I freeze. Just for a moment, a mere instant of breath. But in that fraction of time and space, a whole lifetime’s worth of longing threatens to overwhelm me. I want to kiss her. I burn to feel her lips on mine. To draw her to me, press her to my breast, to take everything I’ve been hungering for all these long, sorry months, all these damnable years, since the first moment I set eyes on her terrified face.
