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Scarlett

I t’s warm. Comfortable.

I’m wrapped up in the softest of blankets.

As I roll over, I breathe in a long, deep, lazy breath that is full of his smell.

“Rafe,”

I know he’s here, that he’s beside me. I can sense his presence.

“Hey, Little Bird,” He says, as his hand comes up to cup my cheek so tenderly.

I don’t want to open my eyes but when I do, I see him, smiling, looking more breathtaking than ever. There’s not a mark on him, not even a bruise. He looks ethereal.

We’re in a room I don’t recognise, but for once, my heart is screaming out in panic, my head isn’t telling me to run for my life. I don’t feel anything but just peace. Calm.

It’s white. Everything is white. The walls, the bed frame, the covers, all of it. It should feel sterile, clinical, and yet, it feels - peaceful. Warm.

“We did it?” I ask but I already know the answer.

We did do it. We wouldn’t be here, safe, if we hadn’t.

Rafe pulls me in, his arms wrapping around me and he plants the softest of kisses on my lips. “It’s over,” He says.

My heart leaps, I blink back, seeing that image of him, of Alexander lying dead before he disappeared under the surface.

Maybe this is a dream. Maybe this is all just a hallucination of my mind. That in reality, I’m there, in that dungeon, or worse, I’m high as a kite and someone is abusing my body, abusing me. Either way, it doesn’t really matter because right now, I am here. And so is Rafe.

For once, it’s us, just us.

I smile at him, leaning further into his embrace. My body seems to tingle everywhere we’re touching. It’s like I’ve been electrified in the most delicious of ways.

His hands slide up my waist, grabbing at the shift dress I have on, and then he pauses.

I know what he’s thinking, what he’s going to say and right now, I don’t want to hear it.

I don’t want him to speak it. To remind me of what we went through, all the times I’ve been here, in this moment, only, it wasn’t consensual.

So I slam my lips back into his, silencing that question on the tip of his tongue.

A growl emits from his throat as he kisses me back and it’s the sexiest thing I think I’ve ever heard.

This man, he’s all muscle, all brute strength.

Seeing him there, in that room, reduced to little more than a thing to fuck, that broke my heart, but that was also the point, wasn’t it?

Alexander couldn’t have beaten him man to man.

No, he had to drug him, to incapacitate him, to cheat his way to victory.

Only, he’s not the victor is he? He didn’t win.

I let out a gasp of relief that rapidly turns to something akin to a moan.

Rafe pulls the dress up, over my head before he tosses it away.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful,” He murmurs, his breath hot against my skin, making it erupt into more goosebumps.

“You’re beautiful too,” I whisper back, tracing my hands over his muscles, over his chest, over that part that his brother mutilated so long ago.

His lips curl into a crooked smile but he doesn’t say anything, he just leans in and kisses me again, working his way down my body, peppering my skin, my breasts, all of me.

He eases my thighs apart, his touch so soft, so gentle, and it’s enough to drive me insane. I can’t tell if he’s going slow because he’s teasing me, or worse, he’s afraid I’m still damaged, still affected by what we went through.

“Touch me,” I beg. “Please, Rafe, I think I’ll die right here if you don’t.”

He chuckles, calling me dramatic but he lowers his mouth right where I want it all the same.

I raise my hips, urging him on as he takes an agonisingly slow lick right through the centre of me. “More, I need more.”

He teases me, he tortures me for a good few moments before he slides his fingers into me, pumping in and out while his mouth latches onto my clit.

“Rafe,” I arch my back, clenching at the sheets. He hasn’t even gotten started and already I’m a damned mess for him.

He stares up at me, his eyes locking onto mine in a way that is so predatory, so possessive.

I can feel how much of a mess I’m making. I can see it, my arousal covering his stubble, gleaming in the soft light. My body physically shakes, I’m trembling, mewling, in a complete and utter state but just as I think he’s going to put me out of my misery, he stops.

My heart is thumping in my chest. I’m so needy right now I think I could actually cry.

“You’re not coming.” He states as he drags my body down, drags me to the edge of the bed. “You’re not coming until I can feel you around my cock.”

I can’t reply. I can’t even string a sentence together. He wraps my legs around his waist and he nudges himself at my entrance.

