Wordz Press

1 a.m. 
Ray put his arms around her, then pressed closer. He thought he could feel Sarah's heart beating, but he wasn't sure. Maybe he was imagining the sensation because he wanted to, because he needed to. It had been far too long since he'd held her this close.

She raised her face to his, her skin glowing in the dimness of the office, her eyes bewildered. Was the shock of the situation finally reaching her or was it his embrace that had her confused? She touched her lips with the edge of her tongue, darted her eyes across the room, then brought them back to his face.

"I thought they might be coming back," he explained.

She nodded.

He made no effort to move away. And Sarah didn't, either.

Instead, he lifted his hand and cupped her cheek. Her skin was smooth, the satin softness just as sensual as when they were young and in love. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath and pulled in the fragrance of her body.

She'd never worn perfume, he remembered, but she hadn't needed it, either. A seductive essence all her own rose in the heat between them, and in a flash, he was 18 and they were in the backseat of his old Camaro. He hardened with the memory.

"What are you doing?" she whispered. The words were whispered with a sexy hoarseness.

He didn't answer her. He couldn't. Instead, his throat closed down with a sudden, overwhelming desire, any words he might have spoken, trapped just as he was in the memories surrounding them.

Then she touched him.

It was a dove's feather across his brow, the brush of an angel's wing, but he felt it all the same. A thousand nights he'd woken from a dream, haunted by just such a sensation but knowing at the same time he'd never really feel it again except in his dreams.

"I thought you hated me," she said softly. Her eyes were liquid; they pulled him into her heart. "I thought I did something terrible, something wrong, and you just stopped loving me."

His fingers tightened against her back and he brought her closer without even thinking. She fit against him as if she'd never left, her arms going around his waist, her hands smoothing his back.

"Stopped loving you?" His gaze connected with hers in the dark and something passed between them. He couldn't explain the feeling, couldn't even name it, but he recognized it all the same. Its unexpected appearance and the strength of it shocked him. He knew he couldn't lie and he couldn't hide behind anything less than the truth. Not now.

"I could never have stopped loving you, Sarah." The words hurt as they came out in a rusty whisper.

She gripped his back with her hands, her face expectant. Suddenly Ray understood, as he looked down at her, the reality of what he was really saying.

He could never have stopped loving her.

And he never had.