I wasn’t going to be fobbed off by her so I thought it best to let her know that she needed someone to understand her, even if it wasn’t forever. I didn’t consider myself any kind of threat to anyone and I’d be damned if that’s what she thought of me.

I opened my arms to her, gently wrapping them around her slim body, engulphing her in a comfortable embrace, it insinuated nothing but safety and warmth. I didn’t feel her hands on me to start with, her body just staying bolt straight making me wonder that if she didn’t want me to hold her, why hadn’t she pushed me away instead of standing there like a steel rod. But then, just when I was about to retract and admit to myself that there was something more than the fact she preferred to live life by herself, I felt her arms lightly snaking round my neck, her chin resting over my shoulder. Her body pressed against mine and I found myself with my eyes tightly shut for just a split second, enjoying the feel of just holding her gently.

’You can have a friend in me, don’t knock something till you’ve tried it,’ I hushed as we pulled away, her facial expression somewhat different now, much more effortless with a hint of bemused shock thrown in for good measure.

’I’m freezing,’ she announced in reply, holding herself tightly. Not exactly the answer I was aiming for, in fact I could swear she was trying to get around the topic once again with a feasible distraction.

’Maybe it is time we got going,’ defeated but still overwhelmed at the events of this evening, I felt that perhaps I was right when I thought you can’t befriend the independent.

’No Taylor, I liked you holding me, will you…do it again?’ my turn to seem a little bemused, but lowering my raised eyebrows I obliged instantly, offering her a warm haven in my embrace. She nestled in close, her soft chapped cheek brushed against the hollow of my neck, her hands clasped at the back of my neck, tickling the light hairs there unbeknowingly. But I placed my hands on her bare waist and tried to control myself from the friction I was trying not to hard from of her breasts rubbing against the soaked material of my shirt.

’Come on Season, you’ll catch a cold,’ I smiled, pulling back a little to see her ruddy cheeks and chapped lips radiate in the night hue. Her eyes were hazy and a piercing shade of sea green and I was secretly wishing now I’d saved some of the film just to focus on them alone. But as my mind made notes already on what I could have done but didn’t, I realized that maybe I’d got her in a more vulnerable position than I ever imagined and that my intentions could ever estimate.

I’d seen her naked, I was holding her tightly, we were looking into each others eyes.

How long would restraint hold out?

It was like Sleeping Beauty pricking her finger on the spinning wheel spindle, it was her curse from the wicked witch, except my curse was his persistence and his strong case. I would have referenced it like a bad smell I couldn’t shake off but he’s far from that. He was good at wearing me down, he knew I couldn’t give him a real answer and never in my life has anyone wanted to make friends with me this badly. That alone rocked me but I was feeling exhausted and tired and probably as overwhelmed as he was. His embrace was comforting, safe and mostly warm despite his drenched attire, the un naturally cold breeze for this time of year was chapping at our bodies the low temperature of an autumn Saturday evening was something I hadn’t expected to be combating. He wasn’t going to give up and I could analyse over and over for an eternity as to why this is so deathly important to him but I wasn’t going to. He’d got me hooked on his infectious knack of being honestly open, a total opposite too me that I couldn’t bring myself to say no. I wasn’t going to say no to him in any form I just couldn’t.

’Don’t let me go I feel dizzy,’ I whispered through my daze, feeling strangely like a shaking Kate Winslet except without Leonardo Di Caprio in the water beside me and a great big boat sinking in the distance. He nodded his head gently, holding his hands firm on my waist, my arms still wrapped round his neck tightly. I rested my head against his chest, it was just too irresistible it felt so strangely fine, like he was the teddy bear I lost at the zoo when I was 8, the one that I vowed would forever only be my one true friend. Maybe that feeling of comfort I was enjoying was really an omen?

Glancing up I saw those sapphire jewels glaring back at me softly, the ones that cost me over $30 in assortment of oil blue paints. The numbness I was starting to feel was not aiding my dizzy feeling and things started to move, all but his eyes. They remained transfixed and I wanted to know why. All these questions I should be his quizmaster.

’I can’t feel my toes,’ I smiled lazily, adjusting my hands behind his neck. I could hear his whispering something back but my teeth were chattering too loudly for me to hear him properly. No doubt he was underlining again maybe it was a sign I should get dressed and let him take me home, but I didn’t want to leave. How unlike me, but how great it felt to be so unlike me in one teeny tiny way. Maybe this dizzy spell was another omen, or maybe it was the start of hypothermia? Questions Questions Questions!

But just then, I don’t know quite how, I did something else that was unlike me in everyway.

I kissed his cheek.

Her lips were ice cold when they touched my skin, or maybe it was the shock-I don’t know. I’d only said to her that I really should take her home, maybe buy her a hot drink to warm her up but she won’t move. It’s like she’s standing here defiant. I could see she was dizzy, she was swaying lightly and her skin was pale and by now I was just as cold but I was keeping her upright and I couldn’t just push her away, she doesn’t understand me enough to know why I would. I didn’t think she knew what she was doing when she kissed my cheek, her glossy eyes looking into mine without a hint of that adamant independence I’d seen earlier or on previous occasions. The cold must have been really biting her hard because her voice was raspy, her words were gentle and I was thinking that for someone who stands on her own two and stands on those two alone- that clinging onto a guy she’s only known for 4 Saturdays, half naked and freezing was not something she went about doing regularly.

’Season c’mon, I really think you better let me take you home your going to get really sick if we stand here and I don’t want you to get sick on my account,’ I encouraged, passing off her light kiss as a delirious reaction.

