Alive

It's like nothing she'd ever felt before. This strange, crazy feeling that brought tears to her eyes.
Because it made her weak, it made her vulnerable... It broke through the steel-hearted facade that she had made for herself, the cold, hard mask she had hid herself behind. It exposed her heart, her soul.. her self laid bare for everyone to see.
Because she needed him. Needed him like the very air she breathed. A need so powerful, it took her breathe away. A need so potent, it left a gaping hole in her chest. A need that had her clutching her heart at any kind of separation, however temporary.
A need that made it impossible for her to exist... without him.

No man had ever made her feel so insignificant, so small, so... incomplete.
Because that's exactly what he did. He left her riddled like Swiss cheese, and the only person who could fill the emptiness was him. She needed him to be whole again.
Need. Need, to the point of pain.
And yet.. all she felt was an unfamiliar sense of excitement. Exhilaration. Not the kind that came from jumping off buildings. She knew, she'd tried.
But the kind that pooled into her stomach and knotted her nerves. The kind that made her bite her lip and wring her hands. The kind that made her heart thud in her chest.
Anticipation? Passion? Love?
She did not even want to contemplate the term.
But one thing she could not deny....... She had never felt so alive.