All that was a long time ago; that night had been the stuff of dreams.  Now they were here, her wide, blue eyes on his from under a sweep of dark lashes, waiting for him to speak.  He leaned his elbow against the wall and rested his face on his hand, close enough to feel the warmth of her skin.

“We’ve been here before.”

“Have we?”  An exaggerated frown creased her brow as she pretended to search her memory banks.  “Oh, yes, now I remember,” she said, and he laughed, knowing she knew as well as he where all this would lead.

She kept her eyes on his as she pushed the door open behind her, her smile barely concealing the edge of a tease.

“You want to come in for a while?”

The niggling worry that she might have still sent him away loosened its grip on the base of his skull.  He’d been second-guessing himself, afraid that having found her again he might lose her a second time.  Yet he couldn’t ignore the growing certainty somewhere deep inside that all of this, this thing with this woman, was important.

No, not just important.  Necessary.

Essential.

He stepped into the tiny apartment and closed the door before following her down the short corridor.  His own room two floors up mirrored this one and it occurred to him this had some kind of significance, something of hers existing as a reflection of something of his.

He leaned against the counter between the living space and the kitchen, watching her as she moved around switching on lamps.  Pools of diffused amber bathed the corners of the room, smoothing away darkness and secrets.  It seemed right that it was her who did this, as if only she could make that happen.  The soft light picked out chestnut highlights in her hair as she turned and he remembered the moment he’d seen her during Ramon’s meeting a week ago.  The same sudden, frightening thrill chased through him again now, catching his breath in the middle of his ribs and holding fast.