MERIDA

I hadn't expected tonight to change anything. But then again, I hadn't expected him to change my life either.

"You're quiet tonight," he said, his

voice low and rough. I looked up sharply, startled by the way his gaze pierced through me. There was no anger in his tone, no impatience-just

curiosity.

"l... I was thinking," I replied, my voice barely above a whisper. He raised an eyebrow, leaning back on his elbows with an ease that belied the tension in the air.

"About what?"

About you. About how you've become my everything. But the words wouldn't come. How could

I possibly express what he meant

to me when...