With a Pull of a Trigger

Chapter Twenty-Four

And it was all yellow

Samuel opened his eyes, and Reini found herself staring into watery pools of warm chocolate. Reini gently put her palm on Samuel’s left cheek, cupping warm flesh as she gazed into his eyes.

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” stated Reini, choking on the last word as she saw another tear trickle down Samuel’s cheek, “absolutely nothing.”

You’re skin

Oh yeah you’re skin and bones

Samuel closed his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered, his voice quiet and reserved. “Thank you.”

“No,” replied Reini, smiling bitterly as she remembered the before part of her life—the life she had before she had to fake her death, “thank you.”

Turning into something beautiful

And you know

As the voice sang the chorus, Reini found herself kissing Samuel with all she had, like a thirsty man finding water in the desert. Samuel’s grip on her waist tightened as he started to move backwards, his palm a warm imprint against Reini’s lower back. Samuel sucked Reini’s bottom lip and groaned at the taste. Reini tasted like coffee, cinnamon, and caramel—three flavors he will forever associate with the woman he was in love with.

The inside of Reini’s bedroom was warmer than the frigid air on her balcony, yet still cool. Samuel breathed heavily as he paused, closing his eyes, before resuming kissing Reini once more. The kiss was full of both passion and desire, and Reini moaned as they toppled onto the cool sheets of her bed.

For you I'd bleed myself dry

For you I'd bleed myself dry

Somewhere, a man was singing the very song that was stuck in Reini’s head, and Reini couldn’t disagree with what the song was saying. As Samuel handled her body like a violinist tenderly plucking a violin’s set of strings, she thought about everything she and Samuel had overcome. Everything she had done for the past three years had been for Samuel, and all of it she was glad she had done and accomplished.

It was true. If Samuel asked her to, she would bleed herself dry.

It's true

Look how they shine for you

Articles of clothing soon hit the floor, and Reini found herself memorizing the moment and all it entailed. She memorized the feel of Samuel’s skin against hers. She memorized the scent of Samuel as he held her close. She memorized the sight of Samuel moving against her as sweat rolled down his back, and the sight of him as she removed his clothes one by one. Everything was seared into her mind, and she didn’t intend to let the memories go.

Look how they shine for you

Look how they shine for

Her body quivered under his touch. The air around them was filled with intense heat and desire, a longing that was denied for so long. Reini could feel her pulse thrumming, her heart beating at an irregular pace.

Look how they shine for you

Look how they shine for you

Reini wasn’t a stranger to sex, per se, but never did it feel the way it did with Samuel. It certainly didn’t hold a candle to her experience with Andrew, or to any other experience she had had with anybody else. Somehow, Samuel’s kisses meant more, felt more, than any other she ever received.

And everything else she gave him meant more too.

Look how they shine

Reini touched Samuel reverently, like she was afraid he would disappear the second her fingertips touched him. In that moment, in that one precious moment, everything stopped, even, it seemed, time itself. Their breathing slowed, the air around them shifted, like something finally slotted into place.

Look at the stars

Samuel looked at Reini, his eyes showing all the vulnerability he was finally ready to show Reini once again, and Reini smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners. It felt like her muscles were relearning how to form a smile, and maybe that was true. She hadn’t smiled for so long, it felt like her heart was somehow lighter, like she could take on the world. Samuel moved a lock of hair with one gentle fingertip, smiling at Reini like she was his everything.

And maybe she was.

Look how they shine for you

“I am,” Samuel breathed out, “in love with you.”

Reini smiled, looking up at Samuel with nothing less than pure love in her eyes. “I’m in love with you too.”

And all the things that you do

Inside a warm room, two bodies were curled around each other, holding on and never letting go. Somewhere inside, a man shifted, his arm curling around the woman tighter.

Outside, the cold wind remains in the bright city of Los Angeles. Somewhere, a cloud drifted, and a star finally appeared, bright yellow against the dark blue sky.

And somewhere inside the house, in a room as cold as the city of deception, Senior Agent Reini Saunders woke up from a dream.