He stared down into her face as a sudden tightness filled his chest followed by deep expansion; it was the feeling of being able to finally breathe for the first time in his life without the fear of someone turning away; without the fear of never being seen beyond a monster and gentleman; beyond the fighter who aimed to kill and lover who aimed to please. When she reached up for his face, dragging her fingers along the edge of his perfectly angled jawline, along the edge of his growing beard, he turned his mouth toward the inside of her hand and kissed her skin until his lips burned. He circled his hand around her wrist and closed his eyes, then turned back to her, gradually stroking his cheek along her palm. As his hairs tickled her skin, she dragged her thumb across the fullness of his mouth, across his delectable bottom lip until his eyes reopened to hers, desperate for the taste of him against her mouth, then brought her other hand up to his throat and swept her thumb across