“God, the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life was giving up what he wanted so that the woman heloved could get what she needed.”

“And so he did the hardest thing he’d ever done in his life: he picked up his hat and walked away.”

“I’m so jealous,” she whispered, and he blinked.“Of what?”Her head fell back on the pillow, and she stared up at the ceiling with the saddest eyes he’d ever seen.“You’re so alive, Lore. There’s fire in you. A will to live, when all I want is to be done with this life.”

“She was the most loyal, forgiving, headstrong, passionate woman he’d ever met in his life, and he was madly in love with her”

“The Lord speaks to each one of us in different ways. He may use your mother, your sister, your child, or even your boss. He might even use an unbeliever. God never said his messages would come in nicely wrapped packages from your pastor," the pastor could be heard saying from inside the packed church. "God doesn't do things the way WE want them done. He does things the way we NEED them done, so he can get out of us what holds us back, what keeps us from him. He wants to help us reach the next level. He sends us what we need, when we need it, in HIS time. We are on his schedule, not the other way around.”

“He’d never be able to touch her, and as passionate as she was, she would eventually need a man who could. He’d never had to worry about these things before because he’d never been with a woman. Not even before his possession. He’d been too busy then, too involved in his job. Maybe he needed to join Workaholics Anonymous, he thought dryly. He had to be the only millennia-old virgin in history.”