"No?," Anatoly unthinkingly murmured in Russian. Realizing what he had said, he repeated himself in English as he took a tentative step forward. His heart was racing a mile a minute and he could feel his breath start to come in short gasps.

"The last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable." He must be mad to consider what he was doing but as he took another step closer to Roger, he decided that just once, he could feel with his heart and not think with his head. Just once, passion before reason, impulse before steadiness, fire before ice.