"He straightened. "Are you ready?" "Yes." He nodded, his gaze traveling the length of her body, deliberately, slowly, as if to memorize her as she stood. "Then may I have a kiss?" he asked, unmoving. "For luck?" She felt her heart pick up. She felt her face grow hot. "You see? I'm asking, not demanding." He lifted his hands to her, palms up. "Even the most beastly of us can learn." Rue dropped her gaze to the ground, discomfited. "I don't think you're beastly." "Thank goodness. I was about to point out that that fellow down there has far worse breath than I do." She laughed softly, shaking her head, but by then his fingers were curling around hers. "Is that a yes, mouse?" She inhaled: heat, and animal. Him. Rue lifted her chin. "Yes." Everything happened so gently at first, so languidly, as his hands drew hers behind his back so that she had to step toward him, so that their fronts had to touch. As soon as they did his fingers released; he smoothed his palms up her back, one hand at her waist and the other rising to cradle her head. She felt her hair bunch and slide with the passage of his fingers. She felt the cool air on her skin, and the welcome warmth of his chest and stomach and hips. His eyes roamed her face with that half-lidded intensity; she brought up a hand to the slope of his shoulder, resting it there. They stood there together in the open dark, soft and hard, while her stomach tied in knots and her hair stirred with the breeze. She wet her lips, nervous. "Are...are you going to do it?" "I am." His head tilted to hers. She felt his lips against her cheek, light, thistledown, barely there. "I just..." "What?" she whispered, staring out into the shadows. "I just like looking at you." So when he kissed her she was smiling a little, her lips curved under his. Kit loved that curve. -Kit & Rue"