“It’s kind of cool our birthdays are right next to each other,” he says, face covered in foam.
I chuckle. “Means we won’t forget them.”
“I’d never forget yours,” he says. “How could I ever forget the day you landed on this planet, destination my way.”
Call it corny, but I think that is the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me. “I’d kiss you right now if you weren’t covered in foam.”
He grins, “Save it for later?”
“Deal.”
I pick the razor up from the edge of the sink. Nathan tilts his head to the side and I very carefully start to shave his beard off.
When I’ve removed all trace of the hair from his beautiful face, Nathan surveys my work in the mirror while I rinse the sink clean and put the razor back.
I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. No nicks or cuts at all.
Getting the aftershave lotion off the shelf I squeeze a small amount on my hand, spreading it between my palms by rubbing them together.
“Here,” I say, holding up my hands to him.
Turning to me, Nathan bends at the knees, coming down to my height. I press my hands softly against his cheeks and gently rub the lotion into his skin using my fingers.
“So, do I look better for you?” he asks, his still minty breath blowing over me as he speaks.
Keeping my fingertips resting lightly against his cheeks, I reply in a low voice, “You always look good to me.”
I lean in and press a soft kiss to his lips.
Nathan scoops me up into his arms, emitting a little squeal from me, and carries me across the hall to our bedroom.
He pushes the door closed with his foot and deposits me on the bed. Climbing on top of me he starts kissing my neck, the skin on his face so soft and smooth against mine, he feels like heaven. He slides his hand up my top.
Moving back, he eases it up. I lift, allowing him to pull it over my head, then I lay back down.
His eyes appraise me. “Nice bra.” He trails a finger over the black lace.
“Glad you approve.”
“Oh, I more than approve,” he murmurs, leaning down to kiss the exposed skin on my breast, lips drifting over the fabric of my bra.
Wild desire drives through me. I’m just about to grab him and get straight down to business when he sits up, pulls his T-shirt off, and tosses it to the floor. He returns straight back to me though. I wrap my arms around his neck as he kisses mine. He moves, kissing a path down my chest, working his way around my bra.
I push my fingers into his short hair, lifting my stomach, when his lips reach it. I miss his hair; I can’t wait until it grows back.
“So did you have a good birthday?” I ask, in a murmur.
His trails his tongue around my belly button. “I had a great birthday.”
He moves to kiss my scar. I don’t make any attempt to hide it from him now. It’s a part of who I am. He accepted me for that a long time ago. I shiver deep within and my legs start to tremble. He peels my skinny jeans off, then gives my lacy knickers an approving grin before removing them too.
“How’s your birthday going so far,” he asks, as he pushes himself into me.
“It’s not my birthday yet,” I breathe, lifting my hips. My whole body shivering in reaction to him.
His eyes flick to the clock. “It’s past midnight.”
“Oh, well in that case, it’s going awesome.”
He rests down on his elbows and kisses me gently on the lips. He stills inside me for a moment.
“Happy birthday.” His lips brush over mine. “And you know I’m getting you a birthday present right?” he says, moving again, ever so slightly.
“I don’t need one. I have everything I need right here.”
“I love you,” he whispers, kissing me.
“I love you too.”
He moves out of me, again, then pushes deeper inside. “And I’m buying you a present, end of.”
“Okay,” I gasp.
Chapter 30: Never Tear Us Apart
“You can come out now!” Nathan hollers from the back door.
Why he’s shouting I have no clue. He knows I can hear him talking at a normal level, from way across the garden.
Chuckling, I get up from the sofa and make my way into the kitchen.
Nathan’s had me sat waiting in here while he sets up for my birthday meal. I told him I didn’t want any fuss. He told me neither did he, but I didn’t listen to him – did I.
I had no come back.
Who would have thought all those months ago, eight months to be exact, that mean hard Nathan who I argued with all the time, would be making me a birthday meal. Or that I’d be crazy in love with him.
I’m trying not to think about how I celebrated my birthday last year. With Carrie, Eddie, Angie, and Tom. A different lifetime ago. Sometimes it’s hard to believe how much my life has changed since then.
I walk through the open back door to see Nathan standing in the garden. Behind him is a small table set up for two. The garden adorned with fairy lights, all twinkling away, and there’s a heater lamp by the table to keep the chill at bay. Also a little table set up with his iPod docking station, his new Coldplay album playing in the background.
It’s amazing. The most amazing thing I have ever seen. I can’t help the big smile that forms on my face.
“You like?” he asks, smiling nervously.
“I love,” I say, walking over to him.
He wraps his arms around me as I reach up on my tiptoes, kissing him lightly on the lips.
