The letter had been crumpled up and tossed onto the grate. It had burned all around the edges so the names at the top and bottom had gone up in smoke. But there was enough of the bold black scrawl to reveal that it had indeed been a love letter. And as Hannah read the singed and half-destroyed parchment she was forced to turn away to hide the trembling of her hand. should warn you that this letter will not be eloquent. However it will be sincere especially in light of the fact that you will never read it. I have felt these words like a weight in my chest until I find myself amazed that a heart can go on beating under such a burden. I love you. I love you desperately violently tenderly completely. I want you in ways that I know you would find shocking. My love you dont belong with a man like me. In the past Ive done things you wouldnt approve of and Ive done them ten times over. I have led a life of immoderate sin. As it turns out Im just as immoderate in love. Worse in fact. I want to kiss every soft place of you make you blush and faint pleasure you until you weep and dry every tear with my lips. If you only knew how I crave the taste of you. I want to take you in my hands and mouth and feast on you. I want to drink wine and honey from you. I want you under me. On your back. Im sorry. You deserve more respect than that. But I cant stop thinking of it. Your arms and legs around me. Your mouth open for my kisses. I need too much of you. A lifetime of nights spent between your thighs wouldnt be enough. I want to talk with you forever. I remember every word youve ever said to me. If only I could visit you as a foreigner goes into a new country learn the language of you wander past all borders into every private and secret place I would stay forever. I would become a citizen of you. You would say its too soon to feel this way. You would ask how I could be so certain. But some things cant be measured by time. Ask me an hour from now. Ask me a month from now. A year ten years a lifetime. The way I love you will outlast every calendar clock and every toll of every bell that will ever be cast. If only youAnd there it stopped.