Yes! I got one more update before I leave the internet world for a whole six weeks! Gah! I am so sorry everybody. I will try and put an update together something during that time, but it most likely won't happen. So sorry. Please enjoy this chapter though! I will update AS SOON AS I GET BACK! I love you all, and thanks so much for getting this story above a whopping 60 reviews! This is my most reviewed story I've written, and I appreciate every single one of who that has reviewed!

Okay, Vaughn might be a little OOC in this chapter, but get over it! Enjoy and Review! 3

Together

Her lips are soft and warm on mine. I'm shocked for a moment as I sit there and let her kiss me, with my mind in complete shock. That's when it hits me; the girl of my dreams was kissing me, and I was sitting there like an idiot!

I wrap my arms around her, pulling her wet body closer to mine. Her hands wrap around my neck like I had imagined a thousand times before. The way her soft lips melted under mine was purely magic. Where her fingers brushed my neck, I could feel shivers being sent down my back in pleasure.

"Chelsea, what happened to your arm?" Natalie cries out, making us break apart.

That's when I noticed that all of Chelsea's makeup had washed off in the ocean. Once again the bruises and cuts showed up on her skin, though they were a lot better than before.

"Chelsea?" Natalie cries out again, her face contorted with surprise.

"It's nothing." Chelsea mutters to her, but she doesn't remove herself from my grasp.

It's making me a little fuzzy in my head having her this close to me. It was a little hard for me to think, but I was loving it all the same. However, I saw I had to do something about the situation.

"Natalie, you have to swear not to tell a single soul." I glare at her.

She squirms under my hard gaze and nods. Then she looks at Chelsea eagerly. "I promise I won't tell if you don't want me to. But what happened?"

Chelsea sighs. "Remember when I went out to visit my parents? And I said that I'd only had the flu?"

"You didn't have the flu did you?"

Chelsea shakes her eyes and tears begin to run down her face. I pull her closer and hug her tightly, for lack of a better thing to do. It seemed to comfort her as much as it did for me.

Chelsea can't seem to finish, so I beckon Natalie down beside me. When she leans down, I whisper in her ear. "Her parents tied her up and abused her every day for almost a week."

Natalie falls backwards in horror. Chelsea continues to cry as she turns in my arms and begins to sob on my shoulders. Gently I stroke her soaking wet hair. It surprised me how naturally I dealt with her, even after completely shutting myself down to human contact.

Then Natalie covers her look of horror and kneels down. She places her hand lightly on Chelsea's arm, causing her to turn.

"I'm sorry." She whispers to her. "I promise I won't tell. But I'm sure you'll have someone to look after you."

My face darkens in colour, but Chelsea looks up at me with a smile. Her smile is so sweet and innocent, and the fact that she wouldn't be kissing Will anymore makes me smile back at her slightly.

"I'll take you home." I mutter to her softly. She nods and I rise with her still in my arms. Then I turn to Natalie and whisper in her ear. "Can you tell the boat captain that I came down with a bad cold and can't return to work?"

She winks at me. "Of course. Wouldn't want your boss out here to check on you again."

My face darkens once again, but I dip my head in thanks. Then I pull my arm tighter around Chelsea to give her more warmth as we walk to her farm.

We reach the house and we're both shivering by that time. Once we're inside, she rushes to the bathroom and I head to the fireplace.

Over fiddling with a match for a few minutes, I manage to get a fire started with the leftover wood. Soon a blazing fire warms my numb fingers and the heat begins to spread throughout the rest of the house.

Satisfied, I pull up a chair and sit down in it. My eyes close as I enjoy the new-found warmth. The pitter patter of Chelsea's feat echoes as she walks over to where I am. When the sound stops, I open my eyes to find her kneeling down by the fireplace in those same silk pajamas. She glances at me and instantly blushes under my gaze.

I can't help it; my heart completely melts for her. "Come on up here." I tell her gruffly as I point to the space beside me.

Her eyes widen, and I point to the spot again. "Come on, a little more warmth will do you good."

She nods slightly and then walks over to me, her eyes darting from me to the ground with nerves. Then she sits down on the space beside me and I pull her onto my lap, holding my arms securely around her.

We're both tense for a minute, but then she relaxes and snuggles into my arms. I sigh and loosen up too. We both smell like the salt in the ocean, but neither of us cares. My fingertips touch her skin and it sends electric currents across my skin and through my body.

Why on earth had I tried to deny this? This was amazing, beautiful, and perfect. And she was all mine. Gently I kiss the top of her head, not caring about the salt taste that gets in my mouth.

"Vaughn?" Chelsea whispers.

"Yes?" I whisper back.

She turns her head so that she's looking at me. "Are we…are we-"

"Together?" I finish her sentence for her. She nods her head, a hopeful look on her face. I give her a small smile. "Yes."

