Patrick ate his orange slices and looked at Ice, from head to toe. And smiled.<br/><br/>"I just can't believe that you're in my kitchen," he said. "Ice. In my kitchen. Somebody pinch me. God, you're so pretty. But I bet you get that all the time. Do guys flirt with you a lot?"<br/><br/>He knew the answer but wanted her to reply. She couldn't verbally, but as long as he asked yes or no questions, she could answer him.<br/><br/>Patrick got up and brushed her hair from her eyes. "Would you like to talk a little bit? I'll take the gag off. But don't scream at me or try to talk me out of this. Because this is a GOOD thing, what I'm doing. In the long run you will agree. I'm not a monster, Ice. You don't think that about me, do you? I just want you to know what it's like to have someone care for you like I do."<br/><br/>Patrick traced the black band where her lips would be. He rubbed the back of his hand over her cheekbones.<br/><br/>"I'm going to take this off, honey. I suppose I'm going to have to learn to trust you. Especially after we're married."<br/><br/>With that, Patrick tucked the fingers of both hands between the band and her face and managed to pull it off, exposing the wad of cheesecloth in her mouth.<br/><br/>"Open wide," he said, and pulled the sodden wad out of her mouth.<br/><br/>"Better?"