

You never called, and I was up all night waiting for that phone to buzz, you bitch," Willow says, pushing her glasses tighter to her face with the tip of her finger.
"You're so bad at playing tough," I say, fighting off laughter at the way she said the word bitch.
"Am not! Now, don't disrespect me, or I'll cut you, bitch ~ Ginger Scott

Bodyguard."
Nipping at my mouth, he pulled me even tighter against his firm body. "You should fire him" – kiss – "for letting you go up a bridge every night alone." Kiss
I smiled against his lips. "I'd fire him if he followed me."
"I follow you." He smirked. Kiss.
"Every celebrity needs a stalker I guess. The good news is I happen to like mine."
"That definitely makes my job that much easier. ~ Aly Martinez

I love it when I hug someone, and just when I'm about to let go. They hug me even tighter. ~ Nitya Prakash

Expectation is the hoary curse of humanity. One can listen to words, and see them as the unfolding of a petal or, indeed, the very opposite: each word bent and pushed tighter, smaller, until the very packet of meaning vanishes with a flip of deft fingers. Poets and tellers of tales can be tugged by either current, into the riotous conflagration of beauteous language or the pithy reduction of the tersely colourless. ~ Steven Erikson

It's interesting that instead of having to get tighter and more restricted for a collaboration, strangely enough, from the beginning, we've actually been more confident that we could handle this. ~ Robert Asprin

Dark Fae are evil. They do evil things to each other, but there is an unspoken rule that you never harm family."
She held him tighter, wishing she could take away his pain with a hug. "Families hurt each other all the time. ~ Donna Grant

Her OBGYN, Dr Caroline Murdoch, popped in and asked if she could speak to Bree alone. Bree nodded and Tina left them. "I wanted to talk to you about why you fainted." Something in her voice made Bree's body go rigid with expectation. "I…thought maybe it was the shock of… everything," Bree whispered. Oh God. Oh God. She didn't know what she was bracing herself for. "I know you and Alessandro were trying to conceive again. I want to tell you that you were successful. You're going to have a baby, Bree," she said. Bree squeezed Gianni tighter and buried her face in his neck as the tears filled her eyes and streamed from her face. Oh God…Now? She was torn between joy and utter terror. They had done it, but how would Alessandro react when he found out, considering the condition he was in now. They had created another life. Another target for Arturo. ~ E. Jamie

We and you ought not to pull on the ends of a rope which you have tied the knots of war. Because the more the two of us pull, the tighter the knot will be tied. And then it will be necessary to cut that knot, and what that would mean is not for me to explain to you. I have participated in two wars and know that war ends when it has rolled through cities and villages, everywhere sowing death and destruction. For such is the logic of war. If people do not display wisdom, they will clash like blind moles and then mutual annihilation will commence. ~ Nikita Khrushchev

No matter how much I want to scream at him and make him leave, I find myself wishing he could squeeze me just a little bit tighter. I want him to lock his arms around me and throw away the key, because this is where he belongs and I'm scared he'll just let me go again. ~ Colleen Hoover

She might have been brained right then but Ash managed to cup one hand behind her head to cushion the impact His other hand had a fistful of the back of her jeans, holding the waist so she didn't slide down him. She had both legs wrapped tight around his middle, her hand clutching his shoulders.
Time slowed. The noise of the crowd disappeared. Ash was pressed hard into her, crushing her against the post, his body hot against her front. His bare chest rose and fell as he breathed deep. His hand formed a fist in her hair and pulled her head back until their eyes met in a stare that cut right through her. His irises weren't quite black but close. His strength was all around her, holding her, pinning he helplessly. She met his stare her teeth bared fiercely.
Then she grabbed his head and yanked his mouth down onto hers.
It wasn't a gentle kiss. Ash's mouth met hers and it was like a flame meeting oil- fire and raging heat. She arched into him as he shoved her into the post, pressing them even tighter together. His mouth moved with hers, against hers, fierce and carnal and demanding. She clamped her fingers over the back of his head and pulled him closer still, demanding even more. His hand tightened in her hair and she tilted her head farther back as their kiss deepened into something even wilder.
Seconds later - minutes later? Ash pulled back with one last nipping bite to her bottom lip that made heat plunge through her middle. They held there, faces inche ~ Annette Marie

Teams that are moved by great purpose become tighter still when things are tough. ~ Eric Greitens

