I have nothing to offer you," he finally said in a guttural voice.<br />"Nothing."<br />Win's lips had turned dry. She moistened them, and tried to speak through a thrill of anxious trembling. "You have yourself," she whispered.<br />"You don't know me. You think you do, but you don't. The things I've done, the things I'm capable of--you and your family, all you know of life comes from books. If you understood anything--"<br />"Make me understand. Tell me what is so terrible that you must keep pushing me away."<br />He shook his head.<br />"Then stop torturing the both of us," she said unsteadily. "Leave me, or let me go."<br />"I can't," he snapped. "I can't, damn you." And before she could make a sound, he kissed her.