Ingrid widened her eyes as Alexei told her about the secret passages, and she marveled at his cleverness. Of course it would make sense to use such a maze to buy time for the escaping imperial family. She squinted in the darkness and was able to take out the faint outlines of cuts in the hedge that marked the passages.<br/><br/>But even this couldn't distract her from the way her lips burned from his kiss. He had kissed her so long and so intently, that he had literally taken away her breath, and she thought she might faint from both pleasure and lack of air.  Even now, his arms around her waist and his breath on her ear were sending shivers through her body, and warming up the sensitive places that had only just ceased reverberating from her earlier pleasure.