Here we go again. Always a few drinks, but sometimes even sober, we play the unhappiness game; endlessly round and round. Ding dong. Tighter and tighter. On and on. Push me pull you. Come here and i'll tell you how much i hate you. Hang on a minute while i leave you. All the while we know we are missing the point, whatever the point used to be. ~ Anne Enright

Have a father who lived up to his own promise and then found thing after thing to meet and surpass the expectations of his promise in, and didn't seem just a whole hell of a lot happier or tighter wrapped than his own failed father, leaving you yourself in a kind of feral and flux-ridden state with respect to talent. ~ David Foster Wallace

Last night I undressed for bed. But instead of crawling between the sheets I decided to stand, naked, in front of the large full-length mirror that is propped against the wall next to my bed. ⠀
⠀
I turned off the bright lights, and found a song that spoke to the energy I could feel under my skin. For a while I just stood there. And I looked at myself. Bare skin. Open Heart. Clear truth. ⠀
⠀
It's a wonder, after 42 years on earth, to allow it to fully land, this knowing that I can stop, and look at myself and think things other than unkind words. ⠀
⠀
Don't get me wrong. I don't want to paint you a pretty social media picture that doesn't play out in real life. I'm not suddenly completely fine with all that is. I'm human and I'm a woman in the midst of this particular culture, and so of course I'd love to be tighter and firmer and lifted. I'd love to have the skin and metabolism I did in my twenties. I wish, often, that my stomach were flatter. I wear makeup and I dye away my gray hair. I worry about these things too, of course I do. ⠀
⠀
But finally, and fully - I can stand and look at myself and be filled, completely, with love. I can look at myself entirely bare and think, yes, I like myself now. Just as I am. Even if nothing changes. This me. She is good. And she is beautiful. ⠀
⠀
And even in the space of allowing myself to be human, and annoyed with those things I view as imperfections, I honor and celebrate this shift. ⠀
Jeanette LeBlanc

Amy hugged her tighter. "Does that mean I can keep you?"
"Only if I can keep you. ~ Shannon Messenger

I will always love you, Kellan. Your heart is safe with me."
Kellan pulled me into a hug and let out a long, shaky breath as he held me. "Promise?" he whispered?
I squeezed him just a little bit tighter. "I promise." Pulling back, I rested my forehead against his. "Not loving you isn't possible. Trust me, I tried. ~ S.C. Stephens

There will be Casnoff butt kicked and all sorts of names taken. And hey, maybe I'll get some new scars."
Both of them hugged me tighter. "We love you, Soph," Mom said.
"Quite right," Dad added, and I laughed, even as my stomach twisted itself into a balloon animal. ~ Rachel Hawkins

I think that with piracy and tighter funds being around, people are realising that the game to play is to try and win people's respect with bold film making and then win a special place in people's collections, rather than just having the biggest opening weekends. ~ Riz Ahmed

Jessica," he whispered hoarsely. "Ah, merciful saints above, I thought I'd never have you again." He clutched her to him. "Say you'll never leave me. Vow you'll never leave my arms again. Nay, I'll never let you go." He held her tighter. "Nothing will take you from me again, not even time. No more wishes. No more wishes unless we make them together. ~ Lynn Kurland

Time is like a handful of sand - the tighter you grasp it, the faster it runs through your fingers. ~ Henry David Thoreau

All this time he was sitting up in bed and looking at the woman who was lying beside him and holding his hand in her sleep. He felt an ineffable love for her. Her sleep must have been very light at the moment because she opened her eyes and gazed up at him questioningly.
"What are you looking at?" she asked.
He knew that instead of waking her he should lull her back to sleep, so he tried to come up with an answer that would plant the image of a new dream in her mind.
"I'm looking at the stars," he said.
"Don't say you're looking at the stars. That's a lie. You're looking down."
"That's because we're on an airplane. The stars are below us."
"Oh, in an airplane," said Tereza, squeezing his hand even tighter and falling asleep again. And Tomas knew that Tereza was looking out of the round window of an airplane flying high above the stars. ~ Milan Kundera

Just hold me for a little while."
I hug her tighter. "I'll hold you forever. ~ Carian Cole

