Bella's POV:

I landed on the very solid ground and stopped breathing for a moment. The light was fading away from my eyes while I was trying to concentrate on the bright moon above me. It was appearing and disappearing with a flicker.

A loud groan coming from my left distracted me from my concentration therapy. I looked at the man rolling on the ground a little far from me.

Nothing was making sense; I couldn't comprehend where I was and why.

I tried to move but my whole body ached in pain. An agony filled sound left my lip making that man sit up and crawled to me.

I couldn't see his face but his warm hands cupped my face.

"Are you alright?" He asked in a faraway voice. He was so close to me yet it felt like he was miles away.

I felt really tired, my eyes stopped focusing on the things, and my brain came to halt.

The man was talking to me and asking me something but I couldn't speak. Finally, I closed my eyes and fell in sleep.

Someone was slapping me really hard on the face and shaking me strong. I groaned in pain and tried to stop the brute who was torturing me.

"Thank god, you are alive. I thought something happened to you..."

Warm and solid arms circled around me pulling me towards the chiseled chest. Unintentional, a sigh left from my mouth as I snuggled closer to the person to receive more warmth.

"Say something," he said cupping my face and making me look into his eyes. I stared at him trying to remember who he was.

"What's your name?" he asked concerned.

"What's my name?" I asked myself.

I couldn't remember anything. I was scratching my brain but it was empty.

"Shit. Shit. Shit." I heard him mumbled under his breath.

"My name is shit?" I asked in bewilderment.

"No. No, can you remember your name? Try to recall it," he said sounding desperate.

I heard the female voice in my head telling me to be safe. She called me Bella.

"My name is Bella," I whispered.

"Good. Do you know who I am?" he asked.

I still couldn't see his face, it was really dark.

"The way you are freaking out, you are probably my husband," I said placing my head on his chest.

A laugh rumbled out making his chest vibrate as he hugged me.

"You're seeing our future, I guess," he mumbled.

"I'm sleepy..." I whined.

He picked me in his arms and my body protested in pain. A few seconds later, he laid me down on the ground and I felt some kind of comforting support under my head.

"What is under my head?" I asked inaudibly.

"Your head is on my lap, nothing to worry about,"

Then I felt him massaging my head making my body hum in approval.

"Do you know what Bella means in Italian?"

"No," I said insouciantly.

"It means beautiful," he whispered into my ear making me shudder.

"Am I?" I asked him.

"What?" He asked confused.

His voice sounded muddled.

"Am I beautiful?" I asked again.

He chuckled lightly that made my head quiver. A pain shot through my head and I pursed my lips trying to control a scream.

"More than I can describe in words," he whispered.

After that, I lost my consciousness as darkness consumed me.

A sudden jolt woke me up and my eyes snapped open. I was surrounded by long dry trees. A monkey was sitting on the branch and shaking them making dry leaves and apple like fruit fell down on me. I was lying on the ground trying to distinguish between dream and reality. I noticed my head was resting on something. I looked at the sleeping Gabriel; his hand was a tangle in my hair and his neck was dropped on his shoulder with his mouth slightly ajar.

In a pure panic, I scrambled away from him feeling scared. My movements woke him and his eyes searched around taking an instance position to fight.

His eyes landed on me and he sighed.

"You're awake," he said.

There was a small cut on his forehead which had dry blood on it. His face had small blue and purple bruise. His dark brown, almost black color hair was messy on his head.

"Do you remember what happened last night?" he asked looking at me skeptically.

I glared at him trying to crawl backward. My head started to hurt making wince in pain. I touched my head and felt a bump, it was swollen and tender.

He started to walk closer to me when I jumped up trying to protect myself.

"Don't come near me," I spat.

He stopped dead and looked at me in bafflement.

"I just wanted to make sure everything is fine. Is your head hurting?" He asked looking worried.

"What are you?" I asked him.

"I...I am Gabriel," he nervously ran his eyes around.

"I know your name, jerk. I'm asking what you are!"

He gave me a look of perplexity. He thought I wouldn't realize the truth.

"You know my name but you don't know who I am," he said. "We met on a bus. We were in a summer camp and then you got in trouble because of me."

I glared at him flatly. He thought it was time to be humorous.

"Don't test my patience, Gabriel. I know where we met and how we got here," I said walking closer to him and poked my finger on his chest. "You bloody made me jump from that cliff. I don't believe that we are magically alive after falling down the cliff."

He gave me a dazzling smile making my heart tremble. "Honestly, I don't know how we are alive. I did make you jump because I wanted to protect you. I thought you would appreciate death over those bastards taking advantage of you."

I agreed with him on that internally but didn't say anything.

"They were not some regular robbers. They were trained people, their shots were on point. I had to be quick to protect myself from getting my head blown. They would've managed to shot me if I fought them again. It was dangerous to stay in their company for long so I took the risk and made us jump from that cliff," he said looking guilty.

"We could've died. You don't know this place and they warned us," I said glaring at him in anger.

"Their warning made me suspicious. If we have survived it means the distance from the top of the cliff to the ground isn't a lot," he said.

I thought about his theory and realized that it made sense. How we would have survived otherwise?

He was looking at me intently waiting for my consent.

"I thought you were vampire or werewolf," I mumbled feeling my face heat up.

He stared at me and then burst into laughter. He fell down on his knees holding his stomach.

"Insensitive, jerk," I said hitting his shoulder and he laughed harder.

"Stop laughing, my head hurts,"

"You're something else, Bella," he said getting up.

As soon as, my name rolled out of his mouth my mind froze. He never called me with my name before.

