Time had been suspended between heaven and earth.

All she could feel was the hard denim of his jeans against her bare knees as he brushed his lips against hers softly and slowly as if he had all the time in the world.

He had never seen Hoori looking as casual as she did at that moment. She was wearing a pair of  sweatpants and a t-shirt as she lay down on the rug before him; Michelle hovering over her as she helped her stretch her hamstrings.

"That must have been a very interesting message if it had you staring at your phone for 15 minutes in the driveway."

The fuck.

Who the hell was this woman?

"Excuse me?"

"I'm Michelle." She stood up and gripped his hand in a firm handshake.

"Okay." He just barely resisted the urge to wipe his hands off on his pants as he let go of her sweaty palms.

"You must be Mikaeel."

"Uh huh."

He couldn't believe he had to actually look up at this woman. She was tall and heavy-set and it seemed as if she was the one who was working out instead of Hoori judging by the shiny sheen of sweat covering her rounded face.

"Well, you're here just in time." She stood with her hands over her hips as she regarded him sternly. "Go stand over there, in that corner." She pointed to the corner furthest away from him.

"Why?"

"Because if Hoori can walk from here to you, you can give her a nice big kiss as a reward." She answered back rather saucily.

Where in the fuck did they find this woman?

He raised his eyebrow as he glanced at her warily. "Seriously?"

"Ya." She nodded. "Go." She shooed him away as if he were a stray dog.

He dropped his keys onto the table beside him before he walked slowly away, barely even glancing at Hoori's reaction to what Michelle had just said.

"Okay," She walked over to where Hoori still lay on her rug, "Upsie daisy." She stretched her hand, preparing to haul Hoori up from the floor before her phone began ringing madly in her pocket. "Make yourself useful and help her up." Michelle snapped her fingers at Mikaeel before she answered her phone hurriedly and began speaking in heavy Portuguese as she walked out the room.

She pointedly ignored the withering look directed at her from his corner.

"Where did you find this psychotic woman?" He asked as he walked over to Hoori.

"Dr Krenak recommended her."

"She's fucking crazy." He muttered as he stretched his hand towards her, grasping her hand in his own before he pulled her up to stand on her feet.

"She's okay." She braced herself on his arms, steadying herself as she fought the black dots popping up before her eyes.

"Good, you're up." Michelle boomed as she walked back into the room. "So, it's about 10 steps to your husband."

"10?" Hoori looked cautiously between her feet and Mikaeel.

Could 10 steps really seem that far?

But it did.

It felt as if there was an entire ravine between where she stood and where he waited for her and she was sure she would never cross it.

She bit her lip nervously as she let go of Michelle's arm and took one slow, painstaking step toward him.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

And another.

But her leg buckled on the sixth step and before she knew it, she felt the hard wooden floor knock against her behind as she just... fell.

Six steps and she couldn't do it.

Her fingers tapped nervously against her thigh as she considered what had just happened. She couldn't do it.

She was a failure.

Again.

She rubbed the bridge of her nose, wiping away the one tear that had dared to escape before she looked up at Mikaeel. She didn't even know what he was thinking as he looked down at her.

He must have been thinking that she was pathetic and weak and useless and she felt it. She felt so defeated.

She felt those things as she looked up at him from the floor, unable to even pick herself up. He had already detested her before she had fallen ill. He was probably regretting it now. He was probably regretting his rash decision to get married to her. Then to stay married to her and to deal with her when she was sick and to bring her back home even though she couldn't even step into the damned shower by herself.

She had to rely on him for everything.

She couldn't even carry her own cup from the microwave to the table!

She was like a child. Like a small child who had to wait for him to wash her hair and warm up her food and open her bottles for her.

She hated it! She hated it so much and as she sat on the floor looking up at him, she was sure he hated her too.

She wanted to cry.

She wanted her mother to pretend to care for once in her life. She wished her mother could phone her and talk to her and pretend to love her. She wished that for once her dad would hug her so that she could feel what the girls in her stories felt as their dads hugged them. They felt safe and protected and comforted and she wished so badly that her dad would leave his business for just one day and remember that he still had one more daughter left.

She was still there. She didn't die. She was alive and she was breathing and she was so scared and so lonely and so desperate for them to acknowledge her existence. Just once.

