Never in a Million Years |N.R|

|45| And, breathe.

After a pretty rough plane ride that had me going from white knuckling the arm rest with clenched teeth, to having just a little trouble getting to sleep, we finally landed.

I'd never been so grateful to have my feet on the ground again. Part of me was tempted to kneel down and kiss it, but the mere thought of the germs beneath my shoes on the sticky airport floor had me discarding that idea in an instant. Instead I just conveyed my relief with a deep breath of the warm Italian air that awaited us as we exited the terminal.

I pushed Nat and I's suitcases on a trolly with one hand, whilst the other held on tightly to hers where she swung them lightly between us.

She hadn't said much since we'd landed, especially since I'd been letting her just take it all in. The pure happiness on her face and the way every part of her seemed to relax in content reassured me enough that she was more than at peace with where I'd brought us. I didn't need to ask her whether that was accurate, not yet anyway.

A driver with 'Romanoff' written on a tablet awaited us at the curb, making Nat smile at me a little embarrassedly. She both hated and loved the attention I was giving her, expressed by the fact that she blushed red but also smiled widely. Little did she know, I had a lot more than that in store for her.

The man greeted us warmly and loaded our cases and bags into the trunk of the car. Whilst he was busy doing that Nat and I slipped into the back seats, her grasping my hand between us once more the second we'd both finished putting our belts on.

After so long of her touch being cold, or practically nonexistent, my heart was full to bursting from her constant affection. In fact I don't think she let go of me for more than a few seconds ever since we showered together the day before.

I hadn't truly realised quite how much my body had missed her touch.

Once the driver climbed inside I gave him the address to the villa I'd booked before relaxing back into my seat. The drive would take a little over an hour so we had some time to admire the view out the window and begin to take everything in.

Nat was clueless as to where we were going, her knowledge expanding only to the fact that we were somewhere in the southwest of Italy. She'd tried several times to get the information out of me, even trying to sneak a look at the details on my phone when I was 'asleep' on the plane. Unlucky for her I was practically wide awake, just with my eyes rested closed, so was very much aware of the fact that she'd slipped the device from my loose grip on it.

When I grabbed it back from her she pouted in an instant and pleaded for me to just tell her, but I wasn't budging. It was all a surprise for her, and plus, I enjoyed the excitement and fun of it. Pouty Nat was funny, even if it meant her thumping me in the arm every time she caught me laughing at her sulkiness.

Those thoughts had me smiling wide as I watched out the darkened window, Nat's hand still holding onto mine in the empty seat between us.

It felt perfect. Everything was perfect.

About fifteen minutes into the drive I heard the click of a seatbelt undoing, and I turned to see Nat sliding across the leather fabric to sit right beside me.

She answered my furrowed brows with a shy smile, "want to be closer to you."

Those words had my heart warming in an instant, along with the rest of me until I was flushing red. Nat didn't draw any attention to it though. Instead she just planted a lingering kiss to the side of my head before resting hers against my shoulder, the both of us now watching out of the window with our hands still intertwined.

Now that, that was perfect. Just when I thought things couldn't have possibly gotten any better.

We pointed things out as we passed them every now and then, but other than that we revelled in the peace and quiet. I looked to her every once in a while, only to catch her already admiring my face. That made me nuzzle into hers and plant a few kisses to her blush pink lips before turning to look out the window once more, only to repeat that process about five more times before we reached our destination.