A/N: Hello my loves! I'm back with another chapter for you in this exciting tale. As I post this, I am overcome with emotion at the fact that I only have two more chapters to write and I am already planning how I want the story to end. I will tell you this, you will hate me and I'm not even sorry.

The Summer awards over at Beyond the Book Nook came to a close earlier this month and the winners were notified this morning. Turn Around Bright Eyes came in runner up in Favorite WIP, Favorite Drama, and Favorite Overall for Rare Pairs in all three categories. I want to thank everyone who voted for me durin gthe timeframe of the awards.

This chapter was run through Grammerly and read over by SquarePeg72. I apologize profusely for any errors you may find.

The title of this chapter is 'Cause We're Never Alone which is a lyric from Somebody Else by The 1970s which was suggested as a song by the lovely xxDustNight88.

Check me out on social media if you're interested. All the links are on my profile! Or you can find me by searching starrnobella on most social media aspects. :)

I love reading your thoughts as to what you think is going on! Some of the theories I have seen are fascinating. I'm looking at you, Nathaniel and Jessi!

Love always,

~starr


He finally found her hidden in her study. There were books spread around her on the floor, and she had one in her lap. He shook his head as he walked over to where she was curled up on the couch in the corner. It wasn't the first time she had disappeared to this exact spot of their small flat, and he was certain that it wouldn't be the last time she did either. It was her favorite room after all so he would hope that she spent time there. It brought a smile to his face every time he thought about how excited she had been when he unveiled the finished project to her.

As he arrived at the couch, he leaned down and started picking up some of the books that surrounded her. He made a neat pile of them on the end table. He wasn't entirely sure where she had gotten them from, so if he could at least pile them up nicely, then she could resort them in the morning. The book that was going to be difficult to get out of her grasps was the one in her hands. The last time he had tried to take a book away from her, she had attempted to bite him. It didn't matter that she was snoring. As soon as he tugged at that book, she growled and snapped reaching for the person trying to take her book.

Gently, he sat down in the empty space beside her on the couch and leaned over, kissing her forehead softly. She smiled and nuzzled her head into his kiss, relaxing him slightly with the task at hand. This way she at least knew it was a friend trying to take away her book. He reached out and started to pull at the book gently. As he expected, she pulled back on the book pressing it tightly against her chest. A low groan escaped her lips, and she shook her head.

"Love, you need to let go of the book so I can put it away," he whispered, kissing her temple once again. She didn't move, but he could feel the pressure on the book tighten once again. He shook his head and chuckled softly to himself. "You know, you'd be much comfier if you were sleeping in bed and not on this couch. But you can't go to bed until you give up the book. Can I have it please?"

In her tired state, she was able to shake her head no and tightened her grip even more on the book. No one could take her books away from her and besides who needed to sleep in a bed anyways. She was perfectly fine right here.

"Alrighty then, I guess I'll just be headed to bed all alone, with no one to snuggle with," he hummed, frowning slightly as he pushed himself up off the couch. He took a few steps toward the door when he heard her groan and roll onto her side. As he turned back to look at her over his shoulder, he noticed that she was partially awake and had started to put the book down on the couch. He smiled and made his way back to the couch. He took the book out of her hands and placed it on the couch before wrapping her up in his arms and picking her up into a bridal carry. "Come on then, love. Let's get you to bed. You'll sleep better there, and you won't be as sore in the morning."

She groaned some kind of a reply and nuzzled her head against her chest as she nodded her head. She wouldn't remember most of this in the morning anyway, so him being so sweet was just part of what he usually did. It was one of the many reasons why she had fallen in love with him in the first place.

He glanced down at her sleeping form in his arms and smiled. Part of him wished that it could always be like this. Both of them happy for the time being and any negativity they had ever felt in their relationship was non-existent. If only life worked that way. Their lives were far too familiar with the stress of the outside world interfering with their happiness. Someday they would have it all figured out, but not tonight.

He thought back to the spat they had gotten into before he stormed out of the flat once again. He was always doing that. Storming out like he was a petulant child. No wonder she had called him one earlier. She was only pointing out what he was refusing to believe about himself.

