The road ahead of me is barren of any form of life. I'm the only living person on the earth, I know it, I can feel it in my gut and the fear of being alone is slowly killing me. But I can't do anything about it, instead I'm forced to drive this car down an empty road at night with the radio slowly growing louder.

I softly sing along to the song although I don't know the words, I'm always a second behind them. Soon I forget about being alone on the gray and aging earth, and instead I focus on the getting the words right. I keep trying and every time I get closer the song gets louder and faster building a crescendo until it finally I'm able to belt out the words, singing my heart out with a grin on my face. That is until I lay my eyes on the road in front of me again and see a small figure in the middle of the road. I try to swerve but it's too late.

I'm screaming, she's screaming, the whole world starts to crumble beneath the car. Tree's from the side of the road start to fall onto the street and suddenly there's flashes, hundreds of paparazzi are surrounding my car, laughing and yelling my name as I cry out for help.

They start to call my name back to me, over and over again but it's not the same. Instead they're calling out, "Alex."

...

"Alex," a voice yells in my ear, "Alex wake up!"

It takes a few seconds for me to realize that my body is shaking and that someone is calling my name. I jump up in bed after I open my eyes, seeing Michaels' face hovering above mine.

"Why are you so close to me," I grumble, scooting farther away from him towards the head board.

He looks at me curiously, his brown eyes analyzing me. "You were having a nightmare. I was trying to wake you up."

"I was," I ask, feeling my body run cold. "I-I'm sorry. It's just the new environment I guess." I clutch the blankets to my chest, begging for some sort of comfort.

Michael's eyes look over the blanket I'm using as a shield and the death grip I have on it before trailing up to meet my eyes. "Have you been raped before? You could have told me, I would've have slept on the floor."

I shake my head, feeling heat blossom to my cheeks and I don't know why. "No, I haven't. Like I said it's just stress, but thank you."

Michael doesn't say anything, instead he lays back down under the covers and waits until I do the same. Minutes pass by in silence and I try my best to keep my breathing even and my thoughts elsewhere. I didn't know I was having a nightmare, I usually don't remember when I'm woken up from it by someone else until they tell me. But when or if I do remember what I dreamt about it's like reliving the nightmare all over again, so I try to not think about it.

"Alex," Michael whispers in the dark with my back facing him.

"Yeah?" I whisper back, careful to keep my voice even as well.

"I'm not stupid," he says right before he wraps an arm around my waist and pulls me to his chest. I begin to squirm out of his hold, shocked by his action before he speaks up again. "Don't even try Princess."

I do as he says and give up against his tight hold, sinking back into his arms. As uncomfortable as I am, being held by a giant after he woke me up from a nightmare, I let him hold me and oddly enough I try to take comfort in his embrace, which works.

A short time later Michael falls asleep, his hot breath fanning my neck and his arm now hanging loosely over my body. It only takes an hour and half for the sun to start to rise and I take that time to rise out of bed, careful to not wake Michael up.

I look around the small cabin, at the books, the worn down furniture, the walls made out of logs, and I decide I can't take it anymore. I've been in here for the past two days, if I stay a minute longer I'm going to think about things that I don't want to think about. I don't have the paparazzi out here to keep me distracted, I have to put myself to work.

An hour later I hear Michael slamming the front door shut, a few seconds later he's calling my name. "Alex?" His voice is full of desperation and panic.

"I'm over here," I holler and begin to make my way out of the chicken pen.

He turns the corner of the cabin then stops in his tracks when his eyes land on me.

"Did you sleep well?" I close the gate behind me and hang the bucket of chicken feed on the nearby post.

"Did you just feed my chickens," Michael questions, looking curiously at the animals behind me.

"Yes I did," I clap my hands, wiping off any dirt, "and I also gathered some eggs and I spared two so you could have breakfast. I put them all in the fridge."

I walk past a shell shocked slash tired Michael. It takes a minute for him to come running after me. "Why did you do all that?"

"Oh I also fed Stars and Stripes," I add when we pass the two mutts who I pet with a large grin. They nearly lick my face off.

"Stars and Stripes?" Michael asks confused, following me into the cabin like a lost puppy.

"Yeah well you told me the other day that you never named them so I took the liberty to do so." I laugh and twirl around to look at him. "Liberty, ha get it? Cause it's Stars and Stripes? Like 'Merica?"

"I get it," he says blandly. "And no one says America like that."

I raise a brow. "Wow you really have been off the grid for quite some time." I turn around to walk over to his three legged dining table, taking a seat at one of the chairs. "Well eat up." I wave my hand over the plate of eggs next to me.

Cautiously Michael sits next to me and slowly begins to eat. "You're acting weird," he mumbles.

I roll my eyes. "Do you want me to help out or not? Or I could just sit in here all day and complain about everything you do."

He shakes his head, "Helpful it is."

"That's what I thought." I smile triumphantly.

"Are you going to eat," Michael questions around his mouth full of food.

"I already did."

"Liar."

I lean my elbows against the table. "So what are we going to do today?"

