A violent twinge clenched his stomach, and he shoved the tendrils of emotion twining up, threatening to cling to his throat beneath the glass barrier. He continued to kiss her fingers, her wrist, shielding himself from view. "You speak from experience, yet the experience wasn‟t a happy one."
Her head tipped down again, shadows shifting over her eyes as they lowered.
"No, but I have been running for so long from fear of repeating my mistake. Letting that dictate my actions. There was something missing with Patrick. Something that I thought was there, but with hindsight I can see only a gaping hole. I did love him. But it was the love of a silly girl overcome by circumstance."
"And now? You want to experience a deep love?" He thought about how easy it would be to escape from the stone structure, which was getting smaller and smaller by the second.
She smiled somewhat sadly. "No, I just don‟t want to be scared anymore. Of my own judgment, of men like you."
