She felt his rebuke as if it was physical, a slight flinch at the warning he filled her name with. She had stepped too close to the fire and had reached just too far. And she had the sense and the grace to regret it. She was also in possession of shame, an emotion she avoided whenever it was possible. She had no right to his secrets or shadows, nothing beyond what he willingly gave her. That was their unspoken promise and she had come too close to violation. The pink in her cheeks had nothing to do with the cold.
"I apologize. It is most unfair of me to press you. You have been clear in your terms. I overstepped." She loathed being wrong, but she wasn't the sort to hide from it. She had erred and would make amends if he allowed it. That did not stop her listening for clues to his activities.
What in the name of all that was holy had he gotten into? The sinking feeling returned, the pendulum blade swinging just above her head. She could feel it, whatever it was that occupied him, forcing its way between them.She would what? He'd cut himself off, but the thought had been there. He'd given thought to her involvement already, puzzled his way to some conclusion that said she couldn't and shouldn't be involved. Nothing that came to mind could settle the unease knawing at her now.

She felt as much as she saw the tension in his frame, noticed his thumb had stopped caressing her hand. Oh, she had pushed him. His clarification adding a new, unpleasant emotion to the mix: guilt. Though this guilt was mixed with something more petty, base. A part of her wasn't the least bit sad that he struggled to separate from her. She was being selfish and for that, she would not apologize.
"I am more of a hindrance than a help to you now." She concluded, the words stinging as she said them, her chest clenching as she decided on the correct course of action. "I should leave you." She said the words, but her grip on his hand remained. "For your sake, I should go."

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