"Let me take a look at your head,"

"No...no." I took the step back from him making him frown. If he came closer to me he would know how fast my heart was beating.

"I'll just let you know the state of your injury. I promise, I will not even touch it," he said in a soft voice like he was talking to some child.

He carefully parted my hair and muttered something in Italian.

"Is it bad?" I asked.

"Yes...no. I mean, the skin isn't broken or bleeding which is good. But the bump is really inflated," he said.

"We need to find a way out here and get it checked by some professional," he said patting my shoulder.

I took the step away from him giving him once over. He didn't even look slightest concerned about himself and his wounds. His utmost care about me made my head fuzzy.

After a very long time, I felt deserving of care and love. I shook my head at my thoughts and noticed he was already walking down the slope.

"Where are you going?" I said in a panic.

"I'm just looking around," he said while tripped to him with my twisted ankle. "I think there is a stream there. The birds are wet."

He started walking to his destination while I followed behind him soundlessly.

"How further it is?" I mumbled annoyed and tired.

I felt weak and famished; my footsteps were wavering but I didn't dare to inform him.

"If you haven't noticed it's my first time here too," he replied cheekily.

I grumbled under my breath looking down when my face hit a tree. I rubbed my nose backing away to see it was Gabriel's back.

"Why did you halt like that? I think you broke my nose," I said nursing it.

"You're so dramatic and my back is not made up of steel," he mused.

I looked at him to give him a piece of my mind when he started pulling his shirt off. I stopped breathing and my stinging nose was long forgetting.

His tan well-defined abs came into my view making me salivating. Suddenly he undid his pants and kicked them off. His hand went to the waistband of his boxers and he gripped them ready to pull them down and flash me his family jewels when I decided to shriek and turn.

"What?"

"Nothing," I snapped trying to hide my rosy cheeks.

I heard the sound of splashed and turned to find him in the water.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Getting cleaned up," he said rubbing his hands on his body like he was using a freaking soap. "Give me my shirt, it also needs some washing."

"Are you serious? We are in the middle of nowhere and you want to take a bath and wash your shirt," I snapped at him.

"We need to freshen up so we can work properly. Give me my shirt and get in the water," he said.

I threw his shirt on his face and walked behind the tree. I couldn't believe I was following his stupid instructions and getting undressed. I kept my undergarments on, unlike him, I cared about flashing my non-existing goods to anyone.

I froze when I realized that I had never been in front of anyone without clothes. They were my cover of protection from my past.

"Are you peeing or maybe something else?" he yelled sounding amused.

How could he joke in the current situation was beyond me.

Maybe with the new bruise, he wouldn't notice the old ones.

With that thought in my mind, I made my way to the water. He stared at me with his mouth open.

All the humor vanished from his face replaced by something else that I couldn't pinpoint. It wasn't similar to horrid lust that I saw in those men eyes earlier. Gabriel's stare held affection, fondness, and desire that made me shiver in a pleasurable way. He averted his eyes with rouge cheeks as I got in the water keeping my distance from him.

My sore muscles relaxed when the cold water touched them emitting a pleasurable moan out of me.

I felt a splash of water on my face and opened my eyes to see him grinning like a fool.

"Tell me you didn't," I said in a warning.

He smirked at me swimming away while I stayed at the corner. I wasn't good at swimming and I didn't know the depth of the water so dropped the plan of chasing him.

"Are you not going to take your revenge?" he yelled.

"I'm not good at swimming," I replied feeling mortified.

He started to swim closer to me when I held my hand up making him halt.

"Don't come near me. You're nakey, nakey," I said in a sing-song voice getting out of the water.

I sat down on the ground hoping to dry myself.

"I'm coming out of the water," he said and I quickly covered my eyes.

A few minutes later, I felt his body heat near me and opened my eyes to see him sitting beside me in his boxers only. His shirt was hanging on the tree branch drying.

"Are you hungry?" He asked.

"Obviously," I said. He got up and started to shake a tree. A few green apples looking fruit fell down on the ground.

"What is this?" I asked him staring at the fruit.

"Looks like a fruit to me," he replied washing them with water.

"What if they are poisonous?" I asked him.

"I'll die," He retorted back.

"You're not funny". I said dryly.

"Oh...I know I'm not funny. I'm sexy that's why you were eye raping me earlier," He said winking at me.

My stomach fluttered with butterflies and my heart rate accelerated. I shook those feeling away and muttered."Self-obsessed much."

He rolled his eyes taking a bite of the anonymous fruit.

I snatched the fruit from his hand and threw it away. "Spit it! Are you insane? What if something happens to you after eating this?"

He spits it out looking startled and then gazed at me with wide eyes.

"Calm down," he said showing his hand up in surrender.

I sat there taking a deep breath.

An eerie silence fell between us as we stared at the water. I felt bad for making him throw that fruit looking thing because he must be hungry. But eating that thing was kind of welcoming your own death.

"Can I ask you something?" he said breaking the silence.

"When did you start seeking permission from me before saying anything?" I replied amused.

"How did you get these marks on your arms?"

His fingers brushed on the marks making me shudder at the memories. His eyes were silently assessing them. I knew it wouldn't take long for him to connect the dots.

"It looks like someone tried to burn your arm with cigarettes," he whispered in shock.

I couldn't talk when words left his mouth.

"Who did this?" He asked looking livid. His fists were clenching and unclenching like he wanted to punch.

"They are old marks, don't worry," I managed to whisper looking down at my lap.

He gripped my chin making me look at him. "Who the f*ck did this to you? I want to know."

His eyes were burning with fury but his face showed unspoken care. I couldn't help myself from expelling the truth.

"My father did," I told him.

____________________________________

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