Most of us know that the media tell us our bodies are imperfect - too fat, to smelly, too wrinkled, or too soft. And, even though we may know it's horseshit, these messages still seep into our brains and mess with our self-esteem. In a media-saturated country where most images of women and men have been photoshopped to perfection, it's hard to find a living supermodel (much less a computer programmer), who doesn't wish she had sexier earlobes or a tighter ass. So, buck up, even the prettiest bombshell has body insecurities. You can spend your life thinking your butt's too big (or your cock's too small) or feeling sexy as hell. Make the choice to appreciate your body as it is. ~ Victoria Vantoch

If you want to achieve tighter skin, better contouring, tone and rejuvenation for both your face and body we can help. Bella Pelle Cosmetic Clinic now offering lifting and tightening treatments in Sydney. ~ Bella Pelle Cosmetic Clinic

I held her as the rain beat down on the car.
I held her tighter as it got worse.
I let go of her when it cleared.
And then I drove her home.
All while not saying a Goddamn word - because really - what was there left to say?
She said she couldn't be with me. ~ Jay McLean

She felt as though her nerves were strings being strained tighter and tighter on some sort of screwing peg. She felt her eyes opening wider and wider, her fingers and toes twitching nervously, something within oppressing her breathing, while all shapes and sounds seemed in the uncertain half-light to strike her with unaccustomed vividness. Moments of doubt were continually coming upon her, when she was uncertain whether the train were going forwards or backwards, or were standing still altogether; whether it were Annushka at her side or a stranger. "What's that on the arm of the chair, a fur cloak or some beast? And what am I myself? Myself or some other woman?" She was afraid of giving way to this delirium. But something drew her towards it, and she could yield to it or resist it at will. ~ Leo Tolstoy

I can conceive of a time when all souls are stretched to the point of breaking, but for all I know that could have happened centuries ago. There is something curious about man's constant dilution of himself in pursuit of this equilibrium of a risk-free life - who is to say this dilution does not also apply to the soul? Spread ever more thinly...each generation pulled tighter in its further departure from man's initial purpose and evolution, until that simple, honest soul is so thin that it becomes diluted beyond salvation? ~ Matt Corton

But there are times when you just need to acknowledge the shit, Fern, you know?"
Fern nodded, squeezing his hand a little tighter. "Yep. And that's okay, too."
"You just need to acknowledge it. Face the shit." Bailey's voice grew stronger, strident even. "Accept the truth in it. Own it, wallow in it, become one with the shit." Bailey sighed, the heavy mood lifting with his insistence on profanity. Swearing could be very therapeutic.
Fern smiled wanly. "Become one with the shit?"
"Yes! If that's what it takes."
"I've got Rocky Road ice cream. It looks a little like poop. Can we become one with the Rocky Road instead?"
"It does look a little like shit. Nuts and everything. Count me in."
"Sick, Bailey! ~ Amy Harmon

His lips brushed over hers. She let out a sigh of relief and joy and pleasure. He pulled her tighter against him, taking her mouth with his own. She melted into him and the kiss, heart pounding, desire sparking along her nerve endings like a string of lit dynamite. ~ B.J. Daniels

imagine the desert
mothers, with hair tangled
tighter than their theology
and breasts that flowed milk
and mystic wisdom. they
knew how to draw the singing
sigils in the sand, how to dig
rough and bitten fingers
into desiccated dirt for water
to wet the lips of their young.

women of hips and heft, who
learned how to burn
beneath the wild and searing
sun, who made loud love
against the star-flecked threat
of night, who knew that strength
is not always a matter of muscle.

imagine your ancestresses,
the prophetesses of the arid
lands, before these starched
traditions and pews too hard
to pray from, who bled true
ritual and birthed their own fierce
souls at creation's crowning -- ~ Beth Morey

Evan is the little branch growing out of the cliff that she clings to, and the fact that he's gone makes her hang on even tighter. ~ Rick Yancey

Derek, if a boy wanted to take away a girl's power by having sex with her, what would you think about it?"
"I'd break something. His leg. Maybe his arm." He squeezed the wire tighter. "Probably wouldn't kill him unless he wanted to make an issue of it. ~ Ilona Andrews

As he clutched her in his shaking hands and wept against her, he whispered into her ear, the words that made him believe. "Love bears all things. Endures all things," he said. "Ours has, hasn't it?" She nodded and held him tighter. "But can it endure this, Anais? This demon who holds me so mercilessly in its claws?"
She touched his face and kissed him. "My love can and will, Lindsay. I will be here when you open your eyes. I will give you whatever you need to make it more bearable. ~ Charlotte Featherstone

