She stepped toward the gap; one slipper slid on crumbling masonry. Stifling a...

She stepped toward the gap; one slipper slid on crumbling masonry. Stifling a gasp, Patience leapt forward onto the corridor flags.
And collided with a man. She opened her mouth to scream- a hard hand clamped over her lips. An arm like steel locked about her waist, trapping her against a long, hard frame. Patience relaxed; her panic flowed out of her. There was only one body within ten miles like the one she was pressed against.
Reaching up, she pulled Vane's hand from her lips. She drew breath to speak, opened her lips-
He kissed her.
When he eventually consented to stop, he only lifted his lips a bare fraction from hers. And breathed: "Quiet- sound travels very well in the fog."
Patience gathered her wits. And breathed back: "I saw the Spectre- there was a light bobbing about."
"I think it's a lantern, but it's gone or shielded now."
His lips touched hers again, then settled, not cool but warm against hers. The rest of him was warm, too, an oasis of heat in the chilly night. Her hands trapped against his chest, Patience fought an urge to snuggle closer.
When he next lifted his head, she forced herself to ask, her words still no more than a whispered breath: "Do you think he'll come back?"
"Who knows? I thought I'd wait for a while."
He followed up the tantalizing brush of his breath against her lips with a much more satisfying caress.
Patience's head spun. "Maybe I'll wait, too."
"Hmmm.