When We Were Young

Chapter 42

Paula woke up screaming like some banshee, sweating and thrashing her legs on the bed. Suddenly a pair of strong arms enveloped her in a tight hug. Her entire body stiffened in fear. One word came to her mind.

Leandro!

She began to struggle against the strong arms that trapped her,still screaming. The pair of arms tightened its grip on her and one hand threaded through her hair in a smoothing manner.

"Shhhh! You are safe now. Leandro will never harm you again."

"Rafael," she stuttered and then clung to his shoulder sobbing with immense relief.

"I was so scared. I thought he was going to force himself on me," she choked out between sobs.

His hand ran along her back comfortingly. He kissed her forehead. She felt him tense in her arms and she knew he was angry.

"I was going to kill him if he raped you but l still want to kill him for laying his filthy hand on you," he gritted out.

"I never imagined Leandro was like that all along. He's been spying on me for eight years."

"People wear different masks,Paula. We all do. The masks just differ but we all wear them."

She leaned back to stare at him with a mischievous smile. She traced one hand on his cheek.

"And what mask do you put on,Mr Rafael Ramirez," she asked in a teasing voice but his eyes clouded with sadness for a moment.

He removed her hand from his cheek and kissed her finger tips, staring intensely at her from beneath his long dark eyelashes.

"Six years ago,l put on a mask pretending not to desire you and six years later,l put on that same mask,pretending to hate you when all along l was trying not to want you again."

She smiled at him through a veil of tears in her eyes.

"I hate seeing you crying," he whispered, his thumb wiping away a lone tear which had escaped her eye.

Paula laughed, rubbing her face,realising that she had indeed shed some tears over his confession.

"I am crying not because l am sad. It's because l am so overwhelmed with joy. I never imagined we would be together again. I yearned for this moment for six long years."

Rafael cupped her cheek and kissed her deeply.

"I have dreamed of holding you in my arms kissing you. I have lived for this moment. To be able to breathe you again," he mumbled, his face buried in the crook of her neck smelling her.

He brought up his face and captured her lips in a passionate kiss while his hands ran wildly in her hair. Paula went on his lap and straddle him never breaking the kiss.

Her fingers went into his ruffled hair. Rafael groaned in pleasure when her hand ran along the hard planes of his chest. He drew her closer and she gasped in his mouth when she felt him straining against the fly of his jeans.

One hand cupped the back of her head as he deepened the kiss and the other trailed along her bare thigh, inching dangerously close to the core of her where she was aching for him.

His kisses grew more wild and his hands grew more desperate and urgent. He crushed her to him,hands clawing in her hair and the kisses more deep.

Paula tore her mouth from him,barely able to breath. She stared into his eyes. There was a cold hard feeling in them.

"Rafael?," she asked.

He drew in a deep shaky breath and closed his eyes as if tormented by something. He opened his dark eyes and stared at her with a pained look.