“I’m sorry. I forgot. I looked at you and forgot. I will be good. But tell me one thing. You won’t expect me to be good for very long, will you?”
She looked at him and her eyes answered, and forgetting Bob and the window and the peep-hole their arms swept about each other. But because he was far more sensitive than she, and possibly because he had drunk deep from cups she had but touched the edges of, he drew away from her lips after a few fierce possessive kisses, seeing that if he went on he would submerge her more deeply than he had any intention of doing that night. For him the office was no fit setting for abandonment to her.
They stood for a moment shaken by that unleashing of the forces they had been trying to hold back, and something in the very violence of their relaxation startled them into self-discipline. Valerie dropped down into her chair breathing hard and trying to remember Bob, the work, the next morning.
Dane stood still for a minute amazed that he had let the situation run away from him in this manner. He had not come to the office with the remotest intention of kissing her. And here they were, for he had seen in her eyes the enchantment that he could never resist.
He sat down in the chair beside her and took her hands. She misunderstood his intention.
“Oh, please, we can’t really. You don’t know what this work is. And I must do it. I have no time to play till it is over.” She spoke as if she were afraid of him, but she was just as afraid of herself.
He dropped her hands, feeling the intensity that was burning her.
“Please don’t be afraid of me,” he pleaded softly. “I’m sorry I let go like that. I won’t do it again till you wish it. I promise.”