I brace myself for the pain. For the flashbacks.

For that moment of intrusion that I know, even if he’s as gentle as he can be, will be brutal because of everything I’ve gone through.

His eyes look so hungry, he looks like the same beast who hunted me down through the woods and it makes my heart seem to flutter more and more.

In one slow thrust he pushes all the way inside me, and it doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t feel anything but incredible.

I reach up, my hands wrapping around his neck as I pull him closer. I want to drown in him, drown in his smell, in his touch, in all of him.

“God, I love you,” He growls.

“I love you too.” I say back.

He grins in that devilish way only he can. “Good, because I’m about to fuck you like I don’t.”

“What?”

He grabs my hips, becoming suddenly rabid as he starts to fuck me, as he starts to claim me. My eyes roll back in my head, I swear I’m already seeing stars. It feels so good. Too good. The way his dick is sliding in and out of me, the way he’s fucking like he can’t get enough.

All I can smell is him. All I can think about is him. Rafe.

Finally, we have this, finally we have what we want.

I drag my nails down his back, relishing the fact that I can touch him, all of him.

“You’re mine,” I moan. “All mine.”

He growls back and I know those words mean just as much to him as they do to me.

His hand wraps around my throat, his hips buck away, sending me closer and closer to the very heights of nirvana.

And then I feel his hand, his other hand. It’s sliding over my hip, touching me, circling me, giving my clit everything I need right now.

I throw my head back, letting out a deep guttural moan of satisfaction. I love how this man just knows. How he knows what my body wants, what it needs.

“Come for me, Scarlett,” He says. “Come all over my cock.”

He doesn’t need to tell me twice. He barely gets the words out before I’m losing all control, practically losing consciousness with how good this feels.

I know I’m screaming, I know my body is jerking erratically, but Rafe holds me to him, holds me tight as he keeps me right where I need to be and then he’s there, he’s growling out, pouring into me, clinging to me like his life depends upon this moment as much as mine does.

We slump back into the sheets. Laying there with our sweat covered bodies still entangled in one another.

If I didn’t know better, I’d say we were glowing. Physically shining, like we were some sort of celestial beings and not human at all.

We have this. From now on, we have this and more. My lips turn into the biggest of grins as that realisation hits me. All we have now is time, time and each other. We can go where we want, do what we want, live however we want because we are free, finally we are free.

His fingertips trace along my spine, creating a pattern I can’t quite work out. It tickles but not enough to tell him to stop. I can’t stop kissing him. I can’t stop touching him.

I don’t know how long we lay here, just relishing this moment, relishing each other.

For the first time in forever, my heart feels at peace. All those awful horrific fears are gone, all those nasty memories seem to be, if not erased, but muted, as if they no longer hold sway over me.

“I love you,” I say for what must be the hundredth time. I can’t stop saying that either.

“I love you too,” Rafe says back, cupping my cheek, lowering his mouth as if he’s going to claim another delicious kiss.

Only, the lights flicker. The room seems to disappear and then reappear like it’s a hallucination and not real at all.

I draw in a sharp breath, looking around, as my heart slams into my chest and that old fear returns full force, taking over everything.

“What…?” I stammer.

“It’s okay,” Rafe says, cutting across me. “It’ll all be okay.”

But the way he says it, the way his body tenses, tells me something is wrong. Something is very wrong.

My eyes dart about the room and a sinking feeling hits my stomach. “Rafe, where are we?”

He shakes his head, tightening his arms.

“Rafe?”

“It’s over, Scarlett. You have nothing to fear now.”

I blink back, trying to hear the words he isn’t saying.

Nothing to fear? Alexander is dead, Vincent is dead, of course there is nothing to fear. But why are we here, in this strange room, hiding away? Why are we not out there, on his bike, escaping, living?

“I want to go outside.” I state.

“Scarlett…”

“Rafe.”

He sighs, dropping his gaze, shaking his head.

“Tell me what is going on.” I plead.

“Not yet.”

Panic takes hold of me. I push him away, suddenly seeing this as a trap, as a trick, another game the Forster’s are playing. Oh god, was Rafe a part of this all along?

I scramble out of the bed, and I race to the door, grabbing the handle but Rafe is there, pushing it back. Stopping me.

“Not yet.” He says gently.

