<div style="text-align: center;"><a class="postlink" href="http://i.imgur.com/NHlFgsv.png">[ img ]</a><br/><span style="font-size: 150%; line-height: 116%;"><span style="color: #BF0000"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">You said you don't have to speak...I can hear you.<br/>I can't feel all the things you've ever felt before...</span></span></span></span></span><br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">• • • •</span></div><br/><br/>When he spoke, she found herself caught up in each word he spoke, hanging off of each syllable. A voice that was exotic in its own right. Where was it from? She’d not heard it before, so she couldn’t place it, but it was thick…without being to the point of incoherence, which she silently thanked the gods for as the words he spoke were beautiful.<span style="font-style: italic">He</span>was beautiful, a fact she couldn’t get over as he spoke a compliment that had her heart skipping a beat. Her eyes widened, a small gasp inhaled as her cheeks flushed. Gaze dropping, a hand rose to push a few wayward hairs back, tucking them gingerly behind an ear as the breath of wind caused them to tickle her cheek.<br/><br/>He thought she was beautiful. This man, this handsome stranger thought she was beautiful. How had he seen her without her seeing him? He’d caught sight of her and she’d remained oblivious.<span style="font-style: italic">Madre es always telling me to keep my eyes open…but it’s not polite to stare, which I’d have done without abandon…</span>came a thought, a knowing thought that spoke the truth her lips could not. She wished she’d seen him sooner, but then, maybe it was better she’d not. She was a woman promised to someone who knew her name, and knew what she looked like not from a moment of passing, but from the words of her father.<br/><br/>This was not that man, and it was a man she’d have to get out of her mind, no matter how intense the gaze was he held on her.<br/><br/>“It is nothing,” Bellen found herself replying, wanting to assure him that his English wasn’t anything he’d need to worry about with her. Not in the slightest did it bother her that it wasn’t fluent, as neither was she, though her grasp seemed a bit better. “And, thank you…truly for your kind words, but I cannot accept your compliment, sir…” Her eyes looked everywhere but at his own for as long as was polite before glancing back at him and finding herself unable to look away again. “I can, however, tell you my name...” A pause, as a breath left her lips, steading her nerves as her hand found itself back within its fellow, clasped ion front of her as a sort of comfort.<br/><br/>“Bellen…mi nombre, my name, is Bellen.” Dipping into a curtsy to properly greet him, she smiled. “You are not from here...de donde eres? What has you coming through the area?” Then, there was another pause, her gaze becoming all the more curious. “You saw me walking through town...but found me here. Are you staying near here?”<br/><br/>Her eyes dropped, head shaking as she had to tell herself to relax. “I apologize for all of the questions...I forgot my place. You now know my name...is there anything more I can do for you?”