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She was already close to orgasm and he had barely touched her, heightened senses, the slow build to this moment and weeks of not being connected to his body. Moving closer, Rose drowned out her voice of reason easily, giving into the extreme hunger within for him. Not wanting to listen to that inner voice anymore. She was pulling his shirt open, the buttons coming away easily, her hand ravaging his shoulders and chest, cupping behind that strong tanned neck to pull him closer.

Pulling her from the wall, he walked in the darkness, straight into Abby’s bathroom and kicked the door shut behind them. Within moments he had her on the floor, pulling off clothes, lost in fevered kisses, hands rambling over one another. It was not like anything they had done to each other before. There was an urgency and desperate need fueled by sizzling desire and some sort of crazed frenzy in what they were doing as though they could not stand to deny it for another second.

It was hot, fast and crazy. Lost in drunken abandon, feverishly turned on by each other and hell bent on having their way, satisfying the all-encompassing hunger inside of them and throwing caution to the wind. Fueled by the clouded logic of alcohol.

She had never been taken by him this way and she writhed around in ecstasy forcing the inner voices and warnings out of her skull. Pushing down the doubts and instead submerging in the feeling of him all around her, within her. Begging him to push harder, faster and he obliged. His hands finding her wrists and pinning them above her head as they both climaxed in unison. It was so earth shattering it was almost violent. She was more vocal than she could ever remember, and he was equally matching her. All inhibitions were gone as they finally slumped together on the cold tiled floor, breathless and tingling yet buzzing with satisfaction.

Blissfully stilled and laid over her in her arms, his face resting in the nape of her neck, breathing hard and purposely. His heart beat was pounding ecstatically through her own. Illuminated by moonlight and the coming of dawn.

‘I’m sorry Rose.’ His voice gentle; regretful. He leaned up over her on his arms, meeting her eyes, full of remorse and sadness. ‘I shouldn’t have done this. I shouldn’t have pushed you into this.’

‘You didn’t force me, Rob, I wanted this.’ Her face was flushed and hot and just his gaze alone was affecting her breathing. She knew that letting him go again was going to be even harder so instead just focused on the here and now and not the later.

‘I didn’t give you much choice, though.’ He looked down at her mouth and gave out a small pained groan, breathlessly screwing up his brow. ‘I can’t do this!’ Genuine pain in his statement as he slid back and off her, leaving her feeling cold and suddenly shy about being naked on the floor. She sat up quickly, pulling her dress to cover what she could, looking up at him questioningly with wide eyes, fear lingering in the back of her throat.

‘Can’t do what?’ She asked quietly, nerves spreading through her stomach.

‘I can’t stay away from you. I can’t not touch you. You drive me crazy Rose. I feel like I’m going slowly insane and all I ever think about is you, like this. What it’s like to touch you. Kiss you. Make love to you. Over and over, every god damn second and I feel like I’m losing my mind... I need you... Losing you has been the second single most awful thing that has ever happened to me, next to losing mum to cancer and I can’t just keep on pretending that I’m not falling apart without you.’ His pained expression made her heart ache.

‘Rob...’ The emotion of his outburst had caused a lump in her chest and her throat, she felt the tears welling up inside and yet she could not formulate a sentence. He crumpled against her once more, pulling her into him in a crushing agonising way. The force of his own emotions evident for once.

‘I love you so much. This is killing me. I feel like I have lost all control of everything and only you can fix me.’ His voice was strained with emotion, pleading her, begging. ‘Rose give me another chance?

Another go at fixing this, please? I will literally do anything you ask... Whatever that is... I swear, I’ll do absolutely anything for you baby.’ He pulled back to lock eyes with her again. looking for the first time since she had known him like a lost soul. All evidence of the calm controlled Munro gone. Just painful honesty and genuine fear that she might turn him down.

She couldn’t resist him. She didn’t have the strength to reject him, she did not want too; he had always had her heart and she needed him just as badly. She could feel her cheeks wet with her own tears, unaware they had started falling and closed her eyes to his touch as he began to brush them away tenderly, kissing her softly where he dried them from her skin.

‘I need time to take all of this in, time to think.’ She knew that wasn’t true, her body was screaming to stay joined with him, but nothing had changed in their situation, she knew she should be pushing him away, but she was clinging on.

‘When I left the cottage today, I had every intention of doing as you asked.’ He brought a hand up to her face and traced her lips softly. ‘But every time I see you, all rational thought goes out the window. I can’t think straight. Whenever you’re around the blinkers go on and I just want to be near you. I want to touch you, want to hear your voice and have you look at me. I just react... I can’t go on like this another day Rose, I have never felt this way in my life about anyone and I’m dying without you. There has to be chance for us, we fit perfectly.’

She leant up, kissing him gently on the mouth, untangling his hands from her hair and pulling them to her mouth so she could gently rub them against her lips once more. Softly stroking his skin against hers as her mind tried to calm the chaos and torment of being torn.

‘I am not going to lie, I have been going through hell too. I miss you so much that I can barely breathe most days. But nothing has changed. Morag is still swanning around acting like you’re her possession and she doesn’t seem any more mentally stable.’ She looked up at him imploringly.

‘At least give me a chance to talk this through with you, let me try and change things. Figure out where to go from here that involves you being with me and not apart, not sleeping in separate beds and acting like strangers in passing. I don’t want that with you anymore.’

She closed her eyes knowing that all resolve had long since left her, she nodded gently, she would give him that, time to talk this through, time to listen to what he wanted to say and if he could change the way things had been. She felt his breath on her cheek as he moved in again, brushing his lips across her temple, feeling his body relax over her as he slowly pushed her back down to lay flat on the floor and nudged a knee between her legs.

‘Rob?’ She pulled away and caught his gaze. ‘We can’t stay here like this’

‘I could stay this way forever!’ His voice soft and full of meaning. Still focusing on her face, his fingers tracing her cheekbone.

‘We’re on your sister’s bathroom floor. It’s not even locked and she’s like ten feet away.’ She laughed lightly, suddenly wracked with guilt that they had done this with her unconscious in the next room. Rob swooped up towards the door, stretching out and flipped the cold steel latch over.

‘It is now!’ He grinned and planted a kiss back on her mouth. Firm and sure and acting like reconciliation was a done deal in his head. She laughed, shaking her head and shifted under him, pushing him off so he understood this was not what it was, not yet. He rolled over, mock clutching his heart, feigned agony and ducking as she batted him with a hand towel that had fallen on the floor during their chaotic entrance.

‘Get up, I’m not talking here while you are naked on your sister’s floor.’ She scolded lightly and began pulling her scattered belongings together.

‘I meant it Rose.’ His face was calm and serious as he watched her pulling on her clothes. ‘Us! I want that more than I want anything... I want to try again. I will do whatever it takes this time. I swear. Morag doesn’t get priority over you anymore baby.’

Rose sighed heavily, knowing that the conversation that was coming was going to be hard, she had no idea how he expected to play this out, but she was willing. She missed him more than was bearable and having sex again had only cemented the fact that she was not going to ever get over him.

‘We get out of here and we go somewhere that Abby is not snoring six feet away from first. We talk. We figure this out...Okay?’ She glanced back at him, nodding at his trousers slewn across the tub.

He nodded, a hopeful look on his face and pulled the rest of his discarded clothes up from the floor. He knew better than to argue when he was coming out on top.