“I know you didn’t want to do anything but I couldn’t not celebrate your birthday.”
“Two parties in two days. We are spoilt.”
“I think after the year we’ve had we more than deserve it.”
I wrap my arms tight around him, holding him close.
“Come on,” he says. “Dinner will be getting cold.”
“Ooh, what are we having?” I ask, as he helps me into my seat. He’s being very attentive and very gentlemanly tonight. I could get used to this side of him.
“Homemade ravioli in tomato and chilli sauce.”
“Wow,” I say, impressed. “I thought the extent of your cooking was a fry up.”
He looks sheepish. “It is. Dad made it earlier. I just reheated it.”
Talking of Jack, he, Scarlett, and Craig, are noticeably absent tonight. Probably gone to the pub to give us some time alone.
I reach across the table and squeeze his hand. “I don’t care who made it, I just care who I’m eating it with.”
He gives a gentle smile. Then loosening his hand from mine he pulls a bottle of champagne out of the cooler beside his seat, takes the foil off, and pops the cork.
“I could seriously get used to this drinking champagne all the time, you know.”
“Hey, stable drinker here if you don’t mind,” he chuckles.
Nathan really has cut back on his drinking. Not stopped entirely, but he’s not relying on it to get him through the day. I know that it has a lot to do with me being here. I worry what would happen if I’m not, again.
“I never said I was going to share it with you,” I nudge his leg under the table with my foot.
Grinning, he pours the champagne into my glass, then his own. I take a sip, loving the feel of the bubbles down the back of my throat. We get tucked into dinner and it’s wonderful. Jack is an amazingly good cook.
We talk through dinner about anything and everything. Nathan even talks a little about Sol, without once shutting down. It’s progress in the biggest sense of the word.
Everything is so perfect right now. I can hardly believe it. I’m just waiting for our bubble to burst.
When we’ve finished our ravioli Nathan goes inside, telling me he’ll be back out in a minute.
He returns in just that, with a mint chocolate cheesecake, which I’m hazarding a guess Jack also made.
There’s a lit candle in the middle.
I close my eyes, making a wish. A wish that … well if I tell you then it won’t come true, will it.
I lean forward and blow the candle out.
Nathan takes the candle out of the cake and cuts me a piece. Putting it onto a small plate, he hands it to me.
I pick up the spoon and slice a piece off, putting it in my mouth. “Oh my God,” I murmur, closing my eyes, savouring the taste which is exploding in my mouth right now. “This is amazing.”
He chuckles. “I remember you told me once that mint choc-chip ice-cream was your favourite dessert, but I thought the ice-cream might melt with the candle so this was the next best thing.”
I’m surprised and touched he remembered such a small detail. I wonder what else he remembers. I open my eyes to find he’s already watching me.
“It’s way better than the next best thing.”
When I’ve finished stuffing my face with cheesecake and have drained my champagne glass empty, twice, Nathan gets up from the table and goes over to the iPod.
‘Never Tear Us Apart’ by Inxs, starts to drift out of the speakers.
I haven’t heard this song in forever.
He turns and looks at me. “Dance with me.”
I have a vivid flashback to being with Zeff in the club. Dancing with Zeff. Almost kissing him.
I blink myself free.
Wordlessly, and feeling oddly nervous, I get to my feet and walk toward him. My heart is swimming around my chest.
Nathan pulls me close and slides his arms around me. I put my arms around his neck as we start to move to the music.
He starts to hum, slipping into the words, his voice surprisingly lovely. “Mmm … I was standing … you were there … two worlds collided, and they could never tear us apart …”
I have an intense rush of love for him. And I know, unequivocally, that whenever I hear this song I will always think of him and this moment.
Tears, surprisingly, fill my eyes. Briefly closing them, forcing them back, I take a deep breath in.
“I didn’t know you could sing.”
“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” He smiles down at me, and I remember the first time he said that to me, here in this very garden.
I stare into his vivid green eyes. “This really is a perfect night.”
“You’re perfect.”
“You know you’re turning into a walking cliché, right?” I grin, mischievously.
“A walking hard-on – a walking cliché – whatever next?”
“I don’t know, but I’m looking forward to finding out,” I say quietly, laying my head against his chest. I move my hands around his back and hold him tight.
I feel his deep intake of breath, almost with an air of hesitation, like he’s going to say something. Then after what seems to be a long moment, he holds me tighter, but he doesn’t speak. And we stay here dancing long after Michael Hutchence sings his last word.
We’re laid in bed together, my head on Nathan’s chest listening to his heart beating while he strokes my hair, when he gives me my birthday present.
