And what to reply with?
With my hand pressed to her chest, feeling the pounding of her heart through bone and skin, I couldn't believe that such luck was mine. Slowly, words exchange and I feel steadily exposed. I know that once certain things are said, I have nothing to linger behind in safety. Things are confessed in hints at first, with words carefully chosen that they give away just enough but not too much.

And then she asks if I would deny her.

Nothing.

Not for her fingers holding mine or her tender and chaste kisses against my cheek.

Marius de Romanus
ante diem X Kalends Iulius MMDCCLX