Nicholas Carter Quotes

“You cannot fathom the distance I would travel for you.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Good ideas had in the dark were generally best left there.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“He would not surrender to the disaster of loving her.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Rest assured,” he said, when he managed to find his voice, “there will always be a position for you on my ship.”
Her face brightened with her clever, beautiful smile. “Will you let me climb up into the rigging? Reef the sails?”
A burst of thunder rolled through him. “Absolutely not.”
She laughed again. “As if you could stop me.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Nicholas felt a rueful smile spread across his face. And a curse be on him for it, because now he knew her. She'd shown him her mind, and she'd opened up her heart, and now he knew the taste of her tears. And he was wrecked.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I wish you'd go a a little easier on him,” she said.
“He came in here thrashing a sword around. Was I supposed to stand idly by and do nothing?” he huffed.
“Well, you weren't supposed to try and rearrange his face with your fist.”
“I wasn't,” Nicholas protested. “He lunged up into it several times. I was only in the way.”
“You're ridiculous.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“What good is honour when greed eats away at its foundations?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“How about a kiss, hey?” Etta liked that she was still able to startle him, just a little. The blank look of concentration broke as he barked out a laugh. “I don't know if that's a wise idea. We'd never leave.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Having actually read the Voltaire in question, I can confirm the quote is, as different from ours as the breed of spaniels is from that of greyhounds,” Nicholas said coldly. “Interesting, though, that in the end we're all just dogs.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Etta?” Nicholas's face floated in front of hers.
“I'm okay,” she promised. “Just...”
Hasan's face transformed, sharpening. “Who are you to be so familiar with my little niece? Remove your hands before I do.”
“Familiar?” she repeated, just as Nicholas's grip tightened and he said, “Her husband.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I don't need a protector,” Etta said. “I need a partner.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Dressed as a man, her horse unencumbered by anything but the bare necessities, she had the look of a survivor, a fighter, and he respected the hell our of her for it, especially when she slid the pistol out of one of the saddlebags and aimed it at him.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Half the men worship at her feet; the other half have already proposed marriage, including young Jack, who has sworn to his dear 'miss' that he'll be true if she'll only wait a few more years for him.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Wayfarer

“Well,” Etta said weakly, “she's always told me a good challenge builds character.”
“Then we'll have an excess of it,” he said dryly.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“It shouldn't surprise me that men continue to think of grand new ways to kill one another, and with greater precision.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Stop trying to make me feel better,” Sophia ordered. “It won’t work. I’m determined to be angry and guilty about this for at least another two days, and then again when I’m punching your corpse.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Wayfarer

“That's beautiful,” she said.
He turned to her. “Would you like me to go take that violin for you? I'd gladly fight whatever angry mob rises up if it might make you smile.”
Her heart just about burst at that.
Be brave. “I would only want to play for you.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Tell me . . . just one thing . . . about your time?' he managed to get out.
'Of course,' Etta said.
'Do you remember . . . that couple in London, in the station?'
'The ones who were dancing?' she asked. 'What about them?'
'Would we . . . be able to dance . . . that way?' he said, finding it harder to catch his breath. 'In your time?'
Etta pressed her lips together, clearly fighting to offer him a smile. 'Yes.'
'Though so.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“She set her shoulders back, meeting his gaze with a challenge. “You call that a kiss?” One corner of his mouth quirks up. “We haven't the time for a proper one, pirate. Now tell me, where precisely are we?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“A merchant, then,” Nicholas clarified.
Hasan nodded, his smile slightly crooked with the swelling on his face. “It is natural. Abbi brought me many books, taught me many languages. English, Turkish, French, Greek. So you see, I cannot travel in your way, but he has helped me to go far on my own feet.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Interesting, though, that in the end we're all just dogs.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I don't care about the rules or anyone else. People are awful - they're idiots - and if they try to hurt you, I won't need the revolver. I care about you and all I ask is that you try not to make me feel like an idiot for it. You're supposed to . . . you're my partner.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“His fingers unhooked from hers, following that same path up her arm, and then back down it again. The feeling was so distracting, so good, so sweet against her clammy skin. She didn't choose a piece from her repertoire; Etta gave herself over to the notes that started streaming through her mind, rising from somewhere deep inside of her.

The melody of her heart had no name; it was quick, and light. It rolled with the waves, falling as the breath left his chest, rising as he inhaled. It was the rain sliding down the glass; the fog spreading its fingers over the water. The creaking of a ship's great body. The secrets whispered by the wind, and the unseen life that moved below.

It was the flame against the candle.

Nicholas's arm was a map of hard muscles and delicate sinews, heartbreakingly perfect. She wondered if he could hear her humming the piece against his skin over the droning roars overhead. Maybe. His free hand skimmed up her skin, leaving a trail of sparks in its wake.

With the world blacked out around them, she could catalog all over her senses, capture this moment in the warm darkness forever. He brushed back the loose hair across her forehead, cheek, the corner of her lips, her jaw, and she knew it had to be the same for him, that they'd never been so aware of another person in their entire lives.

She released his arm, and he drew it up around her, guiding both of them down so they were on their sides, their heads cushioned by the bag, his jacket drawn over them. Etta understood that here, in the darkness, they'd found a place beyond rules; a place that hung somewhere between the past and the future. This was a single moment of possibility.

The clattering of the attack from above faded as he rested his forehead against hers, his thumb lightly stroking a bruise on her cheek. She traced his face - the straight nose, the high, proud cheekbones, the full curve of his lips. His hand caught her there, taking it in his own; he pressed a hard, almost despairing kiss to it.

But when she tilted her face up, half - desperate with longing, her blood racing, Nicholas pulled back; and although Etta could feel him beside her, his heart pounding, his ragged breath, it was as if he had disappeared into the thundering dark.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“His presence was larger-than-life, bigger even than his physical body.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Don't you dare call me Miss Spencer, it kills me when you act like we aren't friends.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“We aren't friends.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I forget myself with you. I forget the rules. I forget every other living soul in this would. Do you understand?”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“Would you like me to go take that violin for you? I'd gladly fight whatever angry mob rises up if it might make you smile.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“I would only want to play for you.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger

“She couldn't help it - she flinched. One of them had clearly misunderstood whatever was between them. Apparently, it had been her.
Etta charged away from him down the sidewalk. He caught up to her in three long strides and took her arm in his hand, forcing her to stop. She couldn't bring herself to look up; she only waited for Nicholas to speak.”
― Alexandra Bracken, Passenger