His touch brought that fire tingling back into her skin - more mild now - and Zelda's shoulders relaxed. He wasn't mad at her. Or, if he was mad at her, he was doing a very poor job of it.

"And maybe I shouldn't have asked you to," Zelda admitted. By that same argument, she certainly should not have kissed him just now - all of the problems that had existed a few weeks ago still existed. He was still leaving. She was still too well-bred to kiss him so fervently, and she absolutely had just been kissing him. "But I did. And then I thought you - didn't want to."

Really, she had thought that he was an asshole, and then she had felt too bad about and too fascinated with everything to let him go without another word.

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