He smiled at the lovely thing seated upon his lap, an arm coiled about her waist as the other stayed beneath her hair. Feeling her all but initiate their next round of kissing was a thrill to Claude; their sudden, powerful attraction proven to be mutual as he moved to lock his lips to hers once more. With no possible witnesses about, he felt himself slipping deeper into the moment, and soon his lips parted once again to let his tongue take another taste of his partner.<br/><br/>They'd said so few words, yet so much was said. This would not end after the ball; it could not. It would be impossible to ignore such fire and passion that had ignited in this night, and to leave such a thing behind would be folly. Come the unmasking, he would know the identity of this woman, and know by which name to call the one who had claimed his love.<br/><br/>Love? So soon? It seemed a fairy's tale, at best, but he was coming to believe that the legends of soul mates and love at first sight had some grain of truth to them.