He looks over at me, one of his brows raised. "Build a shed," he speaks as if he's declaring a war between us.

"A shed," I think about it. "Okay."

"I was kidding." Michael puts down his fork and knife that I made sure I cleaned ten times over. "You don't have to if you don't want to."

"I want to," I assure. "But first I have to take a shower."

Michael laughs and still I'm shocked by how deep and rough it is. I'm learning to love it, so much I want to do anything that will make him laugh. "Of course, after I eat we'll go shower."

"I hope you don't mind that I took some of your clothes and refashioned them," I say, looking down at another flannel of Michaels I took and a pair of his sweat pants that I adjusted to actually fit me.

"I noticed," he mumbles, his eyes glaring holes in to his clothes. I smile cheekily and wait for him to finish eating.

...

"You're fucking with me right?"

"Nope."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"I'm going to shave off your beard in the middle of the night if you're being serious."

"Then I'll tickle you until you beg for mercy."

"Michael please tell me this isn't real life right now."

"Sorry Princess. I can't do that."

In five seconds flat Michael is stripped down to nothing, not bothering to hide himself from me but I'm too focused on what's in front of me to sneak a peek... okay so maybe I see a little something, or well a big something but I can't help it.

He dives into the pool of water, making a large enough splash to wake the fish and birds.

Michael shoots out of the water, making water nearly hit me from five yards away. "Come on in Alex! It's nice and warm!" His smile is large and mischievous, no way am I ever trusting him again.

"Are there animals in there? Like snakes?" I ask worriedly while watching him dunk himself in the natural water again.

He shrugs, causing my eyes to follow the lines of his shoulders and biceps and abs and all the way down to the perfect and defined V of his hips. I cover my mouth with dirty clothes in my hands while I bite my lip. "I don't know. I haven't found any yet."

"I'm not going in there," I declare.

"It's the only way to get clean Alex. I don't have an actual working shower."

"I'll rather wait until it rains."

"Come on Alex," he whines, "Don't be such a baby."

"I'm not being a baby," I argue. "I'm being logical."

"And you're also being dirty," he points out.

I look down to Michaels clothes that I'm wearing and notice the dirt covering my body. Who knew feeding the chickens and dogs could be such a dirty job?

"Fine," I groan, dropping the pile of clothes I brought along with me after Michael said we could wash them. He just didn't mention that we would be washing them in a pond or that his shower is actually a waterfall.

There's a reason why I let myself be criticized by the press, because they have nothing to criticize other than my bad partying habits. I'm sure there are teenage boys all over the world with pictures of me mostly naked above their bed. So as I get undressed under Michael's scrutinizing stare, like he did to me, I don't feel anything other than amusement.

When I'm fully naked I lock eyes with Michael, well try to seeing as how his eyes are glued to my breasts.

"So do I just jump in?"

He snaps his eyes up to my face, blush rising to his cheeks. "Um yeah," he stutters, "it's really not that cold."

"If you say so." I shrug my shoulders and jump in.

I gasp for air as I come up from the water and immediately I start to smack Michael's chest. "You're a dirty liar," I yell, "do you ever speak the truth?"

He laughs and tries dodging my hits. "You think this is cold?"

"It's freezing," I scream. I stop hitting him to wrap my arms around myself, mostly to hide a second pair of eyes that are trying to bulge out. "The eyes are the nipples to the face," I say to myself.

Michael begins to uncontrollably laugh. "What did you just say?"

I laugh and say, "It's from a movie. I'm surprised you haven't seen it, it's a real family classic," I tease.

He shakes his head laughing then swims away to the waterfall nearby.

"This some high tech shower Michael, really you could sell it for millions," I say sarcastically, following behind him.

"Hey you can't put a price on mother nature."

"It must be nice," I say after a couple of minutes in silence as we stand under the spray of water.

"What is?" He flips his wet hair back against his head.

"Living out here in the wild." I take in the beauty of everything surrounding me. The green trees, the bright flowers, the bright sun. For Alaska it's really not the cold, I was expecting ten feet of snow everywhere.

"I get it," he grumbles, "you don't like it here. Stop complaining for five seconds."

"I wasn't complaining," I argue, turning around to face him again. Since he's a skyscraper taller than me the water stops just below his hips bones (which is really affecting me honestly) but the water stops above my belly button. Still I can tell that Michael is enjoying the sight of mother nature on my chest more so than the mother nature around us. "I'm starting to like it. I mean you get to shower under a damn waterfall in one the most beautiful places in the world. You're lucky."

His eyes rake over my face then my shoulders then below then even farther below before the water begins and he's forced to look up. Slowly he steps forward, his hand reaching up to rest on my neck and the other to run his fingers over my stomach. "Believe me," he whispers, "I know."

"Michael," I whisper, just to hear the sound of his name on my lips.

Instantly he jumps away from me as if he has a family of red ants in his pants, you know if he was wearing pants. "We need to wash the clothes then start on the shed. I want to get the base up before sunset."

I watch in disappointment and anger as Michael swims as fast as he can away from me.

Well that's never happened to me before.