Letters to Isabella

eight.

Laura's POV

Do you ever crave the touch of another human?

The slight brush of their skin against yours.

The tingling feeling you get at the bottom of your spine as they whisper huskily into your ear and kiss you lightly on your neck making you experience a whole new sickening addiction to something you can only have with one certain individual.

That's exactly how I felt - about my husband.

I sat on the edge of our bed with a free library book that I'd been given by one of my fellow co-workers. It was an old classic novel by the one and only William Shakespeare. I hadn't read or reviewed his work since high school but weirdly it felt good and sentimental to be in touch with my nerdy school girl side again. I'd missed her and truthfully I'd lost sight of her as the years had gone by. I'd been so focused on being the perfect wife, the perfect mother and the perfect member of the Lynch family that I'd lost sight of who I truly was; who Laura Marano truly was.

Ross was sat by the vanity table sorting out our bill and bank statements, shaking his head and muttering quietly under his breath as he aggressively crossed off certain checkpoints on his list. I knew better than to communicate with him when he was in that kind of mood, it was a recipe for disaster. I was grateful to have half an hour to myself anyway to read and fade into my own imaginary world. I'd missed doing that and honestly my days of crazy imagination had expired since giving birth to Isabella anyway.

After what felt like hours of sitting and waiting for Ross to get into bed I finally let out a long awaited sigh of defeat, folded down the page on my book and closed it up before crawling down to the end of the bed and wrapping my arms gently around Ross' shoulders. I began to kiss him lightly on the neck and to my dismay he groaned and gently pushed me away from him. "Come on babe... I'm trying to sort all the stuff out here. Maybe another night okay?"

I sat behind him, both of us gazing into the dim light of the vanity mirror. I exhaled and shrugged my shoulders. "We don't have any us time anymore. Don't you miss that?"

"Oh Laur." Ross sighed, turning around to face me and placing his hands on my thighs. "Things change... we have two beautiful children, we're married, our family seem to be coming back together and right now we're both extremely career oriented. I don't really want anything else out of this relationship."

I frowned. "But I miss you Ross... I miss the warmth of your body against mine and the intimacy that we used to share... I mean, don't you?"

He shrugged and smiled at me, gently pulling a strand of my hair behind my ear. "Maybe sometimes I do... but I'm so focused on work and our family that I don't have time to think about it all that much."

I nodded and forced myself to smile before placing a small kiss on his cheek. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything. I love you Ross."

"I love you too Laura." He whispered. I was about to crawl back into bed and try to get some sleep when Ross pulled me onto his lap with a husky sigh that I'd missed hearing so much. He placed his lips to my ear and instantly I felt my legs give way. "Maybe you're right."

I smirked and tried to maintain myself. "I'm always right."

"Is that so Mrs Lynch?" He asked, wrapping his arms tighter around my body.