“Tell me what is going on or so help me…”

His arms wrap around me, he holds me to him like I’m the most precious thing in the world. “I just wanted a little more time.”

“Time before what?”

His face says it all. His face tells me what my mind refuses to believe. And then he says it. Those hateful words.

“It’s over.”

No.

NO.

We didn’t lose. We didn’t.

I saw him, I saw Alexander in the water. I saw him drowning. I saw him disappear beneath the waves… but I went under too, didn’t I? I went into the darkness after him.

“You drowned, Little Bird.” Rafe murmurs. “You drowned, and I couldn’t save you.”

I step back, shaking my head, staring at the walls like there might be some answer there. Some reprieve.

“Drowned?” I repeat like the word makes no sense.

No, I didn’t. I know I didn’t.

“I’m so sorry. I ran after you, I tried to get to you, but I was too late.”

I gulp back the lump in my throat. He sounds so broken, so sad, so unlike him.

And then it hits me - if I drowned, if I’m dead, then where the fuck am I now and why is Rafe here? I narrow my eyes staring back at him, silently asking that question because I can’t find the strength to actually voice any of it out loud.

His lips turn up in a sad smile. His eyes tell me everything before he speaks the words.

“You think I’d willingly let you go? You think I’d just live my life without you?”

“What, what did you do?” I stammer.

He takes my hand, squeezing it gently, reassuringly.

“No,” I scream out, pulling myself free of his grasp. “No,”

My fists slam into his chest. My tears stream down my eyes. How could he do that? How could he be so stupid?

“Scarlett,” He soothes as if he’s the rational one here.

“You didn’t have to die,” I sob. “You didn’t have to. You could have walked away, you could have been free.”

“What freedom would I have had without you?” He snarls, grabbing my wrists, forcing me to stop fighting him so that I have to look him in the face. “What life would I have had? You were it. You were everything. Without you in my life, nothing would have made sense.”

I can’t answer him. Words fail to form. I just stare back dumbfounded.

I’m dead.

Rafe is dead.

“Is Alexander dead?” Did I imagine that? Was that just my wishful thinking conjuring up a nice happy ending before reality hit.

“Alexander is dead.” He confirms.

“Is he here? Is he in a room like this?” Panic hits me at the thought of that, of him, of us, of there being no escape whatsoever from him now.

Rafe lets out a laugh. “No, Little Bird. Alexander is not here. He’s exactly where he belongs.”

“In hell?” I whisper. I was never much of a believer, life seemed far too complex for the likes of good and bad, holy and unholy. Besides, what sort of redemption would there ever be for a person like me?

“As good as,” He says.

“What does that mean?”

“It means he’s getting the ending he deserves. As is my mother and my father.”

I give a small nod because it all feels too much to process. Too much to think about. I guess we can park that conversation for later because it’s not like we’ll have anything but time now. Or do we? Is this permanent? Is this place it, or is this some form of purgatory?

“Are we trapped here?” I ask. Is this what heaven is for us? A white room with nothing beyond it?

His lips curl and he shakes his head. “No, we can leave whenever we want.”

“So why are we still here then?”

“Because,” He says, planting a soft kiss on my lips, “I wanted you to have a moment, wanted you to have a little time to adjust.”

“Adjust,” I repeat, blinking slowly, trying to let it sink in that this is it, this is us. It could be worse, it could be so much worse. We could be trapped in that house; we could be trapped with Alexander and all the rest of them.

At least here, I’m no longer cold, no longer in pain.

My dear husband shattered my jaw, didn’t he, but now it’s healed.

All those teeth he knocked out are back like they were never gone.

All those awful bruises, those cuts, all the abuse he inflicted on my body, it’s gone, healed.

I look down at myself and realise, I look good. No, better than good.

I lift my eyes, staring back at Rafe. “What, what do we do now?” I half-whisper.

He takes my hand, his lips curling into the most beautiful of smiles and as he reaches for the door, he plants a teasing kiss on my lips.

“Now, we finally get to live.” He says before opening it for us both to walk through.

Live. I haven’t done that in such a long time. I’ve been existing, fighting battles I should never have had to face.

I stare out, seeing the most incredible view I think I’ve ever witnessed. We get to live. Me and Rafe. Finally, we get to live.