Varian Krylov

Khalid?_ It was dark now, and she couldn't see his face, but she knew he was right there, an inch or two from their last kiss. __hat was that look? Earlier, after we'd finished?__here was a long silence in the dark before Khalid finally spoke.__t is only that it has been a long time since I have made love._ There was another long quiet. She waited for him. __f course, I love Galen. But you know already, we are only tender when we are not f****ing. And you and I, we were tender, before, but we did not feel then as we feel now.___o.___ had forgotten how big that feeling is.__anka pulled Khalid to her, cradling his naked body against hers.

But looking at you was nothing like looking at those pictures. When I first saw,_ he said, looking down at her chest, then up again to meet her eyes, __t hurt, almost a physical pain. Since you finished chemo, you've gotten so strong again. Sometimes I almost forget what you've been through. But seeing your scars, they reminded me of your hurt. How you've been cut apart. What you gave up.__t was important, not keeping herself back from him, putting parts of herself off limits. But it stung when he sank down to brush his lips over the two biggest scars.__ut your scars are beautiful. I mean, I look at them, and I want to kiss, I want to touch, I feel this tenderness for them. You know how when you love someone, when you've been with them a long time and you know all the little lines and curves and planes of their body, how you look at little parts of them__he corner of their mouth, the back of their hand, the little crease where their earlobe meets their jaw__nd you can feel like you're in love with that little piece of them? Maybe soon, I'll look at your scars like that. But right now, it's this feeling I've never had for a part of someone's body, before, because they promise me you're well. That you get to live. That we get to have a long life together.__er love for him was swelling up in her chest, the way it did sometimes, an ache she wanted to hold on to.