Page 111 of Moon Craving

He stared at her with satiated pleasure and obligingly complied with her frenzied

request. "Abigail."

She watched his lips form the syllables she knew made her name, but no sound

penetrated the cocoon of silence she lived in. Desolation choked her even as she

begged, "Again. Please?"

Talorc's brows drew together and he asked her a question with his amazing blue

eyes.

She could not answer it though, only beg again, "Please." Though each word she

uttered eroded the hope that had blossomed at what she had thought was a miracle.

Because she could not hear her own words and now questioned whether she had

indeed heard her name. But if not, then what? It had been so long since anything but

silence had assailed her, she could not remember sound. She fought the forgetting of

normalcy, but each year drew her further into a world that felt as if it had never had sound

at all.

Still, how could she have imagined something she never even experienced in her

dreams anymore?

"Are you not well?" he asked.

And she read the meaning on his lips, in the concern now masking his features, but

she did not hear.

How could she answer?

They had just shared a pleasure beyond belief and she was allowing the

imaginings of her mind to ruin it. She was not well, but it was no one's fault but her own.

She forced a smile and pulled his face toward her, intent on hiding behind a kiss.

"How could I be anything else?"

How indeed?

And he cooperated in helping her hide, kissing her with a tenderness and leftover

passion that assuaged the pain of her self-delusion.

He did not take her to soak in the hot spring this night, but led her on another

sensual journey that did not end with any inexplicable experiences. Then he kissed her

after--right into slumber.