Chapter 30- The Scintillating Moon Washes Over The Unspoken Truth: Little Things of the Past

'We found George.'

A horde of people are swarming the bright foyer of a unfamiliar building, their polished black shoes repeatedly clacking against the bright marble floor. The skyscraper we are in today is - as always- as beautiful as ever. Though the building almost looks the same as our hotel and passing ones, it was built clearly for a different purpose. The tower portrays an epitome of all things good. But I can see through that, I know behind the wall: one beautifully carved marble hallway leads to another which leads to another. It seems the further you go, the darker it gets. The foyer is a metaphor of hope and that once you leap beyond the walls you would drown in the darkness and there would be no escape. No one has to sugarcoat the idea, I have proof. People slamming the door close after seeing that I was sneaking glances, is my evidence that the government here is keeping a secret. A big secret. A secret I cannot uncover nor get in the way of. I am powerless against them. That is the way things have always been and the way they have to stay.

Still, it is a flurry of activity, buzzing with heightened emotions of worry and excitement. Although, it isn't the swarm of informative yet formal conversations that fall over the room that make me nervous; it is the thought that in just a few mere minutes I am going to see a young man that up until a month ago, I thought was dead. What would I say to him? Would any of us really know what to say to him? I never thought we would get this far.

Time over the fence was different than we all expected.

I feel the air thicken as tension builds up in the crowded area. The front doors open and Leader Nicholas-Collins advances in, her head held high and her eyes focused. Her thin blonde hair is tied back into a slick ponytail. Her sharply tailored suit is her armour. The black material roars power and control in the same way it is almost screaming mystery, lies and endless secrets. She was once beautiful – I can see that in her posture- and everything, absolutely everything, reminded me of Jeanine Matthews, yet she was not evil. Strict? Yes. Imitating? Extremely. But, evil? No. The woman helped us. Hidden behind the Leader frontier was a woman who had once been heartbroken. I admire the way she still holds her head high and radiates confidence. She is leading a city, after all.

Once Leader Nicholas-Collins had given her instructions to her men, she searches the room until she meets my eyes. I must have been mistaken but I swear I saw relief maybe even, hope in her eyes as she looked at me, but as quickly as the look appeared, it vanished.

When she approaches, Tobias stretches his hand out to shakes her hand first.

'Leader,' he nods. 'Good afternoon.'

'Four, I'm sorry to cut your day short.' She purses her lips as she speaks, creating faint lines around her mouth.

'No worries. I'm glad we can get this over with. We owe you a lot.'

'Yes,' I say, feeling the need to speak for the first time. 'If it wasn't for your good security and your wonderful hostess skills we wouldn't be where we are right now.'

She smiles. The way she did, it lit up her face, and as she did it looked odd- as if she hadn't done it for so long. 'You're welcome to stay here for as long as you need. Let's just say a long time ago someone did a favour, and now I get to repay it.' Her hand brushes my shoulder nonchalantly, as a friendly gesture. I realise immediately that her comment is gestured towards me. The shock of her words and of her being so … friendly make my lips immobile for a second and I struggle to come up with something to say. Didn't this same woman dislike me a couple of days ago? And what did she mean by repaying a favour?

But Tobias -as he so often does- rushes in to save me. 'I believe we are ready to begin.'

If I thought that the foyer beforehand was a room buzzing with nerves then the next room we are sent into is a cage the size of the globe that has been bottled up with so much raw emotions it is raging to be released. I take a deep breath as I search the dimly lit room while sitting on the cold metal chair right next to Tobias.

Why are so many people so on-edge? There must be 35 people in the room. Ten of us consist of being part of our squad but the rest are officials, Leader Nicholas and security guards. I would have thought that interrogating George would have been a small event, but I guess when random people from the so called 'test city' show up on your doorstep demanding to see this specific person, I would be interested, too. But one thought still lingers in my brain: why are all these people so anxious?