She wanted her mother to forget about saving the whole world and forget about chemicals and tablets and side effects and pills and diseases and just think about her. But she never did. She never remembered that she had a daughter and that her daughter needed her and that it wasn't her fault that she was born. She didn't intend to be born. She was born and she wished that her parents had that...

Thing that made mothers fall in love with their babies at first sight and made them run to kiss their children when they fell and forced them to run their fingers through their daughter's hair when they were sick.

She never knew what that felt like so she wrote about it and she pretended that she was those girls in her books that felt those things. That felt those beautiful things that would fill their souls and lighten their hearts.

But pretending would never be the same as real life. She couldn't pretend to know what it was like to have parents who would drop everything and fly halfway around the world because she needed them. That was just too far out of her reach to even imagine.

She rested her head on her knees, unable to look at him anymore and have him think of her as a failure as well.

She just wanted to escape. She wanted to leave it all and just escape.

But she couldn't. She couldn't even walk six steps on her own.

So how could she possibly think to escape?

"Here."

She looked up at the sound of his voice.

He was standing away from her but his hand was stretched towards her, waiting for her to get over her dramatics.

She placed her hand in his, gripping it as strongly as she could before she felt his hand close around hers, warm and firm. before he hauled her to her feet, steadying her as she swayed just a bit.

"I think that's enough for today, hey?" Michelle said, looking at her watch. "Wednesday. You're getting it right. No excuses."

"No excuses." Hoori mumbled, trying to keep Michelle happy.

"And you." She looked down at Mikaeel.

"Ya?"

"Be here at 3."

He just stared at her, raising his eyebrow as he tried to discern whether or not she was bullshitting him.

She was definitely not.

"Fine."

"Good. See you then." She shook their hands, squeezing Mikaeel's just a little too tightly before she saw herself out.

"Thank you." Hoori said it so softly that he had almost missed it entirely.

He nodded just once as he watched her stretch her arm out to reach for her walker.

"I'm going to sleep, okay."

She turned away before he could say another word.

...

His fingertips prodded along her sides and her stomach as if searching for something before his hands moved slowly upwards toward her shoulder, lowering the thin black strap down her arm...

'"Hey!" Ihsaan snapped his fingers in front of Mikaeel's face, yanking him out of whatever shit he was thinking.

"What?" Mikaeel asked, popping open the can of gingerbeer in front of him.

"What's got you so distracted man?"

"Nothing."

"Sure?" Ihsaan smiled at the waitress as she placed his platter before him.

"Uhm hmm." Mikaeel took in Ihsaan's appearance with a sense of unease. He just looked wrong. His hair was too limp and his skin was too shiny and his cheeks looked as if they had sunken in. Even his eyes, he couldn't keep himself focused on Mikaeel for even a few seconds before his gaze darted across the entire restaurant. The way he held his knife as he split open his boiled potato spoke volumes. His hands were shaking so badly, he had missed the centre by almost and inch.

He was just shifty and off.

And it was worrying. He had never gone this far before and he wasn't just drinking and smoking weed anymore. Mikaeel knew hard drugs when he saw it and Ihsaan and Dahlia were involved in heavy shit.

"How's Hoori doing?"

"She's doing fine."

"Good." He looked down at his plate, lathering his potato with butter.

"Ya." Mikaeel didn't want to talk about Hoori with him. He felt uncomfortable about the whole thing and he didn't like it.

"You haven't come out with us since your birthday." He switched the subject as he cracked open the prawns in front of him, before drenching them in lemon juice.

"I know."

"You know?" Ihsaan looked at him oddly. He had never known Mickey Mouse to just stop partying.

"Ya, I know."

"So, you're coming out with us tonight."

"You and Dahlia going to do your shit again?"

"Come on man..." Ihsaan moaned, clenching his hands as he felt the familiar tingles pass through them.

Mikaeel placed his can back on the table, "I had to pick you up from fucking Hillbrow at 3 in the morning." Mikaeel looked at him, unsure if he was even ale to recognise the man in front of him. "Hillbrow. What the fuck were you doing there?"

"It was a once in a lifetime event boss. We had to go."

