Her head is down, her body tight. Her head comes up slowly, her eyes mixed with anger, hurt, and frustration. She looks down to my hands and back up to me again.
“You sold me to those men?” She remembers now, remember them. Her head shakes and before she gets a chance to speak, she jumps up. Fear written on her face.
“What’s wrong?” I ask her, staying seated so I don’t frighten her even more.
“The man that took me. He… he was here yesterday. At my door.” Her hands fly to her mouth. She looks around, her eyes searching for something or someone.
“I know.”
Her head swings back to me. “You know? Know what?”
“That he was here.”
“How?”
“I followed him, that’s the reason I was here.”
“Are you here to save me, Liam Black?” She laughs, but her laugh isn’t a happy laugh though. It’s a mocking laugh. “After you sold me?” The laugh dies on her lips.
“I don’t save people, Rose. I’m the fucking executioner.”
“What are you going to do?”
I stand in front of her. “What I do best, Rose. Execute.”
She sits back down, her hands running through her hair nervously. She looks to me, then back to the floor, then to me again. “Who are they?” she asks.
“Bad people. People with a lot of backing.”
“I won’t see you ever again, will I?” She knows the truth, it’s in her eyes. Once I go down that path, there’s no way out of it.
“No, you won’t.”
“What if that’s not what I want?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It does, Liam… it does.” A tear slips from her eyes and she doesn’t bother to wipe it away.
“Do you want a life with Isabelle?”
She doesn’t hesitate when she answers, “Yes.”
“That’s what I will give you. I will make it right, reverse the wrong that happened to you.”
“But I lose you?”
“You do.”
“Do you think you could have loved me, Liam Black?” More tears fall down her cheeks now.
“I do, Rose Miller, ever since I was sixteen.” She sobs now, tears staining her face. I walk forward and wipe them away with my thumb. Her hand reaches up and captures my hand.
“Don’t make me choose.”
“You don’t have to. I’ve already decided, Rose.”
She grabs my hand and takes me back to her bedroom, her red sheets a mess from where we slept. She pulls me down with her, and I tuck her into me. And we just lay there, no need for more words. She hugs me, and I hug her. I turn her head to me and lay my lips to hers. She tastes of maple syrup from the pancakes. She opens her mouth and kisses me. The salty tears are what I taste next, but I don’t stop, neither does she.
She climbs on top of me, removing her dress, now completely naked. I didn’t expect this, didn’t think she would want to know me after what I told her, but here she is kissing me with tears, loving me like I’m a man.
She’s never been on top, always below. I’ve always had the control, but she’s now taking it away, and all my clothes with it. There’s no foreplay needed, this isn’t a game, this is what she wants. She slides straight onto me, gasping as she does. Her head goes backward, tears still run down her face. I pull her to me and kiss her face, kissing away all the pain I have single headedly handed her without knowing it.
“I can’t erase you,” she whispers, pleasure taking over her body. I lift up and slam into her, giving her the pleasure she desires, then pull her down, sliding in and out of her.
“Don’t then.”
She screams my name, the tears joining in.
I don’t know how long we lay there for, but we eventually we fell asleep. I wake to her getting dressed. She sees that I’m awake and throws my clothes at me.
“We need to go back, back to where it all began,” she says smiling, but her smile is laced with sadness.
We’re back to where it all started, the water calm below us. It’s still green, but the fences to get in have been wired shut and I had to make a hole for us to get in.
She stands at the top the swimming hole. It’s a long way down. I haven’t been here since the last time I was with her. The water looks stiller today than I’ve seen it before if that’s possible.
She laces her fingers through mine like she did the first time.
“I don’t want to be loved again. I just want yours,” she says, referring to what she said all those years ago, about wanting to love.
“One…” she starts the count, “…I don’t want to lose you.”
“Two…” she continues, her hand squeezing mine, “…I don’t know if I can breathe without you.” Her voice begins to shake.
“Three…” I finally say, exactly the same as last time, “…Isabelle needs you.” Her eyes close, then we jump.
We stay in the water, just the two of us, swimming and kissing. Getting lost in each other, remembering each other.
“I thought I loved him,” she says as I hold her, her back floating in the water. Her head on my shoulder. “He tricked me, he needed a child. It was part of his inheritance when his grandmother passed away. She left it all to him, thousands, and the condition was that he had to become a father first.”
“He used you?”
“He did. Then he disposed of me like I was nothing but trash.”
“You are anything but, Rose.”
“I know that now, Liam, but the thought of it still hurts. Though out of all of it, I got her. So it was meant to happen, you know?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does it hurt you the thought of losing the person you love?” she asks me.
“I haven’t loved anyone, Rose.”
“You haven’t?” she asks, surprised.
“No…” I pause thinking on the question, “…but the thought of losing you hurts.”
“I’m glad, it means you care.” She smiles, swimming around so she’s facing me. Then her legs wrap around mine.
“You are a great man, Liam Black.”
“No! I’m not, Rose.”
“You are, you just don’t know it. Not enough people have told you. Listen to me when I speak it. You are a great man.”
“If you say so.”