The moonlight streamed into the hotel room, casing a beautiful glow across the carpet. But nothing was as beautiful as the man who held her in his arms, his bare chest resting against hers.

She closed her eyes sighing, as he ran his fingers through her hair, releasing the scent of her perfume and shampoo. His breathing slowed, as though the scent was the most heavenly fragrance on earth.

"I love you, Niles..."

He smiled and kissed her lips. "And I love you, Da-." He stopped and stared at her for a moment. "Daphne, what's wrong? Are you crying?"

"No..." She lied, quickly turning away from him. But she felt his fingertips on her chin, turning her toward him.

"Why are you crying?" He whispered, kissing her nose.

"Because..." She sniffled. "I'm so sorry, Niles."

"What on earth are you apologizing for? Daphne, do you have any idea how wonderful you are? When I was hurting you treated me with such kindness and compassion-."

"This is my fault!"

"No..." He whispered brushing the hair from her face before kissing her lips once more. "Don't even think it."

She propped herself on her elbow and stared at him. "But it's true, Niles! I was so insistent about you making up with your brother that I insisted on us going to that bloody party! And then those horrible, awful people made you feel small and ashamed and-."

When she began to cry he drew her close, whispering sweet words of comfort as he stroked her hair.

"Don't think about that. Think about us and how much I love you."

She raised her head to look at him, kissing his sweet lips once more.

"It was hard..." he continued. "Going through such an ordeal during my childhood but I outgrew it. My only fear is that our son or daughter will inherit my problem and be ridiculed the way I was. I couldn't bear to watch our child go through such a painful experience and-."

She silenced him with a series of kisses that left them both breathless. And when the kisses ended, they held each other in silence, listening to the rhythm of each other's hearts, combined with the rise and fall of their breathing.

"Niles?" Daphne said suddenly. "You know, it's still early. Perhaps you could make a phone call and get us a table at L'Espaliar? It's such a lovely restaurant and I know how much you were looking foreword to taking me there."

Niles was clearly intrigued. "Well, Mr. Pasqual did say that he wanted to make it up to me."

Daphne eagerly climbed out of bed and reached for her robe. "Well then, what are we waiting for?"

But Niles' hand was in hers, preventing her from moving any further and she turned to him.

"Is something wrong?"

Niles grinned. "Actually to tell you the truth, I'm not very hungry right now."

"And we haven't exactly finished what we stared here." Daphne added. "Perhaps we can have dinner later."

Niles lifted the sheet allowing her to climb back into bed and snuggle against him. And in the heat of passion he kissed her deeply, staring into her eyes. "Why don't we just skip dinner all together? You can wait until breakfast, right?"

The suggestion surprised her, for it wasn't like him to skip meals. "I suppose so, but what made you change your mind?"

He gave her a playful grin. "Well, my love...I'm afraid that this is going to take a while."

They laughed and entangled their bodies once more as their passion resumed, carrying them into the morning light.

THE END