Page 12 of Rough Love

To Sage, one of the biggest things that had plagued him had been the thought that he would never have someone he could call family. He knew his real family was still alive but he wanted a family of his own. When he had tried to think of a family that didn't involve Laura, it had been hard. After all, she had been the first person to place those kinds of thoughts in his head but with Mia around, he could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and it was her. He wasn't sure how the situation could get resolved any time soon but he knew that his life was better with Mia in it.

He hated to admit it but it was a much better life than he had had with Laura. He had always wondered what would happen once she got bored which she so often did in life. There were so many things she changed about her life almost all the time and the only constant had been the military. Once that was removed, she always wondered what she would do. If she would stick to her dream of studying again or if she would've gotten over that and found something else to do. He didn't want to think negatively about her and he hated himself for doing it but it had played on his mind since he had lost her.

Sage lay next to Mia that night and held her body close to his as she slept. He felt so content just being around her and the time they had spent together had been the perfect break for them. Just having her close to him made him happy and peaceful but he couldn't help but think about the woman. He couldn't fall asleep with the thought of her still being out there and causing trouble. The fact that she had shown up drunk at their house and tried to kiss him sent warning signs off in his head. He was still waiting for news from Fiona and the unknown of it all ate away at him. He kept thinking about her, more out of irritation than anything else. He wanted her out of Florida. There was already enough evidence for him to believe that she was lying about who she was. Although he was still waiting for confirmation, he was sure she was not Laura.

He was frustrated that the relationship he had with Mia had almost been on the edge of crumbling because of this woman, because of someone who claimed to be his ex-lover. It was frustrating that she had come out of nowhere with all her claims because even if it was Laura, which he didn't believe was true, he didn't want to be with her anymore. He belonged with Mia and that was what made him happy, she made him happy. He looked down at her sleeping body as he thought about how happy she made him. She looked so peaceful and comfortable, all he wanted was to make sure that she was always happy. He had pushed her away for far too long and now he would spend the rest of his life showing her what happiness could be like.

He had loved Laura once, he truly had. He could never deny that nor would he even try to deny it and he'd always remember their relationship but it was over and there was no going back, and he knew that even if he could go back, he wouldn't. When he had been with Laura it had been amazing, their relationship had been crazy, hot and passionate, filled with love and happiness but that changed when he got back from Afghanistan because he had come back alone. Laura had died and he believed now that she was in fact still dead. It hurt to think about it, especially since he had let her go, but she hadn't made it back and that was the fact of the matter. He had loved her when he had been a completely different person, but he was not that person anymore. The person or rather the man that had loved Laura had also died. He had died when he realized he had no one left.

He had to bury the young hopeful man he had once been when his life had crumbled in front of him. It had been one of the hardest things he had had to go through and that didn't change just because Laura might be back. It didn't change the way he felt and it didn't take anything away from Mia and the role she played in his life. He knew that when he had chosen his tattoo for her that that was his way of signing himself to her. He didn't belong to anyone but her. Obviously, he still belonged to himself since he still had to keep some kind of wits about him but he knew that Mia was it for him. There would be no changing that. Nothing could take him away from her.

It was hard for him to think about the person he had once been just two years ago. It seemed like almost a lifetime ago to him. He had been so different and yet so similar to who he was now. He had been so hopeful about life. Naive would be a better word, he thought. He used to believe that everything had a balance in life, as if saving one life could change the way everyone acted. That definitely wasn't true. No one cared so much about the art of living, no one cared about anything but themselves. Sage had watched people kill each other over the smallest of things and to him, that wasn't a balance at all. He had been so stupid to believe that being in the military would change the world because two years later the war was still going on. It seemed to never end. No one was satisfied with what they had and they always wanted more. They could kill for more, slaughter the innocent for more and the world continued to work based on greed. He had come out of the military knowing for sure that he would never be the same person he had been before and he was actually grateful for that.

It had taken all of who he was to rebuild himself, rebuild himself stronger than he was. He never realized how weak he was as a person before he had gone on his mission. He was just too young and even though he was 27 at the time, he still believed he didn't have enough experience at the time to really understand what it was all about. He had damaged himself in the process of trying to fix himself, making it harder for him to love anyone ever again but that was until he met Mia.

She had changed him, changed him into someone he could be happy with looking at in the mirror. He felt more emotions than before, he had more faith and he believed that he did, in fact, deserve to be alive. She had given him the reassurance that he had needed to believe that his life meant something and he didn't need to feel guilty for surviving. He didn't want to go back to his old life, thinking about a life without Mia just didn't feel right to him. He knew he would do anything for her, he would kill a dozen or more people just for her if he had to. He would protect her with his own body as a shield if he must, he would die for her.

