The silence was so deep and so great and thick that I thought the forest was breathing a big, big breath with me. His hand shook right next to my cheek, the involuntary movement of his fingers betraying the strength he was trying so hard to preserve. His gaze was on mine, flaming with some passion which I could not define-- intense and gentle enough not to be love, tender enough not to be mere desire.
This I should not want, I said to myself, though I was by no means certain that it was I, or he. "Do you think I don't know that?" His voice was low, harsh as though he spoke each word as it sank into the weight of the control.
The space between us was a nasty jest, a slice of air in which all the earth began to lean. My breast rose and fell quickly, and false to the composed face which I attempted to display. Lucian brought me nearer, and his breath was on my lips. His heat enclosed me, a blaze I had vowed never to venture into--the blaze was before me now and I was at its entrance. A single step and I would fall. Stop, I said, kiss me, almost against my face. "Just one word and I'm leaving."
I made the attempt of opening my mouth and speaking--to say stop, to dispel the trance. But the word stuck at my throat. A shaken breath of surrender, which I did not intend to utter, was all that resulted. His lips just brushed me, not a kiss at all, just an invitation to what it might be like. The room was spinning, my heart raced a few beats too slowly, and in one terrible instant all I desired was to seal the distance.
Then suddenly-- A limb snapped over the cave. It was as glass breaking the silence of the moment. The Alpha flinched, and the Alpha shut his jaws. His head turned to the door and the whole of his muscles were on the alert. The heat remained, and burned in the air between us. The ghost of a kiss that had nearly been was tingling on my lips. And hated myself to have more.