A Lifetime

A Lifetime / Chapter 12

Some time had passed. He wasn't sure exactly how much when he realized that he felt unusually comfortable. Every inch of him was warm and alive. But there was something more. Serendipity.

He felt complete.

He felt her.

He felt happy. He hadn't been happy in such a long time. It's hard to remember that it exists when it's been missing for so long.

He opened his eyes and to his surprise, she was nestled under his chin with her body cradled against him. He was instantly aroused. He did feel guilty for a second but had to relent. It would be impossible not to feel this way towards her. He was human. And she was...well...she was Kat.

After torturing himself by staring at her bare shoulder, focusing on how her skin felt under his, her legs softly against his, he begged sleep to relieve him of this torture.

Then slowly, forgivingly, his eyes closed again, as his face turned softly to feel her hair against his face. He held her, smiled, and fell back to sleep.

When he awoke the next morning, the sun was brightly creeping through every crack it could find in the wooden blinds. Luckily, not on the two of them, still cradled together as a perfectly interlocking piece.

The sun did seem bright, and that made him curious about the time, so he reached for his phone, lying nearby on the nightstand.

9:30 am.

She was still sound asleep. She still had her face tucked against his chest.

So many years he missed her. For so many years he wanted to drive by her house...just to catch a glimpse of her. He moved because the need to do that grew every day.

Living without her was too hard.

When he moved to New York, he worked to help others. He no longer held out hope to feel complete.

Looking at her again, feeling her again, he wanted more than to just survive. He wanted to do what he was born to do. He wanted to love her.

The thoughts entered his brain before he realized the feeling was still there. Stronger than ever. He didn't want to move. He wanted to breathe her in. He wanted to feel her breathe against him. Just a little more. When he placed the phone down and shifted his arm back around her, she began to wake.

His joy was being replaced by fear. He was terrified because she would be leaving his hold soon.

She turned her head up just enough to look at his face.

"Hey," she said, smiling up to him. "I should say I'm sorry but...I slept like a baby."

She wanted to plead with him, "Stay with me. Here. Like this." She didn't want this to end.

But she remained silent and instead, she placed her head back against his chest. So many things felt comfortable with him again. Being around him was so easy.

Easy. The word sounds so unimportant. So insignificant. No! It was anything but those things.

It had been easy to talk. Easy to laugh. Easy to understand. Easy to feel, to know, to love.

"Me too," was all he could say without giving himself away. When her head returned to his chest, his heart jumped with excitement that she wasn't leaving him, just yet.

"Do they have room service here?" she chuckled, her breath touching his chest. He got chills. All over his body. She was killing him!

"I bet if we asked, they would," he playfully responded. Trying desperately to divert his thoughts onto something else, anything else.