He knew he would've died for Laura too, he really would've placed himself between her and the bomb if he could've but he couldn't change the past and the past all of a sudden coming back up didn't change the future either. He knew without a doubt that even if the real Laura had shown up, he would not go back to her. It wouldn't do him any good and he never wanted to be the cause of any pain when it came to Mia.

The feelings in his chest grew the more he thought about it and soon Mia was all he could think about. The words 'I love you' wanted to spill out of his mouth. He wanted her to know that he loved her because he already knew she loved him. He had seen it for so long and he was finally ready to admit to her that he felt the same. He hadn't said those words in years and the thought of saying them had been daunting to him but not anymore. He knew that the minute she was awake he would tell her. He felt that she deserved to know that he had something he loved for the first time in a long time and it was her. He leaned down and kissed the top of her head while she continued to sleep. She sighed at his touch and her eyes started to flutter open. He didn't mean to wake her up. She usually slept through almost anything. It was a complete surprise that she had stirred awake so easily. Sage thought that maybe on a subconscious level she had been worried that if he moved it would mean that he was leaving her and it had woken her up so she could react. He didn't want her to worry about him leaving her because he knew that was her biggest fear. He still had to prove to her that he would never leave her.

Shit, I've woken her up, he thought.

He wanted her to go back to sleep. She had been so peaceful and calm while she slept. He also liked to watch her sleep for a while before going to sleep himself. He didn't want to sound creepy but she was cute when she slept. She would sometimes mumble things in her sleep and there had been a few times he had heard his name. It made his heart soar when he thought of her dreaming of him. He had dreams about her sometimes so it was nice to know that he wasn't the only one. He had also heard her say I love you in her sleep and he could only assume she had been saying it to him. He already knew that she loved him. No one would be crazy enough to stick around through gunfights and kidnappings without loving the other person.

"Shh, go back to sleep," he whispered as her eyes slowly started to open. They looked glazed over as she tried to focus on him. She was clearly still half asleep as she continued to blink a number of times so her eyes could finally see properly.

She lifted her head slowly to meet his eyes. Hers were still slightly closed as she looked at him.

"Hmm," she said as she leaned into him and kissed him. Her lips were soft and gentle as they pressed against his. He pulled her closer to him as he deepened the kiss, tasting her as he pushed her mouth open with his tongue. Their bodies were pressed together, skin against skin as they wrapped themselves around each other. Sage gently pushed Mia onto her back as he bent over her and kissed her while he laid on his side.

Mia wrapped her arms around his neck as she intertwined her fingers in his hair. The need and want for each other grew as their tongues grazed teeth and lips. Sage soon traced a line of kisses down her neck while Mia moaned. Sage only had a pair of comfy pants on and Mia had one of his t-shirts on. He tugged at his as he reached under the shirt, wanting to feel her body with his hands. Soon they were naked, skin on skin as they moved with each other under the covers. Their bodies touched and burned, almost as if the heat they felt within themselves had set their surroundings on fire.

Sage kissed and sucked at her skin, tasting her and feeling her as he ran his hands all over her body. She was beautiful, every curve of her body had been shaped so perfectly, from the dip of her hips to the backs of her knees. Every part of her sent a shiver of love and longing deep inside Sage’s core. He would never get over the feeling she brought to him, he would never get over the color she had brought too as if she had turned on a light that had died so long ago. He loved Mia with every fiber of his being. It was a different love from the love he had for Laura; this love was deeper, stronger. He felt it was because she had stuck by him through everything and Laura he felt wouldn't have done anything like that.

He grazed his lips against her skin, fumbling as they moved, Mia reaching for him with her greedy hands and he couldn't stop himself from giving in to her completely. He reached across to his bedside table for the second time that day and pulled out another condom, grateful that he had thought about restocking his stash only days before. Their bodies rocked in time to each other as he placed himself between her legs again, wanting nothing more than to be inside her once more. He dipped his hips to meet hers as she moved hers up and into him, needing to be connected with him as soon as she possibly could. The desire that burned inside them both set them on fire as they became one and as they came apart together, Sage whispered the words he had been dying to say.

"I love you, Mia," he said as she moaned with pleasure.

He wasn't sure if she had heard him but that didn't matter so much to him. The only thing that mattered was the fact that he had finally said the words that had been burning in his mouth for days. They had been on the tip of his tongue for the longest time and he was relieved he could finally share them and know for sure that he meant them. He had held them in, wanting to make sure that when he did finally say those words, they were completely true and that there was nothing holding him back. There was nothing in his life that he wanted more than a future with Mia and because of how strongly he felt about that, he would stop at nothing until Laura, or whatever her real name was, was completely out of their lives. He didn't want to wait any longer to start the rest of his life with Mia. He had already pushed it aside for so long and there was no reason for him to do that anymore. Their relationship was stronger than ever and he was 100 percent ready to plan further into his life with her. He had tried his hardest to push her away and he didn't want that to ever happen again.