He reached out with his left arm and pulled her to himself. Standing face to face, he felt the light touch of her gentle breath. As if exploring a treasure, his eyes surveyed the one before him. Across the cheekbones, over the forehead where the hair lightly lay, down the slender neckline and back up past the delicate chin his journey took him. Over her subtle lips his gaze continued as if hypnotized by the object of his affection.

And then, as the sun brings all things unto itself and holds them prisoner forever, so her eyes enslaved his. He could not turn away, such was their intensity. Nor did he want to. Here — and here alone — he found that which deemed all else in life counterfeit. For here life became alive. Here the mundane garb thrust upon men lost its hold. Here the beckoning cry of despair and emptiness was but a faint whisper.

Their gaze uninterrupted, she said nothing. But nothing was required. All that needed saying was being said. Her eyes bespoke a thousand words.

Transfixed, his gaze penetrated down through the layers. Down, down, down he looked, searching, exploring, discovering. His destiny was her soul. He craved the essence of her being, that place which defined her as a woman. His heart would settle for nothing less, for nothing was worth more. All else was mere trappings, ornaments and decorations.

He searched. Down through her eyes he searched.

And then, some silent voice raised its cry from the depths. Unadorned, unafraid and naked, it shattered his world with its message.

Though the witness of a thunderous ocean in the eye of a storm, though the hearer of a thousand voices in jubilant song, though encountering the boom of cannon in midst of battle, never had he heard such a glorious message, such a rapturous report.

With more power than words could ever convey, she had said, “I am yours.”

His heart pounded. His body weakened. All the world — save for her — did not exist. He tightened his hold, cradling her precious body in his arms.

And realizing that anything he could say with words would never equal what she had said without them, he surrendered himself. “I love you,” he whispered, wishing the moment to last for eternity. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”