Fah stared unsmiling at Charles after he had unreasonably yelled at her for deciding to return to America, and after he had once again spoken heatedly to her as if she had committed a great crime against him. She didn’t want to have to deal with his accusations when she had no idea what he was getting so worked up over and so she demanded, “I have to leave tomorrow. We’re done here and you can let yourself out.”
With that, she stomped up the stairs to her bedroom where she slammed the door. Fah was not usually so temperamental but Charles’s words had been unnecessarily hurtful. She wished he hadn’t tainted her image of him. Did he still see her as the girl from his past after all? He can’t accept that she’s not the one he’s looking for?
Whipping around at the sound of her door, Fah’s jaw dropped. “What are you doing up here?”
Charles, jaw clenched, closed the door just as hard as she had and replied, “You really think you can fool me?” He didn’t want to believe it but here was the truth. Nangfah had betrayed him, just as Yasa said. Well, Charles thought, after all these years of yearning, he had reached his limit. If love was going to evade him, then he would make sure the person who hurt him would never forget what she’d done. “You want a new life that much? No, I’ll never let you.” He advanced towards her.
“I really don’t understand what you’re talking about!” Fah tried not to let her voice quiver as she backed away from him in vain.
Charles didn’t miss a beat, striding towards her with a cold anger, “It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. I’ll make you understand.”
He roughly forced her body into his arms and buried his face in her hair, and Fah twisted in his hateful embrace. She managed to push him away, for the first time, enraged by the fear he was instilling in her and his unreasonable claims of something that was too crazy to believe. This led her to exclaiming, “I hate you!”
Before her was a man completely different from the gentleman who had taken care of her when they went to the seashore. There was no trace of the questionable love that she had heard her coworkers gossiping of either. What he was doing to her was unacceptable.
She stared into his incredulous face. “Did you hear me? I hate you!”
For a split second, her words stopped him, froze his mind and froze his heart that she had no clue kept beating only due to her existence. In a matter of moments the heart that had never healed properly over the past three years was shattered all over again.
Something in Fah faltered at the pain in his eyes, but once the second was gone, she was once more trying to fight his tight grasp. His fingers wrapped around her upper arm painfully.
“Let go! Let me go!” But at the same moment she demanded to be released, a thrilling sensation ran down her spine when his lips silenced her. Somewhere deep in her, a different voice was crying to be held by him.
And though her eyes had closed, incredibly, she looked up to see the outline of him.
Her eyes flew open wide. Fah was aware of having clutched onto Charles’s shirt. Her hands let go and fisted against his chest when he powerfully brought her lips back to his. She beat his chest, with the disgusted thought of him kissing her. Yet, this very same thought seemed to draw all of her senses to the tingling of his lips and…
His lips. The way they smiled at her, the way they twisted when deep in thought, the way they frowned when she had been naughty, the way they kissed her when he forgave her, every time…and kissed her just for being her…
Charles couldn’t comprehend it when Fah responded to his kiss. He merely kissed harder and finally having his wife back in his arms where she belonged awakened all of his desires for life and love…and for her. Always, he had been faithful to her.
He backed her into the bed and fell on top of her. A small yelp was heard as Fah came to her senses and realized what had happened. “Get off! Let me go you psycho!”
He pinned her hands above her head. Peering down at her soft features, he recognized every contour of her eyes, nose and lips that were tensed in anger. Charles reminded himself that this woman had hurt him.
Fah’s breath caught when the corner of his lips curved into a slow humorless smirk. Those eyes of his glittered with intent, and came closer. She turned away just as he tried to kiss her, so that the tips of their noses brushed against each other…
“I love you very very very very oh so much!”
His lips grazed her cheek.
“This cheek is mine…And these lips are mine…”
“Stop!” she gasped. With a tremendous effort, Fah pulled herself to the present, as his breath trailed down her neck. “If you do this, I’ll never forgive you!”
“And why should I forgive you?” he retorted, breathing hard. He shook his head, eyes piercing through her, merciless. “A vow should never be broken. But you…you’ve undone everything. There’s no room for forgiveness.”
He shrugged his shirt off his shoulders, never breaking eye contact with her, then ducked back down and covered himself with her scent, becoming familiarized once more with all of her.
Fah was just about to resist again, but Charles had become replaced by him in an instant, and instead, she arched towards his surprisingly gentle kisses and nibbles. The melody of waves breaking against a shore—home, she thought—echoed in the background. She sensed the coolness of salty air as he opened up the front of her shirt. The strongest urge to embrace him surged through her.
“Do you hear the sound of my heart?”
The body, the warmth, and the touch that Fah felt were so well-known. Her palm stopped trying to push him away and she moaned as her lips were caught in his again and he caressed her face. Nothing had ever been more right than this.
“You are the best thing in my life…”
“We’ll stay together here…I promise.”
“Didn’t we promise each other?” Charles whispered. She pressed the side of her face against his, arousing all of those distant memories of peaceful nights with only the two of them.
She was disoriented with images of a wide open sky, glistening waters, a rocky cave…She fought against these, but even more tempting was the man, the one she knew she belonged to. Why had she been fighting him? She knew everything would be alright as long as she had him--his tender touch right now was proof.
Soon, there was nothing between their pulsing souls except skin, and Fah’s skin prickled and thrived with joy to be reunited with him. Her hand traced along the line of his waist, then ran across his shoulder blades and lower back. She knew every single inch of him.
Love, undeniable, irresistible and possessive, love crept from Fah’s heart and urgently directed her to kiss him back, to hold him, to never let go. Completely yielding, she obeyed her instincts.
The air had condensed substantially around them from their mingling breaths. Just before they shared their wedding night once more, Charles lifted his forehead against hers, and her arms hugged his neck, exactly the way he remembered, bringing their hearts so close that the beating merged in harmony. Fah looked into the eyes of the man of her dreams, which was her greatest pleasure of all.
“…We’re going to become one, right?”
[cue camera moves over to some miscellaneous object on the bedside table lol]
