QUOTE : Courtenay put a finger under Julian’s chin and tilted it up.<br /> <br /> “You can’t possibly mean to kiss me. I’m revolting.” Please kiss me.<br /> <br /> “You aren’t. And even if you were, you’d be other things too.”<br /> <br /> It was a gentle kiss, the sort of patient and meandering kiss Courtenay liked and Julian had never understood before. It wasn’t a prelude to fucking, it wasn’t even a prelude to a more thorough kiss. It was a conversation, without the burden of words. Please, Julian wanted to say. Let me try again. Julian’s heart felt full of something terrifying, something more dangerous than anything he had ever thought possible. And<br />he didn’t care. He was throwing himself into an abyss he couldn’t even see, and that was fine, at least for the duration of the kiss.