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“I know” She gasped, his breathall the hair on her body stand up

“But I will be back,” he said

“Don’t” She put her hand over his lips, so close to totally falling apart she couldn’t stand it “Don’t ht not be able to keep”

He shook his head, his eyes hot “I am not your mother,” he said, his voice shot with fire “And I am neither of your brothers and I aripped her ar out his hand, indicating the lace and the bed “I love this ridiculous room I love you as the prison warden and the ice princess and the sexy librarian I love you as a hter I love you for your perfect skin and beautiful face and your body that ers pulling the fine hairs at the nape of her neck, the pain so sweet “I love you for your giant brain”

God, hope was so painful It was as though her flesh was ice and it was breaking, cold and sharp

“I love you for your daughter and all your contradictions and complications But, most of all I love you for your fierce heart”

She closed her eyes, overcoate had been stormed, every defense in ruins

He started to pull at her clothes, unzipping zippers, undoing buttons and she let him She would take his body, his sex and his love, she’d take it all because she really didn’t believe that once he left he’d ever cross her threshold again She would hoard those memories for all the lonely days ahead “I want that fierce heart to love me back,” he said

It does, she thought but wasn’t foolish enough to say it

“And I know,” he continued, kissing her collarbone as he undid her bra, her breasts spilling into his hands “I know that you love me and I’ll be back so you can say it to me”

She pressed her lips to his, sealing her s she shouldn’t

HOURS LATER, the kitchen was dark and hushed as they sat side by side on the counter, sweat cooling on their bruised and sated bodies

Matt had no clue what she was thinking What was happening behind that still and lovely face

He took another bite of his ham sandwich and wondered why love had to be so hard, why he felt the pull of her body and the push of her heart and why it all had to hurt so much

His soul lay between the in all this silence

“Okay,” she said, holding her uneaten sandwich in her lap She picked at the crust