"Nice," Nick told her as he set his bags down on the floor and looked around the small bedroom and spotted the white tiger he had bought her in Cancun, laying on her bed. "You actually listened to me about keeping the tiger close by when I'm not around?" he asked a little suprised.
"Yea of course. This may sound stupid but I sleep with it every night," she admitted.
"It doesn't sound stupid at all," he told her as he reached for her and wrapped his arms around her. "I missed you."
"I did to a lot more than you can imagine," she told him. "I'm just so happy you're here now. I really need you by my side tomorrow."
"Don't worry about tomorrow right now. Just relax and try to forget about it. Anyway we have a lot of catching up to do."
"Yea I'm sure," she said teasing him.
"Is that supposed to be an insult?"he asked.
"Maybe."
"OK that's it!" he said as he started tickling her.
"C'mon stop!" Melissa begged. "I give up!" She was very ticklish and at that point she was laughing so hard that tears were starting to form in her eyes.
"Nope! Never!," he told her.
She was still laughing and squirming to try to get out of his grasp but he still kept tickling her until finally she lost her balance and wounded up falling back on the bed pulling Nick on top of her.
Slowly his lips met hers and Melissa began to remember how good it felt to kiss him as she kissed him back.
Pretty soon their kisses began to get more deeper. She felt his kisses on her face and neck and his hands traveling all over her body. She tilted her head back a little to allow him to keep on kissing her. She almost forgot about practically everything in the world until he felt something sticking her in the back and realized she was crushing her poor tiger.
"Hold on a sec," she told him as she sat up reached underneath herself and pulled out the tiger, then care fully set him on the floor. "Ok thats a lot better. I was crushing him," she said with a laugh but no sooner had she set it down when she started crying. "OMG, I'm sorry but I just feel really, really emotional right now. I'm just so scared."
"I'm scared to," he admitted.
"Why would you be scared?" she asked.
"Because I feel like you're a part of me and if something happened to you I wouldn't know what to do. I've never loved anyone this much before."
"Not even Erin?"
"Erin can't even compare to you."
Just hearing him say all this made her cry harder. "I always thought that no one even cared about me except Meg but now I know differently."
"I care about you. In fact I love you."
"I love you too. God, I just don't want to die!" she told him as she wrapped her arms around him.
"Shh. You aren't going to," he promised her as he wiped her tears away and rubbed her back but even he sounded slightly unsure.
She pulled back a little to look into his eyes and they both paused for a second just looking into each others eyes. Slowly their lips met and their arms gently encircled each other as she felt them kissing like they never had before. Slowly and carefully he pulled off her shirt and laid her back on the bed again. She unbuttoned his shirt and slipped it off as he began to kiss her neck and the top of her chest.
Melissa was filled with what felt like a million different emotions running through her head as they continued to undress. Yea there was passion and desire but also love. On top of that there was a lingering feeling of sadness and longing. This very well could be their last time together and in another it felt like they were discovering each other for the very first time.
With the sound of the rain beating on the rooftop and the warmth of his body there wasn't anywhere else that Melissa would rather be.
Afterwards she remembered feeling so peaceful that she fell asleep. She had no idea how long she had slept, probably for only about 15 minutes or so but when she woke up and saw Nick gazing lovingly at her she felt so complete there in his arms.
"What do you want to do now?" he asked her as he stroked her cheek.
"This might sound so stupid but I really want to get dressed, and go make a fire and just lay by it. It was always one of the most relaxing things to do when I was growing up."
"OK fine. Whatever the lady wants, she gets."
Melissa smiled at him and changed into a pair of wide leg gray drawstring sweats and a black tank top. She threw her hair up in a messy bun and waited for him to finish getting dressed.
When he was done they went into the living room and after building a fire they both lay down on the couch in each others arms.
Melissa remained silent for a long, long time. She tryed to think peaceful thoughts but it was diffulcult. Like when Nick was gently stroking her hairshe couldn't help thinking that tomorrow her hair would be gone since they would have to shave her head in order to operate. Thoughts like these danced around in her head making her feel mixed up. Slowly she felt herslf slipping into a deep, peaceful sleep wondering exactly what the next day would bring.