“We’re all a little mad, my friend. Keeps life interesting.”

“You wrong yourself and me by assuming my interest in you is purely physical,” he went on. “I told you I am eager to further our acquaintance. I want to know what you think about things. What you want out of life. What you dream.-Lucien to Alice”

“You are tired of being alone. You told me.”“You don’t know,” he said in a low, almost hostile voice. He shook his head. “I don’t even know what I’m doing with you. You’re not like anyone else who’s in my life—” He stopped abruptly. “Did you ever drink too much wine, Alice ?” He held up the glass in his hand and waggled it idly, making the ruby contents swirl.“I’m not one to overindulge.”“No, you wouldn’t be. Allow me to explain, then, that the more you drink, the more thirsty you become. Not all the wine in the world can assuage the thirst for water. Water. Wine makes you merry, but a man needs water to keep him alive. Pure, clean, sweet water. I am parched, Alice, scorched like a wasteland, burninglike a damned soul in hell. I thirst.”

“I’ll never leave you. I’ll never mistreat you. I think you know that by now. Try with me. Let us find what wemay find.”“What do you expect to find, Robert?”“How should I know? I’ve never experienced anything like this before in my life.”Tears shone briefly under her graceful long lashes before she blinked them away and glanced at himagain with a reluctant twist of a smile. Sitting up, she wrapped her arms around her bent knees andsighed. “You are asking us both to set ourselves up for great hurt when it comes time for me to leave.”“Leave? Don’t speak of leaving, angel. You must stay forever.”“As your mistress.”“As my love,” he countered insistently.”

“There are some people that we know all our lives and yet never really feel we know them at all. But there are other people—” Unable to resist the temptation, he ran a feather-light caress down the curve of her cheek with one leather-sheathed knuckle. The cobalt depths of her eyes flickered with response, but she said nothing, heeding his every word. “—people we meet in a day, and instantly, it feels as though we’ve known them all our lives.”

“When you find the one, my lad, grab her up in your arms and never let her go. You may never get another chance.”

“You saved me again," she told him with a starstruck gaze. He cupped her cheek and gave her a tender smile in the dark. "Because you are my princess and I am your knight.”