-A Note: Hello everybody! I hope you are enjoying the story whether you are new readers or returning. I appreciate all the views, comments, follows and favorites. You all are amazing. Thanks for reading!
I wake up to what has to be the greatest feeling I'd ever have in my life: Emily's bare skin against mine as we lay wrapped up in a tangled mess of sheets and each other's arms. A smile grows on my face as I realize I get to wake up to this sight every morning now that Emily has moved in with me. I can't be happier. I look at the gorgeous girl lying next to me, sleeping peacefully as the sun reflects off her dark hair. 'How'd I get this lucky?' I think to myself. I lean over to kiss her cheek, knowing I'll probably wake her up but I just can't resist. The perfect skin of her cheek tempts me and I am weak against it. I allow my lips to linger on her cheek when I feel her stir. She snuggles into my side making me let out a small chuckle before I kiss her other cheek followed by her forehead then nose and ending with her lips. She lets out a content sigh as she deepens the kiss pulling me impossibly closer.
"You know... I think I could get used to this," she says, letting her lips brushing against mine; causing shivers to rush down my spine. I kiss her again, long and hard until I run out of air and immediately start placing kisses to her neck. I hear her release a small sound teetering dangerously between a sigh and a moan. I accept the challenge of causing it to cross over the edge and become a full-fledged moan. I move my lips closer to hear and take a second to whisper out, "Oh yea? Well I can think of something else you can get used to as well." Emily pulls me back and looks into my eyes with a mischievous smile before my lips connect lightly to her collarbone. I smile against the soft skin on her chest when I hear her let out a small moan. I'm already achieving my mission. I continue with my kisses, getting lower with each one, enjoying the small movements and moans each one earns.
"Oh my God...Paige," she moans out but to my surprise, I hear her voice mixed with someone else's. I lift my head startled to find I'm not in the bed with Emily, I'm in the Humvee and we've just been hit. The vehicle rocks and falls onto its side tossing me with it. Pain rips through my flesh and my skulls causing my ears to ring louder than church bells on Sunday. "Paige! Run!" The voice screams again. It's my fellow solider. But I can't move. Everything is starting to burn and I feel pain shooting through every inch of my body. I try to move but instead I feel myself getting forcefully pulled from the wreckage. Immediately, everything goes dark as they shove the bag over my head...
My eyes shoot open as I'm startled awake gasping for air. Instead of the pitch darkness I'm used to and expecting, I'm instead greeted by the soft warm glow of the rising sun filtering through the curtains of my hotel room. My heart rate settles as I force myself to calm my breathing. I forcefully fall back down to the bed, spent from the dream I just awoke from. Staring up at the ceiling, my brain moves from the dream and begins to reprocess the events of the previous day: coffee shop, the girls, Emily, tears, fiancé... Emily. It still doesn't seem real that I finally got to hold her again after all these years. I felt bad at first that her fiancé had seen us in that state on the deck of the pool but after seeing them walk back into the pool hand-in-hand guilt eased some. The small talk the four of us had, only lasted minutes but in that short amount of time I learned that the good-looking, short-haired girl on Emily's arm is named Stephanie Miller and that she had proposed three months ago on the very day I was saved; my birthday. How ironic. Seeing them together gave me mixed emotions. On one hand, I envied Stephanie and wished she didn't exist because then Emily would be free to be mine again. On the other hand though, seeing how safe and loved she was making Emily feel gave me relief. Knowing Emily was (and is) happy and able to love again, makes me happy and hopefully for her future. I hadn't spent much time at all with them before we all agreed that everyone had had enough to process in one day. We all decided to meet again the next day, today, to talk and answer questions. When they were on their way out the door, I had looked up just in time to see Emily turn around and smile at me, clearly happy that I was home again. Thinking about it now, it's all so confusing. What's going to happen? Will Emily stay with her? Will she come back to me? Will she ask me to go away and never see her again? Hopefully, we can figure something out when we talk later.
I'm pulled out of my thoughts by a knock on the door that quickly turns into a continuous stream of knocks. I get up thankful that I have shorts and a t-shirt already on so I can stop the incessant knocking sooner. I open the door to find an overly-perky blonde girl and a very strangely dressed brunette standing there with what I hope is coffee.
"Hanna... Aria... Please, by all means, do come in," I yawn out, swinging my hand across me in a grand gesture to invite them in. Hanna immediately struts by me followed my Aria who extends one of the cups out to me.
"You still like just plain black coffee right?" She inquires giving me a questioning look.
"Yes, thank you," I reply before turning to follow them back into the hotel room. "Not that I'm not glad to see you two, so bright and early in the morning, but what are you doing here?"
"We... Are taking you shopping," Hanna states holding up one of my Army shirts as if it was the most disgusting thing she's ever seen. My jaw drops as I look over to Aria who is just nodding her head while sipping her coffee.
"Oh no, no, no, no, NO! Not gonna happen," I protest putting my hands up. "Your styles aren't anything like mine! You are NOT getting me in a dress... NO!" I exclaiming, forcefully pointing a finger at Hanna.