Her face lights up in a huge grin. The bruises on her face seem to vanish before my very eyes, her happiness radiating something bigger than herself.

Then she wraps her arms around my neck. Her eyes dart from my eyes to my lips as her face moves in closer. When I can feel her breath on mine, she stops moving.

"May I kiss you again Vaughn?" She asks me, her eyes looking at mine in worry.

I don't answer her. Instead I close the distance between us and press my lips to hers. She seems to sigh in content as we kiss. It was soft, sweet, and innocent. Our arms were wrapped around each other, but the kiss was nothing more than our lips pressing against each other; and even that felt like the best high in the world to me.

She sighs happily and leans her head on my chest. I smile at her as I gently stroke her hair. The warmth of the fire and her body against mine lulls me into a state of security, and I fall asleep with a smile on my face.

I wake because of something rapping on the door. My eyes blink open and the first thing I notice is that I was sitting in a chair with Chelsea curled up on my lap, asleep. She seems so pure when she was asleep, like she had no trouble in the world to worry about. It was very calming to me. I had suspected that if I got involved with another girl, it would take me ages to get used to it; but there was just something about Chelsea that made me really comfortable.

Impulsively, I lean down and kiss her closed, sleeping lips. They're warm and soft, just like they had been yesterday. It was exactly how her lips looked too, and was becoming like a drug to me.

I lean back into the chair, the noise at the door had stopped. Then she snuggles closer into me and opens her big blue eyes at me. She offers me a timid smile, which I return.

Her face lights up with my smile. I really had no idea why she liked to see me smile so much. I never had liked smiling, but if it made her happy I would smile forever.

"Morning Vaughn." Chelsea whispers, like she's afraid to believe I was actually there.

"Morning Chelsea." I whisper back to her.

She smiles and then shifts off me to run to the bathroom. But before she enters, her head turns a bit to look back at me again.

I sigh gently and stand up from the chair. My back was a little sore from sleeping upright all night, but other that that I was fine.

Wait a second…I was…fine? Yeah, I didn't feel tired and cranky or mad at something or someone. And now that I thought about it, I hadn't had any dreams last night.

My stomach growls at me, and I frown. "Do you ever get enough food?" I ask my stomach, annoyed. In answer, it growls again. I sigh and shake my head.

I walk to the kitchen and take my daily pills out of my pocket. Quickly, I pop two and then stuff the rest back in my pocket.

Then I start to make some coffee, just out of routine, as I get some porridge out of the fridge.

The coffee just finishes when Chelsea walks out of the bathroom in her normal farming clothes, with her rucksack slung over her shoulder. I notice that she's covered up the bruises and cuts with makeup once again.

I hand her a cup of coffee which she accepts. We sit by the counter of the kitchen on stools. I'm eating a bowl of porridge and she's eating a bowl of cereal. Neither one of us has so much as taken a sip of the coffee.

Neither one of us speaks while we eat, but the silence isn't uncomfortable. As I eat, I keep stealing small glances at her. No matter how much I look though, I can't believe that this absolutely wonderful girl wants to be with a cold cowboy with me.

We finish and I take our dishes and place them in the dish washer. I can feel Chelsea's eyes on me, and it escalates my heart rate even though I'm not looking at her. When I turn around to face her, she blushes and climbs off the stool.

"I should go take care of the animals." She mumbles under her breath.

I nod and she leaves, but I follow closely behind her. If she could take care of the animals by herself, I wanted to be there, just in case.

All the animals are happy to see her again. I get the pleasure of standing and watching her reunite herself with all of them. She seems just as happy, if not happier than the animals. When she's finishes feeding and cuddling all of them, her dog comes barking up to her.

I smile to myself. She's only had that dog since yesterday, but it felt like a long time ago. He barks and licks her face, and it amazes me how close she'd grown to the dog in that short amount of time.

Then Chelsea looks up at me. She's smiling with joy and I smile back under my hat. The puppy comes bounding over to me and I kneel down to him so he can lick my face. I had to admit it was a bit exhilarating; I'd never owned a pet before and I thought Chelsea was really lucky to be able to.

She pulls the puppy off of me and laughs as he licks her while in her arms. Then she slips a leash onto his new collar. "How about a walk Stark?" The puppy yips in agreement as she places him on the ground.

Chelsea smiles nervously at me as we begin to walk out of her farm. The first person we run into is Natalie. Her eyes are wide as she runs over to us.

"Oh my god guys, Will has-" She stops in mid sentence and look down at the Siberian puppy licking her feet.

"I didn't know you had a dog Chelsea." Natalie remarks with a wry look on her face.

She smiles. "His name is Stark. I got him yesterday."

"He's really cute." Natalie smiles at the puppy.

"What happened with Will?" I ask gruffly, trying to steer the conversation back.

Natalie's eyes go really wide again, and she seems to forget about Stark. "No one has seen Will."