Panic streams through my system in an instant because I am about to meet Tori's brother for the first time. Tori. The name, up until a month ago was a name of a person I could rely on. I could trust. But now that trust is shattered into a million sharp little pieces, pieces of a puzzle which can never, ever be put back together again. How could someone so good be capable of something so bad?

Too engrossed with my own thoughts, I don't realise until he is seated that the guards have brought George in. A gasp escapes my lips when I see him. The similarity between him and his sister is shocking. His dark shaggy hair is all over the place and I can see he is from Asian descent, much like his sister. Though I'm not sitting close enough to see the colour of his eyes, I imagine they are similar to Tori's. He doesn't look like he had been treated badly, not like when Tobias and I had been locked up, but I couldn't know with this city. His hands are tied to the back of his chair. The whole concept reminds me of the truth serum investigations and it makes me involuntary shiver.

A light switches on. Simultaneously, blinding George's eyes. By some unspoken agreement Tobias stands up, his Four face firmly in place. I am surprised and glad at the same time that he is going to speak.

'George.' Four states, as if he is testing out the word on his tongue. George's eyes are trained to the ground. 'George Wu. You are not in any trouble that we know of. We just want to speak to you.' George's eyes slowly rise and widen when he sees Four, followed by the rest of the squad.

'Four?' He croaks out and I can almost feel the dryness in his throat. 'What are you doing here?'

'We could ask you the same thing.' Tobias hisses. His tone is like a slap to the face.

George mumbles something incoherent under his breath and looks down. A second slivers past. Two. Six.

George looks up. I can see how he is swimming in unforgotten waves of pain. His eyes look painful, sorrowful and confused all at the same time but what shocks me the most is the lack of remorse in his eyes.

'How is Tori?' The sentence is little more than a ragged, broken breath as it escapes George's lips.

Tobias barks out a laugh, shaking his head. 'You have no idea why we are here do you? How did you get out?'

'Please don't take me back.' He mutters. 'Please. Is Tori okay?'

'Answer my question!'

Silence. I hear my own heart beat bounce around the room.

He doesn't speak for a while. And so silence pursues.

Suddenly, George lifts his chin. He speaks with authority. With experience. 'You live in a world where you have to hide if you're different, out of the ordinary. You have to live in the shadows, hiding in a blanket of fear. While being normal,' he chuckles humourlessly. 'Being something someone else can overrule, easily control,' he grits his teeth, spitting out the words. 'It's practiced and encouraged endlessly on the brightest of days by everyone. There's no escape. That's why I left. So I can live in a world of freedom and where being normal is an insult.' A pause. 'I have made a life here and I do not intend to move.'

A thousand eyes snap up in his direction. Mine included. Tobias' eyes drift up to mine at the same time I run to his.

'What do you mean?' The leader addresses him for the first time, her eyebrows furred together.

Confusion sweeps most of the room and Leader Nicholas-Collins might have to ask him to explain but I know exactly what he is talking about.

George inhales while scanning the room. His eyes wonder to mine and soon break the glance.

'I'm Divergent.' He exhales.

I hear large gasps everywhere from my squad but I don't register it because my mind is still on how George's eyes lingered on mine for a lot longer than everyone else's. How does he know? I have never met him! How could he?

I shake my head, dismissing the thoughts. He does not know I am Divergent.

While the room quiets down, Tobias continues. 'How did you escape? Everyone thinks you are dead. How could you leave Tori?'

'Amar helped me. He is still helping me.' He smiles, blissfully.

'He is still? As in present tense? Amar as in the one from Chicago?' I have never seen Tobias asks so many questions, so frantically. 'He's dead.'

'No,' George whispers, the kind of whisper that would sound like an evil threat from a man who knew more than he showed. 'He's alive. We escaped together. Hiked for miles and miles until we finally found this place. I have made a life here. A new life. More desirable life.'

I see a surge of emotions swarm Tobias' eyes as I study him. It's then that something shifts in the back of the room, protected by the darkness, which catches my line of vision. Everything hits me so suddenly and I feel as if I have been slapped in the face. Now, I understand why everyone was so anxious.