"You didn't." He could feel his agitation rise at Ihsaan's flippant attitude. "Did you even see the way you looked? You were so fucking out of it, you didn't even see the way your wife was rubbing up against that fucking asshole next to you! Did you  see where his hands were?"

"Man, fuck you!" Ihsaan shouted, unwittingly drawing the attention from those around them. "Don't act all fucking sanctimonious with me, you shit. You can't even fucking keep your fucking hands off other women when you have your own fucking wife waiting for you at home." He stood up, ignoring the full platter in front of him as he pulled a R200 note from his back pocket and dropped it on the table. "So fuck you!"

Mikaeel stared at him in shock.

That was new.

 He had never seen Ihsaan go off at anyone like that before.

Who the hell was that?

That wasn't Ihsaan. That definitely wasn't Ihsaan.

"Here's your..." The waitress looked at the empty seat across from him, unsure if he was gone or not.

"Just pack it up and bring me the bill." Mikaeel sighed, dropping his head to lay in his opened palm as he waited for her to come back.

...

She felt his breath against her throat as he blew a thousand small kisses upon her skin...

"No Mum." She heard him sigh heavily outside the room as he spoke to his mother on the phone.

"Uh huh."

"Ya," He was getting angrier by the second. She could hear it in his clipped answers and she assumed he was grinding his teeth against each other as he listened to his mother go on for herself. "Ya, my sub is in 3 weeks."

"No," He leaned his forehead against the wall. She heard the light knock from where she sat. "I won't fail it."

"Okay. Salaam."

He walked in, leaning against the doorway as he looked at her.

She looked up at him when she felt his stare on her. "What?"

"This seems familiar."

She was sitting on her side of the bed, resting against the headboard with her feet tucked beneath her as she read her book.

"What?" She pulled the hem of her black nightie just a little lower, till it sat snugly over her knees. His look was making her feel uncomfortable. He didn't stop. He just looked at her, not saying a word as he took in her appearance from her face, down her throat, down the dipped neckline of her nightie, down the bodice, till her knees.

 He looked at her slowly and deliberately, taking in every inch of her.

"What Mikaeel?" She sounded exasperated, not knowing what to do with the way he looked at her.

He walked towards her, amused at the way she seemed to shrink just a little further into the bed with every step he took.

He shook his head. "I don't think you want to know..."

He walked slowly, his shoes barely making a sound on the wooden floors beneath him.

"Tell me." She hadn't even realised that she had reclined further and further into the bed till his body loomed over hers as he knelt on the floor beside her, bracing his forearms on the pillow next to her head.

"You shouldn't leave your laptop open..."

His lips barely brushed against her ear as he spoke softly to her.

"What..." She could feel her face heat up at the implication of his words.

"Time had been suspended between heaven and earth." He whispered in her ear, smiling as he felt her breath hitch. "All she could feel was the hard denim of his jeans against her bare knees as he brushed his lips against hers softly and slowly as if he had all the time in the world."

He kissed the side of her neck, just once. Her heart was going crazy. He could feel it beating through the black satin fabric as his hands ran slowly down her sides.

He ran his fingertip slowly up her arm till he reached the strap of her nightgown before he moved to kiss the underside of her jaw. "Right?"

She could barely even breathe as he pulled the thin black strap agonisingly slow down her arm, kissing the beauty spot on her shoulder as he did so.

"What else did you write?" He asked, kissing her softly on her bottom lip. She knew he was teasing her again but her mind was so muddled up by him that she could barely even think about whatever it was that she had typed that night.

"She felt his breath against her throat as he blew a thousand small kisses upon her skin." He spoke against her lips, she could feel every word as his words dropped to barely a whisper, "Before he brushed against the lace hem of her nightgown, lifting it..."

She grabbed his wrist, stopping him from raising the lace hem of her nightie.

"Only one problem, Hooriya," he mumbled, still speaking against her lips.

"What?" She barely breathed out the words before he captured her lips in a kiss that had her shaking till her toes as he nipped at her bottom lip, trying to deepen the kiss into something much, much more.

"I've never kissed you like he kissed her," he said, dotting her lips with light kisses as he spoke, grazing his palm against her lower back. "Have I?"

