UNTIL LOVE SETS US APART ( JENLISA)

Chapter 7

Lisa POV

I could feel the weight of her in my arms when I woke up - that was all I could focus on for a moment, and it was enough to get me to forget that she would be leaving later that day. For a blissful second, I existed in a space beyond reality, where the two of us could actually be together, where I didn't have to worry about her leaving me.

But then I opened my eyes and saw her lying there, and remembered that she was due to leave in just a few hours. I held her close, closing my eyes and willing myself back to sleep, so I didn't have to face up to the day, but it was too late. I was awake. I rested my head against her shoulder, not wanting to pull away just yet.

"Lisa?" her voice surprised me. I pulled back to look at her and saw that her eyes were already open.

"Jennie," I quickly lifted myself out of bed and got to my feet. Any moment I spent here with her, any second longer, it was just going to make things harder when it would be the time for her to leave for real.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly, and I instantly felt a twist of guilt for acting so off with her. She didn't know that I was protecting myself. As far as she was concerned, I had just switched from the honeymoon phase to a jerk over the course of a day, and there was no good reason for it. I sat back down on the bed next to her and reached out to take her hand. Yes, it was only going to make parting more painful, but I wasn't going to let her leave thinking I felt anything but good things for her.

"I'm fine," I promised her. "Just thinking about what you need to do today."

"How about we have some breakfast, and we can go out and pick up whatever you need for the shelter?" I suggested, to which her face lit up.

"That sounds great," she agreed, her teeth resting on her bottom lip for the briefest mo ment as she looked at me. And I felt that warmth in my stomach that builds of desire for her. But I knew I had to face up to reality sooner or later, and making love to her again was only going to render that harder; nearly impossible.

She slid out of bed and headed through to the bathroom to get ready, and my gaze was drawn to her feet no, her ankle, that thin loop of metal resting around her skin. It was one of the first things I'd noticed about her, so delicate and tempting. I got to my feet once more, this time on the way to the kitchen so I could grab something for the two of us for breakfast. She was going to have a long day ahead of her, and the least I could do was make sure she was well-fed.

As I laid out some food for breakfast, the way I had done the morning before, I was alone with my thoughts once more and found my mind drifting back to the last few weeks in her company. I had never believed that my feelings for someone could grow so sharply. It was strange to think that a mere month prior to this I had no idea who she even was, and now the thought of her leaving felt like a knife twisting deep into my gut. I had worked so hard to make sure my life was chaos-proof, to keep my job going and my family happy and my home comfortable, and now this woman had dropped into the middle of it and made me question everything that I had been so certain of before. I wondered if she knew the power she had over me.

She emerged from the bathroom, face cleaned, hair brushed and pulled back. She joined me at the counter. "What is it?" I asked her, and she cocked her head at me.

"I just can't believe this is the last day I get to spend with you," she confessed, and I felt that knife twist deeper into my gut.

"You heard what Rosé said," I reminded her, as much reiterating the point to myself as to Jennie. "It's the best way for you to get better. I can't give you everything they can down there."

"I know," Jennie agreed. "But I just-"

Whatever she had been planning on saying, she stopped herself dead in her tracks, silencing herself swiftly and sharply. I knew how she felt. It was as though I didn't trust myself to say anything other than careful repetitions of the points that Rosé had made the day before, as though I would do something stupid, like declare my love for her and beg her to stay, if I let my mouth run away with me.