'Amar is dead.' Tobias repeats, emotionlessly, his back towards the figure in the darkness of which I am terrified to tell him about.

Amar takes one step closer and soon the lights wash over him, peeling back the layer of mystery to the rough skin of the truth.

'No, Four. I am not,' Amar says, a smirk could be heard in his voice. Immediately, Tobias spins around.

Tobias' face is tight with fear. I don't blame him. It's not every day you see someoneyou care about come back from the dead. Never mind two.

I almost always wish I could know what goes on inside Tobias' head.

A thousand emotions trip over Tobias' face. They vanish in an instant as he gets a grip on the sudden turn of events. He steps back. Opens his mouth. Closes. I feel the emotion seep up and out of his limbs. I see his Four face returning. I swallow the thought that I was the only one that could see his pain underneath his mask. His voice freezes a river. He glares at the leader.

'Leader, you had valuable information that there were two escapees from Chicago, yet you refrained from telling us so.'

The Leaders voice is stern as she replies. 'You simply did not ask.'

Tobias' forms a fist only I can see. Withholding the anger building up inside of him, he bites his lip, remaining calm for the rest of the world to see.

'I simply did not ask,' Tobias shakes his head in mockery.

The air stays still as it lingers above us. 'Surely this would have helped find George.' Tobias spits.

'Well of course, which is why we asked Amar on George's whereabouts.'

'You asked … him…?' he trails off, his face blank. A pause. 'How can you trust him?' Tobias shouts, accusingly.

Forcing me to move on instant, blood rushes to my legs and I jerk upwards. I walk to Tobias' side. Facing the leader, facing Amar. The audience looks stunned.

I inhale. Stand a little taller. Straighten my posture. 'I think we ought to continue our investigations with George.' I say, hoping my beating heart and trembling nerves don't give me away. Tobias floats back down to reality. We lock eyes for a second as if we have made a secret agreement.

I turn around to face George who now holds a bewildered expression. Amar's eyes pierce my back.

'George, I'm Tris Prior.' Eaton soon. I think. I hope.

Silence.

I lean a little closer, my voice quieter but still audible. 'If you are so close to Amar and to the leader I assume you know why we are here?' I say, feeling the anger, Tobias once felt, rise up my throat.

George mumbles something under his breath. I take a step forward. My knee touches his chair.

'What was that?' I demand. My eyebrow rises.

'No!' George shouts. I laugh, barely releasing anything but air. He is uncomfortable now.

'Well it's got to do with your beloved sister, Tori.' I snicker.

'Don't say her name in vain!'

I stare at him. 'You left her, heartbroken. You,' I point accusingly, 'can't actually care now?'

'I still love her.' He whispers, so quietly if I had not been standing so close to him I wouldn't have heard him. Now, there is remorse in his eyes.

I stand even straighter. Inhale, once again. Let the emotions sliver through me to the dark floor.

'Our Leader of Dauntless, Max, is dead.' I hear distant whispers from the officials. 'Tori shot him out of revenge. Out of cruelty. When you are living proof that Max did nothing wrong.' I pause. 'She attacked an innocent girl and me,' I use quotation marks with my hands, 'because she thought 'I was getting in the way.'' I shrug as if she killed a fly. 'It is now known that Max presented Tori with a theory that you were alive. Out of outrage and utter dismay, she thought he was lying. You had- to her knowledge and everyone else's knowledge- taken your life in the chasm.'

I breathe. The room is silent. 'I trusted Tori. She was the one who helped me when I first came to Dauntless.' I felt Tobias staring at me. I never told him this. 'I would have felt sorry for her, had she not killed an innocent man. She as well as Eric and Jeanine Matthews and some others are now locked up and waiting for further trial.' I walk closer to him now.

'She was a part of a conspiracy. In some sort of turn of events, she betrayed all of us and was working alongside these cruel people. The people you described. There is proof that Max was innocent and that despite being bribed, he stayed true to Dauntless.'