"That does not mean we don't know what looks good," Hanna replies adding emphasis to the last syllable by deepening her voice and dragging it out.
"Don't worry we aren't planning on any dresses or skirts," Aria chides in, taking another sip of her coffee. All I could do is roll my eyes and sigh before ending up in the back seat headed to the mall. Two hours later, I find myself in probably the twenty changing room trying on the one-hundredth shirt of the day. I already have plenty of new outfits but the duo won't stop until I have a whole new freaking wardrobe.
"Can we be done now," I whine, calling out from behind the changing room door.
"No!" Both girls exclaim simultaneously making me sigh and hunch my shoulders. This has got to be one of the longest days of my life, and I was thrown in a pitch black cell for three years.
"Finnn...neee," I sneer as I turn my back to the door while simultaneously taking off my shirt. I'm down to a new pair of jeans and my sports bra with my back to the door when Hanna bursts through with another hand full of clothes. I have no time to react or turn around, so she sees my back, complete with whip-induced scars. She lets out a terrified gasp, immediately rushing to me to place a hand on my back. I tense up, immediately aware of the cause of her horror. I didn't want any of them to see me like this. They are only terrifying reminders of how horrific my life has been in the recent past.
"Oh my God Paige! What happened?" She exclaims causing Aria to rush in the room.
"Oh come on! Can't I get some privacy?" I yell perhaps a little too harshly as I turn around to lean against the wall in an attempt to hide my scars. I'm upset and embarrassed as I put on my shirt, looking up to find the scared looks on my friend's faces. "I'm sorry," I say softly. "I shouldn't have yelled. It's not your fault." I sigh out starting to tear even though I'm not really sure why. The two other girls, however, immediately place their arms around me as I try my hardest not to break down.
A few hours later, dressed in my new jeans, white collared button-down shirt and an unbuttoned vest; I start making my way to Emily's house, well my house; our house. She still lives there, whether or not that is with Stephanie, I'm not sure. Walking up to the house gives me a warm feeling of familiarity and home. I missed this place. It doesn't feel right to have to knock, but I do. Emily answers a few moments later and I find that I need to remind myself how to breathe after seeing how beautiful she looks. Her hair is down around her shoulders and she's wearing a simple plaid shirt and jeans but she's breath-taking as always.
"Hi," she says softly looking into my eyes. Her face is lit up like the night sky on the fourth of July her beautiful, trademark smile. 'God those eyes!'
"Hi back," I reply with a smile. She steps to the side and signals for me to come in. Once inside, I turn around to face her, stinking my hands deep in my pockets. "How are you doing? Is Stephanie here?" I look around but find no one else besides stunning woman in front of me.
"No, not yet. She got stuck at work. She'll be here in a little bit," she says earning a smile and a head dip from me. "I'm doing ok by the way. You?" She adds, giving be another award winning smile.
"Right now... I'm pretty great." I reply, smiling again. I can't seem to wipe this stupid thing off my face. I probably look like a complete idiot. We walk to the kitchen and I sit down, preparing to catch up on almost four years of our lives apart. I sit down on one of the stools, while Emily continues to walk to the cabinet behind me for what I assume is to get some glasses for drinks. I don't hear the cabinet though and I can sense that Emily isn't moving, as if she's contemplating something behind my back. 'My back...' I think to myself in the realization that Hanna has a reputation of being really bad at keeping anything to herself. Before I can react however, her hands have connected with the skin of my lower back as she pulls the hem of my shirt up to the edge of my bra, just enough to see a good amount of my scar-laden back. She lets out a very quiet and concerned gasp before lightly tracing a finger along my back. I'm helpless to her touch; temporarily paralyzed from the electricity now shooting through my back. If this was any other time before I left, this would be sexy but considering the circumstances, I'm more embarrassed and ashamed. Finally, I regain feeling in my limbs enough to turn myself around, breaking her touch. I can't look her in the eyes, my face red from the embarrassment I feel. 'Damn you Hanna Marin' I silently curse in my head. Emily must know I feel awful, because she places a hand lightly under my chin causing me to look up into those gorgeous dark eyes of hers. The look on her face is full of sympathy and understanding.
"I'm sorry Paige. I shouldn't have done that... I just wanted to see for myself... Hanna told me and I don't know... It's just..." She stumbles breaking her gaze from mine.
"It's ok Emily. I just got startled." It's not a lie but it's not the full truth of the matter either but Emily doesn't need to know the complete truth about the horrors of my captivity, not yet anyway. She looks up into my eyes to make sure I'm not lying to her before leaning down to me to place a light kiss on my cheek near the edge of my mouth. My heart stops. "As long as you're ok, that's all that matters," she whispers pulling back to face me again. She smiles again before turning around to get the glasses and pour some water into each of them. I attempt to restart my heart because I know that Emily is going to want to talk a lot, since it's been so long, and I'm going to need to be able to breathe in order to assemble coherent sentences.