Victoria sat up, my shirt barely covering her at all.  "Ichabod, what in the world are you saying?"

          I smiled at her, perhaps foolishly, and said, "I am I love with you, Victoria."

          She moved away from me, her face changing.  "You cannot possibly be in love with me, Ichabod Crane.  You hardly know anything about me."

          "I want to learn everything about you…"

          "…You're mad…"

          "I am no such thing.  Victoria, even though you came to me in the most dire of situations, my heart raced each time you walked through my door…"

          "Infatuation…"

          "Perhaps at first, but no longer."

          "And how is it that things can change so suddenly?"

          "Is it so difficult to believe that a man can love you rather than cause you pain?"  For some reason, I feared that I had crossed some semblance of a line with that question.  She sat perfectly still, and perfectly silent.  "Victoria, the life that you are living is not what you deserve.  You should be sitting in a home with a smile on your face, with your eyes alight…not crouched outside in the rain with fear coursing through your veins.  I have made you smile, that has to mean something."

          "Of course it means something," she said, her voice no more than a whisper.  "However, you believe you have rescued a 'damsel in distress' and that your tale has a happy ending.  There is no happy ending here, Ichabod." 

          "And why not?"

          "Are you forgetting about the man that I am married to?  I shall be lucky if I live to see the sun set tomorrow."  Tears fell from her eyes and I moved closer to her, pulling her into my arms.  She tried to push me away, but I refused to let her go.  "I cannot do this…"

          "You will see tomorrow.  You will see every tomorrow, I will make sure of it."

          "How?  How can you make the horrid thing my life has become vanish?"  She looked into my eyes and seemed suddenly desperate.  "I have not been able to get my life back, Hector has made sure of that.  He was willing to kill my father rather than let me go.  I am not some helpless woman, I am simply…"  She had tried to sound so sure of herself, but failed in the end.

          "I swear that I am not trying to make you feel weak.  I simply wish a better life for you, just as your father does.  I wish to give you that life…"

          "And had I not made love to you?"

          "I would still wish to give you the life you deserve."

          "Again, I stress that you do not know…"

          I kissed her, not allowing her to finish what I knew she wanted to say.  "You let me feast, now let me learn."  She reciprocated my kiss, her body trembling.

          "We could both wind up dead."

          "I shall think of something, I promise."

          Her body began to come back to life, as did mine.  Her hands began to wander my chest as she asked, "Why risk your life for a woman that you barely know?" 

          "I know all I need to…for now."  I entered her body, careful to keep my full weight off of her.  "Once I figure something out," I whispered, "I want to know every detail about you."

          Her head tilted back and her eyes closed.  Her voice was breathy when she replied, "And I…you…"

          I made love to her, lavishing all I could upon her body.  I believe that both of us became lost in one another, neither wanting the feelings we were creating to end…though, eventually, they did.  Our bodies too exhausted to move, I pulled an afghan from the sofa and covered Victoria first, then myself.  She fell asleep after muttering words that haunted me through the night:

          "I could love you far too easily, Ichabod Crane."

          The words that kept me awake were a blessing.  As my mind reeled at the thought of having Victoria's heart, an idea struck me.  One that could let her escape a life of misery and start anew with me.