A tear drops down his face. I almost felt sorry for him but I reminded myself who I am talking to.

'Because of her love for you.' I whisper, breathing out the words which linger around him for a few seconds.

The silence in the room is not stiff. It is unbroken.

I have forgotten how to speak.

Tobias shifts to the side of me. Stands up. He walks across the floor.

'I think we can bring this investigation to a conclusion. Anymore questions?'

Silence.

'Very well then,' Tobias continues, turning back to George. 'I think we are done here. We now know George is alive. Amar as well, now it shall seem…'

The leader nods as she clears her throat and stands up. 'Yes, guards please untie him. You are free to go.'

'I would like to arrange a meeting in the next couple of days, George.' Tobias says.

George meekly nods. 'Of course. We'll get in touch.'

I hear the screeches of chairs being pulled back and officials getting up from their seats.

'Leader, I have one question.' I say, walking towards her.

'Yes, Tris?'

'Did you not know of George and Amar's arrival? Surely, you would have. Considering you are the leader.'

'I knew of two men coming from a different city. I merely thought they were migrants. They changed their name and identity, you see. Amar, or Adam as he is called here, works in my building now. He has worked hard to become an official. Alas, he has not brought any harm to the city and therefore, I trust him. Neither he nor George will be removed from the city.'

'You still trust him even after he lied about coming here?'

'I knew the truth about Amar. Not George. He found George easily and George came willingly.'

'George's sister killed our leader because she thought George was dead!' I shout. 'George is the reason why our leader is dead! He shouldn't have left!' I feel the anger bubble up like lava of a volcano on the verge of bursting, raging endlessly in my system.

'You can't erase events, Tris. If you were able to, we would save a lot of time.' Her voice is smooth, silky yet strong. It irritates me; her calmness just increases my rage.

'So what? We are not going to do anything now?' I snap.

'We have given you what you have asked for. I can do no more.' She replies.

I huff. 'Tris,' Tobias eyes me. 'I think Leader Nicholas has done plenty for us. There is nothing more she can do.' I shoot him a look. 'Thank you for your time and men, Leader.' He shakes her hand politely.

I exhale softly, hoping it will drain my sudden anger away. Surprisingly, it does.

One hundred seconds walk out of the room before the Leader does.

'Well that was eventful.' Will says, clasping his hands together.

I jump. I had forgotten they were all there. Uriah, Marlene, Will, Christina, Shauna, Zeke, Eddie and Serena have joined us now.

'Come on, let's get out of here.' Zeke says.

'Yeah, that was so stressful.' Christina adds.

'And frankly, I'm hungry.' Uriah complains.

'You are always hungry!' Marlene exclaims.

I laugh. I'm so glad I'm surrounded by my amazing friends.

One hundred and twenty eight beats per minute.

That's how much it takes for my body to start dancing.

The blaring bass of the DJ's music makes the nightclub we are in, shake and tumble. Multi-coloured lights flash and swing all over the high ceiling of the warehouse, illuminating the crowded floor and balcony full of booths above. Hundreds of sweaty bodies are pressed up against each other, swaying and grinding and for once I live for it.

Tobias hands me my shot and I toast, 'TO US!' I shout loudly over the pumping bass. We clink glasses and down the liquid and place the glasses on the side. The icy drink burns my throat. I feel his laughter vibrate through his chest as we sway with the music, his hand swung loosely on my hip and one of my hands wrapped around his neck as I use the other to dance.

All my friends surround me, equally the same state of mind. The music starts to get louder and louder. I place my hands in my hair and then up to the ceiling, swaying my hips as I go, feeling the music, the beats, the bass, course through my veins.

I feel so alive. So free.

And I'm not the only one.

I can feel the tension fly off of Tobias as he sways with me. I can't believe a couple of hours ago I was determined not to go to this nightclub when we were having dinner at a restaurant.

