Gunner returned Bree's kiss softly, his eyes falling shut as she ran her fingers lightly over his face. Her question didn't surprise him, but he could feel his inner walls rising anyway. He didn't want her to worry, but he wasn't sure he was ready to talk yet either.
Ignoring her question, he rolls onto his back, taking Bree with him so she was lying on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her, one hand bringing her head close so he could press his lips to hers again. Kissing her with passion, his fingers raked through her hair, while his other hand gently ran up and down her back.
"I need a vacation." Reese leaned back in the couch and
took a sip of iced tea before returning his glass to the coffee table.
With his arm around Angelica, he sighed deeply, not really paying much
attention to the B movie on television.
"When I was
yelling at Gunner today, all of a sudden I felt like Carter, or Austin. I
don't want to end up like them - unable to let go of control, and
ordering people around because of stress. But I've already started." His
hand rubbed her shoulder absentmindedly before he leaned over and
kissed her head. "You're the only thing that keeps me sane anymore."
Things
used to be so simple. Was it because the Elite was no longer in secret,
or was it just because of growing responsibility, that now things
seemed so complicated? Grinning, Reese gives Angelica a squeeze. "We
should just run off together and let everybody back here fend for
themselves for a while."
As Rosalyn looked up into Chad's eyes and heard his words, she could
feel her stomach flip. No one - let alone a man - had ever said so many
nice things to her, ever. It just never ended. His caring words never
stopped. His kind intentions never ran out.
Sighing,
she ran her hands down his arms to find his palms and linked her fingers
with his. Her eyes found the ground in the small space between them. So
much of this still felt like a dream. Still felt unreal. Still felt
like something that wasn't supposed to happen to someone like her. Yet
here Chad was, standing with her and reassuring her he wasn't going to
leave her.
"You sound so serious when you talk about us," she commented softly. "It seems wonderful, the things you say, but..."
She
finally looked back up at him again, her eyes filled with a mixture of
sadness, hope, excitement and fear. It was as if with all the trouble
they'd had, suddenly things weren't the same. There was no innocent
flirting tonight. No rolling her eyes at his flowery speech or poetry.
No playing hard to get. With the way her father was acting, it seemed
there could be no casual dating - it was either serious or nothing at
all.
"The end of time is a long time," she finally
finished. Her voice was still quiet - almost timid. "Are we...are
you...really that serious? After knowing me for such a short time?" She searched his eyes for answers. "I like you a lot, Chad, but...when you talk about forever...I'm not sure what you mean."