The next morning, I awoke to a slight shaking.

"Raven, wake up. Sweetheart, you need to wake up." Sweetheart? The name somewhat stuck in my brain although my thinking was muddled. I cracked my eye open to see his face and then I registered the smell of food. My eyes opened farther to look around. But I saw no food. He laughed.

"The food is downstairs. And you must wake up and get dressed to receive it." I groaned.

"I wasn't that mean to you and make you get up and dressed."

"I know, but you must get up for me though. I want to see your beautiful face when you are finally awake."

"O.K. fine. Give me a minute." I rolled out of bed, then as I walked by I made a face at him.

"Don't give me a scowl."

"Give me a reason to not scowl at the person who woke me up."

"Do you really want me to?" I thought for a moment.

"Yeah I do." He took one long stride and had me in his arms. My feet weren't touching the ground, and I was pressed against his chest again. I can honestly say, his frenching abilities were…shocking. I pulled back, somewhat out of breath.

"What's wrong?"

"I've got morning breath, that's not going to help my kissing out."

At this he let me back on the ground and began laughing. I just scowled and walked past him to the bathroom. While I was refreshing my breath, he stood behind me leaning against the doorframe. After I was finished, I turned to him and tried to walk past him.

I had just gotten right next to him, and when he realized I wasn't going to stop he brought up his arm to stop me from exiting the bathroom. I looked up at him.

"Can I please pass, my breakfast is waiting for me."

"Breakfast can wait. You are not getting out until you kiss me."

I laughed in his face. "No, I will not. I tried being nice and clean my mouth but you just laughed at me. So you're not getting anything now."

"Is that a challenge?" I narrowed my eyes.

"As a matter of fact, Mr. Riley, it is." I was about to duck under his arm that was barricading me in, but his arms encircled my waist, and some how turned me so my back was against his chest. His breath was hot against my neck. Chill bumps raised on my skin.

"Well Ms. Alexander, you are a challenge I am willing to take up." My mouth went dry. He kissed me under my ear.

"I need to get dressed still." He nodded his head, and let me go. I walked to my closet, and quickly got dressed. When I walked back into the room I saw him standing there. We walked down and had the usual breakfast.

By late afternoon, nothing had really happened until Garrison suddenly turned to me.

"We need to talk." I looked at him oddly.

"…O.K. what do we need to talk about?"

"Well, in about a week and a half's time, I must go out of town. Not for long, but I must go. But I don't want to leave you alone, because I don't want you to get hurt and you can't get any help. But the problem really is, Chris and Hazel will be out of town, so Chris has talked to an old friend of ours and he will be coming over the night before I leave."

"I'll be alone with someone I don't know?"

"I know what you're thinking, but I think he'll be O.K. Hazel expressed her concerns so that is why he is coming over the night before I leave so that if you do not like him I can cancel my trip and try to go some other time."

"I guess my next question is, who is this guy?"

"His name is Neil Marshall, also met him in basic. Good man."

"O.K. I guess we'll deal with it when the problem comes around."

"Sounds like a good plan."

"I need to feed Eggo." I got up and fed my dog. I went to bed early that night. Around one I was awoken with the feeling of the bed moving around. I looked up to see Garrison just crawling into bed.

"What are you doing coming to bed so late?" I said tiredly.

"I needed to do some stuff, it's nothing."

"You must be tired." I yawned.

"Yes, I am."

"O.K. well good night then." I laid against him and fell asleep. A couple hours later, I was once again woken up to the movement coming from underneath me. I sat up to see what was going on. Garrison's face was contorted and he was moving around. I heard the sound of teeth grinding against each other. I began shaking him.

"Hey, wake up." I kept repeating, my shaking became harder. Finally he shot up off the bed, and grabbed my shoulders. His face was damp and he was breathing hard. "Are you O.K.?" He looked around then back at me.

"Yeah, bad dream." He sounded out breath.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He looked around.

"I just need to walk around, I'll be alright. Go back to sleep." I laid down and instantly went back to sleep. When I awoke, he still wasn't in bed. I got up and walked around looking for him. I found him in the locked room.

"What are you doing?" He turned around quickly.

"When I get back from my business trip, we're leaving."

"Leaving? What do you mean? Where will we go?"

"Mexico, or if you want to go to South America. But I'm tired of being here." I looked somewhat hesitant about coming into the room. He sighed heavily, and leaned back in his chair. He turned so we were facing each other from across the room. He opened his arms, and I slinked inside and onto his lap. He began playing with my neck with his lips, and turned my face so he could reach my lips. I pulled back.

"Please, I need this." Anything to make him feel better, right? I gave in, and the next thing my brain could comprehend was that I was being carried out of the room and I could feel the couch under me. He pulled away so we could breathe and catch our breath. I pulled him back down and hugged him to me. Was I ready to take the next step? I had to be. Because I wasn't sure what brought on this change, but I needed to make sure I could stay alive to see my family again. Isn't that what kidnappers do when they get tired of the kidnapped. I moved my hands up and down his chest. My face was already flushed, but this did not help.

I could feel his breath hitch in his throat. Things continued, I didn't know one could feel this way. I tried to keep as quiet as possible, but some things cannot be helped. I was human, after all. It was the first time I had ever gotten close to having sex. My body reacted instantly, and that scared the hell out of me. But what was a girl to do?

We camped out on the couch the rest of the day and around ten, Eggo came and laid down at the bottom of the couch. I finally had to get something to eat when I thought my stomach was going to eat itself. While I was making my sandwich, arms came up behind me and a pair of lips toyed with my skin.

"Why do you always come up behind me when I'm trying to make food."

"To keep you on your toes." He mumbled softly into my hair. I turned around with my sandwich in hand. I took a bite and began chewing. He eyed the sandwich my hand, I held it up for him. He dipped his head in and took almost half my food. My mouth fell open and I stared at his mouth.

"You…you took half my food!" He laughed but it became jumbled behind the large mound of food in his mouth. "Give it back! Or make me another one," he finally swallowed the large amount of food in his mouth.

"No," he simply said. My eyes got wide and I frowned.

"It's on!" He backed away as I came forward. "Come back here!" I yelled as I chased him around the house. He laughed as he ran up the stairs and into the bathroom. I began banging on the door. "You can't hide in there forever."

I stood there but he wasn't going to come out. Maybe threatening isn't the way to go I decided to use nature's gift.

"Please, I don't want you staying in there and leave me by myself. I'll feel lonely." I tried to make my voice sound as pathetic as possible. The door burst open and I was swooped off my feet and carried into the bedroom. The bed appeared under me and Garrison stayed above me keeping his weight off of me.

I looked into his face, then leaned forward to start kissing him down his neck. My arms became constricted above my head as he pinned them down and made his way down my body. I had a feeling that if we continued, there was not turning back. I made a noise in the back of my throat. He pulled back and looked into my face.

"I…I uh…" I could only get out.

"I understand." He rolled off of me, and laid on his back trying to control his breathing. I moved so I was laying on his chest, and propped myself up to look into his face.

"I'm sorry. I guess I'm not ready yet. But I don't think it's forever, just not right now." He looked at my face and brushed his hand across my cheek.

"Will you tell me when you are?" I grinned and leaned down to kiss him.

"You'll be the first to know."