Unforgettable

But how do you expect me
to live alone with just me
'Cause my world revolves around you
It's so hard for me to breathe

"If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

Stephanie sighed as those fateful words rolled around in her head for what felt like the millionth time that night. They were words that had had been spoken by her father a long ten months ago and words that had haunted her ever since. In fact they had been preying on her mind constantly especially the last few weeks leaving her caught up in her own silent torment. And of course the ironic thing about that was those words had supposed to offer her some comfort at the time, like her pre-determined fate would somehow help ease the giant ache inside her heart. The ache she had felt the second she and Paul had been broken apart and her entire world had been shattered into tiny little pieces. The same world that had become terribly empty and cold without him and that emptiness hadn't eased any with the passage of time. If anything the void he had left in her life was only deeper and darker with each passing day.

Turning to the window, Stephanie sighed again softly and shifted on the bed staring at the thick snowflakes that fell gently against the glass before melting and sliding down to the bottom wooden ledge. It was those same snowflakes that had kept her here in the hotel with the winter storm ensuring all flights were cancelled at least until the early hours of the morning. So here she was, just sitting here with too much time on her hands and of course her mind turned to him. It always did. Paul. The man her heart just couldn't forget. Neither could her head especially lately. She didn't know what it was. All she knew was that she missed him terribly to the point where she physically ached for him inside. And of course it didn't help that she had to work with him every day and pretend they were nothing more than friends; a pretence that was becoming harder and harder with every passing hour. Because every time she looked at him now, she remembered everything. She could recall every touch and every whisper they had shared and those memories only served to remind her of the feelings she had for him; these deep rooted feelings that still burned fiercely inside her. God, she cared about Paul so much that at times it hurt to breathe without him.

Resting her head back against the propped up pillows, Stephanie let herself sink into the soft padded cotton. To say she had been absolutely devastated when her father had ended their relationship was a massive understatement. Sure, she and Paul had only been together a couple of months but it had been long enough for her to know that what they had was extremely special. So special that most people only dreamed of finding something like it once in their lifetimes. She was deeply in love all the way to the tips of her fingers and nobody had touched her mind, body and soul the way Paul had. She knew he was the one; her one true love and soul-mate. She was meant to grow old with Paul. He was the happily ever after she had always dreamed about ever since she was a little girl and had watched Sleeping Beauty all the while imagining finding her very own Prince. And it was a happily ever after she was determined to have no matter what the cost because she didn't want to spend one more second without him in her arms. She couldn't. Although God knows she had tried to exist without him.

She had honestly tried everything from ignoring Paul to even dating another guy. A guy who, for all intents and purposes had taught her only one thing. That everything in her life came back to one thing and her love for one man. A man who had brought her to life every single time his lips had touched hers. His kisses had awoken her soul and without him, she knew she would never be whole again and really, she wasn't sure she could live that way. Not when Paul owned her heart and without his love, she just didn't function properly. She needed him to fully complete her. So that's why she was going to do something about this. She was so sick and tired of living in this shell of an existence and she was sick and tired of doing what was right for everybody else including her father and the business. This time, she was going to do what was right for her.

Stephanie's blue eyes glistened with a steely determination and she sat up swinging her legs over the side of her bed. Her cell phone sat over on the window ledge and as she picked it up, she noticed her hands were lightly trembling. The blood beat in her ears as her fingers jabbed at the small square keys, the numbers firmly engrained in her mind. How often had she dialled them desperate to hear his voice, needing something concrete to keep herself from constantly floundering around in her own sadness.

"Hello?"

Stephanie's eyes fluttered shut as she let out a calming breath. The sound of his soft deep tone instantly soothed her like it always did and her lips curved up gently with her smile as she glanced absently around the low lit room. "Hey. It's me."

"Hello me."

Her smile widened at the familiarity of his greeting as she wrapped her arm around herself. Her earlier anxiety slowly began to slip away with her stomach fluttering madly at the thought of him. She could even picture him now. So often she watched Paul in a hotel room or in a dressing room at a show talking on the phone. She knew his actions and he would be standing up wherever he was, the phone cradled to his left ear as he slowly paced the room, unable to sit still while he carried on a conversation. It was one of the quirky little things she loved about him, one of the many things she liked to think only she noticed about him because the truth was Paul belonged to her. He had been from the moment she had fallen for him; maybe even before that because there had always been this undeniable chemistry between them. A powerful connection they hadn't noticed until everyone else around them had and it was something that only cemented what she already knew in her heart. She and Paul were supposed to be together. They were truly meant to be.

"So……" she began pausing to turn to the window to watch the snow continue to fall thickly. "I was calling because I was sitting here alone thinking and what I was thinking was that we really need to talk."