Now wearing a gold glitter skater skirt with a black lace crop top with straps and a silver statement necklace with nude 3 inch pumps that both Serena and Christina forced me to wear, I feel the stress unravel off of me. I feel as if I am slipping into a new skin.

I twirl around in Tobias' arms so that my back presses up against his front and we sway faster, the music and the alcohol in my system making me feel wide awake. I grab his hands and place them on my hips, dancing to the side and then down to the floor.

Maybe it's the unfamiliar music or the icy alcohol inside of me but somehow it brings out all my senses and can feel every single move of Tobias. His lips graze just below my ear and he makes his way up to my earlobe. 'You are so hot,' he breathes out breathlessly and then nips the bottom of my ear.

I let out a moan and my eyes roll as he continues.

I have forgotten how to breathe.

The music is as loud as ever. Tobias' hand travels up and down the length of my body as we continue to sway. I can't take it anymore.

I spin quickly in his arms. Sweat grazes his forehead. His arms. His hair. His muscles glimmer from the sweat. I still can't breathe. His eyes are laced with so much desire it strikes me at my core.

I attack him. My lips smash into his for an aggressive kiss and I breathe out a moan when his hands find my waist to bring me closer to his chest. It's like I'm water and he is dying from dehydration. My electrified hands twirl through his hair and I can feel his wanting pressing close to my navel.

So much desire. So much electricity. So much heat.

I could faint.

My hands travel underneath his shirt and I can feel his tense muscles as I hear him moan my name.

Giggles bursts my bubble and I gasp loudly, pulling away from Tobias.

We have stopped dancing. The music is still blaring. There are eyes everywhere, in every direction. Everyone can still see us. And I was ready to make love to him!

'Having fun there?' Christina giggles from the other side of me.

'Yeah, can you get a room, please?' Will laughs. 'At least some of us can control ourselves.' He mumbles under his breath and despite the loud music I can still hear him.

My skin is a thousand degrees.

'What about them?' I point over to Zeke and Shauna, grinding on each other.

'Ah, yes. But they weren't about to rip their clothes off.' Will winks.

Two thousand degrees.

'Let's go get a drink, Tris,' Tobias pulls me away towards the neon lit bar and booths. I sneak a look at him quickly as we walk and we catch each other's eyes.

We burst into a fit of laughter.

Zeke is the first to stumble forward and out of the marble elevator. Followed closely by Shauna. Zeke grabs the side of the wall. He clings there for a second, slumped over, his eyes barely keeping open before he shuffles a few steps closer to his hotel room door and inhales a large breath, as if all the air in the world wouldn't be enough. Even from this distance I can smell the beer on his breath.

Zeke fumbles around in his pocket for his key. 'Well.' He starts, trying to concentrate by focusing his eyes. He attempts to lower his voice but fails. 'GOODNIGHT EVERYONE! SLEEP WELL!'

'Shh!' Shauna smacks his head.

'People are asleep.' Christina joins in, rubbing her eyes. I silently chuckle when I see her smudged eyeliner and how her hair is a mess. She can barely keep her eyes open.

'What time is it?' Will whispers.

Tobias pulls out his watch. 'Midnight.'

'Ah,' Will mumbles.

Zeke and Shauna disappear into their room while Will unlocks his and Christina's door, at the same time Christina mumbles something about wearing shorter heels while Marlene drags a past-out Uriah to their room.

Tobias and I aren't as drunk as they are, but as we walk down the hallway to our room, I feel the need to tightly grip Tobias' arm.

Out of my peripheral vision, I see something glimmer and reflect off the moonlight from the window above. Out of curiosity, I turn my head.

I gasp. Pulling to a stop and tugging on Tobias' arm.

'What?' he questions, turning towards me.

I simply point to the sign on the door behind him. I wonder why I have never noticed that sign before.

'Swimming Pool Access.' He reads.

Leaning in close, Tobias whips back around to me, a smirk planted on his handsome face.

