Forever His

Chapter Four

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His thick, tan arms were wrapped around me tightly, and I could feel his chest rise and fall as he breathed in and out. My face was nestled in his shoulder and I could smell lavender and orchids in his shirt. The smell was warm and comforting. And that was saying something coming from a man like him.

"Say it," he whispered.

My arms instinctively tightened around his waist. "Say what."

"You love me." He moved so his mouth was near my ear, so close that I could feel his breath. It made me shudder.

"How do you know I do?" It was an innocent question, because I had no idea if I did. "I don't even know if I... do." This man was a stranger. I had only met him just weeks ago, and already he wanted me to confess my love for him, if I even loved him at all?

He pulled back and took my face in each hand. "I know because I love you." He looked straight into my eyes. "I love you more than you will ever understand. I don't how, but I do. It just happened. And I know, I know that you love me as much as I love you."

In a moment's thought I realized that he was right. I did love him. I don't know when I fell for him, I just knew that I did. Something down in my soul was crying out for him.

I loved everything about him. The way he walked, talked and spoke. When he spoke just one word it sent shivers down my spine. I never wanted him to stop talking.

I braced my forehead against his. "I love you," I whispered.

He leaned foreward and his lips were only an inch away from mine and I could smell his minty breath. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to kiss him so bad.

Closer, I thought, just a little closer.

"Chandler." He murmured softly as he stroked my cheek lovingly.

"Chandler!"

My head popped up from the lunch table, startled. I looked to see Lex and Angel with worried expressions on their faces. The rest off the group was in a deep heated conversation.

"Sorry." I rubbed the sleep from my eyes.

Lex glanced at Angel then back at me. "Sweetie, you okay?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. Not much sleep last night." Or the past three nights. I was as sick as a dog with a fierce headache and stomach cramps that just wouldn't go away. And my mind had been thinking of someone. Someone I didn't want to think about what so ever, and yet somehow something was always catching my attention and then he was all I thought about.

And why? Why him? What had drawn me to him? Was it his eyes or voice? What had made me look at him? He was a stranger, someone I had just met. And me thinking constantly of him started to get frustrating.

"You need some drugs?" Angel asked.

I was opposed to that idea. After seeing my dad and all the pills he had taken and the effects they had on him, it made me never want to swallow a single pill ever again. I watched him slowly fade to nothing, because after so many treatments they stopped having any effect on his body. So he was fed up with all the testing and chemo and radiation, and told the doctors he would die at home, with me. I wasn't close to anyone like I was my dad. We were together thick and thin. He was my rock and without him, I didn't know. I didn't know who I was, or who I was supposed to be. Was I supposed to be like Alyson? Go to college, get married, and then have children? Or be...something different?