When she finally pulled back, she didn't retreat. She rested her forehead against his, her breath warm against his skin, her dark eyes glittering with a luminous intensity he had never seen in her before. A faint, radiant flush dusted her cheekbones.
"You have no idea," Victoria whispered, her voice slightly raw, trembling with a mixture of wonder and disbelief. "You truly can't imagine how happy you've made me... or how completely weightless I feel right now."
She let out a soft, breathless laugh, her thumbs gently stroking his temples.
"All those years... I watched other women from the back of tinted, bulletproof sedans. I saw college girls laughing on street corners, couples sitting on wooden park benches sharing a single drink, people arguing over trivial, ordinary things. And I hated that I envied them."
A soft, wry smile touched her lips, her eyes softening as she spoke from a place she had never dared reveal to anyone.