Finally, he moved. He slid forward, closing the gap between them. When he was a step away, she squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the killing blow.
A moment passed.
Careful, gentle fingers touched her chin and tilted her face up. She squeezed her eyes tighter.
"Piper." He exhaled slowly. "Piper, you need to try not to be afraid. I need your help."
His touch fell from her cheek then wrapped gently around her uninjured wrist. He pulled her arm up and pressed her hand to the horns on the side of his head. "You know me, Piper. Remember? You weren't this scared before. I need you to be strong this time too."
She shivered at his alien voice. Her shaking fingers touched the smooth, cool horns.
"Please, Piper." he whispered. "I can't use glamour because my wing is dislocated. I need your help to fix it." A silent pause. "I won't hurt you, I promise. ~ Annette Marie

Time had her by the throat, and the more she squirmed the tighter it gripped. ~ Ainslie Hogarth

You love me, but you don't want me," he said with such sadness, I burst into tears.
While crying, I had the biggest orgasm of my life as Luke held me tighter than ever and rocked into me and climaxed with me. He wiped at my tears.
"I didn't mean to make you cry," he said. ~ L.D. Davis

Life doesn't get more comfortable. It just gives you more chances to hold tighter to God's loving grip." Page 121, Thriving Through Your Trials. ~ Evelyn Mann

I love beautiful; always have. I never saw why I should hate what I wish I had. Love it harder. Work your way closer. Clasp your hands around it tighter. Till you find a way to make it yours. ~ Tana French

Without warning, he jumped into the air. Startled, I held him tighter, my cheek against his. Speaking into my ear, he said, Yer not too tall, nor too thin, nor do ye weigh too much. Yer perfect the way ye are, lass. A man that does not possess the strength, patience and intelligence to provide fer and protect a woman is no man at all. ~ Michaela McGregor

So did I mishear over the communicator, or did you send your girlfriend off on a super-sexy secret mission with her ex-boyfriend?'
'We're fighting a war here, Nine, it's not a joke,' John replies sternly. After a moment's awkward pause, a begrudging smile breaks on his face. 'Also, shut up. It's not super sexy. What does that even mean?'
'Wow, you really need my guidance,' Nine says. He throws his arm around John's shoulders and leads him towards the house. 'Come on. I'll explain what sexy is.'
'I know what it – ugh, why am I even discussing this with you?' John shoves Nine in frustration, but Nine just holds on tighter. 'Get off me, idiot.'
'Come on, Johnny, you need my affection now more than ever. ~ Pittacus Lore

With his hand on Stitch's chest, Zak could feel every heartbeat drumming fast. It only made Zak hug Stitch tighter. Sitting at the back of the bike wasn't all that bad when he could trust Stitch to get him home safely. The speed gave Zak an adrenaline rush, but he felt as safe as ever. At a hundred miles an hour, no one could disturb them, it was only him and Stitch ~ K.A. Merikan

I've got more talent than everyone on their payroll put together," I said. Jacob squeezed me tighter. His eyes never moved from mine. "I'm so far beyond level five it's not even funny. ~ Jordan Castillo Price

I rolled my eyes and smiled at him. "You're impossible."
"True, but you like me anyway." He pulled me tighter. ~ S.C. Stephens

It's unfathomable how much I want you, Rylee." He pulls me tighter into him. "How much I'm drawn to you. ~ K. Bromberg

Oh, Tiny Pink Jenna," I half sobbed, half giggled. "I have never been so happy to see a vampire in my life."
She squeezed me tighter. "I've never been so happy to be squished by a demon! ~ Rachel Hawkins

The new linguistic skills that modern Sapiens acquired about seventy millennia ago enabled them to gossip for hours on end. Reliable information about who could be trusted meant that small bands could expand into larger bands, and Sapiens could develop tighter and more sophisticated types of cooperation.1 The gossip theory ~ Yuval Noah Harari

Don't cry Meg. It's not that bad."

"It's not that bad? Ha! I'm thirty years old, with two black eyes, a swollen nose, a big, honking, yellow knot on my forehead, and the haircut from hell. As if that isn't enough, I had a transvestite in my bed this morning, my husband is a lying, cheating, cradle robbing, bastard, who at some point slept with my best friend."

