THE GOLDEN ROSE

Chapter 20 - Angelic Messengers

Zacatecas, Mexico – present day

Camila held Shawn's hand as they sat up in bed. She wore one of his t-shirts, her hair was piled on her head and her glasses were perched on her nose. The folder with the new information lay between them, ready to be read. Shawn opened it and they both gasped. A photo of a portrait had been printed out on A4. The faces of Sebastaio and Clara stared out at them, older but still recognisable, and four children surrounded them, along with a couple of dogs. They all looked incredibly happy.

The next page was a family tree and Shawn read how Sebastaio and Clara had founded a dynasty of sorts and their children had gone on to have families of their own and then they had families and so on. Generations along were Shawn's own father and his name. They had thought about this. There was no link to Camila, but they had received an email from Diego after they got home, he had done a quick scan to work out Camila's ancestry and discovered that she could be traced back to many generations before Clara, at which time the line had branched off, so although Camila wasn't Clara's descendant, she and Clara were both descended well before from the same ancestor.

"Maybe just enough of the same blood to hold the connection," Shawn said. Camila nodded. She was glad there wasn't some strange distant cousin type of relationship between she and Shawn but it made her feel good to know she shared an ancestor with Clara.

"Look," Shawn said, coming across another photograph of a painting. It showed Sebastaio and a very pregnant Clara, standing in front of an imposing villa, holding the golden rose. This was the couple as they knew them, and Camila touched the page, feeling tears prick the back of her eyes. She would miss them so much.

"Do you think we'll still dream of them?" she asked. Tomorrow they headed back to the US, and they knew things would change.

"Perhaps."

"You sound sad," she said, kissing his cheek.

"I'm not going to see you for a while, I'm going to miss you."

"I'll miss you too," she said. "It won't be long though, about a week I promise."

He pulled her in close. "A week huh? Well, we better make some memories to get us through."

He kissed her gently, and then again more firmly, and she kissed him back with equal enthusiasm. She felt sad too, but also excited, because she was going home to tell her parents about her and Shawn, and then they could start their life together. It was still early days and they were just beginning their relationship, but they had already gone through so much together, nobody else would understand but they knew they were together forever. She sighed as he began to caress her and tease her the way he had learned she liked the best. He always tried so hard to please her, as she did him, and she gasped as he stroked the inside of her arm and wrist, sucked gently on her neck, slid his hand into her hair to hold her head gently as he kissed her, all the things she loved that made her sigh with delight.

He slowly removed her t-shirt, took her glasses off and pulled the tie from her hair, murmuring words of love to her before he began to kiss and stroke her from head to toe until every nerve was screaming. When he started to explore her with his fingers she realised he was using the same technique Sebastaio had used on Clara. Well, well. Maybe there were some advantages to their relationship from that connection after all. There was nobody to hear them here, and unlike Clara she was able to give full voice when she came, which drove Shawn crazy. She felt so empowered, he did that to her, and she pushed him onto his back and mounted him, both of them groaning as she took him inside of her all the way. She leaned forward and kissed him.

"Here's a memory to keep you going," she said in a husky voice as she began to move. She made it last, they were in no hurry, but in the end, as she came again and again, he ran out of patience and turned her onto her back, pulling her legs up high so he could take her as deeply as possible. He screamed her name as he exploded inside her and she held him tight as he shuddered, almost in tears with the intensity. They lay in each other's arms afterwards, talking about their feelings and the future, and then they fell asleep, both of them ready to dream of Clara and Sebastaio one last time.