Ah, and there she went again, pulling away the moment things got interesting, though he supposed that he couldn’t truly claim they weren’t always that. His fingers flexed faintly against the coolness of the fabric in some undefined emotion, the warmth of him an insistent reminder of his particular affinity, pleasant and pervasive. He would never have thought to stop her, but the temptation was there to be more insistent. Amusement was not the worst response he had gotten to a kiss over the years. Far from it.
He was past the dramatic displays by now. No hand finding its way to a supposedly wounded heart; no remorseful incantation directed at the dark sky. Just the merest backward tip of his chin, gauging her response—not the blatant playfulness that was so typical of her, but any subtle sign of what it might be masking. Humor was an easy shield. It was versatile, and he had seen it used in all of its forms. For someone he knew so well, he was always struggling to read her. It was true enough that emotion clouded the waters.
“And I shall endeavor to remain patient in the interim. I am not seeking to shorten your absence, Avalynn, tempting as that course is. Only to make the most of the time remaining to us now. You said you do not kiss and tell, and I do not demand it of you, but you cannot have said no all these years, to everyone. Am I better off not knowing why it was always the answer greeting me?” He did not seem to begrudge her any relationships, or simply encounters, she had enjoyed over the years. It would have been hypocrisy at its best, after all. But the question at the end of it all was natural enough. He held no illusion that he was irresistible, but he felt there had always been something between them, smoldering out of reach.