"-before something happens."

Her hand on his sleeve. How she wouldn't look at him as she spoke, as if avoiding the words coming from her own mouth. The palpable tension in the air. The build-up of emotions in his heart over the last week-and-a-half. How lonely he'd been since his wife's death seven years ago.

All of these things contributed to Frederic making that something happen anyway.

One arm slipped around her waist as the other, the one with her hand on it, moved to grasp that hand. He pulled her in, and as her gaze inevitably moved up to meet his, he pressed his lips against hers with a sense of needing mixed with hope and soft power.