And yet the pain just drove her that much closer, knifing through her with electric heat, burning along new pathways and old. It drove all thought of anything conscious from her mind, just that ever-increasing, completely unsatisfied need. The need that only he could choose to fulfill.

"Please, Gabriel, I need..." To come, to feel him, to have it all. Like a junkie looking for a fix, that tiny cynical voice that had never been completely silenced told her.