Forbidden Love

I woke up to the smell of just-cooked-breakfast. I walked into the front room and saw O’Reilly putting eggs and biscuits on two plates.

He looked up at me, “Morning.”

“Morning,” I said back. I looked at the food, “Where’d you get all of this?”

“I woke up early and went down to the restaurant and fixed us up some breakfast,” he said with a smile.

“That was nice.”

We sat on the couch and ate our meal and talked most of the time. Once we were finished we sat our plate on the counter and went back to the couch. O’Reilly didn’t say anything, he just stared at me.

“You okay?” I asked, trying to get him to talk.

He nodded. “I never wanted you to have to go through any of this.” He brushed his hand down my cheek to my chin. “I can’t help but think that it’s because of me that you have to go through this. If we had never met-”

I placed a finger to his lips. “Don’t say such things,” I forced a smile.

He frowned and looked away form me, “But…”

“Let’s do something,” I said, trying to lift his spirit.

“We shouldn’t go walking around on the deck.”

“Well then let’s do something here or at least talk about something else.”

“What do you want to do?” he asked, without any enthusiasm.

I leaned forward and whispered in his ear, “I’m sure you can think of something.” I kissed his cheek. “I’m going to go change. I’ll be back in a minute.”

I went into the bathroom and turned on the faucet at full blast. I splashed water onto my face trying to not think of what it would be like to not be with O’Reilly. I hung my head over the faucet as the cold water dripped off my face. There was a knock on the door and a second later O’Reilly walked through. He stared at my through the mirror.

He walked up to me and said, “Do you like the picture you see?”

I could only nod my head because I was afraid of the words that might have come out of my mouth.

He turned towards me and brushed my cheek with his hand. “I like it too.”

“What do you like about it?” I asked. I thought of so many questions I wanted to ask him but that was the first one to pop out of my mouth.

He brought his face to mine, our noses barely touching, “You’re in it. And I always hope you will be”

I burst into tears. I couldn’t control my self. O’Reilly wrapped his arms around me as he rested his chin on top of my head. He brushed my hair with his hand, “Please don’t cry, Bella. Please don’t.”

“I can’t do it,” I sobbed.

“Can’t stop crying or can’t not see me?”

“Neither,” I said as I pushed myself away from his chest.

“Bella, we talked about this last night. If you want to talk about it more-”

“Talking about it won’t help it!” I nearly shouted and ran out of the bathroom. I forgot that I was in O’Reilly’s cabin so I ran towards the room the contained O’Reilly’s bed. I slammed the door and fell into the bed and wept. I thought O’Reilly would have walked into the room but instead I heard a light knock on the door.

“Don’t come in!” I shouted at the door.

“Bella, talking about it might help it a little. Just like it did yesterday.”

His calm voice raised my anger. “No it won’t! You still don’t even sound like you care!”

Suddenly, the door flew open and O’Reilly came towards me. He gabbed my chin, making me look at his saddened eyes. “I told you last night that I do care. It breaks my heart, Bella. I love you more than life itself.”

“How do I know that you’re not lying to me? How do I know that you even really mean those precious words that you’ve said to me?”

“I will show you.” once those four words were said his lips were on mine.

He kissed me deeply and I accepted his kiss. Before I know it he was on top of me as his one hand slid from my chin to my neck and his other gathered my other wrist and pinned them above my head. His lips moved from my mouth to my jaw and then to my neck. I moaned as he moved his free hand down my throat to my chest, his lips leaving kisses down the line his hand traveled.

He stopped and lifted his head to my face. “Do you want more proof?”

I couldn’t hide my smile. I didn’t want his to stop so I said, “I still don’t believe you.”

He smiled back evilly, “Than more you shall receive.”

He hovered over me, on his knees now not lying on me anymore. He smiled another smile at me but this one wasn’t evil, it was a smile of longing. He slipped his hand underneath my shirt and caressed my stomach lightly. At that moment I shuddered with longing as well, longing for him.

He lowered his face down to mine and kissed me so hard I began to get dizzy. He finally released my wrists and the second they were free they were tangled in his hair. O’Reilly lay down on me again, never breaking our kiss. I could feel his tongue moving around in my mouth searching for my own to caress. His hands were at my hips making sure that I wouldn’t try and stop him.

“Bella, it hurts me that you think I don’t care about us not being together,” he was breathing hard.

“It just seems that way when you’re so calm. It makes me think that you don’t.”

“Well I do. I completely care because I never thought it would happen,” he looked at me with the saddest eyes I have ever seen in my life.

I couldn't respond.