She shook her head, only slightly, never allowing his lips to move away from hers.

"One more thing," He leaned back, taking in her appearance as he lifted the strap of her nightie to sit on her shoulder once again.

She could hardly catch her breath before he brushed his thumb against her bottom lip, wiping away the last remnants of her lips balm.

"What?" She asked, looking down at his hand as he traced tiny circles on the top of her knee.

He leaned forward, resting his forehead against hers for just a moment.

"I never slept with you that night."

He only registered the sting in his cheek when he felt her hand push hard against his chest.

"Get out!"

His screwed his jaw, rubbing the bottom of his cheek as he did so.

"You need to stop pretending, Hooriya. It's only going to get you hurt." He said softly before he stood up. "I'm never going to be him."
Then he turned around and walked away.

She couldn't believe he would mention that night. That was one of the most humiliating experiences of her life and he dared to remind her of it.

Hoori ran her hand roughly through her hair before she pulled hard at the strands against her crown. God, she was so, so angry. She didn't want him anywhere near her and if he knew what was good for him, he would stay far away from her bed that night. 

"Ya but," Mikaeel tried to speak before his mother interrupted him once again.

"But Mum, please just..."

She could hear him pacing outside their bedroom, trying to get a word in but his mother never allowed him to.

"No, but listen..."

"Fine." He conceded, "Okay Salaam."

He walked in, sitting down heavily on the bed with his back turned to her.

She put her book down, unsure if she should ask. But she couldn't just let him be.

"Hey." She moved over to sit behind him before she tapped him on his shoulder.

"What?" He turned to look at her, raising his eyebrow at their proximity.

"Are you okay?"

"Just fine." He said before he turned around once again, trying hard to ignore her.

"Mikaeel." She moved just a little more, sitting on her knees right next to him.

"What Hoori?" Annoyance clear on his face as he looked at her.

What could she say?

He wouldn't listen to anything.

She leaned forward, trying hard to ignore the scowl on his face.

"What are you doing?"

She didn't reply.

She didn't know how to as she kissed him softly on his lips.

He remained stoic and impassive yet still, she kept her lips on his waiting for a response.

She moved her hands to cover his own, hoping she wasn't making a fool out of herself. She could feel the way his fingers tensed as she rubbed her thumb over his knuckles, trying to garner some type of a response yet all she got was his lips pressed against hers.

She ran her hand lightly up his arm, brushing over his shoulders before she curled it around the back of his neck. She pushed herself closer to him, feeling the soft material of his shirt brush up against her bare arms before she felt his arm wind around her back, as he held her tightly.

His shoulders relaxed beneath her arm as she played with the short hairs at the back of his head. He pressed his lips firmly against hers before he gently lowered her till she lay beneath him on their bed.

The heavy material of his jeans brush up against her bare knee as his hands skimmed up her leg, lifting the lace hem of her black nightie just a little further up her thigh. His teeth grazed against the juncture betwen her neck and her shoulder before he moved the straps of her nightgown further down her arm.

Time was suspended between heaven and earth as he kissed her once again. But he didn't kiss her as she kissed him. He kissed her, trying hard to darken her lips with his as he wrapped his arm around her waist just a little too tightly.

He just wanted to forget it all and lose himself.

He kissed her.

And he kissed her.

And he kissed her.

Again.

And again.

And again...

She felt a droplet of water fall onto the apple of her cheek and roll down the side of her face before she opened her eyes to look up at him.

He had stopped kissing her, staring at her as if he was horrified to be near her, to be on top of her.

"Get the fuck away from me..." he whispered.

"What just..."

"Leave me the fuck alone." The words seemed as if they were ripped out of him before he bolted off the bed. He snatched up his shirt from where it lay on the floor before he picked up his car keys and all but ran out the door.

Hoori's eyes opened slowly, afraid he might not have come back.

But he did.

And in that moment, she wished he had stayed away.

She didn't know what time he had come in or where he had gone but she wished he had never had the audacity to sleep in her bed right next to her with that... thing on the side of his neck.

And she never kissed his neck the night before...

A/N Sorry guys, I can't explain this one. You're going to have to figure it out yourself. It's like a bonus chapter... You can figure him out right here if you dig deep enough.