"It's what, nine in the morning?"

"It's after noon." Natalie tells us. I guess Chelsea had taken longer to feed the animals than I thought. or we had woken up really late. "And he was supposed to have breakfast with Regis and Sabrina. He's not on his boat either. Everyone has been searching the islands for him, but no one can find him."

Chelsea's face goes pure white. Stark seems to sense her distress because he whine and licks her feet, trying to comfort her. I have to admit that I'm a bit worried too. Will had always seemed more of a man of words to me, but he might be really angry right about now.

Natalie looks back and forth between the two of us. "Do either of you know where he is?"

We both shake our heads in denial. Natalie looks really worried. "Well, just to let you know. Watch yourselves, because if Will is hiding on purpose he's probably coming after the two of you."

I nod tightly. If he so much as thought about trying to make a move on Chelsea I would whip out my knife and plunge it into his arm faster than he could say 'uncle'.

Natalie nods back and then rushes off somewhere else. Chelsea sighs as she gathers Stark in her arms. "Talk about putting cloud of rain over your head."

I agree with her. But I couldn't complain. I was missing work on purpose for the first time in my life to be with her, and I wasn't going to let some snot nosed rich boy ruin it for me.

"He won't get to you." I promise her softly.

"Thanks." She smiles and hugs Stark close to her body. He seems content as he pants, and I'm a bit jealous of the dog. But I had patience.

"I have to see Gannon." Chelsea tells me quietly as she begins to walk. I follow right beside her.

When we get to his house, I open the door for her and she smiles at me. I could do things to make her smile all day, forever. It gave me an inner peace when she was happy and smiling at me.

"Hi Gannon." Chelsea says to the bulky man.

"Morning Chelsea." He says gruffly. "Do you want to buy something?"

"Actually, I'd like you to upgrade my house a bit." I notice that her face darkens a bit, and I wonder why. It was good that she was thinking about making sure her own health was a priority. Why would she be blushing about getting a bigger house?

Gannon glances at me as he takes the money. What the heck? Was there something about upgrading a house I didn't understand? "I'll have it done tomorrow." He chuckles and winks at Chelsea when he thinks I'm not looking.

Okay, now I'm super confused. What the hell was Gannon doing and why would Chelsea be embarrassed about it?

"Thanks Gannon." Chelsea mutters, her face still red. Then she flees the building. Gannon looks at me and chuckles to himself. I narrow my eyes at him briefly and then follow Chelsea, his laugh echoing in my head.

"What was that about?" I ask Chelsea when I catch up to her.

"N-nothing." She stutters, telling me that it was indeed something. Something important.

I don't ask though; if she didn't want me to know, that was her business. Next we walk into Chen's store.

"Morning Chen." Chelsea smiles at the Asian man. His son doesn't appear to be around. Now that I think about it, Gannon's daughter hadn't been in his house. The two were probably off playing together.

"Morning Chelsea." Chen smiles at her as she clutches her dog closer to her. "Can I help you with something?"

"Yeah, um, can I see your catalog?" She asks, her face darkening. Chen hands her a piece of paper with a list of items on it. I desperately want to read over her shoulder to see what was embarrassing her so much but I don't want to embarrass her further.

While she looks, I take to looking around the shop. That's when I notice something on the wall. I take a few steps closer, but my eyes aren't deceiving me. There are four blue feathers on the wall.

"Chen." I remark without looking back. "What are these doing here?"

Chen chuckles. I take a look back to see Chelsea pointing at something on the catalog, with her face redder than a tomato. My eyes narrow. What was so freaking funny?

I clear my throat loudly and they both look at me. Chelsea's eyes widen at the sight of the blue feathers. "Chen, why are you stocking blue feathers?" She gasps in shock.

Now Chen looks a little embarrassed. "Well, Will asked me to get one for him the other day, and I got four more on a special deal so I though, why not? Some of the guys on this island are going to need them. Sooner or later." I notice that Chen looks directly at me when he says the last part.

Chelsea shivers and Stark licks her face in comfort. "Did you know Will proposed to me last night?" She asks Chen.

Chen looks surprised. "Really? Congratulations Chelsea." He's smiling at her.

Chelsea shudders and I scowl at the thought. "I didn't accept it.' She tells him, with distaste in her voice.

Now Chen looks really confused. "Isn't that why you just bought a-" He stops in the middle of his sentence and I catch Chelsea shaking her head a little bit with wide eyes, trying to signal him without my notice. I notice.

"Uh, never mind." Chen finishes lamely as he accepts some money from Chelsea. She smiles briefly at him and then flees the building once again.

I raise my eyebrows at Chen and he chuckles at me as he heads to the back room. I exit the shop, more confused than I remember being in a long time. What the heck was going on?

Cliff hanger! I'm so evil aren't I?