Page 88 of Hearts of Resistance
‘Come,’ she said as she led him down a street. She was staying in a lovely little hotel, and she’d advised the owner that her husband might be joining her when he returned. She doubted Alex would mind the little lie if it meant being together.
Soon the house came into view, and she kept hold of Alex’s hand as she led him inside. There was no one about, and she took him upstairs with her. Perhaps she should have tried to go back to her own apartment, but her father had owned it and she didn’t want to run the risk of finding him there, or of the awful memories flooding back when she set foot in there again.
‘Here,’ she said, shutting the door behind them. ‘We’ll be comfortable here for the night.’
Alex smiled and she laughed at him, suddenly self-conscious. His eyes travelled up and then down her body, before he met her gaze once more. She raised an eyebrow, heart pounding as he took a step towards her, not saying a word. Sophia’s fingers fumbled on her jacket buttons, but as shetook that off, Alex shrugged off his own coat. She watched, mouth dry as he then undid the buttons on his shirt and peeled that off, before kicking off his boots. He was so thin she could barely believe it, his bones jutting out but his muscles lean, as if he’d been doing something to keep himself strong. She almost didn’t want to know, hated the thought of him being hurt, abused and starved.
She pushed the thoughts away and kept her eyes on him as they stripped down.
‘Come here,’ he commanded, voice as rough as gravel.
She gulped and walked one step forward with only her slip and undergarments on. Alex reached for her, ran his fingers over her shoulders and then down her arms, the pads of hisfingers soft to her skin. She gasped when he ran his fingers back up her middle, skimming her stomach before taking her slip off her as she raised her arms.
His fingers twirled over her scar, the big incision curling down her abdomen from when she’d been shot that last night before she’d been sent back to London. She looked at it and felt it often, a reminder of what she’d survived, what she’d managed to endure during her time in France. Alex glanced at her, met her gaze, but he didn’t ask questions. Instead he kept touching her, stroking her breasts. He went still, his eyes hungry, and then in one swift movement he had his arms around her and was walking her backwards, to the bed, pushing her back so she landed with a thump on the mattress. Alex’s mouth closed over hers and she kissed him like it was the last kiss they’d ever share, desperate to feel every part of him against her.
‘I’ve missed you,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve missed this.’
She had him back. Her Alex was back. Tears filled her eyes as she wrapped her arms and legs around him, wanting him closer, wishing they could stay like this for ever.
‘I love you.’
Sophia snuggled closer to him. This was the safest and happiest she’d felt since leaving him, or perhaps since she was a child. Safe in his arms, with no war raging outside, no waiting for knocks at the door, or being foundout. It was going to be a different life for them now, a life she’d never truly imagined they would ever live.
‘What are we going to do?’ she asked, turning on to her side, lifting her head and resting her chin on him as she stared into his eyes.
‘I’ll go anywhere but here,’ he said, breaking their gaze to look out the window. ‘I can’t ...’
‘Shhh,’ she said, reaching to touch his face, to make him turn back to her. ‘You don’t have to explain. We can go anywhere.’
‘All I feel out there, all I see, is hatred,’ he said. ‘I can’t ever forget what they did to us, what they did to my family.’
Sophia gulped, knowing they’d need to have difficult conversations, to open the pain that would be so raw again as soon as they started to delve beneath the surface.
‘What happened to them, Alex? Are they all gone?’ she asked, her heart close to breaking for him.
‘They’re gone. Every single one of them,’ he whispered. ‘Gone like they were never here in the first place.’
Sophia breathed deep, thought of his mother, full of so much love for her family, for her son.
‘We both lost our families, Alex. You know I lost my mother, but ...’ Sophia bit down hard on her bottom lip as it quivered. ‘My father is dead to me, too. It was his order that killed her, and if I saw him, if I had the chance to put my hands around his throat and—’
‘Sophia,’ Alex said, his thumb gentle against her shoulder as he stroked her. ‘Enough. We’ve had enough violence to last us for a lifetime, and as much as I want to kill every Nazi bastard, we’re better than that. We both are.’
He was right, of course he was right.
‘Can you tell me what you’ve been through? Where you’ve been?’
He chuckled and kept stroking her skin, lulling her, healing her with his touch.
‘Can you tell me?’
‘Do you really want to know?’ she whispered, wanting to tell him almost as desperately as she needed to keep it secret, to keep it buried inside and never let it out.
‘I know that the woman I fell in love with did things that no woman should ever be expected to do,’ he whispered, pulling her up higher so she was closer to him, so he could kiss her. ‘You might have felt like a little fish in a very, very big pond, but every life you saved, every person you shielded from harm in your apartment, will for ever remember you as their hero.’
A tear slipped down her cheek and she watched as it fell to his chest, then another and another after that.
‘I did what everyone should have done,’ she said. ‘There is nothing special about helping someone who needs it.’
