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“Maybe we found the world right here between us.”
His expression becomes more somber with a hint of fire. Rafael threads the hem of my dress through his fingers as he raises it up my body. I lift my back enough to make it easier for him and to let him know he has my permission. I’m lying bare on the bed while he towers over me, staring down. I think he’s doing the same thing with me as I just did with his hand. Memorizing.
He opens his shirt button by button. The amber of the candle flickers across his chest. The gentle whites of the flame highlight the whites of his eyes. The blue of his new bracelet shines against the glow of his skin. He turns as if to go to the box on his dresser. I call out to him. “Rafael…” He turns back to look at me. I shake my head slowly. “Don’t.”
The shorts that have hung low on his hips, since putting us back together outside, easily fall away once more. He crawls up the bed from my feet. Once his body nearly covers mine, he wraps his hand around the back of my head. His fingers weave into every strand of hair as he pulls me close to his body. I’m dwarfed by his size and his spirit. Without words, he tells me he would be my Superman. I’m learning to let him.
Chapter thirteen
Ava
Rafael and I decide to leave the villa together. We want every moment we have left on the island spent together. We have the same driver take us to the airport that dropped me off the first night. He speaks a little Spanish to me again, asking if I had a good time. Rafael kisses the back of my hand and responds for me that I most certainly did. Normally that would bother me. Somehow with him, it makes me swoon, for lack of a better word.
I rest my head on his shoulder the entire car ride. His right arm wraps tightly around my shoulder, while his left hand traces the veins on the back of my hand. I watch the foliage fly by the window and the sound of the ocean becomes less and less. My heart starts to become heavy the more traffic and city life I see. I know he feels it too.
We stand forehead to forehead at the airport at my gate. Rafael upgraded my seat to first class so I should have gotten on first, but I couldn’t leave him. The staff is sympathetic to us and lets me board with only minutes to spare.
“I miss you already,” I tell him.
“Don’t think about what we’re leaving behind. Think about what we have to look forward to. That’s how I’m going to keep it together.”
“Message me as soon as you land. I love you,” I whisper.
“Ti amo, Bella,” his lips speak against my skin. “Always.”
We part slowly. Our fingertips are the last things to touch. I get to the opening of the jetway and look back. He’s still there smiling at me. I can’t take it. I drop my bag and run back for one last kiss. Rafael wraps me in his arms, lifting me from the ground. Our lips melt together in a whirl of emotion. I want to taste every last bit I can.
He puts me down and gives me a little nudge. “Remember, Bella. Always.” I nod quick and run up the jetway to click into my seat. Until the belt clicks metal on metal, I didn’t know if I would stay on the plane or run off to fly home with him. I need to trust it will work out. It will.
Midweek is usually the toughest part of the week for me workwise and just overall. I love the start of the week because it’s always full of promise and making the to-do list grow smaller in just the first few hours. The end of the week is amazing because it rolls into me time and now it’s us time.
This is how it’s been since I came back to reality. The weekends have been when I usually get to spend time with Rafael, whether it’s virtually or in person. It’s been more on the virtual side. We were supposed to be together last weekend, but the European press got in the way. He ended up doing more than he anticipated he’d have to, which ate up our long weekend in London.
He promised he’d make it up to me when I could get away next. I’d say tomorrow. My calendar says two weeks from now. It’s so hard keeping this from everyone. I’m glad I at least have Sylvia to help me through the long-distance piece. I’m not under any delusion that it will be easy. I just didn’t count on missing him this much.
In the beginning of a relationship, you should still be able to have that independence. Honestly, in one week, at least in my mind, I think I’d decided I was done. I didn’t want to look around. Everything I’d been missing for years with Vince suddenly appeared. The day we split; I didn’t know what it was that was missing. When I met Rafael, it became crystal clear what it was.
It was that unexplainable connection. It was the full buy-in on all my dreams and what makes me happy. It was wanting to be near him, even if we sat in silence. It was the honest way he listened to me and made me feel like his partner in life, not with a ring or a piece of paper. It was making me a partner to his thoughts and feelings. That is more vulnerable and intimate than sex could ever be.
I’m driving home for the day when my phone rings. I push the hands-free button to connect the call. “Hello. This is Ava.”
“Buonasera, Bella.”
“Hi there. Wait. You’re calling me on my regular line. Where are you?”
“What would you say if I told you I was in the Atlanta airport?”
Holy shit!
“I’d like to know what time you’ll be at my front door or if I should come pick you up? Not that I’m not super excited, but what are you doing here?”
His soft laugh fills not only my ear, but my soul with such joy. “I have a work engagement tomorrow night in town, so I flew in a day early to be with you. Would you mind terribly taking the morning off so I can have you all to myself for as long as possible?”
“I will make it possible. Wait, are you going to the event at Skywriter?”
“I am. My management thought it would be a good thing. I’m reading a script from them right now, actually.”
“Are you thinking of submitting for another project here? I’m not going to lie, I’m super excited to think about it. You aren’t just taking it because I’m here, are you? You know I want every choice to be right for you.”
