By the time I made it back to our room, she was already fast asleep. I sat down on the bed next to her, just taking her in with a new kind of excitement building inside of me. This feeling had nothing to do with lust or a desire to have her but was just as powerful. As if what I felt for her wasn’t strong enough already, this time, strong emotion almost overtook me.

Just looking at her peaceful countenance filled me with a warmth that spread from my heart to my very ...