As she bit down on her lip nervously anticipating his reply, a matter of seconds ticked by and she swore she could hear the loud beating of her heart in his deafening silence. Her brow crinkled with her crushing dismay.

"Paul? Are you still there?"

"Yeah."

There was an anxious beat before the gentle lilt of his voice saved her from herself again.

"And funnily enough, I was just thinking the exact same thing."

Her blue eyes briefly closed once more as she breathed in relief. "You were?"

"Uh huh. In fact, if I'm honest I've been thinking of you the whole night."

Stephanie swallowed thickly hardly daring to believe what he was telling her. It gave her the tiniest glimmer of hope that she and Paul just might be on the same page, that he was missing her every bit as much as she missed him.

As her lips parted to respond, she glowered in annoyance when she was interrupted by the soft knocking that echoed through the room.

"Hold on a second. There's somebody at the door." she explained as she raked her fingers through her loose brown strands and her bare feet shuffled across the carpet making her way through the luxury suite.

"You got a late night visitor, McMahon? People will talk, you know."

"Ha ha. Very funny." she smiled. "If you must know, I'm still holed up the hotel. My flight got cancelled."

"I know." he told her making her frown in puzzlement as she turned the handle.

"What do you mean, you know?" she asked as she pulled open the door. Her breath caught in her throat and she blinked heavily in disbelief as she saw Paul standing in the hallway and briefly wondered if this was a figment of her imagination and that she wanted him so desperately she was actually envisioning him at her hotel room. But as he stepped towards her, she knew that wasn't the case. Paul was here. Paul was really here.

"I mean, I know." he smiled softly ending the call and placing his cell in his pocket. His navy polo shirt hung over the waistband of his jeans and his hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail. Stephanie hungrily drank him as her hand still gripped the shiny door handle thinking he was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

"Hey."

"Hey." she said as she still stared at him in wonderment. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I was hoping I would find you."

Her heart clenched as he ducked his head in a shy smile. As Paul shifted to lean against the doorframe, she noticed he looked tired with faint shadows under his brown eyes. He obviously hadn't slept last night. Funnily enough, neither had she. She had tossed and turned all night thinking of him and feeling restless with his proximity, knowing he was here, somewhere in the same building as she was.

"So, you said we needed to talk."

She nodded needing to swallow before she could find her voice again. "Yeah. Come in." she said, stepping aside to invite him inside.

As he brushed by her, she wondered if he could hear her heart beating madly, racing in her chest at a hundred miles an hour. Suddenly she felt extremely nervous knowing so much rested on this one conversation.

"This is a nice pad, McMahon."

The door clicked shut behind her as she turned around to see Paul standing in the centre of the small sitting room admiring the ornate decoration.

"It obviously pays to be the boss's daughter." he smirked.

Stephanie smiled, lifting her shoulder in a casual shrug. "What can I say? It has some perks."

But as her blue eyes locked on his, her smile faded as she eased a step closer to him, tentatively reaching for his left arm that hung loosely by his side and allowing her fingers to skim lightly over his smooth skin.

"It also has some downfalls too, the main one being that I have to be without you."

As she stared at him, she felt his warm fingers reach for her hand. Paul's facial expression was soft as they entwined themselves around her tips joining their hands together.

"But you don't have to be without me, not if you don't want to."

He paused as he gazed at her for a moment, his eyes travelling over her face like a soft caress.

"Because I'm here, Steph. I'm here waiting for you. I always have been."

Stephanie swallowed thickly as his lips curved into a tender smile. Paul was so close she could feel his words as they rumbled deeply in his chest and she wanted just to pull him in her arms and have what she so desperately wanted. Him! Paul was everything she had been waiting for and here he was waiting for her too. It seemed he had always been within her reach and while that knowledge should have made her heart soar, something about it just didn't sit right with her. In fact, it was niggling at the back of her mind knowing that really, his words weren't the whole truth.

Because the fact was Paul hadn't always been waiting for her. He'd been in a relationship with another woman while they were apart and not just any woman. He had gotten back with Joanie and while she'd tried her best to hide it at the time, she still felt betrayed and hurt by his actions. After all, how could be proclaim to love her yet be with her? The very thought of them together had killed her inside. And sure, she had tried dating another guy but it had been harmless. It had meant nothing. The same didn't ring true for Paul. There were feelings involved because at one time he had been in love with Joanie. A love she needed to know was over because there was far too much at stake for her here.

Letting out a shaky breath, Stephanie knew what she had to do. Shrugging off his hand, she took a step back and ignored the look of confusion on his face as she appraised him with a frown, folding her arms protectively over her chest.

"I think we both know that's not necessarily true."

