“No,” she said, “I don’t. As long as you don’t.”
He burst out laughing. “And here we are,” he said, “both of us walking around each other instead of saying exactly what we feel.”
“No, you’re right,” she said. “I’d like to see where this goes.”
He slid his arms along her back, tucked her close to him, and said, “Good, because I really do too.”
“I thought you were the one who was holding back.”
“Yeah,” he said, “and then I realized that, when I think about all my journeys and missions—and who is on my mind when I get off work and where I want to go and who I think about when I want to talk about something—it’s always you. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. I don’t know why I didn’t see you,” he said. “I presume we were just so busy living life and doing our own thing that it just never occurred to us to go that far.”
“I can agree with that.” She slid her arms around his neck and whispered, “So where does that leave us?”
“You know what? I think it leaves us as two people who have always loved each other, finally deciding to act on all those instincts kept submerged all this time.”
She chuckled. “We’ve been very good at it.”
“And maybe,” he said, “it’s just that the timing wasn’t right for both of us in the past, and something about right now is perfect.”
“I can accept that.” She leaned forward and kissed him gently on his dimpled chin and then again on his cheek, her fingers gently flowing across to his other cheek, then coming down to brush her index finger against his lower lip. He immediately nibbled on her lip. She murmured, “Are you sure you’re ready to do this?”
“Oh, hell, yes,” he said. “I’m ready to do this.”
She smiled and sat up on his lap, straddling him with one knee on either side. Cupping each side of his face with her hands, she kissed him deeply. His arms slipped around her waist, and he pulled her tighter against him. The kiss deepened into something so much darker than either had expected to develop so fast.
“It’s like the passion has always been there,” he murmured.
“I think it always was, but we took it for friendship,” she said. “We took it for best-friend love. Because we were still each taking our lives in other directions.” He kissed her again and again, then picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. “You’re wearing too many clothes,” she murmured.
He nodded. “And I should probably have a shower.”
“Afterward,” she said. He hesitated. She shook her head and said, “There’s nothing about a warrior that I don’t like, so get back down here.”
Laughing, he said, “I thought I was wearing too many clothes.” He pulled his shirt out of his pants and over his head, throwing it to the floor.
She immediately bounded to her knees, her hands exploring his chest, her fingers going to his belt buckle. By the time she had his jeans to his knees, her hands were already inside his boxers, cupping him.
He sucked in his breath. “You could take your time, you know?” he said, gasping.
“Oh, I intend to,” she said. “We’ve got all night.”
He groaned. “You’ll be just as feisty in bed, won’t you?”
“You wouldn’t want me any other way,” she murmured.
He laughed. “I think you’re right. I want you just the way you’ve always been.”
“It’s a darn good thing,” she said, “because that’s exactly who I am, in bed and out.”
He leaned forward and kissed her. As she slipped the boxers down over his hips, her hands circling around to cup his buttocks, he tried to kick out of his jeans, and he groaned. “I’ve still got my boots on, for Christ’s sake.”
She laughed and hopped off the bed, and, as he sat back down, she helped him get his boots and socks off. Then she pulled off the jeans and boxers. While he watched, she slowly lowered the zipper on her gown and stepped out of it, completely nude. She stood there in front of him and smiled. “You know what?” she said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been in this state together before.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Bathing suits, yes,” he said, “but like this? Never.”
She smiled, pushed him back on the bed and once again crawled up on his lap with one knee on either side of him. Only this time she teased the hard ridge of his erection.
He smiled, his hands on her hips. Then he stroked gently up her ribs and across her breasts, gently cupping one and then the other, his thumb sliding over the nipples, up to her collarbone, and onto her neck.
She smiled, leaned down, and kissed him gently.
He pulled her closer, so their tongues could war, as the passion between them once again climbed, albeit a little slower. She slid back and forth against his shaft, still teasing him, and her, moaning with pleasure. He gripped her hips and whispered, “That’ll make things a little too fast.”
“A little too fast is just fine right now.”
He groaned, as she kept up the movement. He whispered, “You could at least do that another way.”
She smiled and whispered, “Like this?” And she raised herself up, positioned his shaft, and slowly sank down on him. He groaned, his hips pushing upward into her, as she controlled the movement. By the time she was fully seated, or at least thought she was, she sat down and ground her hips against him.
He gasped, holding her hips and twisting beneath her. She reached behind to gently cup the globes and to stroke the softness between his thighs. He shuddered underneath her, and she watched the passion twist across his face, as his hands gripped her hips hard.
She slid her hands along his forearms to his shoulders and then braced herself and asked, “You ready to ride?”
“Nobody would ever say no to that offer.”
Slowly she lifted herself up the velvet shaft and then slid back down, up and then down, the pace increasing with every movement. Again and again she moved her hips frantically, as she drove toward the pleasure they both awaited, his hands trying to not force his own rhythm, until she cried out.
And, when she finally did and threw her head back, sitting tall astride him, he murmured, “Shelly, you are so beautiful. I think I just glimpsed Valhalla.”
And the explosions rocked through her.
He quickly flipped her, threw her heels atop his shoulders, and he pounded into her, driving for his own pleasure. When he finally exploded within her, she felt another set of cataclysmic explosions, sending her off again. By the time he collapsed beside her, she shuddered in joy and delight.
He wrapped her up tight, held her close, and whispered, “My God,” he said. “I had no idea something like that was possible between us,” he said. “We should have gotten here a hell of a long time ago.”
“Maybe so,” she said, “but I can tell you that it was well worth waiting for.”
He wrapped her in his arms, pulling her closer, and said, “And we have a lifetime.”
“Thank God,” she said, “I’m really glad to be done with that stage of life.”
He burst out laughing. “What stage?”