Nightmares on a Snowy Lane

NOAH

I wait and tell myself "life ain't chess,"

He closed his eyes and drank in the warmth of her body as she pressed into him. For as safe as he made her feel, she made him also feel safe. She felt like someone he could do all of those things he said--the "rules" he imposed--with. Her face streamed with tears again, and Noah noticed immediately when she pulled back. He reached up to stroke her alabaster cheeks, to brush away all evidence of her crying. She said she was sorry, and Noah smiled down at her. "I forgive you." It was the first step if they were going to make this all work. She needed to hear those words from him.

"I forgive you for everything, Delphine." For her children, for her substance abuse, for her defense of Zariah and Neron, for her self-harm. He needed to forgive her if he wanted to keep her -- if he wanted to love her. She pushed him away, ordering him to bed, but he planted himself firmly. His state of awareness had come back enough to where he could hold his own weight up without struggle, and without the room spinning around him. Surely he was not back to normal, still somewhat drunk from the amount of alcohol he had consumed, but enough time had passed that he regained some semblance of himself. She could not move him.

He stepped forward, towards her again, one arm looping and holding the small of her back. He pulled her in close again to him, lips finding hers and adorning them with another deep, hard kiss. "I'm not going anywhere without you." He said, voice a low rumble as he pulled his face just barely back, leaving hardly an inch between their lips.

But no one comes in and yes, you're alone...