Access All Areas

Chapter Twenty Six

That was to be the first of many times that we made love. There is now no place in and around that very gorgeous log cabin of his, that we haven't made love. Each time we do, the bond between us continues to deepen. A blissful week has already passed and I'm already feeling scared by how quickly it has passed. In just seven days time, we will be having to say yet another painful goodbye all over again. Shivering at just the thought of it whilst being held warmly in Rhys's arms, he tries to cuddle my shiver away. "You cold?" He sweetly asks, nuzzling into my hair.

"No, just thinking."

"Uh oh, that's gotta be bad news for me." He jokes, squeezing me tight in our seated position on the lakefront decking of the cabin.

We have been sat out here for over an hour now, watching the sun go down over the shadowed mountains and watching the twinkling blanket of stars gloriously come out. We have been curled up on a chair together, wrapped in each other and the thickest of blankets, but it's only when I start thinking about leaving Rhys that I start to feel shivery cold. Not wanting to worry him, I chuckle at his teasing of me. "Funnily enough, that is exactly what Dex says to me."

"What's really on your mind, Clara?" Our deepening bond seems to have also given Rhys the sudden and surprising ability to sense when something is really bothering me.

Shifting uncomfortably in his strong and caring hold, I am reluctant to share with him my true feelings. "I'm okay, I was just thinking about how many days we have left, that's all." I try to make it sound as casual as I can—no biggie.

Giving me a long kiss to the top of my head, Rhys breathes in deeply. "And?"

Lifting my eyes to look up at him, I confess all. "It's going to be really hard to say goodbye to you again." My gaze drifts away from him because it's far easier to look up at the stars than it is to look at the face that I've grown so very attached to.

Taking hold of my chin between his attentive fingers, he forces me to face him. "It doesn't matter where either one of us is anymore, Clara. All that matters is that we feel each other inside of here." His hand places my palm just over his heart, holding it in place there. "Oceans, land, mountains and time, can no longer separate what we have."

He uses such beautiful words from his beautiful soul to console me and it's their beauty that suddenly bring happy and silly tears to my admiring eyes. "You've turned me into such a girl!" I laugh through my tears, joking about how much my feelings for him have totally changed me.

Bringing our mouths intimately close, Rhys smiles. "But you're my girl, so it doesn't matter." His satisfying kiss is affirmation of me being his girl. I was his girl. Head to toe, I was absolutely his.

Sighing with such deep contentedness, my fingers start stroking his waist just beneath the cotton of his slim fit T shirt. I have discovered he has a little ticklish spot there and it's a place that my fingers sometimes love to frolic. Shuddering to my teasing touch, he warns me with his scolding sage eyes to stop it. My fingers frolic some more, touching him ever so softly that he repeatedly shudders beneath my rebellious fingertips. He doesn't want to smile, but he is nevertheless; a sexy and wicked smile. "It's like that, is it?" His brow crookedly rises, deliciously rises. Biting down on my bottom lip, I smirk with a lazy nod of the head. Rhys shifts in his seat, making it comfortable for the two of us when I sit deeply into his lap. "You know we've already done it out here, right?" He asks, still sexily smirking.

I pretend to look shocked, grinning more and more by the horny second. "Have we? Really?"

Laughing with his fingers firmly holding my hips in place, he looks back at me with devilishly dilated eyes. "Twice." He cockily states.