Two days later,
('The morning of 31st December')
The right hand lay near her head, and the other on her stomach. She has her knees folded and thighs clasped. Neva lay aroused on her back, her eyes devoid of consciousness peering at nowhere.
She listens to the soothing susurration of the ocean waves, yet her mind remains distant; elsewhere.
The light noise of a door being opened resounds in their cabin. Rhett walks out the door, standing in her line of sight, freshly showered and dressed with a towel drying his moist hair.
Rhett places the towel on a sofa, and approaches her. He bents down and leaves a dewy smooch on her forehead, and follows, Neva veiling her eyes.
His sweet gesture as long for three serene heart beats, he parts away and threads the eyes.
He's aware, something's bothering her.
Nevertheless, he smiles, kneeling down on the floor. His fingers grazes the side of her face.
"What do you want for breakfast?" He asks, keeping still the attachment of their eyes.
"I'll take anything." Neva answers, a faint smile lining her lips.
It has been three days since their voyage on the cruise. The first morning, he had allowed her to go out for breakfast, and a little peering around, the day she met Noah. The same night she snuck out alone, roaming around on the ship's deck.
Her fiance did not permit her to take a single step out the cabin. Afraid of Raka to seize a clue about their whereabouts.
That abhorable man could have his man disguised anywhere out there. The cruise could be wiretapped, the video serveillances hacked.
Rhett refuses to take a risk.
He stands up, "Alright, I'll order room service." He steps towards the telephone kept on the nightstand, provided by the cruise for room service and receptions.
Neva sits up, her luscious, dark wavy hair flowing down her waist, a little disarranged, nevertheless, pleasing to the eyes.
Through the window on her left, her orbs trails away to peer out at the azure ocean.
"You should freshen up as well Angel." Rhett apprises, he had finished ordering food. He rests himself on the bed, beside Neva.
Neva hums in response, glancing at Rhett.
"What's wrong?" He asks, tugging Neva's hair out of her alluring features. She dazedly, with her big eyes, blinks her eyes at him. Rhett chuckles, his hands wandering to caress her cheeks. Nev closes her eyes, and leans on the warmth of him.
"I don't feel well Rhett,'' Neva's beautiful eyes draws a string to his, sinking her teeth on her lower lips.
Rhett gently embraces her.
"It'll all be over soon." He pecks the top of her head, Neva wraps her arms around him, her fists clenching his shirt. She was depressed.
"Will we ever come back to our home?" Neva mumbles out. Rhett sighs heavily, he's unknown to the answer.
"No matter what, we will forever be with each other." He smiles, the way a smile lifts the eyes, unveiling the blinds of the windows, the revered thread of his soul and her soul.
The thread that had been attached securely is the sacred verity of them belonging to each other. And the belongingness they feel is an augury of 'heaven', of her being made for him, and him for her.
"Wherever we go, we will always be home."
The melodic affirmations that he words out so purely, has Neva's orbs to twinkle, and soften up.
"Our families, our friends, will he harm them?" Neva asks, seperating herself away.
Her eyes anxious, he knows, and shares the feelings in her heart.
"They'll be fine Neva. Don't worry. They are safe, by no means they could threaten us harnessing them." He assures her, as she breathes away deep.
"Do you know Ishmael? Why does he look like you?" Neva, by and by inquires the lingering question pestering her more than enough. She had already predicted his reaction, he's irritated. His eyes loses it's radiance, the muscles in his jaw contracting. Neva amused, awaits a response.
"He murdered my father." Rhett blatantly returns. Neva gasps, a hand reflexively over her mouth. Her eyes enlarged and disturbed because of the information.
"We don't look a lot alike, but why we do look a little alike, I don't have a single idea." Rhett shrugs. He smiles at the emphatizing appearance of Neva.
"I'm so sorry Rhett." Neva knows nothing on how should she respond to him otherwise.
"I thought you might be twins or something." Neva purses her lips at her own reasoning.
Rhett scoffs at such ridiculous thought. "Really?" "Mmhm," Neva responds.
The literal idea of them being brothers was enough to rip his own heart out in disgust. But, he laughs lightly; because it's her and her kaleidoscope mind, he's deep fascinated with.
"If it was true, I would kill to be back in the past, and strangle him to death in the womb." "Shh, Rhett." Neva places her fore finger on his lips. "You talk horribly!"
Pulling down her finger, he feathers her lips with a kiss. "Are you disturbed by that day? Did you not like me killing them?"
Neva quiets down for a moment, she replays the scene. "It feels like a nightmare to me. It still has not sinked down my chest. And about you taking their lives, it's not like you had any other choice."That is how the world process.
She searches his coffee coloured iris, "Am I heartless? Because I feel barely to bare sympathy for them?"
He smiles softly at her, "No, you are not. Battles and wars, they happen everytime. Why mourn for an enemy, someone untold, who wouldn't shed a tear for thousands of innocent lives they drain? Some deaths, comes as a blessing to the world."
"I'm just glad you were not traumatized or anything." He shakes his head, looking down for a second, then peers back up at her in a second.
"You are not weakened because of the dreary scene, aren't you?" In a sudden, he asks her, sometimes, such gruesome sight, eats you up leisurely.
Neva shakes her head, "Not at all," she was still haunted by her nightmares, she's almost, so used to the bloody scenes. Right?
"It's just..." Neva cuts her teeth into her tongue, halting the words.
"You wanted to say something?" Rhett raises an eyebrow.
"Forget it." She closes her eyes, exhaling deeply.
"Alright now, go freshen up." Rhett declares, pulling Neva up with him.
Neva whines, a little livelier now, which makes him smile.
A thought once more blows over Neva, pushed by Rhett towards the washroom she looks at him over her shoulder.
"I have another question. What does Ishmael do?"
Rhett frowns, he pokes the inner of his cheek with his tongue, her constant quizzes regarding Ishmael angering him.
Ridiculous! He was now his rival at love.
His arms slides down from her shoulders, down to caress the sides of her waist.
They were close enough to hear each other's heart beating, yet, Rhett closens even more, as if to merge their frame as one.
Her back morphed with his chest, absorbing warmth from each one's. His breath breezes the strands of hairs lacing over her ear.
Heating and melting the blushing Neva.
"One more mention about him, I swear on you, I will make love to you here and now."
He bites her scapha, causing shivers storm down Neva's spine.
"And I promise, I won't stop, not until the New year's Eve." He whispers in her ear, rounding her eyes wide, throbbing her heart hard. Neva's features ripens up so scarlet.
"Never!!" She abruptly forces away from his unbreathable cage, rushing away with a towel in her arms. Rhett chuckles dazedly, the glimpse of his Neva's shy and cute disappearing frame, sweetening his heart.