The Dark Tide Quotes

“Why can't you say it?" I hardened my voice. "Because I'm telling you, you never have. I'd have remembered."
He stared at me with disbelief. [...]
"Love you? Of course I love you. Baby, I fucking worship you.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“I love you," Jake whispered. "Are you strong enough for this?"
I made myself comfortable. Said over my shoulder, "Sure."
"Would you tell me if you weren't?"
I grinned. "Maybe. I can't think of a nicer way to commit suicide."
"That's good. I can't think of a more pleasant way to commit murder.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“He shifted over without comment, lifting the blankets, and I scrambled into the warm sheets beside him. He smelled like soap and sleep and bare skin. He smelled familiar. Not the deja vu familiar of Guy or Mel. Familiar like...the ache in your chest of homesickness, of longing for harbor after weeks of rough seas or craving a fire's warmth after snow--or wanting back something you should never have given away.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“I thought of the words of the Renaissance philosopher Michel de Montaigne. "If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“People loved you in the way they knew how - and often it was not the way you knew. Or needed.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“You were the first in every way that counted.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“The phone rang, picked up, and the same male voice announced, “Chris Powers."

"Hey there, Chris. Are you aware it's a felony to make threats over the phone?"
To give Powers his fair due, he got over his shock within a split second. “Try it, asshole. I dare you. My lawyers will have you for lunch.” He clicked off again.

I did what any red-blooded American male would do. I called my big, ex-cop ex-boyfriend.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“It means I know you, Adrien with an e, and I know you get reckless when you're impatient. You're paying for this investigation, and I'll keep you apprised every step of the way, but if you even think about going rogue on this one, I'm turning in my fedora and you can hire some other dick."

I don't want any other dick. I closed my mouth on that one—metaphorically speaking—and said, “I don't know why the hell everyone seems to think I'm so reckless—”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“I turned back to the television. After a while what I was staring at registered. “Hey, this is The Long Goodbye."
Jake opened his eyes. “What?"
"This movie. It's Robert Altman's take on Chandler's The Long Goodbye. ‘Nothing says good-bye like a bullet.’”
"I don't know,” said Jake. “Sometimes the words are enough.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“Love you? Of course I love you. Baby, I fucking worship you.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“Knowing and believing are two different things.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“It wasn't merely fatigue. although it continued to worry me how tired i was all the time. I had a strange sense of missing something, of being in the wrong place - no matter where I was.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“ 'You know what I thought the first time I saw you?'

'No.'

'Point of no return.' ”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“He looked okay. No, to be honest. He looked a lot better than okay. He looked...fine. Fine, as in get the Chiffons over here to sing a chorus.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“Peter is ... adjusting. He's back in school, and he's doing quite well. I wish you could find it in your heart to forgive him."

"I've got this funny resentful streak about people who try to kill me.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“Why can't you say it?" I hardened my voice. "Because I'm telling you, you never have. I'd have remembered."
He stared at me with disbelief. Then he lunged forward, pushing me flat in the pillows once more. He leaned over me, his mouth a brush of lips away from my own, his breath warm on my face.
"Love you? Of course I love you. Baby, I fucking worship you.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“One thing I'd learned the hard way: people loved you in the way they knew how - and often it was not the way you knew. Or needed.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“Guy was saying, “What the hell is it about you that attracts murder and mayhem?"

"Something in my body language?"

He groaned. “That was bad—even for you.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“Passionate kisses, the intoxicating exchange of breath and saliva - and something more intimate - something there was no real name for, like a spark catching between us and taking light.
How had I forgotten this? How had I been satisfied with anything else?
Guy...Mel...it was like choosing celluloid kisses over the real thing. The real thing was raw and powerful and dangerous...but it was the real thing. Had I really believed I could make do with safe substitutes?”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“ 'You remember asking me if I'd ever begged?'

I wiped the corner of my eyes, sniffed. 'Is this about to get kinky?' ”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“This could be heaven or this could be hell'?"
"A lot will depend on the mattress.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“There was a line from The Lady in the Lake I could have quoted him: “Police business is a hell of a problem. It’s a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there’s nothing in it to attract the highest type of men.”

When Jake recognized that he had failed to live up to his responsibility to uphold that law, he had resigned. He had had the honor and the courage to step away. Not every man had that in him; I thought probably very few men did.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“He smelled familiar. Not the dèjà vu familiar of Guy or Mel. Familiar like...the ache in your chest of homesickness, of longing for harbor after weeks of rough seas or craving a fire's warmth after snow - or wanting back something you should never have given away.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“Yes," I clipped out, "I know. Hurt happens."
I heard that long, weary exhalation.
"It does. That's life. It's the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful, the wins and the losses. I never thought you'd be too afraid to try. I though you were stronger than that.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“I cracked the window shades of my eyes. Jake knelt over me, the head of my cock in his mouth.
I raised my head, mumbled, "What are you doing?"
He paused the proceedings long enough to utter, "If you don't know, I must not be doing it correctly.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“ 'Darling, you have to come home,' she started in as soon as I answered. 'You cannot possibly want to stay in that... that tomb with bodies falling out of the wall!'

'I don't know why not,' I replied. 'It's everything a ghoul could ask for.' ”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“He smelled like soap and sleep and bare skin. He smelled familiar. Not the deja vu familiar of Guy or Mel. Familiar like... the ache in your chest of homesickness, of longing for harbor after weeks of rough seas or craving a fire's warmth after snow--or wanting back something you should never have given away.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“So you're like a ... an amateur sleuth?"

"God no. I'm more like the hapless guys in those film-noir flicks we used to watch. I keep getting tangled up in bizarro events."

"Oh yes?” His eyes lit with enthusiasm. I was speaking his language now. “Guy Pearce in L.A. Confidential or William Hurt in Body Heat?"

"I was thinking more like Woody Allen in Play It Again, Sam.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide

“I didn't believe we had ever been this tentative - not even in the very beginning. Perhaps especially not in the very beginning. We gave each other plenty of time for second thoughts, for a change of heart. We were polite with the buttons and respectful of the zippers. And all the while we watched each other's face, eyes locked.”
― Josh Lanyon, The Dark Tide