"I think I do, and I don't want to."I think I do, and I don't want to." He smiled gently and said "P'nyssa does just as good a job, doesn't she?" I kicked at a pebble in the sand and said, "Yeah, she does." "Miss her?" "A lot," I said, a little confessionally. "See?" he said. "I don't want to hurt her, if only because she's important to you." "As important as you are!" I said. He nodded. "I know. I talked to P'nyssa last night and she said something to me, something I found surprising. She said that if you and I both wanted, she would move out. No jealousy." "But a lot of hurt. You know, I did the same thing the Ress a few centuries back. But that was kinda different. Ress and I slept in the same bed basically because we didn't know what else to do." Aaden nodded. "But you and Nyss clicked." "Yeah. So this is it, huh?" "Not likely," he replied. "I still love you, that doesn't stop. Not because we say it does. There's no reason for us to stop." "I love you, too. But you won't stay." He shook his head and said, "I only live ten minutes away. And let me tell you, there are going to be a lot of days where the craving to be in your arms is going to be really hard to fight. |