The heat would be oppressive if it wasn't for the shade of a large oak keeping us cool. We have been lying underneath the tree in silence for almost an hour, jsut staring at the leaves or looking towards the sky and watching the clouds. I am acutely aware of her proximity as I relax in the shade. While watching all the amiable shapes of nature, all of my thoughts are of her.

The sky is turning golden-red now, as the sun begins to set. The clouds look like hills and fields of some far-off heavenly world. I let out a painful sigh as I wish I could ride those skies with her in some sweet, enchanting dream.

I can no longer lay next to her without adoring her beautiful, soft face. I slowly bring myslef into a sitting position and look down at her. Her eyes are closed, and by the sweetly subtle smile on her face, I can tell that she is imagining something wonderful. My heart aches as I wish that she would be thinking of me, that it was even possible that someone like her should even consider me.

She must have sensed my movement, because a few moments later she stretches open her eyes and looks up at me. As those glittering orbs lock onto my own eyes, I lose my breathe, overwhelmed. With a contented smile and a lazy yawn, she moves into sitting position, placing her body close to mine. We start up a simple conversation, occasionally looking back and forth at each other. I begin to say anything that comes to mind, whatever it takes to not lose this moment.

The golden light of the sunset plays brilliant tricks on her already-breathtaking presence. She looks so beautiful with some locks of hair resting gingerly on herr face. Whenever she looks at me, her eyes pierce my heart and I yearn to reach out and hold her.

Our conversation falls to a stop as I begin to stare at her. Both relief and fear flood my body as she quickly returns my burning gaze. The more I look, the more I begin to lose touch with reality. There is just no way that something so beautiful and wonderful and adorable and magnificent (and all other great words from any and every language) is actually before me, but she is there, like a bright beacon of passion calling me across the darkest depths of loneliness and pain. I have to touch her, only her touch can make me complete.

My arm is shaking with weakness, but my hope keeps driving me on....With a fear that is unbearable and a mind that is now gone, I reach out with my hand to caress her face. It's like my throat swells closed and I can't breathe as the back of my hand gently glides across the velvety tissue covering her cheekbone. I must summon all of my will power to keep myself under control.

I find my index finger sliding gently down the side of her face as you continue to stare back at me, hot and expectant. My finger traces her jawline towards her chin. Then, with as much delicacy as I can master, I easily stroke the tissue of her lips.

"You're quivering," she breathes.

I can't wait any longer. I let everythign go and clasp her face with both hands and bring my lips into unification with hers. Like a raging flood, like flowing lava, like a billion gigawatts of electricity, I erupt into her and she into me, and for long moments we are one. In each other's unbreakable graps, we continue to kiss. We fly into each other mind, body and soul...it's the most perfect and complete union I've ever felt with any other living being, ever. I know at that moment, that nothing--NOTHING!--else in my entire life will ever, EVER be as great, as profound, as HEAVENLY as that moment, as I fall into the deepest, hardest, most wonderful love of my lifetime.