It had taken him getting his sorry arse thrown out of the local pub by the bartender for him to even realize the truth. If he thought about it deeply, he might have remembered exactly what he had said to the bloke at the other end of the bar that got him socked in the jaw. However, those weren't pleasant thoughts that he wanted to be thinking about at the moment. He'd have to come up with a way to explain away the shiner in the morning when she woke up. Telling her the truth would probably just result in another one.

She hated it when he got into fights at the pub. It became a constant reminder that anywhere he was that he couldn't act like a tosser and argue with anyone he damn well felt like. He had promised her that he would start doing better, but tonight he had failed her. It's probably why she had fallen asleep in the study rather than their bedroom.

Crossing the threshold to their bedroom, he carried her over to the bed and pulled back the covers with one hand before laying her down. He tugged the covers back up around her and tucked her in tightly on all sides. Leaning down he placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and walked around the bed to his side, pulling his shirt off in the process.

He threw the crumpled ball of fabric onto the floor and undid the button on his jeans stepping out of them and leaving them in his wake. He tossed back the covers on his side of the bed and crawled in beside her. Taking one last look at her, he smiled softly before reaching up and turning off the light. They could deal with everything in the morning.

Tonight they just needed to sleep.

. . . . . . . . .

She felt the bed shift beside her, and it startled her awake. Her eyes snapped open, and she glanced around the room. When did she come into their bedroom? The last thing she could remember was drifting off on the couch… The longer she thought about it, the sooner she realized what had happened.

Drifting to sleep wasn't the last thing she remembered. She remembered him coming home and begging her to come back to bed. He had tried to steal her book.

No one took her books away from her. They were the one thing in the world that no one could truly take away. That was a lie. There was something else that no one could take away from her, at least not without magic and she was starting to believe that that didn't exist either.

No one could take away her memories. Memories were the thing that was haunting her at night, and that kept her awake into the wee hours of the morning, hidden away in the study looking for a way to chase away that which ailed her. That and her blasted mobile phone.

As the thought jolted through her mind, she bolted upright in bed and looked over at the nightstand. Where was her mobile? She could have sworn it was in her pajama bottoms, so she smacked her way down the length of her clothes, finding nothing. She frowned, exhaling sharply in the process and kicked her feet out from underneath the covers.

It wasn't on the nightstand, and it wasn't in her pockets. That would lead her to believe that the device never made its way out of the study along with her earlier. Hopefully, that meant that her loving husband had left it there or didn't even think to look for it when he claimed her.

Quickly she made her way towards the door. Just as she was about to leave the room, she heard a rustling of blankets on the bed. She froze in place and glanced back at him over her shoulder. He wasn't one to usually wake in the night, so she should be able to run to the study and grab her mobile, then make it back to bed before he even realizes that she left him all alone.

Padding her way down the hallway, she could feel her heart racing in her chest. There were things on her device that were meant truly for her eyes only, and she could only assume that his mobile had contents of the same privacy. She couldn't be sure, but he had always been protective of his since the day that they met. It had become the reason for her own practice of privacy with her device.

No one needed to know her passcode. If there was something there that another person needed to see, then she could simply send it to them, or she could show them exactly what they needed to see and nothing more. Mobile devices were capable of holding so much information that if placed in the wrong hands could really destroy a person, let alone what it could do to a relationship. There were just some things that the wedding bands on a person's hand couldn't save, no matter how much they loved one another.

As she rounded the corner at the end of the hall by the study, she could hear the soft buzzing of her mobile phone against the table in the middle of the study. With a sigh of relief, she quickened her step and ducked into the room, closing the door behind her before picking up the device. She smiled when she noticed the name plastered across the screen. The only reason she frowned was the fact that the name was proceeded by the words missed call.

Something must have been bothering him. He never called this late without pre-planning unless there was something wrong. Nervously, she unlocked the screen and went to her messages. There had been nothing from him for hours, so why the sudden influx of calls? Pressing his name, she decided it was necessary to at least make some kind of contact.

