“Possibly. My impression is we wouldn’t need much of the other.”
Because he didn’t touch her, they were both being hurt by the desire to touch. She flinched a little before the brutal magnetism of his eyes. She felt gutted by them as by a fire; and shuddered her whole body to shake herself free, as a dog shudders rain.
“We won’t talk of it now,” she said restlessly.
“We must take advantage of the time that remains to us.”
“Meaning by that that my hours are numbered?” She threw him a quick sidewise glance under a curve of her lashes. “Don’t you truly think your studied lack of interest in me will get me off? Really, that’s altogether too modest!”
“You are unfair, my dear. I am doing my best for you.”
“Go on. Say it: ‘without belief.’”
“Belief! Belief in what? Your innocence? God in His heaven, you didn’t imagine your love potion as strong as all that, did you? Let’s be honest. We can afford to be, you and I. It takes courage, but courage is the coin of our particular realm.”
“Who is to be honest?”
“Both of us, beautiful.”