"Been in love..." she whispered back and he raised his eyes acknowledging her thought. Her hair floated around her face, a cloud of black silk, a froth of creamy mist. The wall lost its solidarity, the bed its gravity. Kell's fingers slid beneath her silky hair, his lips descended toward her, drawn by a force so irresistible he couldn't breathe. Like a magic spell, she was his princess, and she was awakened by his kiss.

He let his lips brush against hers, knowing her first kiss, understanding. He lingered there. Just barely a brush, soft, sweet, trusting.

He pulled back. Maille's eyes were closed, her lashes a dark smudge against her cheeks, the soft bloom of expectation riding along the curve of her cheek. It was all the confirmation he needed. He fastened his lips to hers, hungrily, knowing her taste before he tasted, knowing her yielding contours before she responded. He deepened the kiss, parted her lips, entered her mouth, became part of her...

He stayed where he was but he let her lips go. Maille opened her eyes. "I can't breathe." he smiled. "You took my breath away."

"It's what I've been wanting ." she sighed. "How did you know what I've been wanting? Am I so obvious?"

"Is it wrong to want your first kiss?" he bent and captured her bottom lip and gently tugged on it.

Maille arched toward him, her fingers clenched suddenly into a fist.

"I don't know what I want." she whispered. He lowered his lips once again to hers, pressed, sucked gently and then parted hers again to sip at the sweet nectar offered. Maille offered.

Kell twisted his fingers in her hair, allowed his other hand to slide down her neck to her arm, and over, to run softly over forbidden territory. His mouth followed, trailing soft feathery kisses down her neck to where her hand was guarding. With his chin he nudged her hand away, she moved it slightly. He nudged again. The nightgown pulled taut over her and she felt her breath catch as he breathed through the material on her heated skin. He held her there, hands on both sides, just breathing through the nightgown.

Maille's palm blocked him from moving the cloth. He went to the exposed skin above the lace and planted a breathy kiss there.

With both hands in his hair she brought his face up to hers. Her eyes were open and she looked at him keenly. "What are we feeling?"

"Infatuation." he whispered.

Maille swallowed. "It feels really good."

"Yeah."

"Kiss me again." she whispered.

Kell smiled and lowered his lips once again to hers to feel that familiar yielding, that longing.

"Taking it to another level." he said.

"Is it too soon?" she sighed feeling exquisite expectancy in the pit of her stomach, and all over her body tingling in awareness.

"No."

"I feel what you feel?"

"I hope so, Maille Mann."

Her brows rose as she pulled him back. "I told you I feel like I'm falling in love."

"It is a precious gift." He bit at her lip and then pulled his dreads out of the way and sat back, his body tense and wanting, his restraint worn thin. But it wasn't lost on her that he did not immediately confirm her feelings.

Instead, he waggled his eyebrows at her. "Sit up, and let me make you something to eat. An omelet, I think." he stood and helped her sit up before disappearing up the stairs.

When Kell reached the kitchen he wasn't surprised to find Richard and Tracy sharing a quiet moment. Tracy was reading her scriptures, Richard something else. There were two empty smoothie glasses in front of them and two slices of whole wheat bread and some jam.

They both looked up as he entered. "Did you sleep well?" Tracy asked. 

Kell nodded on his way to the cupboards and refrigerator.

"I checked in on you several times," she continued, so he knew she was aware that he'd slept part of the night next to her daughter.

"I came to make her some breakfast." 

"There are eggs and stuff in the frige." Tracy said. "Do you cook?"

He didn't tell her he had whole cookbooks at his beck and call. He nodded and opened the refrigerator. "Would you like an omelet?" he asked instead.

"We've eaten." Richard announced folding his portfolio. He fixed Kell with a baleful glare. "You were very close to my daughter when I went down to see her this morning."

Kell hesitated, a slight second, then shrugged and said, "Took it to another level."

Richard drew a deep breath. "Are you saying you haven't been intimate with her before that?"

Kell had his back to the table. His face remained impassive, but he clinically let the thought flit through his mind as he retrieved the necessary ingredients out of the cooler.

This is a new one. Never discussed the details with the girl's father before. He didn't answer. It didn't deserve an answer.

He rummaged in several cupboards looking for a pan, found one and sliced some butter into it.

Found a bowl began cracking eggs.

"Young man ..."

