Chapter Two
Resisting the Inevitable
After Alyssa’s revelation of her terrible desires, Brad felt hollow and empty. He was thrown into turmoil, and for months it seemed that he just went through the motions of living. He wanted to turn to his sweet Alyssa and take her in his arms and kiss her and cherish her, to bring her back to him and him alone with the utter depth of his solemn, desperate, holy love.
And yet he could not. Whenever he broached the subject, she was gentle, even remorseful, but nevertheless very firm. The needs she had finally admitted aloud were real, she said. It had taken a lot of courage for her even to have dared to speak the topic aloud, she reminded him a little self-righteously, as if she were the aggrieved party. Yet she had thought about it long and hard befo
