The hesitation is so brief that I'm not even sure I see it. I fight back the urge to ask her if she's all right because, after all the tentativeness and hesitation I'd thrown at her the past few weeks, she has every right to take her time in this and I have no right to rush her no matter how much my body wants this. My self control might be fraying but it's still there.

So, I wait and smile gently down at her. When she takes my hand, I squeeze lightly and meet her halfway when she leans in to kiss me. It's so different than the first kiss we'd shared because I'm not holding back as much. One of the dams inside me has broken and I'm really, really trying to give more than I have been. She deserves that and I want to feel more than despair, desolation and sorrow. I want to feel her. I've wanted that for awhile.

"You have a high opinion of what's gone in my bedroom since I've arrived here," I tell her, a laugh in my voice. I start to turn us towards the bedroom when she pulls her hair free and that just stops me again while I watch the tumble of dark hair fall over her shoulders and around her face.

I have to shake myself and clear my throat before I finally get us moving towards the bedroom. Most of my lights are out and while the sun isn't high in the sky any longer, it is throwing in enough light to see.

I pull her into the bedroom with me, eyes falling on the bed, still made, in the center. Seeing it makes this real and it makes me shiver. When we're close enough to the bed but still standing, I turn back to her and reach for her cheek again, leaning down to kiss her lightly.

"If there's magic in here tonight, it will be because of you."