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean." she shot back and her blue eyes went wide with the emphasis of her name. "Joanie?!"

Paul shook his head softly and sighed. His big hand lifted in frustration hovering over his head before it smoothed across his ponytail. "But you know the whole story with Joanie."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do. I told you everything Steph." he cried out. "I kept nothing from you. There's nothing you don't know."

"Really?"

"Really." Paul replied, his brown eyes narrowing to stare at her gravely.

"Then tell me something." she challenged him as she pushed her hand through her hair, feeling a surge of emotion as her old wounds began to bubble to the surface "Tell me why you were with her because I don't I understand why the hell you had to go back with her!"

Her raised words seemed to hang between them in the silence of the room and Stephanie wasn't sure who seemed more startled by her outburst right now, her or Paul. But she couldn't help herself. Paul had professed to love her yet he had gone back to Joanie when they had been forced apart. It had left her feeling confused, hurt and full of total despair. She had cried herself to sleep the first day she had seen them together at the arena, holding hands. It was like she had never existed and their promises to wait for another had been nothing but empty words spoken between them.

Eventually it was Paul who broke the silence. His lips parted needing a few seconds to find his voice as his brown eyes tentatively sought out hers.

"You don't know how much I wish I had an answer for you. Some explanation why I did what I did. But honestly, I can't not when I don't understand why myself."

He paused and scratched at the stubble on his chin seeking the words he wanted and needed to find.

"All I know is that I missed you, Steph." he told her gently. "I missed you so badly that at times I couldn't stand still and it hurt so much to be around you. I don't know."

He sighed lifting his shoulder in an apologetic shrug and his brow crinkled with his uncertainty as he cast his eyes downwards.

"I just thought if I could go back to a time where I knew how to exist without you, I would be fine. I could forget that my heart was broken or at the very least find a way to be without you. And Joanie, well I could see how much I had hurt her and I felt so much guilt over that. I figured I at least owed her something, to try again. But I couldn't. My heart wasn't in it."

Paul lifted his head to look at her once more and Stephanie felt any anger slowly begin to slip away as her gaze drifted over his handsome face and she whispered softly.

"Why?"

"Why do you think?"

"But you loved her." Stephanie said, ignoring the waiver in her voice as she waited anxiously for his reply.

"I did." he admitted as his expression clouded over. "Once upon a time but I never loved her in the way you're supposed to love a person. Not like the way that I love you."

His gentle words moved her and Stephanie's felt her chest ache so tightly that she needed to inhale deeply and slowly.

"And you know every time I look at you lately, I keep asking myself the same thing."

"And what's that?" she asked feeling the butterflies in her chest as Paul's mouth lifted in a soft, shy smile.

"Why aren't we together? Because I realised tonight, I just don't have one good reason why. I don't know the answer."

Stephanie had to bite down on her lip to stop it from trembling as she felt her heart lodge in her throat and her big blue eyes stared back at him. "So is that what you're here for, to find that answer?"

"No." Paul replied simply, his smile shifting as he crossed the short distance between them and his hand reached out to touch her face, his thumb lightly tracing her skin.

As she leant into his gentle warmth, she felt any trace of doubt or fear start to quickly vanish.

"I'm here because I miss you, Steph and I realised I don't want to live one more second without you."

Her chest fluttered with anticipation as his mouth lowered and sought out hers. With a familiar and aching tenderness, his lips gently brushed over her lips lingering for a moment before Paul began kissing her more insistently. Her heart was soaring as Stephanie kissed him back, her mouth parting wider with a low moan encouraging the tip of his tongue to flick out to taste her. Paul tasted of mint and she swore she was floating on air as their tongues slid together.

Both his hands now cupped her face and she could feel his long fingers tangle in her hair occasionally stroking her neck as he continued the kiss, his tongue probing her mouth gently, rediscovering her.

Paul's kiss stole her breath yet Stephanie had never felt more alive. Her whole body was tingling with his embrace and it felt far too soon when he pulled away, pausing to pull gently on her bottom lip one last time.

Breathless, she couldn't wait one second longer to tell him what she had wanted to tell him for so long.

"I love you."

His incredible slow smile made her knees weak.

"And I love you, so much." Paul replied as he brushed her hair tenderly across her forehead.

He pulled her close, sliding his arms around her waist and wrapping her to him tightly. Stephanie let out a sigh of contentment as she let her head fall against as his chest. Breathing in the heady scent of his cologne, she snuggled into him, glancing towards the window. The snow still fell thickly outside reminding her she was trapped and in a strange place, hundreds of miles away. But right now, in this one moment, she never felt more certain that she belonged. Because being in Paul's arms was exactly what it felt like to finally come home.