Calling was too risky at the moment. What if it rang and the noise woke her up? What if she were the one to answer the phone? What on earth would she say if she heard another woman's voice on the other end of the line? There was a reason he always called first, and there was a reason they always planned out their phone calls. There were too many questions that neither of them had answers for and neither was ready to try and come up with the answer.

2:05 AM: You rang?

As she waited for him to respond, her mind started racing with all the possibilities of what could have gone wrong. Her mind flooded with the worst of the worst and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes. As the first tear started to roll down her cheek, she cursed herself under her breath. She didn't even know what was actually going on and her emotions were on overdrive. She wiped the tears away from her cheeks and took a deep breath, glancing down at the device in her hands. All she was waiting for was a message saying everything was okay, then she could go back to bed.

2:07 AM: Sleep dial, sorry about that

She exhaled sharply and smiled at her phone. Those were exactly the words she needed to hear that would allow her to drift back into her dreamless sleep. A dreamless sleep next to one of the two men that held her heart. She knew that someday soon she'd have to decide who she wanted more. There was just a lurking feeling in the back of her mind and in the pit of her stomach telling her that the time was coming. She couldn't deny that there was a part of her that hoped that day would never happen. Wouldn't that be the dream?

2:09 AM: Good to know. Schedule a call soon?

2:10 AM: Absolutely, I miss the sound of your voice

2:11 AM: I miss the sound of yours too

2:12 AM: Sleep well, my love

2:12 AM: Sleep well, my dearest

With a deep sigh, she held her mobile close to her chest and smiled. Why did he have to make talking to him so simple? Maybe if things between them weren't so simple, then it would make it easier to choose. Although, nothing was perfect in any relationship. Both of her relationships led to their fair share of arguments. It was just a part of life and love. Whoever came up with that concept must have had a rough life when it came to love to give the world such a cynical idea of the phrase. It was just the yin and yang of life. There has to be bad with the good and good in the bad. All it takes is looking at the situation with a different point of view to see both.

She crept back into the bedroom and leaned up against the door frame when she saw him curled up on his side of the bed. She smiled to herself. She really was a lucky woman, even she didn't always seem to appreciate everything that he did for her and how much he truly loved him. What made her so special that she had multiple men to love her and some women don't even get one? She'd never truly know the answer to that question.

Crawling back into the bed, she moved closer to his side of the bed and wrapped her arms around his waist as she settled into the pillow. For right now, she needed to be close to one of them, and he was the convenient one for the moment. She smiled when she felt him move closer and drape an arm over her own waist, pulling her in close.

For the moment everything was perfect, but perfect could change in the blink of an eye. All it took was a little misconception or a bald-faced lie to change everything. It was a risk that neither of them was willing to take.

. . . . . . . . .

"I've missed you," he mumbled into her hair, nuzzling his nose against the soft flesh of her neck. The quiet hum of his voice added a sensation unlike any other, sending a shiver down her spine. He smiled as he felt her shake in his arms momentarily. Squeezing her tight, he pressed his lips to her neck for a soft kiss before lifting his head from her shoulder.

"I've missed you too," she whispered, smiling softly at him. She reached up and cupped his cheek, brushing the pad of her thumb along the stubble on his chin. It had felt like an eternity since she had last been in his arms and this was the only place she had wanted to be since their fight only a few weeks earlier.

"Why did we let something so silly come between us?" he asked, hanging his head with a sigh as soon as the words escaped his lips. "I didn't mean it that -"

"So how did you mean it then?" she grumbled, pulling back from him and stepping just out of his grasp. She carded a hand through her loose waves and took a deep breath as she turned away from him. This wasn't how things were supposed to go down tonight. They were supposed to be here just to talk and work things out. Not to fight. It was never supposed to turn into a fight, but here they were at it yet again.

"Not the way that it came across," he sighed, scrubbing his hands over his face. "I'm sorry. Can we please start this over?"

