Lifeboat Lighthouse

Chapter 17

Cruise Day 14 (Becky's POV)

"Freen... Freen." I said in a low voice, shaking the sleeping girl curled up on top of me.

Waking up in Freen's arms was one of the best feelings I'd ever felt and, even though we'd only slept for three hours, I felt surprisingly well rested.

Every so often during the night our positions had reversed and, at that moment, Freen was half on top of me with her head on my chest, making it impossible for me to move. I really didn't want to wake her; it was times like this when she was sleeping and letting her guard down that she seemed sweeter than ever. She seemed much smaller and more vulnerable, and gave me that inexplicable feeling that I had to protect her at all costs.

"Wake up, babe." I said, running my fingers through her hair. "It's 6:30. I have to go."

"No." Freen murmured against my chest. "Five more minutes." she added, holding me tighter. The fact that I was only wearing Freen's shirt and underwear, which had ridden up quite a bit during the night, meant there was a lot of skin-to-skin contact. Not that I minded.

"Freen, I already wrote to Nam, and..." I sighed reluctantly.

"Look." Freen said more sternly. "You can cuddle me now, or we can talk about it for five more minutes, and then you cuddle me. Your choice." She paused. "We'll save more time if you did it now."

I couldn't help but giggle at the older girl's stubbornness. "And here I thought I was the cuddly one in our relationship."

The moment those words came out of my mouth, I grimaced. I didn't mean to use the word 'relationship'. Things seemed to be getting really serious, especially considering everything we'd said to each other last night, but what we were was something we hadn't discussed yet.

I couldn't tell if Freen realized my choice of words or chose to ignore them but, either way, she didn't respond. Instead, she lifted her head to leave a trail of soft kisses on my neck.

"Don't let me go back to sleep." I murmured as I closed my eyes, letting my body fit Freen's again and surrendering to Freen's demands as she knew I would.

"Talk to me, then." Freen murmured sleepily.

I lay there in silence for a moment. I knew what I wanted to talk about, but I was a little nervous.

"Remember what I told you last night, about thinking I love you? That's not exactly what I meant... you know that, right?" I said shyly. However, the moment the words left my mouth, I realized how misunderstood they could be. "I mean, I don't think I love you. I know." I added quickly. "I was just too scared to say it outright, in case you didn't feel the same."

Freen nodded sympathetically. "Well, I feel the same, so you don't have to worry." She paused for a moment before taking a deep, shaky breath. "It's so scary." she added, in a voice so low I could barely hear it.

Freen didn't even have to explain herself, because I knew what she meant. It had taken her so long to build that wall of hers to protect herself, and now she was finally giving me the chance to break it down, making herself completely vulnerable with me. She had felt more pain in her eighteen years than other people could in a lifetime, so allowing a person to be in a position where they could potentially add to this pain had to be terrifying.

"I know, babe." I replied simply, lowering my head to give Freen a kiss on the temple. There was so much I wanted to ask her, and so much I wanted to tell her, that I didn't even know where to start. So, I opted not to say anything else. It could wait. For now, I just wanted to fully enjoy this moment.

***

Once outside Nam's suite, I pulled out my phone to let her know I was there. It had been almost twenty minutes since I had texted her so there was a possibility that she had fallen back asleep.