hey, so to everyone who read the last chapter, thank you so much, and to kittysquyres, my one and only reviewer so far this next chapter is for you. i hope you like it. it has the flashback element you wanted :)

to anyone who has just started reading i hope you enjoy and will leave me a little feedback. the rating for this fic i a HIGH T, it was originally an M but i dont think the rating is quite justified, however if you disagree tell me and ill move it back up.

i really hope you all like this chapter, the next will be up either tomorrow or tuesday

xoxox

Becca

The two weeks we had spent together just hanging out around Rome after the IMVA's had left me so confused and elated that I barely knew which way was up anymore, she had spun my head so fast and so far that by the time it came for me to choose between going home or staying in Rome I was on such a high that the only option left was to crash straight back down. And that's what I was terrified would happen if I stayed. Isabella made me feel things that neither Paolo nor any other boy had ever made me feel before. Where I had had crushes before what I was feeling for her after only a few days was enough to make me shaky and dizzy and so jittery I felt like I was going to wriggle right out of my skin every time she touched me.

Then, on the last night before I was to either leave or stay she took me out, we sped through the streets for hours, leaving the city further and further behind us until finally we stopped. We had somehow managed to wind up on top of a rocky mountain; so far away from the city I could barely see its blinking lights in the distance. She came up behind me and took my hand, turning me around to face her until all I could see was her. She was all around me, surrounding me with her scent, her gorgeous dark hair blowing gently around us both and her hands encircling mine. And then she spoke, her irresistible accent filling my ears and tuning out any other sound but that of her voice. I was totally mesmerised. It was only when she turned me around again and began to gently tug on my hand that some of what she had been saying made its way into my fogged up brain. It was only beginning to fully sink in when light flooded my senses and I saw the huge house in front of us. Isabella's house. That was what she had been trying to tell me. She wanted me to see it, the house where she had grown up, where she had laughed and played and first learned to sing. Her sanctuary, her home.

I followed her in a daze, my eyes glancing over everything but taking in nothing, only truly noticing something when she directed my attention towards it. She led me up the stairs, her hand gently grasping mine, fingers moving every so often and finally entwining with mine. She showed me the entire house, the huge lower floor, the cool dark wine cellar, the huge bathrooms, the outside terrace, her parent's old rooms and finally hers. On the top floor of the house, with its own hidden winding staircase, and then out onto the balcony.

The rough, cold stone felt like heaven under my finger tips as I tried to force my concentration onto it and away from Isabella. My other hand was still being held gently by hers and I could feel every movement of our fingers moving against each others. My mind was in a haze and I couldn't think straight, I felt barely conscious. My mind dancing somewhere beneath a perfumed cloud: Fogging up my vision, stuffing my ears and making my entire body feel like it was on fire one moment and being filled with ice water the next. I nearly jumped out of my overly sensitive skin when I felt her fingers slip from between my own and her hands run smoothly over my shoulders and down my arms causing me to shiver so badly she moved to stand behind me, her arms encircling my waist- hands resting low on my stomach. She rested her head on my shoulder, her front pressed fully against my back and her breath hot on my neck as she began to speak again.

She told me all about growing up here, how she loved to run all through the house with her mother and grandfather chasing her, the hours of fun she had exploring the secret passages she found, and sliding down all the banisters of the huge house. Her voice grew sad as she told me of the car crash that had taken both their lives a month after her thirteenth birthday and just days before her first album hit the charts. My icy hands found her warm ones while she recounted the grief she had felt in the months following their deaths and I gripped the arms she had wrapped around me- drawing small circles when her voice began to grow husky and her accent stronger with emotion.

It was soon after that I felt myself turning around to face her, my breath catching as I watched the tears silently slipping down her face as memories poured from her lips. I reached up a shaking hand and slowly wiped them from her face, concentrating solely on my fingers moving across her skin and the feeling of euphoria that swept over me when she gasped at my fingers brushing the corner of her mouth. When I looked up again- feeling shaky and vulnerable for a reason I couldn't name it was to find her looking down at me in silence, her dark eyes burning into my own and making my blood boil and freeze in my veins. I gulped as she continued to watch me and tried to look down. Her sudden grip on my chin forced me to look up again and my eyes collided once again with hers. It wasn't until I felt the shiver travel through her that I realised my hand had been unconsciously tracing her face as we watched one another and it wasn't until she touched my lips carefully with her own fingertips that I realised she had been doing the same thing. Fire burning through my body and my vision blurring until the only thing I could see was her I did the only thing that made sense at that moment; I leaned into her touch, my body lining up perfectly with hers just as she stepped forward and trapped me gently against the stone balcony ledge.

Her free had was gripping mine as our eyes continued to silently hold the other captive and just as I was preparing to bodily wrench myself away; needing to get some air to my suddenly weak lungs and to clear my head of the fuzzy hazy heat that seemed to fill it anytime she got too close, she lightly ran her fingertips over my blazing cheek and followed its path with her eyes until her hand gently slipped under my hair and danced along the back of my neck. Her fingers lightly sifting through and tangling in stray locks of hair and causing my breath to become shaky and my eyes to slip closed at the sensation.

It was only moments later that I felt the tentative brush of what felt like roughened velvet against my lips. My eyes snapped open and immediately fell closed again as a wave of heat swept through my entire body and a whimper escaped me. She pulled back slightly at the sound and I couldn't help myself from trailing after her as her mouth left my own; opening my bleary eyes to find her watching me warily, a slight tinge of fear in her eyes as though wondering what I was going to do next- worried about my reaction. I couldn't help myself. I stepped forward, gripping her waist with my free hand- the other still entangled with hers- and drew her back towards me, my eyes seeking out hers and locking onto them as I pulled her in until our breaths were mingling and all I could see were her darkened eyes. Leaning towards her as slowly as possible my mind ran over everything that was happening in a panic, trying to process everything and making sense of nothing until finally it was shut down completely as my eyes fluttered closed and my lips locked firmly onto Isabella's.