For the next several hours, while Marissa had slept soundly, memories of the kiss had tormented Tony.

He didn’t regret it, exactly. In the modern era, a kiss hardly signified anything. Even with his religious upbringing, he had kissed a couple of girls. Even Mario had kissed a girl.

What upset Tony was that the kiss had not happened from as innocent motives as in the past. In the past, he had played at romance, too young to consider anything serious from an exchange of curiosity. With Marissa, he had meant the kiss. He had found himself seriously considering her as a companion, and since she had only barely handed him her trust, the kiss seemed almost like a betrayal of that trust. She was potentially too important to kiss casually, and she did not know him well enough to invest anything more serious in him. Surely, she felt the dissonance if he did.

"I shouldn't have kissed you," he blurted out suddenly as he pulled her across the little plaza outside Marcel’s.

If he had thought her of similar mind, he had apparently erred. A short, disappointed intake of breath boded ill for her reaction, and Tony felt horrible as soon as the words escaped his lips. What if she took the words to mean he hadn't enjoyed the kiss? That he didn’t like her.

“What I mean,” he tried to explain, “is that it was improper. I shouldn’t have -”

“I’m not a child,” Marissa cut him off. “Do you think I’ve never kissed a boy? Do you expect I had no childhood crushes?”

He spun back to her, gripping her shoulders so he could peer into her eyes. “Childhood crushes,” he challenged. “Last night was not a childhood kiss. You’re not a child anymore.” Marissa bit her lip at the intensity of his gaze. “I doubt you would compare my kiss to an innocent peck on the lips stolen behind a barn.”

Marissa giggled despite the seriousness of the moment, or maybe to disturb it. How could he have so accurately characterized her experience? An awkward brush of her lips across those of Theodore Wilson at the age of fourteen – literally behind Theo’s barn.

“You’re right,” she insisted petulantly. “I’m not a child. And you don’t have to protect me from a kiss. I’ve been kissed before.”

“So,Sam did kiss you?” Tony continued, narrowing his eyes to ascertain her reaction. After his snafu, he didn’t know why he thought bringing Sam up was a good idea.

In an instant, Marissa felt herself back in that dark room, a memory floating past her as Sam pressed his lips against hers – not once, but several times. A thrill, a fear, a lack of concern. Was it a memory? she wondered as she stared at Tony’s lips. Several moments in that room were blurred by confusion.

A quick brush of his hand across her cheek pulled her eyes from the memory and back to Tony’s distressed expression. “Unless Sam kissed you, you have never kissed a man, and I took a liberty. Even if he did, I pray it wasn’t the same.”

“No,” she tried to comfort, “Sam didn’t…but yours wasn’t the same.” If her words contradicted themselves, she didn’t realize it. Tony did, though, and even as his conscience upbraided him, he determined to clock Sam Lincoln across the jaw at first opportunity.

Blowing out a breath, he forced himself to turn away, gripping her hand again and leading her forward. “I still shouldn’t have kissed you.”

A quick glance back at her registered her disappointment, but Tony couldn't take the words back; they were true, and she needed to hear them. Whatever her claim to experience, Marissa was even greener than Tony himself in the area of romance, and he needed to tread with more caution.

After he and Marissa had traveled the length of a city block, though, Tony couldn't stand it anymore. He rounded the corner, out of view of Marcel's, and pulled to a stop, ostensibly so that Marissa could catch her breath.

Though he had expected something dramatic – tears or hurt – what he saw looked much worse to him. Back was the proud look, the sense of disdain that had melted for a few beautiful moments after the kiss. On her face, the last few weeks hadn't happened, the night after Calloway's hadn't happened, the warmth of Marcel's hadn't happened.

For a good minute, he considered kissing her again just to erase the look from her face. Of course, his conscience admonished him almost instantly; he had just managed to regret kissing her the first time, a definite breech of propriety. And he realized that if he stood too long staring at her, he would want to kiss her again.

As if in answer to the latter thought, Marissa threw her shoulders back superciliously and sauntered past him without a glance. “Fine,” she declared, and Tony didn’t know if she had reacted to his claims of propriety or his unwillingness to kiss her again.

"Marissa," he pleaded, gripping her arm just as she would pass him, "you misunderstood me. I don’t regret the kiss." He tried to pour as much intention into the words as his conscience would allow, but they seemed to have no effect on her. “Not like that. I’m glad it was you.”

"Let go of me," she spat with uncharacteristic vehemence, and Tony's fingers sprung open instantly. "I know exactly what you meant. And it probably was a bad idea." She didn't know why it bothered her so much, hearing him say the words. When he had kissed her, she had thought the same thing. He absolutely should not have kissed her. Still, she hadn't been able to regret that he had. There were so many reasons he should have turned away from her, yet somehow, he had lost himself, not only enough to stay with her, but enough to overstep the bounds of propriety to connect with her. To hear his regret forced her to acknowledge the impropriety of the action, an impropriety she had hoped to bury behind the memory of how thoroughly she had enjoyed it.

"Where are you going?" Tony begged suddenly as she took several rapid steps away from him.