Kell squeezed his eyes shut. His hands stilled on the counter, flat and annoyed. "Don't get me wrong, Mr. Mann, but this isn't the time or place or person I care to discuss intimacy with. If you want me out, say so, and I'll leave." he still had his back to the table, but his fingers tapped the marble.

"Taking Maille with you." Tracy finished.

Kell shook his head. "Don't make everything so sinister." he warned and turned to face them. "Were you afraid she couldn't share an intimate moment? I assure you she can, and has."

"Kell, I told you before, it's not her we worry about... it's you."

Kell sighed and shook his head again in exasperation. "Your prejudice suits you." 

Tracy was on her feet. "How dare you?"

"I would have thought with all the trouble you've gone to in your life to avoid unwanted and untrue press, you would know the same when you saw it again. I was wrong. You are the same as them. Only worse, knowing it makes you a hypocrite as well." He beat three eggs rather savagely into a clear glass bowl, retrieved a knife and the cutting board and began chopping green onions and peppers.

There was silence at the table. Kell kept calm by taking deep breaths again. His lips pursed every so often. They had some nerve...

Well, he had some nerve too. But to call him on the carpet... and after such an exquisite morning interlude. He wanted to hog the memory to himself, guard it, relive it, cherish it. Not have its light dimmed by a fight with her parents. 

He decided on cheese to top it off, even though he'd seen sausage in the meat container. Quick and easy, retreat.

He gave the two over protective next generation a once over, and then proceeded down the stairs.

Maille was sitting up carefully, examining the stitches in her arm. She looked up with a trusting smile, that tore at his heartstrings with its hopefulness. "It's not so bad." she said. "I can still go see Myndee today."

"Sure you can... later." he assured her and put a book on her legs to set the plate on. He'd brought two forks and he began wolfing it down immediately.

Maille kept her fork poised in midair. "Guess you're starving...." she said wistfully and smiled when he shoved one more bite in his mouth, wiped his lips with his hand and then dished her fork up and held it out for her to try.

Later, she got out of bed. She was doubled over a bit, but her thigh length shirt type nightgown covered her comfortably. Her legs were silky and trim as well, Kell noted, way more interested now that the cat was out of the bag. He pretended to examine her high school yearbooks which he'd found lying on a shelf in the closet.

She practiced walking, not talking at all. Several hours went by. They watched a movie. He suggested she call all the people in her yearbook that had written 'call me'. She tried calling a couple of the numbers, but the teenagers in the pages weren't living there anymore. Maille paced. Kell slept a while.

Maille walked upstairs. Her mother fussed over her. Megan and Steve came over. They visited about the movie, studiously ignoring Maille's condition and what had brought it on. This was confusing to Maille. Why did they ignore the major happenings in her life? On the other hand, was it possible her decisions and condition made them nervous or afraid? No wonder they wanted to ignore it.

She said she was tired and asked them to excuse her. Kell was in her shower. She lay on the bed, pain etched her features, but she determined not to give into it.

Kell eyed her as he toweled his hair dry. She lay on her side, away from him, staring at a pristine white wall.

"Maille?"

"You probably need to go check on your animals."

"Do you want to come?"

"Yes. But I----." She thought about the people upstairs and how they looked at her. The speculation in all of their eyes haunted her. She wasn't behaving and hadn't behaved like the typical girl they knew.

She had changed. Her fingers were drawn to her lips where the feel of Kell's kisses warmed her and sent piercing jags of excitement and desire all the way to her toes.

But he hadn't repeated the scenario. He hadn't tried to be intimate with her again all day. Weird doubt pushed its way into her awareness. Perhaps he regretted his decision to take it to another level.

Or perhaps she was too inexperienced to hold the interest of a man such as himself.

She turned over and looked at him there poised with the towel in his hands. He looked the same. He didn't seem as if he found her lacking.

Kell popped his lips at her and disappeared into the bathroom again, when he came out he said he was going home to check on his pets and then going to see Myndee. She was to rest. She nodded. He squeezed her hand, and she was again confused. 

Why this strained feeling? They'd taken it too fast. Now things were complicated. There was something between them, expectations.

Maille slept an hour. But when she awoke, she knew she had to do something--- anything to lose the terrible expectancy of the unknown.

She called a local rental office and asked to be taken on several tours of available houses.

*****