“I hope this isn’t human,” Carter said grimly, as she took a seat next to him on the floor, the meal in front of them on a cloth.
“Human? Gross. Give me a break. You are being such a pessimist right now.”
“What’s to be optimistic about? We’re in a crazy world with who knows what kind of occupants and rules. We’ve been lucky so far, but we’re liable to run up against something we can’t handle at any point.”
“Something we can’t handle? You’re the Talos. You can handle anything. More than that, you’re Carter. I haven’t seen anything yet you haven’t been able to figure out. Except maybe me,” she goaded.
She put her hand on his thigh, smiling up at him as she spoke. The red-orange glow of the lamp reflected off the corner of her glasses. Carter stared down at her upturned face, feeling his chest constrict. All joking aside, she was dead serious. She meant it. She’d come full circle from the young woman who was terrified of him when they’d first met to looking at him with the kind of trust that said she was relying on him implicitly, and absolutely believed he could get her through this.
Such blind faith both terrified and energized him. Made him realize how huge his role as her partner, her protector was, but also steeled his spine to fulfill it. She was right. He hadn’t backed down yet, even last night when it came to potentially dying for her. He wasn’t going to back down now. No matter what this world threw at them.
“Thanks, Ellie,” he said, his voice sounding rough in his own ears from the force of his emotions. Before he could stop to think otherwise, he leaned down to kiss her in a move that felt as natural, as right as breathing.
He wasn’t prepared for the bonfire that leapt to life at the touch of her mouth under his, at her soft moan as she leaned into him, returning the gesture. She wasn’t shying away. In fact, she wasn’t being shy at all. Her lips parted under his, welcoming him in, and that was it. The world outside be damned. The chaos of magical Stones and his unique shifter blood and Nosizwe and Sean’s longstanding feud a parallel universe away be damned. Everything be damned except right now, this moment, with her, Ellie, his wife, alone in the semi-darkness.
He slid a hand behind her back, drawing her against him. She tilted her head, deepening the kiss even as she reached up and took off her glasses, setting them aside so they were no longer in the way. Then her hands were on his shoulders, pulling him even closer—as if they could possibly be any closer. They could, but only in one way. And the next thing Carter knew, it seemed as if she was leading him towards that one way. The hands on his shoulders were pulling him down on top of her even as she lay back on the blanket on the floor.
His mind was on fire, savoring the feel of her body beneath his while simultaneously trying to determine if she really knew what she was doing, and, if so, if she truly wanted this. She seemed to. She was arching up towards him, breathing heavily, continuing to kiss him. Her hands fumbled at his shirt, tugging at it, until he half sat up and let her draw it off over his head. Then her hands were tracing his chest, his stomach, fluttering across his back as she drew him back down.
“Carter…” she whispered.
“Ellie.” Before she could urge his mouth back to hers, he stopped her. “Are you sure you want this?”
“Why, don’t you?”
Her chest was heaving with the force of her heavy breaths. Carter tried not to notice that. Tried not to think of how close it was, how tempting it was, in case he had to pull back and put a stop to this.
“Are you kidding? Have you missed all my insinuations? I’ve been wanting this from the beginning. Hell, I could have done you the first night I met you.”
Especially after seeing her wearing only his t-shirt, soaked and clinging to her. A memory he’d never forgotten.
She breathed a laugh. “Yeah, right. You didn’t want to have sex with me that first night.”
“The hell I didn’t. Don’t threaten me with a good time.”
She shook her head against the blanket on the floor, her lips pressed together to hide a grin. “You didn’t even like me. You said that yourself.”
“That’s the funny thing about men. We could do somebody hot that we don’t like. We’re kind of stupid that way.”
For the first time, her passion seemed to abate a bit. Her smiles turned to a quizzical frown as she traced the lines of his face with her fingertips.
“But this is more than sex, right? It isn’t just sex. You said you loved me. You said it was my decision what I wanted to do about—about our marriage.”
“Hey.” To stop her talking, to ease her fears, he lowered more of his weight onto her as he ducked his head to claim her mouth with a reassuring kiss. “I’m not going anywhere. You’re the only woman in this world—in either world, in any world for me, Ellie. You know I love you. And if we have sex and you want to stay together and try to figure out being married, that’s what we’ll do.”
He caught her hand, threading her fingers through his.
“It’s a little late to ask you to marry me, so let me ask you this instead.” He paused, studying her face in the flickering lamplight, every line, every freckle, every mark and feature. Her hazel eyes and dark blonde hair. The sweet shape her mouth, begging him to kiss her, firing temptation that was nearly impossible to put on hold, even for a moment.
“Will
