[ This time, Mako has to turn to look at him, startled when his lips are pressed against the ring, a symbol of their promise, and she falters, at once embarrassed and ashamed in the face of his earnestness. He's giving her the look he gives people when they're being stupid, only his is tampered with much less loathing that he reserves for others who aren't her.

He's kissing her hand and Mako curls her fingers over his in reflex. She's never been one who trusted easily, never, ever -- and up until Raleigh, no one had managed to get past her defense mechanisms, but now... now, look at her. She's head over heels in love with Raleigh Becket, had even become his wife, and pretty much just endured a particularly potent spell of inferiority.

It's in her nightmares, you know, that he'd one day wake up and not love her anymore, and she sighs, some of the tension in her shoulders bleeding out at his words. ] I'm sorry. I just heard the stories she was telling, and I thought -- I thought you had no business being with me when you could've had her.