'Up for a midnight swim?' He whispers.

'Right now,' I raise an eyebrow, flirtatiously. 'I'm up for anything.'

Having gone to our hotel room to put on our swimming costumes and grab our towels, Tobias takes my hand and we sneak up to the door, barefoot. When we reach the top of the cold stone stairs I let out a quiet gasp.

The walls surrounding the beautiful, large 50 metre pool are laced with small pieces of warm-coloured stone. Above, the ceiling is made of glass and the only light in the room is the moon which throws dim yet scintillating strips of light across the glass.

Tonight, a million stars perform for our entertainment in the night sky. There are ten columns adjacent to the pool, wrapped in beautiful dark wood that makes the pool look homely. Plants light up the corners of the room, green and dramatic. There are wooden sun beds lined up everywhere, but furthest away from the door, in the centre, is a giant, outdoor, romantic canopy bed under a built in wooden gazebo with white curtains loosely draping over it.

I tug Tobias by the tip of his short sleeve over to the gazebo, walking alongside of the pool and we place our towels there. The moon lights up the night sky and shines down on to the pool, making it glimmer. The pool lights are off, but I can still see that the tiles are a deep colour of blue. I dip my feet in to check the temperature. The results are pure bliss.

I feel Tobias near me and grab me by the shoulders, mockingly tilting my weight towards the pool, as if meaning to throw me in. 'Stop!' I scream, while still laughing and wriggling out of his grip.

He chuckles and lets me go, for now at least. He strips off his shirt and dives in.

His dive is so elegant it only makes a few splashes. Amazement rushes through me.

I feel my heart race again. We have all of this pool to ourselves.

I reach for the hem of my shirt and pull it up and over my head and then pull down my shorts, revealing my sky blue bikini. Tobias is watching me as I do it and he doesn't shy away as I raise my eyebrow at him to say that I have caught him staring.

I reach the side of the pool and lower myself onto the edge, placing my feet in the water. I feel nerves tingle through my blood. I don't know how to swim.

Tobias submerges himself in the water and swims a little closer towards me.

'Are you coming in?' He whispers.

I try to swallow my nerves. 'I don't know how to swim,' I mumble, ashamed and embarrassed. I never learnt in Abnegation nor have I ever seen a swimming pool.

He walks in the water to the side of the pool where I am sitting.

'I'll teach you.' he whispers, offering his hand. I hesitate.

'Do you trust me?' The words are little more than a whisper.

'Yes, of course.' I gulp, more nervous than I have ever been. I could drown! Why did I think this would be a good idea?

But then I remember Tobias would never let me drown and some of my worries calm, from story waves to gentle sea waves.

I take his hand and he wraps his other hand underneath my armpit, descending me into the water. I gasp when my entire body except my head is submerged in water. I try to kick my legs to find the floor but I can't. I begin to panic.

'It's okay, Tris,' Tobias whispers, soothingly. 'I have you.'

His words calm my mind once again, and I relax a little bit. He supports me with his muscular arms while standing on the pool floor.

He walks backwards, dragging me with him. 'Extend your body, Tris.'

I do as he says while he still has one arm wrapped around my stomach and the other holding onto my arms at my front.

'Now kick,' he whispers again. I obey. I feel myself move jaggedly through the water, but that might be because Tobias is still holding onto me, walking backwards. I'm not sure at this point.

I continue to kick until we reach the end of the pool. 'You can stand here, Tris.' His voice is so smooth and strong and gentle all at the same time.

I close my eyes quickly and release my legs from his grasp. I let my legs find the floor. When I do, I let out of breath of relief. The water is just underneath my breasts now, and his bellybutton.

I open my eyes and I find him staring at me, lovingly. His arm is still wrapped around my waist. 'Why are you looking at me like that?' I ask, bashfully.

'Because you are beautiful. And I have every right to stare at you.'

I chuckle, an immediate smile appears on my face. 'Unlike those other guys at the nightclub,' he continues. I pull back instantly.