“I love you very, very much, Bella. And I never ever want to loose you.”

“I love you too,” I replied.

O’Reilly stared at me for a few moments then began kissing me again. I felt his hips grind on mine as he pushed me harder into the bed. One of his hands began to slid down my leg then up under my skirt. I shuddered and heard his take in a quick breath and stop. After waiting for a few seconds he started caressing my thigh. His hand began to creep higher up my thigh but when I went to grab his arm he stopped.

He looked up at me. “You alright?”

I shook my head. “We can’t, O’Reilly.”

“Why?” he asked.

“It’s not proper. We could get in trouble.”

He frowned at me. “I don’t want to hurt you, Bella, so I’ll stop if that’s what you want.”

I nodded.

He slipped his hand out from under my skirt and brought it to my cheek. He gazed at me lovingly and kissed my forehead lightly. He got off of me and sat up on the bed.

I sat up next to him and lay my head on his shoulder. “You know what we could do?”

“What?”

“While this whole thing is going on we could write letters to each other and Sarah can take them to us. She can leave your letters under my pillow after she cleans my cabin and then she can give you mine whenever she sees you.”

He looked at me and rubbed my shoulder, “That sounds like an excellent idea.”

I smiled.

“You do know that we won’t have to go through this for a long time.”

“Why?”

“We’ll be arriving in America in about a little more than two weeks.”

“What’s going to happen to us once we are there? I know you want to go and do things with your painting and I have to go with whatever my family does.”

He pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me. “Well, I was thinking that maybe you’d like to just stay with me. You know travel with me. Help me with my paintings.

And maybe even…” he paused and stared at me. “…marry me?”

I was speechless. The only thing I could do was nod my head and burry my face in his chest as I started to cry.

After a few quiet moments O’Reilly cupped my face in his hands and asked, “Why are you crying? Is it that bad that I want you to be with me forever?”

I shook my head, “No, no. I am crying tears of joy.

He hugged me. “So is that a yes or a no?” he asked sweetly.

“Yes.” I wrapped my arms around him. “Yes, of course.”

He held me out at arms length. “So let’s make a promise between us.”

I nodded. “We’ll always write letters to each other. I’ll put mine under my pillow for Sarah to take to you and the letters that are to me she’ll lie under there too.”

He smiled, “And another thing,” he reached into his pocket and brought out a ring with a single diamond on it. “You have to wear this. Call it a promise slash engagement ring.”

I looked at the ring. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. O’Reilly slipped the ring onto my left hand, ring finger. I frowned and looked up at him.

“What if someone notices?” I asked.

“During the day wear it on the right hand then at night when you go to bed put it onto the left,” he said with a smile. He placed a hand under my chin and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. “I’ll tell Sarah about the letters.”

“What if she says no?”

“I’ll beg she if I have to.”

I giggled. He gazed at me with loving eyes. He brushed my hair out of my face, softly. He was about to kiss me when suddenly my stomach made a rumbling sound. We both looked at each other and busted out laughing.

“I guess we should get you something to eat,” he said while standing up.

“What time is it anyway?”

We both looked over at the clock on the wall; the time was 6:47PM.

“Wow, we really took up most of the day,” he said.

I felt my face turn red as I remembered him kissing my neck and caressing my leg.

“So what would you like to eat?”

“We can just have some left overs from this morning,” I said. I really didn’t want him to leave or for us to go anywhere other than his place.

“Ok, just give me a minute to get it ready.”

I sat on the couch in the front room. After a few minutes we were able to eat our food and once we finished we talked about anything that didn’t have to do with what was to happen in a few hours.

After talking for an hour, O’Reilly wanted me to help him with some of his paintings by being a model. The painting he did was of me sitting on the couch, my legs crossed with my chin on my hand. After he sketched it I was able to move and we looked over it.

“When I see you again I will have this painting to give you. it will be a ‘Hello’ and ‘I’ve missed you so much’ present.”

I laughed and looked down at the jewel that was on my finger.

“Do you like it?” O’Reilly asked.

I looked up at him and smiled, “Very much.” I followed his eyes as he looked over at the clock. My smile turned to a frown.

“Well I guess it’s time,” O’Reilly said sadly. He took my hand and led me into his room. He grabbed the sketch that he had given me the night before.

“Keep this with you all times. Don’t let anyone take it or see it.”

I nodded and put it into my skirt pocket.

We walked over to the door but before we left the cabin I took one last, long look at the room, which I wouldn’t be able to forget even if I tried. I turned to O’Reilly; he was looking right at me. He kissed my forehead and we left the cabin.