Snow and the Wishing Well (Fallen Tales series)

Chapter 32

Chapter 32
Justin
I woke up to the feeling of hair in my face. Opening my eyes I realized why. Sarah's hair was in my face, my hands were wrapped around her locking her to my body. I grazed her soft skin as I pulled my hand out of my jumper that she wore. Without even thinking, I placed my hand on her hip.
I smiled, tucking a lock of her short black hair behind her ear. She nuzzled her face into the pillow, snaking her body even closer to mine.
How I wanted her? How I wanted to love her? To tell her and show her how much I cared. How to –?
"What time is it?" she grumbled moving her body again.
I sighed, turning half my body to look at the digital clock on the bedside table.
"Eight-thirty five."
"Really," she seemed surprise, "Wow, I haven't slept this well in years."
"Why not?" I asked.
She shrugged, "Just memories, I guess."
"Tell me about them."
"You don't want to hear about them," she said quickly.
"I do."
She was silent, I pushed the rest of her hair behind her shoulder, revealing her beautiful neck.
"Really," she seemed surprised again.
Shifting my body, I leaned over so that my lips were close to her ear.
"How about, every time you have a bad dream, you tell me and I'll listen."
"You promise?" she asked, turning her torso to face me.
I cupped her cheek, feeling them burn under my touch.
"I promise."
I leant down to her perfect lips. I found myself moving on top of her and sliding my hand up her jumper to her bra clip.
She moaned and pulled back.
"Remember what we discussed last night," she reminded me.
"Why are you ruining this?" I teased.
She giggled, "I'm sorry, was there something else you had in mind."
"Well now that you say that, yes. There's this," I kissed her cheek, "and this," I kissed her other cheek.
Her smile widen as she bit her lip.
"Where's the other one?" she asked acting as if she was cross.
I chuckled kissing her lips.
"There, are you happy?" I asked.
"Yes," she was surprised yet again, "Yes I am, actually."




Sarah
We didn't leave the hotel room, all day. We had spent the day learning about one another, barely even noticing the time.
"This one happened when I was ten," he said showing me the scar on his knee, "I was climbing a tree and I was holding on a branch that I thought was strong enough to hold me but it turned out it wasn't."
I giggled, mocking him.
"How far did you fall," I asked, touching the scarred kneecap.
"I was ten so to me it was meters and meters. But it was probably just higher than a meter."
I giggled again. The sound seemed so forgen to me that when it escaped from my lips, I had to stop and think about what it was.
"What about you?" he asked me.
I pulled up the sleeve of his jumper that I still wore to reveal a puzzle piece shaped burn on my upper arm.
"Oh my god," he said shocked, "that's like a –."
"Third degree burn, I know," I buttered in, "So we had this canteen at the all-girls school high school that I went to, right. And my friends had asked me to get them food for lunch. You know, sausage rolls, pies, that sort of thing. So I had about three sausage rolls, four pies and the only way to carry them all was to put two sausage rolls under my arms and carry them."
"And what, your friends didn't think to help you?" he asked.
I shrugged, "It was my turn to go to the canteen and they weren't very nice people anyway."
"What did your father do?"
I blinked surprised that he said the word father, not parents even though he knew that Victoria was already part of my life by them.
I shook the thought away realising that I hadn't said anything in a while.
"Ahh, Father was furious, especially when the school didn't Di anything about it. That's when he pulled me out and decided to home school me."
"And was that better?" he asked.
I shrugged thinking back to that time. It had been merely a couple of months after I had found out about Victoria and the hunter.
"I wouldn't say better, but it was different."
I thought that was a good enough answer.
"My parents had thought about home schooling me at one point."
His statement surprised me.
"Really why?"
"It was during my 'dark years', that's what Ma calls it at least."
I leaned forward, wanting to hear more. How could a guy like Justin, so caring, so thoughtful, have 'dark years'?
"As I grew older, the idea of becoming the owner of the estate became more and more clear and I guess I didn't handle it well, especially when it wasn't 'rightfully' mine. So I started skipping school, smoking, anything to make my parents disappointed."
"But why?" I asked stopping him, "What were you hoping that they would do? Disown you?"
"Well, yeah," I sat back shocked, "I wanted them to say that I wasn't cut out to be the owner of the estate and that they made a mistake by adopting me."
My heart ached for that teenage boy. He had been so ashamed of not being the rightful owner of his estate that he would do anything not to be. Even give up his parents.
"What made you stop?" I asked.
He was just as shocked as I had been.
"I woke up one day and all I could hear was these birds. And I just remembered as a kid, the sound of birds, everywhere I went. I guess I just realised that I wanted Locksley Manner to be my home. I know it sounds stupid but –."
"It doesn't sound stupid," I butted in taking his hand in mine, "not to me."
He frowned as if he needed me to explain.
"It was like that at Willow Tree," I told him, "every time I think about it, and that's not very often, I remember the sound of birds and just how much I loved them."
I looked into his perfect brown eyes and I knew I had to tell the truth.
"I had planned to spend my whole life with birds. I was supposed to be starting Uni this year to get my degree in Ornithology. And when my father died of old age, I would take over Willow Tree Abby but keep on studying birds. The closest I'll be to flight."
A smile spread on his face as he listened to my confession. The spark in his eyes made me wonder what he was thinking.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing, it's just," he sighed, "You have just described my whole future."
I frowned making him continue, "From starting Uni, granted that I already have my degree, to taking over the estate."
I chuckled not believing him.
"You're lying."
"I'm not lying, look."
He stood and walked over to his bag. I watched him search through it till he pulled out a huge brown book. I frowned when he handed it to me.
"Open it."
I did as he told me.
I opened it to the first page.

The table of context

There was a list about three pages long, of names and types of birds and their page numbers.
I turned to the page 197

The heading read: Australian Birds

There were a number of birds that I had heard about, such as the emu, cockatoo and Wedgetail Eagle.
But there were a number of birds I had never heard about. Like the Tawny frogmouth.
Looking up at the man I saw. He was so different from the man I had met two months ago. He had a past, a home, interests. It just turned out that his interest were the same as mine. Maybe he wasn't the only one that wanted to get to know the other.
I wanted to know what made his heart race, what made him groan and cry out in want. I wanted to know how his mind ticks, what he thought about, what he laughed about.
A breath caught in my thought as I realized what had happened. I had let my wall down, and Justin had gotten in.
I was falling in love with Justin Carter.