Reaching down he picks his jeans up off the floor, retrieving something out of the pocket. He sets a jewellery box on his chest, before me. The type of box which necklaces usually come in.
“Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to marry me,” he laughs, taking the piss out of me over last night.
He could ask me to marry him and I’d say yes, no hesitation. Seriously. I can hardly believe I’m thinking these things, but I am. I would marry Nathan tomorrow if I could.
“I meant to give you it earlier,” he says. “But we got a little carried away while we were dancing.”
I can’t help but smile at the memory.
Kissing, the kissing getting heated, us stumbling back into the house and barely making it upstairs to bed. You can guess the rest.
I incline myself up to rest on my elbow and pick the box up. Nervously, I open it.
There’s a key inside. I look at him, confused.
“It’s for the front door.” He takes a deep breath and I realise he’s nervous.
I have a swell of love for him, so big, it almost engulfs me whole.
“I want you to know this is your home and you can always come back here, no matter what. If you ever have to leave again, for whatever reason, that key is me telling you, you can come back whenever and I will always be here waiting for you.”
I have the biggest lump in my throat. I reach up and gently kiss his lips. “I love it. Thank you. But I’m never leaving again. You know that right?”
“Yes,” he says. But I can hear in his tone that he doesn’t entirely believe me.
And I’m not sure if I do. Not that I would ever leave him voluntarily. But that choice could very easily be taken away from me. As it has been done so in the past.
I lay my cheek against his chest again, holding the box in my hand. Then I see something sparkly dangling before my eyes. A necklace, white gold with a diamond set heart pendant.
I sit up, looking at him shocked.
“You didn’t think I was just going to get you a key for your birthday, did you?” He’s grinning.
“I’d have been happy with just the key.”
“Mmm.”
“But the diamonds totally work too.”
“I can imagine.” He chuckles as he sits up and lays it around my neck, fastening the clasp at the back.
“How does it look?” I ask, touching the cool metal against my neck as he lays back down.
“Beautiful.”
I rest back down on his chest. “I can’t believe you bought me diamonds.”
I never figured Nathan for a diamond buying type of guy. I like that he can surprise me.
“Only the best, for the best,” he exhales.
“Another cliché?” I giggle.
“Yep.”
We lay here in comfortable silence for a while, Nathan stroking my hair again, but I’ve been feeling tension rising in him
So I’m not at all surprised when he says, “Would you have ever come back to me if the Original hadn’t found you?”
His voice is so quiet in the dark.
This question has been a long time coming.
I lift my head up off his chest, resting my forearms there.
“Yes, I would have,” I say resolutely. I don’t want him to ever think anything different. “When, I don’t know? But one day I would have found my way back here to you. Because I’m meant to be with you.”
Pressing his lips together, he drifts into a long blink, then he cups my face with his hands and guides me to his lips. He kisses me, hard. And before I know it we’re making love again.
He stares down at me intently in the darkness. “I know what I said about the key and that I would always be here waiting for you, but … the truth is, I don’t want to be without you again – I can’t be without you.”
“Me either,” I touch his face. He kisses my wrist.
“Promise me something?” he whispers.
“Anything.”
I’d promise him my soul right now if it would keep him moving inside me like this. Every nerve ending in me is singing. I’ve never felt a need like it before. It’s not a physical need; it’s a pure, unadulterated, emotional need.
“You’ll never leave me.”
“I promise.”
“Say it.”
“I’ll never leave you,” I breathe.
He seals his mouth over mine, kissing me deeply, passionately, emotionally. And we end my birthday just like we did his, making love. Except this time it’s intense and emotional. And afterwards I have the strong urge to cry, but I don’t.
It’s almost as if I know our happiness will soon be over. And I think Nathan knows it too.
Chapter 31: From Good to Worse
I roll over, smoothing a hand over the empty space in our bed where Nathan was sleeping a short while ago, smiling to m
yself.
He got up early to do some work on the farm, leaving me to have a lie in.
Life is good. Simple.
During the day I work on the farm. We all eat dinner together. Or Nathan takes me out for an early evening picnic.
Late night walks. Hunting together. Watching movies. Nathan reads to me. Another thing I didn’t know about him, he likes to read. A lot. I like to sit curled up with him while he reads to me. We do what normal couples do together, except for the shifting, hunting and drinking of blood for me. But that’s normal for us.
I’ve been back home for almost two weeks. We don’t talk about the future. We talk about today. Maybe that’s because neither of us wants to tempt fate by talking about the future, in case something turns up to take it away. Take me away.
I shower, then come back into our bedroom and get dressed. Taking my still dry hair out its ponytail from the shower, I brush it, leaving it down. Just how Nathan likes it.
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