She welcomed him into the circle of her arms, careful not to hold on too tightly, even though all she wanted was some sort of physical reassurance that he wasn't a figment of her imagination, that he wasn't going anywhere.

Her pulse pounded erratically in her throat as he curled in closer, kissed her and took her in, and touched her in a way that she had never experienced before. The muscles of her stomach rippled as she took a deep but shaky breath, her voice tremulous and conflicted when she found enough of it to inform him -

"I've - I've never ... "