"I'm going somewhere to wait until tomorrow. You don't think I understand what's been happening the last few days, but I do. I get it, and I don't appreciate that everyone is keeping me in the dark. Someone didn't like my paper. Someone found out that I'm involved. Someone wants to punish me for something I didn't even do. Some people who don't even know me. So, they're after me or whatever, and for some stupid reason you say you're trying to protect me, and I can't go to my real friends because they are the ones who got me in this mess in the first place, and I can't trust them. Leonard says I can trust you, but Leonard could be deceived. Considering how your brother has treated me, how do I know that you're any different? Maybe it runs in the family. And you did kiss me, even though you shouldn't have. Sam tried to kiss me, too. How do I know you're not just like he is?"

A toss of her hair sent her beyond his reach, and Tony watched, immobilized by shocked anger, as she strutted imperiously down the street. Like Sam? For a moment, she had almost made him feel bad for her, what with her friends' abandoning her and Tony's own lack of forthcoming. She had gone too far, though, when she maligned his family, and especially when she had compared his kiss to Sam's.

Such smug superiority in her demeanor, and after all Tony had done for her! Maybe he should just leave her to her own devices. The thought flitted through his mind for just a moment, though, before Tony spied a flurry of motion from the corner of his eye. The coach approached rapidly, and it seemed oblivious to Marissa's approach. How did she not hear it coming? Tony did not suspect any nefarious intent on its driver's part. Still, Tony could see the unfortunate convergence of circumstances as Marissa, caught up in some display of her independence, looked neither to the right nor to the left. If she kept walking, she would almost undoubtedly experience a near-collision with the coach.

"Marissa!" he called urgently, but the only result of his attempt showed in a squaring of her shoulders. Tony gave in to an all-out sprint, though he felt little hope in his success. The sun shone brightly overhead, but the previous night had seen an early fall thunderstorm, and mud puddles dotted the street like a leopard's spots. Hopefully, one of the puddles would drag on the coach's wheels and slow it down.

"Marissa!" he yelled again, his voice hollowed by breathlessness from his run. "Watch out!"

At his words, Marissa finally turned her head, though slowly and in the wrong direction. By the time she turned to the left and toward the coach, it was upon her. She tried to stop her progress, but the wheels had already reached within a foot of her when Tony's hand finally clamped on the back of her sweater. He yanked back with all the strength he could muster, though he had to fight his forward momentum, and as he pulled both himself and Marissa to the ground, he didn't know what kind of damage she would suffer as a result.

Another way I'm like Sam, I imagine, he thought sourly as he considered the cuts and scrapes caused by the bedlam. To make matters worse, just as they hit the pavement, the high wooden wheel struck a puddle and sent a wave washing over the couple where they lay prone on the curbside. When Tony managed to right them both, the sight that awaited him did him in.

Water dripped from every strand of Marissa's hair, the majority of which lay plastered to her skin. Water streamed down her nose and gathered on her eyelashes. Her sweater clung to her, and mud discolored her legs in splotches where it had mingled with the water.

Unlike the last time Tony had encountered a wet miserable Marissa, he now gave full vent to is laughter. Perhaps he felt giddy at his success in rescuing her, but he couldn't restrain himself from lying back and gasping out his relief and mirth at their situation.

Only when he felt her struggling to rise did he manage to glance up at her. She shared none of his amusement, and she promptly scrambled to her feet in an attempt to flee.

"Come back here," Tony chuckled as he reached up and grabbed her waist to restrain her.

"Let go of me!" she insisted again, but Tony did not comply as before.

"You are staying right here with me," he insisted breathlessly, pulling her the rest of the way back to his side. Raising himself to a seated position, he turned her to him. "Haven't you figured out that you need help? Every time I leave you to your own devices, you get in trouble.” And forget what I said before, he corrected silently. I don’t regret kissing you. I couldn’t possibly regret it.

Marissa pouted for a moment, and Tony missed her reply as he stared at her lips. Perhaps the adrenaline from saving her made him reckless, but he completely forgot his earlier scruples. Before she could protest, he had pulled her mouth to his, and he had the momentary satisfaction of feeling her melt against him. Apparently, she enjoyed the sensation as much as he did.

When he finally pulled away, he spoke to her more softly. "Come with me, Marissa. Let me help you. Stay with me."

For just an instant, she stared dumbly at him, her hostility veiled by the stupor of the moment. She recovered quickly, however, and Tony watched with shock as she began to cry. Unfortunately, though, he couldn't comfort her because she scrambled instantly to her muddy feet and began to sprint in the direction that the coach had taken. She had lost her composed stride and shuffled in a miserable run down the street.

"Marissa, wait!" he insisted again as he lurched to a stand just in time to see her round a corner behind a building. "Marissa!"

He ran toward the corner, calling constantly for her to wait. Once he made the corner, though, he saw no sign of her. Convinced that she could not have gone far, Tony scoured the niches and doorways of the building she had no doubt passed, crossing the street and repeating his search on the other side when his first efforts proved fruitless. As the minutes ticked on, Tony grew more concerned. Somehow, she had managed to elude him. Maybe she had truly given him the slip, but what if someone else had found her? What if they had been watching, waiting for her to get alone? Marcel's lay only a few blocks from the Moran headquarters, and surveillance of the area would prove simple for an experienced man. Tony sat down on the curb, for the first time having no idea how to proceed.

Marissa was gone.