"Tell me why...," she whispered inside his empty ear cannel, her elbows coming to rest over his knees.
The blazing fire crackled within the fireplace walls beside the nest of cushions they made on the floor.
His bare ribs rose and fell against her back while his mouth pressed into her hair, mumbling, "Does it really matter?"
"No, it wouldn't," Sally assumed aloud, reclining even further into his chest while he did this. "...but I've always been a curious one."
"Well, I cherish your company because...," he trailed off momentarily, searching for his answer, "you make me feel—"
"Valued? Adored? Cheerful, perhaps?" she ventured off tenderly.
"No, it's even more than all that, Sally. It's more...than you may understand," he stressed.
But Sally waited until he reorganized his considerations, before he put them into a full phrase...
"It's that, you somehow make me feel—human again."
Thanks again to all my readers!