<span style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua'"><span class="fixed-color" style="color:#99ff99">For a moment, his heart had soared -- she had returned the kiss.<br/>
<br/>
And then she turned away.<br/>
<br/>
Cameron swallowed hard and tried to listen to her as his heart sank to his boots -- deeper, nearly into the bedrock beneath the Palace.  "Is it a torment?" he asked softly.  "I thought -- "  He sat back, pulling away from her and averting his eyes.  "You asked why I have not wed, why I have no companion.  I seek... a partner, Gwen.  Someone whom I trust and -- yes, and love.  Whom I can stand beside to face the world -- to know that I am both supporter and supported."  He let out a self-deprecating laugh.  "Does that not sound familiar?  It was not until I entered your presence tonight that I realized I was seeking you, bright heart.  You have become in my absence the very embodiment of everything I have wished for, all wrapped in the soul of one I already treasure -- and you think my kiss a torment?"</span></span>