Batting her eyes quickly, she tried to fight back the tears she had felt welling up in the corners of her eyes. "I want to start over, but I'm not sure that we can. I feel like there's just been too much damage over the last month or so. We couldn't even get through one meeting without it coming up."

"It was a mistake. I swear to you I wasn't trying to start a fight with you. The words slipped out of my mouth before I even thought about what I was saying."

"That's the problem! You didn't even plan to start fighting. It just happens."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he took a deep breath and squeezed his eyes shut tightly. He knew she was right, but what else were they supposed to do?

They had tried being together, and it led to fighting. They had tried staying apart and focusing on their separate marriages, but that had only led to arguing as well. They argued when they weren't able to see each other about the time they were missing out on, but when they were together, they argued about the time they were missing out on with their significant other. No matter what way they looked at it, they could never win. They could never spend time alone.

"I don't like seeing you with someone else." Her voice was barely above a whisper as she covered her mouth with her hands, allowing the tears to start rolling down her cheek. "I know I don't have any right to tell you that and I don't want you to leave her for me. I'd never be able to ask you to do that for me. It's not fair to any of us involved."

"Just as I'd never ask you to leave him for me. I know you'd never say yes," he replied, reaching out and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder, pulling her towards him and burying her head in his chest. All he wanted to do right now was hold her and take all of her pain away, even if he was the cause of most of it for right now.

"Sometimes I just wish we could be alone," she sighed, leaning her forehead into the center of his chest.

"We're alone right now, aren't we?" he asked, furrowing his brow as he looked down at the top of her head, kissing it gently.

"Physically, yes. But we've got our mobiles that could ring at any moment telling us that we need run home as soon as physically possible," she said, tipping her head back to look up at him. "We're never truly alone, no matter how hard we try to be. It's just the reality of our situation."

He thought about what she had said for a moment and sighed, nodding his head. "You're right. What if we took a trip? Just ran away somewhere leaving our phones behind for even just one night, so we could truly be alone and see how we really feel about everything. We used to do that all the time when we first started this, maybe we just need to get back to our roots."

"What about work? What would you tell her? What would I tell him? There are too many variables involved now. We'd never be able to get away for a night, let alone an entire weekend," she said, rolling her eyes. She always had to be the realistic one in the pair. She loved his optimism, but optimism only did so much.

"So an hour," he replied, pushing her back so he could look her directly in the eyes. "We can both afford to get away for an hour. You could say you were running an errand for work, and I disappear all the time for hour-long intervals. My wife wouldn't think anything of it. What do you say? We have to at least try something. If this proves to be a giant flop, then we know we have no choice but to stop. Things obviously didn't work out for a reason, and we can refocus our attention on rebuilding the brokenness we have kicked to the sides."

"I need to take some time to think about it," she replied, worrying her lip and glancing between the clock on the wall and his face.

"What do you need to think about? I didn't ask you to run away and elope with me. I asked you to spend an hour with me so we can try and fix what the fuck has happened between us that is causing us to keep fighting so much," he growled, taking a step back from her and crossing his arms over his chest. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out why she was dragging her fight about this. Didn't she love him and want to see if this could actually work? And then the answer to his own question struck him. What was she supposed to tell her husband if they figured out how this whole thing was going to work? What if they figured out that they were better together than with their significant others? Why couldn't things be easy for once? Why did they have to keep making things more and more complicated?

"I need to decide if this is what I really want," she replied, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. She watched as he focused his eyes on the back of her hand. She wasn't sure how he was going to respond to her touch, so she was ready to pull it back if he didn't want it there. A few moments had passed, and he reached up, cupping her hand in his and drawing it to his lips and kissed it gently.

"I understand that. I'm sorry for shouting. I just want this to make sense for once," he sighed.

"I know. But we knew when we started this that things were never going to be easy. If it were easy, then everyone would be doing it, and there would be no sanctity in marriage," she hummed, stepping forward and wrapping her arms around his neck. She pressed up on her tiptoes so that she was eye to eye with him. Leaning in slowly, she pressed her lips to his briefly. "We'll figure something out. We always do. For tonight, we should take advantage of the time we have alone, shouldn't we?"