Jack scooted over to the middle of the seat, and stopped listening to his head and wrapped his arms around her. Big mistake! From inside, four faces were pressed to the window.

"My last orgasm-with a partner- was…hell I can't remember when! I frequently knock myself out for entertainment purposes, I have little boobs, big feet, squishy panties, nosy neighbors and demon possessed fish. God hates me!"

Jack held her tighter.

"I have frequent flyer miles at the hospital. I fed my husband marijuana Ex-lax brownies and shoved a marble up his butt."

Jack pulled away to look at her and she was serious. And crying. Big, sad, alligator tears that made his heart swell. "My mother is a holy rolling, Catholic Dr. Ruth, complete with condoms and Rosary beads. I write about relationships and sex, both of which I suck at and I hired a Private Investigator to pimp me out."

Jack burst out laughing and she pushed him away and swatted his shoulder.

"And now you're laughing at me. Could things get any worse? ~ Amy Johnson

Affirmation and illusion, bound up tighter than two snakes in the same egg. ~ Sarah Gailey

Don't do this," he begged hoarsely against her temple, crumbling inside. Honor wasn't the type to make empty threats or do something like this on a whim. No, she meant it and was prepared to go through with it. He had one last shot to change her mind, right now, before he lost her forever. So no, even he wasn't above begging if that's what it took to make her stay and work this out. "You said you still love me," he whispered brokenly. He was holding onto that for all it was worth. It had to be enough. He squeezed her tighter. "I know you're scared and I know you're hurting but… Don't do this. Don't walk away. Please." Don't leave me. She'd never know how much it cost him to beg her this way, but he was so damn scared right now he didn't care how pathetic it made him look. He'd do or say f-ing whatever it took to get her to listen to reason, make her change her mind. Anything except agreeing to live a lie and hide his true feelings for her from the rest of the world, no matter what the reason. A sob tore out of her. Honor stopped shoving at him. She wound her arms around his back and squeezed so hard he felt the muscles in her arms tremble. Liam closed his eyes and pressed his face against her hair, that painful bubble of hope surfacing again. He could feel her torment, her pain. If he could just calm her down long enough to get her to listen, really listen and then think this through… "Sweet pea, just listen to me," he began softly.
"No, I can't." Honor tore away from h ~ Kaylea Cross

I wasn't sold on 3-D until it was in my own home. The images jump out at you, even more so than in the theater, because you're in tighter quarters and you're closer to the TV, so it feels like the depth is very dramatic. ~ Katie Leclerc

He entered her in a single hard thrust, opening her, stretching her and forcing a moan of surprise from her. She was ready, so ready, and yet totally unprepared. She'd been wrong. She was still virgin to this, to his strength and her need, to the pleasure and the pain and the sheer triumph of having him. He drove into her and she rose to him, clutched him tighter, harder. Her nails raked and dug into his back, her teeth into his neck. ~ Ellen O'Connell

One thing I want to make clear: I don't think our old maps are bad. They deserve to be honored for their intent to help guide us safely through life. This is one of the reasons why, when we try to "push through" resistance, it seems to get even harder to move forward. After all, if you were trying to save someone by keeping them from running out into a dangerous situation, and they were pulling against you, you'd try to hold tighter, wouldn't you? ~ Rachel S. Heslin

That's what art does. Speaks to deep parts of us, usually ones we can't access any other way." He gripped his sandwich tighter as he ground the sticky gears of his manners. "I'm…glad you were able to see yourself in mine." He ignored the part about the total stranger allegedly wanting to buy his art, assuming it was nothing more than a line.
Skylar smiled, not his ting but the gentler one that made something behind Xander's balls tingle. "Me too." The smile turned regretful as he rose. ~ Heidi Cullinan

And we were all of us alone, clinging to a rock spinning through the star-strewn darkness and trying desperately to matter. To make some sort of everlasting mark, however true or awful that mark may be. Spinning endlessly alone - until we're not alone, and we stumble into someone else trying to mark the chaos, and we cling tighter to that person than we ever have to the world itself. That spark in another, that resonation of the soul - a counterpoint in the dark - was more real and more important than the earth beneath our feet. ~ Joe Ducie

Since my mother passed away, my father and I forged a bond that is so tighter than one could possibly imagine. Keep in mind, I am an only child, so I was always fiercely close with both my parents. The tragedy my father and I endured when my mother passed created a bond between us that no amount of force can break. ~ Jenna Morasca