Instinct

Chapter 14

Blake's POV

I looked at the woman that laid in my arms looking completely peaceful as her breathing evened out and she fell into hopeful peaceful asleep.

Today was amazing but reality was coming back to me in full force as I was alone surrounded by silence which gave my thoughts a louder voice.

Taking a deep sigh I pulled Annabelle closer to me if that was even possible and closed my eyes, hoping that sleep would be kinder to me but of course it wasn't.

"I can't stay with you Blake, I have a life and a family that loves me and sadly you aren't that family." Annabelle said looking at me with nothing but pity as she spun on her heel and walked away leaving me alone once more.

"Annabelle...please." I said feeling my heart break as I looked at the retreating figure of Annabelle who walked into the arms of another man. I watched as a smile instantly lit up her face as he wrapped her arms around me.

"He is my family and I love him," Annabelle said before her eyes darkened, "I will not let you ruin the life that I have worked so hard to build Blake, now go and be someone else's burden because you surely are not going to be mine."

My heart turned into ash as silent tears escaped my eyes as I watched Annabelle and her new man fade away as she laughed in his arms.

I woke up with a jolt as my heart threatened to run itself out of my chest. I hesitantly looked at the sleeping lady in my arms and felt relief flood over me as she continued to peacefully sleep away.

I let out a deep breathe as I worked on settling my still fast beating heart. It was just a nightmare and yet at the same time it could easily become my reality, my very miserable reality.

Everything hit me in full force, this was possibly the last day that I would ever have her in my arms or even worse it could be my last day of ever seeing her again. These thoughts broke my heart, but I knew that I no choice, in the end I had to let her go and let her live her own life, I didn't want her to have any regrets, she had done more than enough for me and now she had to be her first priority. She had the right to choose her path, I had chosen mine and now I was going to live with it. I softly caressed her face just so that I could have an imprint of it all in my mind. My heart felt heavy and to think that she was still here in my arms. How was I possibly going to be able to say goodbye to her tomorrow.

I couldn't stop myself and I didn't want to as I leaned down and brushed my lips against her forehead staying there for longer than necessary.

"Blake." I heard her mumble and hastily moved my lips away from her and looked down at her to find her eyes still closed shut as she nestled herself into my chest. I let out a sigh of relief as I realized that she was just sleep talking because the last thing that I wanted was for her to find me that close to her, I didn't want to complicate things just before she had to leave.

"Reality kicks in hard at night, doesn't it." I heard Killian say with a groggy voice from where he was on the mattress.

"It does. I don't know how how I'm going to possibly say goodnight to her when all I want to do is keep her here with me." I quietly admitted in a whisper in hopes that Annabelle wasn't a light sleeper because if she is then there are chances that even our whispering could wake her up and I didn't want that.