"Are you sure?" He hated to be serious now, when things are going well, but it wouldn't be honorable not to at least face the subject. "Aveline...you are married. Ah, sort of. And the last thing I want to do is pressure you into giving up on something that must have been important."
Alistair bent forward and rested his forehead against hers, partly so that he wouldn't have to meet her eyes. "That said, I...can't pretend that I don't want more from you than friendship." He paused and drew back, looking briefly perplexed. "Were there too many negatives in there? I lost count. Nevermind. The point is, things still feel kind of complicated to me and I really don't know what to do about it." He shrugged. "I'm not experienced with this. At all. You know that."
Whereas she'd had two husbands, both of them good men. That was frankly intimidating. Big shoes to fill. Except that analogy...didn't work at all, come to think of it...