'There were guys looking at me?' I ask, confused.

He laughs. 'Can you not see how sexy you are, Tris? So many guys were looking at you, I was ready to break their necks.'

I laugh again. 'So protective.' I whisper, resting my chin on his shoulder and trailing a line on his chest with my finger, 'Thank you.' We hug in silence for a while. He pulls me to a seat built into the pool and we lie close to each other. I feel his heartbeat in my ear as my head rests on his chest.

'When did you learn how to swim?' I ask.

'After my initiation, I found out there was a pool in Dauntless that not a lot of people use, so I asked Zeke and he helped me out a lot.' He responds, nonchalantly.

'I never knew there was a pool.'

'The initiates aren't taken there, and I haven't been there in a long time. So I forgot to show you.'

He sits up and leans against the wall of the pool, closing his eyes.

I'm fighting the urge to kiss him. But then again, we are alone; there are no cameras why can't I kiss him? I mean we did have a serious make out session in the nightclub a few hours ago, in front of people why not now?

I'm having a battle inside my head. I decide to let my daring side win.

I lean a little closer towards him and lightly press my lips to his neck. His eyes fly open and I swing my leg round and straddle his hips.

'Well, hello there.' He grins, inching his head closer to mine.

Our lips touch slowly, building up the passion. His hand slides out of the pool, dripping warm droplets of water onto my back, making me shiver. His mouth kisses down to my neck and I grip his hair. He sucks just below my ear, the same place as our previous make out session and a soft moan breaks free from me.

There is no music this time, except our heart beats tangling together and performing their own unique melody.

He leaves yet another hot trail of kisses all the way from my shoulder to my neck to the bulge of my breast. Sliding my fingers through his wet hair, I pull his mouth back to mine, for a rough, breathless kiss.

I push him up against the side of the pool, roughly while biting his lip, playfully. His hands move from my thigh up past my hips and all the way up to my neck and back down again. I trace my own hands down his spine and towards the band of his swimming trunks. I tease him by grinding my hips into his.

In return, he grips my hair and pulls me closer. I pause to look at him, to study him. He is staring at me, too, so beautifully, so fragilely, as if I would break at any second.

He doesn't take his eyes off mine.

Tobias' hand trails up to my neck and wraps around my small strap, in an instant it slides out of its neat bow and falls down into the water. My breath hitches as he pulls me against him. I close my eyes and memorize the way his fingers trail down my spine in the water, how it makes me feel.

Slowly, he unties the other bow and the frail material falls apart. I feel so exposed in such a public place but so loved at the same time.

The slow torture of the way he runs his fingers down, the way my skin tingles when he touches me, is enough to make me go over the edge.

The new sensation of the water roaming around my chest overwhelms my other senses and I gasp and swing my eyes open when Tobias kisses me gently.

My arms tie around his neck and his hands explore me. He lifts me out of the pool and he walks down to where our towels are, me pressed against him and my bikini top in my hand.

He throws me onto the soft bed and after closing the curtains of the gazebo he hovers over me.

'Tobias,' I whisper, 'should we really be doing this here?'

'I don't think I can make it downstairs.' I am so shocked when I hear his deep, desiring voice that I gulp.

He takes my silence as an okay and kisses me.

My body is a furnace. My heart is racing.

I giggle as clothes get thrown everywhere and he wraps the blanket around us.

Today's exhaustion finally catches up with me and I collapse into Tobias' arms. He wraps the blanket around us as I rest on his chest still in the sofa bed with the gazebo curtains hiding us away. I relish the feeling of lying on top of him naked and he wraps an arm around my waist.

In the middle of the night we will go back down, but for now we will have a nice small sleep.

I take one more look at Tobias, one more look at the beautiful moonlight and twinkling night sky and commit to the darkness.

I really should learn how to swim more often.

A/N Hello! I hope you enjoyed this really long chapter! I'm going to update every week now so look out for an update every Tuesday! Please review, it really motivates me!