Hidden Desires
By: DekotaSkye
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters, the Jim Henson Company does, and…whatever. I promise to put everyone back in the toy box when I am through playing with them…Thanks to Chaz for taking on the Beta of this fic.
Rate PG
In the center chamber:
Whenever Aeryn was around John, she would sigh in frustration as she cast a furtive glance toward him. His whole profile radiated a coldness that seemed to have become a part of his demeanor. Oh, how her heart ached. Her hands itched just to be able to touch him. His easygoing smile was now hidden behind an expression of indifference. To keep her hopes up, she would tick off in her mind the reasons why she loved him, and two of them were his honorable and indomitable ways, especially when he was pursuing her. Now she found them hurtful as he determinedly avoided her. Frelling human.
On entering the center chamber, Aeryn had found John sitting at one of the tables eating his meal. He stared off into the distance, not reacting to her presence. She wondered what he could be thinking about so intently.
Passing directly by him, she could feel his overpowering aura of masculinity that always sent her body into overdrive with desire. She had found that it only happened with him, and not with any other man she had been involved with, not even Velorek.
Looking up at the high shelf, she found the glass container of the cernear fruit that she had purchased for herself on the last commerce planet. Rising on her tiptoes, she un-nested the container wedged in between two metal ones, apparently straining more than she realized, as the container slipped out of her fingers.
John had been aware of her from the moment the woman walked down the corridor to pause briefly at the doorway. He could feel the pure energy of her femininity radiating from her, making his senses burn for more. Aeryn had been the only woman who could make him feel complete, as if the other half of himself had finally found its way home.
Not wanting her to perceive his acknowledgement of her presence, he stared ahead, focusing on the wormhole equations that glided about his brain.
With her back to him, his eyes, of their own accord, would steal fleeting glances her way. His body, as if on cue, responded to her beauty, making him lust after her even more strongly. John swallowed to keep a moan from escaping his lips. Yeah, he was still very much in love with the woman as the heat traveled upward to his brain. Quickly glancing away, trying to hold onto the last shred of his persona of indifference, he focused once more on wormhole equations. Not that it was working very well.
From his position just down from the counter, John heard her sharp intake of breath, and saw the glass container falling. He lunged for it, only to miss by the merest fraction of a dench. Bouncing from the tips of his fingers, the container hit the floor with a resounding crash as it broke, covering Aeryn's swearing. Aeryn made a move toward a large broken piece.
"Aeryn, no!"
John's attempt to catch the container had brought him a scant four denches from her side. Now, half-bent, she saw his arm shoot out in front of her. An instant later, his strong fingers circled her waist as he lifted her back, turning her to face him as he did. Without pausing for so much as a microt, he lifted her straight off the deck.
Having quite literally lost her footing, Aeryn grabbed for his shoulders. The man was as solid as stone. "What are you doing?" she all but gasped.
"Keeping you from cutting yourself," he growled.
Aeryn felt her bottom hit the counter top.
"There is glass all over the place and you're barefoot."
Even as he spoke, her bare heels hit the cabinet below the counter. Because of the overhead shelving, he'd had to set her on the edge. And because she was on the edge, she didn't immediately let go of him.
Her fingers bunched the soft fabric of his shirt. It wasn't her own actions she considered, though. It was his. His hands were loosening from her waist, slipping slightly to rest on the sides of her hips. It seemed he was about to say something else-to tell her to stay put, possibly-before he pulled away. Yet he didn't pull back. Nor did he say a single word.
He stood directly in front of her; the deep-cut in his shirtfront was even with her eyes. Because of how quickly he'd lifted her and set her down-not to mention her precarious perch on the edge of the counter-she hadn't thought about the position in which she might land. Thinking about it now, she realized that her knees were on either side of his lean hips.
What he thought of the intimacy of their positions, she couldn't tell. He was looking at her mouth, his nostrils flaring slightly with his deeply drawn breath. A moment later, his glance skimmed down to where his hands curved over the side of her thighs.
There was something compelling about the contrast of his broad, tanned hands against the smooth black material of her workout pants. His hands were large, the wide backs sprinkled with fine, light hair; his finger were long and somehow graceful, if it was possible for something so incredibly masculine to be described in such a way. She could feel the heat from those beautiful hands radiating through the fabric, seeping inward, becoming part of her.
All expression drained from his face and his features grew still. A moment later, they turned almost rigid when his fingers flexed against her soft flesh. She felt the tips dench upward. Then, just as suddenly, the movement stopped.
The expulsion of his breath was faint, barely audible over the pounding in her ears. It was almost as if, in that one brief moment, he had remembered how truly close they once had been, how he'd touched her that same way before.
His eyes collided with hers.
A heartbeat later, he pulled way. Clamping his hands over the back of his neck, he drew a deep breath and turned to the bay window. When he spoke, his voice was quiet. Unnervingly so. "I'll get something to clean up the mess."
As disconcerted by what he'd done as he appeared to be, Aeryn drew a shuddering breath of her own. Eyes fastened on his broad shoulders, she pushed herself back on the counter, fighting the rush of memories she'd spent the last cycle putting to rest. The biggest mistake of her life. If John had turned, he would have seen the deep hunger of desire burning from her eyes.
If Aeryn were facing him, she would have seen a raw, deep hunger of desire burning in his eyes.
Scorpius' voice sounded from the doorway as he and Sikozu walked into the room. Coming to a halt, both looked at the couple as they went into motion as if nothing had passed between them.
With his indifference back in place, John cleaned up the broken pieces. Aeryn slid off the counter, and coolly thanked him for his help. Once more their hidden desires were concealed from the universe and themselves.
finis...never