He quirked his brow and smiled at her comment. Slowly, he nodded his head up and down, wrapping his arms around her waist and picking her up off the ground. She wrapped her legs around his waist and squeezed her arms tight around his neck. "We really should," he replied, pressing his lips to hers roughly, slipping his tongue between her lips almost as soon as their lips touched. He smiled when he heard felt her soft moan reverberate between their skin.

He carried her over to the bed on the opposite side of the room and tossed her down gently so that her head landed on the pillows at the top of the bed. Standing at the foot of the bed, he looped his fingers inside the bottom hem of his shirt and pulled the fabric up over his head. He smiled when he looked down at the bed and noticed that she too had shed her blouse and was currently disposing of it on the floor beside the bed. He leaned forward and lifted his leg up onto the end of the bed, slowly making his way from the end of the bed to the apex between her thighs. He gripped her hips and pulled her closer to him.

With a wicked smile on his face, he leaned down and pressed his lips to hers and wrapped his arms around her waist. She brought her legs up and wrapped them around his waist. Her arms found their way around her neck, pulling him closer to her than he already was. His tongue slide along the seam of her lips, silently asking for entrance. He smiled as he felt her lips part, allowing his tongue inside and her's found its way into his mouth.

His hands worked their way up her back to the clasp of her bra. Quickly, he made work of it and pulled the flimsy fabric off of her and tossed it to the floor. The more clothing that was in the way, the less skin to skin contact he could get with her. Leaning more into the kiss, he pressed his chest against hers and wrapped his arms around her waist. This closeness was precisely what they needed at that moment. Only a few more barriers to go and they would be as close as two could get.

If they couldn't talk through their problems without fighting, maybe they'd be able to fuck their way through the process, and everything could start fresh again in the morning. At this point, both of them were willing to try anything they could to make this transition as simple as possible. It had been far too long since they had been together. All they could hope for was that everything still worked the same as it did the last time.

. . . . . . . .

"You were out late tonight." The voice in the darkness startled her as she smacked at the wall looking for the light. Before she had a chance to flip the switch, the lights flickered on, and she was met with a less than happy to see her face.

She frowned and quickly crossed the room, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing up on her tiptoes. "I know I am, but I swear it wasn't on purpose. I started to leave five or six times, and every time I made it out of my office, someone was coming up to me with more things for me to approve or a question they needed to ask me."

"What happened to telling them that you had a cut off time to be out the door at the end of the day?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her in close to him.

"It worked for a day, but then something would come up that would force me to push back my leaving time until it was never the same time two days in a row," she sighed, frowning at him as she batted her pretty eyes silently asking forgiveness. "Please tell me you aren't too mad at me."

"I'm not mad, but dinner's not warm anymore," he said, leaning down to press his lips to her briefly.

"You made dinner?" she asked, her eyes lighting up as she glanced back over her shoulder. "Where is it?"

"In the fridge," he replied. "I wasn't sure what time you were coming home, and I didn't want it to go bad. I'll warm it back up. Go change, and when you come back, I'll have a glass of wine with your name on it. Sound like a plan?"

"Sounds perfect," she replied, kissing him chastely before pulling out of his arms and making her way towards their bedroom.

Making her way into their bedroom, she slipped her mobile out of her pocket to silence the constant buzzing that had been happening since she walked in the door. Hidden at the bottom of her notifications bar was a message from the fabulous man downstairs telling her that she was missing a beautiful dinner and that he was worried about her. The message brought a smile to her face as she shed away her work clothes and found something a tad more comfortable to wear for the mere minutes it would most likely be on her body.

. . . . . . . . .

11:50 PM: I hate knowing that you're with him right now...

11:51 PM: I can't stand the thought of you being with someone else, I wish it could only be the two of us together forever

11:52 PM For that to be the case, you'd have to be willing to walk away from her.

11:53 PM: Do you think I like knowing yours with her instead of me?

11:54 PM: I hate that we can't be together because we're never truly alone...