the Confessions

He met my eyes again, and they were surprisingly tender.

"And for all that," he continued, "I'd have fared better if I had exposed
us all at that first moment, than if now, here � with no witnesses and
nothing to stop me � I were to hurt you."

I was human enough to have to ask. "Why?"

"Isabella." He pronounced my full name carefully, then playfully ruffled
my hair with his free hand. A shock ran through my body at his casual
touch. "Bella, I couldn't live with myself if I ever hurt you. You don't
know how it's tortured me." He looked down, ashamed again. "The thought
of you, still, white, cold� to never see you blush scarlet again, to
never see that flash of intuition in your eyes when you see through my
pretenses� it would be unendurable." He lifted his glorious, agonized
eyes to mine. "You are the most important thing to me now. The most
important thing to me ever."

--From "Twilight" - Stephanie Meyer