She had never feltquite like this. He had never seen in another person's eyes what he saw in hers.Nothing big had happened, maybe it had always been there, but he hadn't noticedit until now. She jumped at the sound of his arrival and he saw her flinch infear.

He had known of the rocky past, and he was sorry she had been hurt,but he had never considered the impact, the toll it had taken on her. He saw thelook of wild, blind fear, like that of a trapped wild horse. Or perhaps a cagedtiger, not one who had discovered the bars couldn't be broken, but one who stillsaw them as a menace. Or even that of an abandoned puppy, one who wanted the loveand nurturing of a human hand, but remembered all too well the pain of the past,and so kept its distance, and even growled a little.

That was the way shelooked for that instant, all those things rolled into one big look of primalfear. Then she realized that there was no one who intended to harm her, just him.The look that swept her then was what got him. She uncurled from her position,tucked in the corner, reading a book. As she approached, he watched, wonderingwhy he hadn't noticed this before. He had always fixated on her stormy eyes; heshould have seen this before. As she drew nearer he saw the way she looked at him- as though she couldn't believe her eyes, and she was getting up to embrace himjust to make sure he was really there.

She looked at him like she wantedhis protection. No, that wasn't it, for the wild tiger wanted the protection ofno one, just the safety and comfort he brought her. Within the depths of thosechurning eyes, he could see everything, but why hadn't he noticed before? Healways thought that she was incapable of love; that's what she had told him as hewhispered the words he thought every woman wanted to hear. He had meant them,too, but she had told him not to, that love was bad for her, so he didn't tellher anymore.

So that had led him to believe that she would never love, butin that instant, he saw differently. She had loved him all along, she just didn'twant to tell him. She cared so deeply for him that she was afraid of ruining it.Suddenly he understood everything that had confused and hurt him, and as sheembraced him, testing his reality, he held her tightly, but gently. He waskeeping the wild tiger at bay, in comfort, without taming it. No, he liked thewildness just the way it was.