"Don't ever let go of me, Sara."
Her coppery eyes searched his face in confusion as if to ask why she would do this, when she was finally where she had waited so long to be, in his arms, a breath away from his lips, a lifetime to share beginning just now, now that they were truly free….And they were free.
The swinging of the hammock from the wind blowing off the waves rocked Michael's senses and then there was just the scent of Sara close against his chest. So close it was difficult to breathe but with each breath he took in a little more of her, the beauty of her more ethereal then the sea breeze as she filled his lungs.
He would answer her unspoken question the only way he knew how, the only way that would do justice to the love he saw in the reflected mix of confusion in her eyes.
His lips so unused to the stimuli of her velvet petaled mouth fell with a breath and then she was truly his. Pulling him closer, wanting him, needing him in a way he had forgotten a woman could need a man…
"I'll hold on forever Michael," her words so close to his ear and even closer in his heart…
"Promise me…" his response as her body melded closer, as close as two people could ever be…
"I promise, Michael…" her lips, tasting so sweet he could almost believe…And he wanted so much to believe that she was real that this was not just something his tired mind, his ravaged soul had constructed.
The gauzy material of the dress she wore blew lightly against them as the hammock shifted, as the sunset dipped low with a hiss that was lost as it became one with the gasps of the wind and the two lovers who rode its sighs.
He could almost believe…If he still had faith…And Sara almost convinced him…But…
Her fingers slipping away left him with an ache, the final vestiges of sleep fleeing as the sweat, the smells, the certainty of Sona washed over Michael like a bitter wave.
She was gone...
His eyes squeezed tight as the realization filled him...
Sometimes sleep was the cruelest punishment of Sona…