’Did I do something wrong?’ she questioned lightly, looking confused. I just looked at her as she cosyed herself closer, pushing against me a little more just enough to make me curse god for uncontrollable arousal.

’I just think your starting to freeze and your not quite knowing what your doing and it’s best to start heading home now,’

Did she reply to that?

He was caring about me, and making it seem genuine, I’d have to ask him when I’m not feeling so weird exactly how he manages that because, he really did sound genuinely concerned. I felt drunk, well and truly drunk from the temperature my body was chilling too and I knew what it like to be drunk. This artist consumes a lot of wine when the days get a little bit longer and a lot colder.

’You know Taylor, maybe I’m as curious about you as you are about me and I hafta admit I don’t say that full stop,’ I smiled giddily, feeling the warmth of his breath on my chapped cheek.

’Do you always pretend to care about lonely strangers?’ I added shortly before I really lost my head-and my marbles.

I couldn’t feel his lips at first, mine were so damn cold it didn’t feel like I was kissing those pert little lips I had almost ditched his eyes to paint instead. They were slightly rough, the cold probably doing the exact same to mine but I knew I was kissing him, there was some part of my brain still awake that knew that I was attempting to suck at his bottom lip. Unfortunately it was the part of my brain powerless to stop me stupidity and outrageous actions. My lips were warming and when I felt his move slightly to accept what I was doing, the first sparks of heat started to thaw my frozen face. His top lips closing over mine just long enough to bathe my lips with a slight lap of his warm tongue.

’Hold up here Season,’ he pulled away after a few seconds.

’I don’t know you that well but I know that’s not you,’ he was totally right. I could hear his words but I couldn’t make sense enough of them to make them compute. I just knew that the game was up, he could get to know me if he wanted to, I’d only scare him off when he found out there would be very little to understand but right now, I couldn’t even think straight. Maybe Jorim Shelly’s idea had a down side and this was it.

I didn’t reply, I just returned my lips to his, licking his lip lightly trying to return some warmth to him in the process but getting a short shock when I came into contact with his tongue trying to do the same to me. It felt unusual, it felt odd and despite the fact this was so far out of character It was in a different country for me-it felt weirdly satisfying.

She was freezing cold and getting sick right in front of me. I had no idea that this would happen so quickly, it’s not even that cold out but then again she’s been naked for the past 2 hours and I’ve only got a little bit soaked, now I understood why the Ophelia model died after posing. I knew this kiss was nothing, nothing but a zoned out reaction to the symptoms of a cold she was already showing. I shouldn’t have allowed myself to react, it’d do me no favours in more ways that the obvious but I couldn’t stop. She was arousing to the senses, intriguing to the mind and breathtaking to the body. Everything that existed in a real fictional siren. I was, as the men were then when they laid eyes upon a siren- completely transfixed and powerless to resist.

The kiss deepened slightly as our tongues sparked a slow, numb tango but I started to pull away when I felt her grip around my neck lessen and lessen with each grinding movement of our chapped blue tinted lips.

’Season? Season? Shit….,’ I mumbled as I pulled away from her fully to see what the matter was, seeing her eyes closed tightly and her face a deathly white I moved my arms around her body, holding her limp body up, one round her back, the other supporting the back of her head. She was like an ice block to hold and even though her chest continued to rise and fall I knew she’d just fainted on me and put that with her freezing body and you come up with- not good.

I picked her up after a bit of a balance problem, my feet wading through the water round to the side where the rocks were built up and the water didn’t fall in a sheet at the edge, I carefully carried her out towards the patch of grass when my stuff was.

’I knew it, it was all too damn perfect,’ I hissed to myself as I stepped down from the rocks, kneeling to the damp grass to lay her down. I checked for her pulse instantly and finding it still alive I rummaged through my bag to find a small blanket I brought in case I was left sitting here waiting for her to show up late. I covered her exposed chest thanking the heavenly father for stopping the twinges of my half erection, calming it right back down in the face of just a teensy crisis. Looking round like a merecat on steroids I spied a tan leather bag and a black coat over by the redwoods that must have belong to her. Checking she was okay I sprinted to fetch it, slinging it over my shoulder as I raced back to pack up my stuff and try and snap her out of her fainting episode.

’You think I’d be able to handle fainting girls by now too, oh please come on work with me,’ I rambled to myself as I tapped her cheeks, constantly checking her pulse and breathing. Shrugging her bag off my shoulders I opened the ties to find a white top inside of it. If she wasn’t going to wake up for me I was going to have to clothe her for when I found somebody that could. I carefully dressed her top half, finding her shorts as well and trying gently to dress her like some life size Barbie doll. When I’d finally managed that (mental note: don’t have kids, it’s hard enough to dress yourself) I picked up the stuff, threw all of our bags over my shoulder and picked her up once again, racing as fast as I could on my chicken legs towards the shared car me and Zac owned in the lot. Opening the damn thing and fumbling with some trouble to open the passenger door I finally got her inside, sitting her in the seat and fastening her belt throwing our stuff and my camera in the back. I had no real idea of what I was doing I just knew she had to get warm. She would stay in her comatose state until her body temperature reached more of a norm and when she came round would she actually remember making a pass? I don’t think you could warrant it a pass, it wasn’t her plain and simple she’s the girl that doesn’t need anyone, remember Taylor?

After making sure she was okay, checking her pulse once again I jumped in the drivers seat and switched on the engine, blasting out the heaters on their top setting hoping that the artificial warmth would bring her round. But she couldn’t come round soon enough because I’d only managed to drive to the exit of the chine parking lot when the realization hit me.

I didn’t know where she lived.