His words are soothing, validating in a way no one else's manage to be. People are quick to reassure her, but they do it by arguing against what she says she's feeling, as if everything she says is wrong. But for all that she loves connecting with people, she's never found it easy to talk about herself.

She slides a look at him that says quite plainly she's thinking of the way he'd rocked into her balls-deep with that wild desperation, the way his kiss had been so hard it had sparked something equally wild in her.

"I'd be willing to try," she drawls, tongue just touching her upper lip.