Rome was sitting on the beach with Freya, looking out at the sunrise. She was cuddled up against his shoulder, when he realised there was a dark shadow standing over them.

His heart suddenly thundering in his chest, he looked up to see the same cloaked figure that had plagued his dreams for years. The cloaked figure suddenly made a grab for them but, instead of grabbing him, it seized Freya and started to drag her away from him. He leapt up and started to push the grim reaper away from her as Freya fought against it too, screaming and reaching out for Rome in desperation for him to save her.

In the struggle, the hood fell from the grim reaper’s head and, sure enough, the cold dead eyes of Paige stared back at him as he tried to stop her from taking the woman he loved.

No matter how hard he fought against Paige, he couldn’t get Freya back. He was going to lose her.

‘Paige, no, please,’ he begged but it was no use.

He turned to Freya, grabbing her hand. ‘Please don’t go.’

But she was snatched from his grasp and dragged away from him and there was nothing he could do.

He woke with a jerk, his heart thundering in his chest so hard he could barely breathe. It was dark but he knew he was in his bedroom and to his utmost relief Freya was next to him, stroking his shoulder and trying to soothe him.

‘It’s OK,’ she whispered, in the darkness. ‘It was just a dream.’

He gathered Freya to him, holding her tight and kissing her hard, a desperate need for her erupting inside of him.

‘Let me make love to you.’

‘Of course.’

That was the only encouragement he needed. He rolled on top of her as he kissed her again and as she wrapped her arms and legs around him he slid inside her.

‘Christ, I thought I’d lost you,’ he said as he thrust inside her. ‘I dreamt you were taken from me, that I’d lost you and it destroyed me. I love you so much, I always have and I always will. You need to know that.’

He felt her still beneath him, he had never meant to tell her like this but he needed her to know. ‘I love you. You are everything to me. There will never be anyone who means as much as you do to me. I love you so much.’ Two years of not saying it and now he couldn’t stop. ‘I love you.’

God, sex had never been like this with her, this was frantic and desperate and filled with fear over losing her and a relief to find he hadn’t. It was hard and fast and urgent and he knew it wasn’t going to last long. He slid his hand between them, stroking her and coaxing her over the edge, and as she shouted out his name, he lost his grip on any kind of control he had been clinging to. As he came inside her, all he could do was shout out ‘I love you’, over and over again.

* * *

Freya watched as Rome slept peacefully. One arm was around her shoulder but he wasn’t really aware she was there now. He had a big grin on his face and she presumed he was dreaming about Paige again. Only this time he was clearly thinking nice things about her, probably the sex he’d just thought he’d had with her.

She slipped from the bed and quickly got dressed, wanting to be out of the house before she burst into tears.

He didn’t even stir.

She left him in bed with his dreams and exited the house, running along Buttercup Beach back towards her house.

She played the last half hour in her head over again. He had been having a bad dream, that much was clear. And she had tried to comfort him but then the words he had shouted out turned to ice in her veins.

‘Paige, no, please don’t go.’

He had obviously been thinking about Paige dying. It had broken her heart to hear him begging for her to come back. It hurt her to see him in pain, but it hurt for herself too, knowing he would never love her as much as he loved Paige. When he had woken up and started making love to her, she had thought he was looking for comfort from her, but it turned out he thought he was with Paige the whole time.

‘I thought I’d lost you. I dreamt you were taken from me, that I’d lost you and it destroyed me. I love you, I always have and I always will.’

A sob tore from Freya’s throat. He hadn’t been making love to her, he had been making love to Paige, thinking that the pain he had gone through over the last few years had just been a dream – that’s why the sex had been so different, so frantic, just like he’d said it had always been with Paige.

Freya had said she would wait for him, that she would be patient, but in reality he was never going to get over Paige.

A shadow loomed out of the darkness towards her and she leapt back.

‘Freya, it’s me,’ and she recognised the voice of Dougie a few moments before her eyes adjusted and she could see him. He was the last person she wanted to see right now, with his sarcastic remarks. ‘Are you OK?’

‘I’m fine,’ Freya sobbed and tried to get past him but he caught her shoulder.

‘No, you’re not. Where’s Rome, have you just come from his house?’

‘He’s in bed fast asleep. I need to go.’

‘What happened? Are you hurt?’

She couldn’t stop herself from bursting into tears. To her surprise, Dougie suddenly hugged her, holding her tight and rubbing his hands down her back as he tried to soothe her. ‘Come on, let’s go back to Eden’s house.’

‘It’s the middle of the night,’ Freya protested.

‘And she would want to know if her best friend is upset.’

Dougie guided her back onto the road with his arm round her shoulders, making sure she didn’t run away from him. He let them back into Eden’s house.

‘Wait here, I’ll just go and get her,’ Dougie said, gently.

She sat down on the sofa and Dougie disappeared upstairs. She heard soft voices and a few moments later Eden came running down the stairs.

‘What’s happened, are you OK?’

Eden enveloped her in a big hug as Freya cried against her. It was over. She didn’t think there was any going back after this.

* * *

Rome woke to a hammering on his door. He looked around and realised the bed was empty and, judging by how cold it was, it had been empty for some time.

‘Freya?’ he called out, but there was no answer.

As the hammering on the door came again, he quickly pulled on his jeans and ran downstairs to answer it.

There was Dougie standing on his doorstep. It was still dark outside. What the hell was going on?

‘Did you and Freya have a fight?’

‘No, where is she?’

‘Currently at Eden’s house sobbing her heart out. I couldn’t sleep and went for a walk and I found her on the beach running away from your house. What did you do?’

Rome’s heart leapt with fear. What had he done? He had been so careful not to screw this up with her and somehow he’d messed it up anyway. What had happened? He’d had the bad dream about Paige taking away Freya, he’d woken up and made love to Freya, told her he loved her and then kissed her until he had fallen asleep. What could possibly be wrong about that? He had told her he loved her. It wasn’t supposed to come out like that but surely it was a good thing?

Suddenly he felt sick. The way they had made love had been so different to how he had made love to her before, it had been fast and hard. Christ, what if he had hurt her? He quickly grabbed his trainers, pulling them on, scooped up his keys and stepped out onto the street.

‘I need to talk to her,’ Rome said.

Dougie gestured for him to go ahead, knowing that he probably couldn’t keep up with him when Rome was running flat out.

Rome arrived at Eden’s house a minute later and banged on her door. Eden opened it straight away.

‘She’s gone back to her flat, she said she wanted to be alone,’ Eden said before Rome could even get a word out.

Dougie came running up behind him.

‘Please, if she’s here, I need to talk to her,’ Rome said, urgently.

Eden shook her head. ‘I promise she’s not. I could barely get a word out of her. She kept mentioning Paige but then she said she wanted to be alone and left.’

‘And you let her?’

‘What did you want me to do, tie her up?’

Rome sighed. He just needed to talk to her.

‘Thanks, both of you.’

He quickly ran down the street towards the shop and let himself into her flat and then ran up the stairs.

He heard crying coming from the bedroom and he quickly walked in there. His heart dropped into his stomach as he saw Freya. She was sobbing uncontrollably as she moved around the room and he could clearly see that she was packing, throwing any clothes and belongings that she could grab into a suitcase. She was leaving and panic ripped through him at that prospect. He couldn’t lose her but what the hell could he do to stop her?