🌸The Promise 🌸[18+]

Chapter 46

Day 1- New beginnings.

"Where are you taking me, Xavier?" I whisper, following his lead out the house.
The air is freezing cold and I'm grateful for the thick coat Xavier placed on me and the slippers he gave me.
I stumble slightly on the step down from the front door, but Xavier takes my hand in his and leads me. His strong hand supporting me with every step.
"Xavier!" I whisper louder than I intended too.
But he chuckles in reply.
The darkness is consuming and I struggle to see in front of me, Xavier is ahead while I trail behind still holding his hand.
I realise he's taking me around the house and the ground is spongy beneath my feet. We must be walking on grass.
He shifts something in his arm but carries on lightly pulling me in his steep.
I can feel we are walking up a hill, and I place my arm to steady me as I take a deep breath of ice-cold air. My eyes water as my teeth chatters slightly from the chill.
"Are you trying to give me pneumonia or something?" I ask between shivers.

"No, but if you want me to warm you up, you only have to ask." He says teasingly, while my lower stomach tingles in response.
Why do his words, have such an effect on me?

"Nearly there." He states as smoke clouds blow from his mouth and he squeezes my hand in reassurance.
I squint my eyes and I can make out a large tree, he stops in front of it and lays something down, then with a tug of my hand pulls me down to sit. As he joins me.
He's brought a blanket and has laid it out for us to sit, in the middle of the night in pitch-black darkness.

"Xavier, you do realise that normal people don't actually have picnics during the night, in the freezing cold, with nothing but blackness surrounding us." I state, trying to look at his face but finding it hard too.
His laughter lightly fills the quiet surroundings, as he puts his back to the tree trunk.

"Well lucky for you, I'm not normal and we aren't having a picnic." His voice teasing.

"Well, why do you have a blanket on the floor? I ask, feeling the softness with my hand.

"So you don't get frostbite on the lovely bottom of yours." He chuckles, but I blush lightly at his comment.

"Come here and sit with me." He takes my hand from the blanket and gently pulls me over to him.
I resist, staying put and taking a deep breath.

"Nova, don't overthink this, just enjoy the moment for what it is."

I know he is right, I mean I don't think I will be coming out in the freezing cold and pitch-black night, willingly again. I might as well just go with it.

Relax Nova.

So I let him pull me over, till I'm sitting between his legs and resting my back on his chest. He pulls up another blanket which he spreads out over us and settles his hands over the top keeping us both warm.

Birds fly from the tree making a call and I jump slightly at the noise.

"Are you scared?" He asks in my ear.
His warm breath tickles my cheek and I close my eyes.

"Well we are sitting in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch-black night sky, with only you for company, so you could say yes, I'm very scared" I smile to myself, waiting for his reply.

"Oh har har." He replies teasingly.

The birds are singing now above our heads and the sky is starting to lighten a little.
I lean back into Xavier's warmth and watch the sky, it's turning from black to purple, and it is enchanting.

"You know, when I was a young boy, I couldn't sleep one night." He says like he's recalling the memory. "I tossed and turned thinking of how cruel my mother was to me that day. When my father said she wasn't maternal he only touched the surface. She had me and my brothers just to please my father, to carry on the Laywood legacy. But really she wasn't made to be a mother. I remember accidentally tripping over and scraping my knee outside. I came to my mother for comfort so she could make the cut better, but she just shouted at me for being so silly, and to wipe the tears and be a man. I was only eight at the time."
"She never hit me, my father made sure of that. But I don't know if my mother even cared too. She was just so unhappy and made everyone else feel that way."
He mused as I picture a small Xavier with a scrape on his knee, asking his mother for a cuddle to make it better. Tears start to burn in my eyes at the picture in my head.
"I never had hugs or love from her, and I always wondered why. Why was she so cold to me? Why wouldn't she hold me, and try to make things right,  like I'm doing with you right now." He squeezes me gently as a lone tear escapes my eye.