Kiera couldn't remember when it was that she first said, "I want to get home to my son," instead of "I want to get home to my son and husband," or "I want to get home to my family." But she tried to push that from her mind. She even took pride in nudging Alec toward asking out a girl in the coffee shop, and hoped her parting words of "don't flatter yourself" were enough to discourage them both from keeping Kiera from returning to her time.
Kiera was thrilled that she and Alec had renewed their friendship, and hoped Alec would read her worry over him as motherly and friendly. The age gap acted as an unspoken barrier for furthering their relationship, and she would not bridge it. He was young and she was destined to return to 2077. It would be evil to get too close only to leave.
It was evening when Kiera returned to the small hotel room. She had gotten dinner with Carlos, and smiled as she realized that after a year, she had finally gotten used to actually ordering food from a menu that did not project holographic animations of what you could order. The lights flickered in the room. Power issues? So 2013. She removed her outer clothes and began to unzip her suit, but cried out as a sharp shock ran up her spine.
"Ugh…" she sank into a chair and held her head in her hands. Little flashes of energy played down the fabric of her suit and she knew that this was something she could not fix in her small and tech-less hotel room. Kiera did something she hadn't done in quite awhile; she rang Alec Sadler on her CMR.
"It's not as stylish as my barn, but I have everything I need to fix your suit here," Alec led Kiera up the stairs, and stopped halfway to look back at her, hands in his pockets, he added with a sad chuckle, "Of course, you've been here already, but that was when we weren't exactly talking."
"What does your roommate think of all this?" Kiera asked as they reached his room. Alec pulled a box of tools and wires from under his bed as Kiera sat down and retrieved the golden suit from her bag. She'd donned it nearly every day since she'd arrived, and she realized it felt nice to just sit in her collared shirt and trousers without the hug of it around her.
"He told me it would be a fantastic gaming setup. He's right, if you count hacking into police security as gaming," Alec pulled the tiny electric components of the suit into view under a scanner, poking with a dexterity that made Kiera, not for the fist time, examine the young man's nimble hands with appreciation.
"Ow!" Alec exclaimed, waving his hand from a little spark, "Shit, that is fried. Wonder if it has to do with the power outage earlier…probably not many of those in your time…aha! one little wire…more like a vein really…okay," he swiveled around to explain the issue to Kiera, "It's like when a person has a buildup in their blood vessels. Since this is almost like a living thing, the best way I can describe it is a buildup of energy that is blocking certain receptors from each other. They keep trying to fuse, not realizing that the energy blocking them isn't really an issue. They don't need to reroute, they just need to accept that they can power on through. Easy fix."
A few short minutes and Alec had fixed the issue, but he was reluctant to send Kiera on her way. He wanted to apologize again for his older self's decision to throw Kiera back in time, but he was glad she was here. He had almost found a way to phrase this when she spoke from across the room:
"Is this from your mother's wedding?" she asked, holding up a photo that was lying atop a pile of papers on his bedside table.
"Oh, that," he turned and blushed. It was his mom and step-dad, smiling in their wedding attire. A younger Alec was casting a glare to Julian as their parents squeezed them in beside each other for the picture.
"Well, you know how it is with siblings—oh, sorry. Your sister—"
"It's okay," Kiera set the photo down and sat on the bed, across from his chair, "We both haven't had it easy in the family department." As the silence began again, Alec asked something that was burning on his mind:
"Kiera…was it worth it? Coming here, I mean. Could you forgive me for what I did—will do, to you?" His eyes were pleading, and the cold shoulder he'd given her of late was melting. His lovely curls and hurt eyes made her breath hitch and she came to sit on the bed across from his chair, touched his knee softly, and nodded.
"I can't imagine not knowing you, Alec. Not fighting this fight, not meeting these friends…and foes. I can forgive you, and I'll remind you of that if we meet again when you're old, I'm sure."
"Thank you," a little tear fell down his cheek and Kiera reached with her other hand to brush it off. Almost on instinct, he leaned in closer and she mirrored him, and their faces hovered just out of reach before Kiera pulled back, her lips trembling.
"Alec, I can't do this—"
"Sorry, sorry, of course, you—"
"No, I mean I can't do this to you when you have so much ahead of you. I can't involve you even more with me. I'm stealing these years away from you."
"Kiera, our lives are already so entwined. I—I just want to…" his voice trailed off and he took her hands in his, but his confidence was waning. He felt like a foolish child, wanting the older woman. The courageous and brilliant and sexy older woman.
"Oh, Alec," Kiera tilted his chin up so he was looking her in the eyes again. Then swiftly she rose off the bed to press her lips onto his, tugging him by the shirt. His normally deft hands were frozen in surrender as Kiera pulled them both to a standing position to find better purchase on his mouth. He found his wits again and tangled his fingers through her wavy hair. His mind felt wild but the surging need from his body finally felt sated: this was the most right thing he had done in months. His lips parted and her tongue was flicking through them. He found the small of her back and nudged her closer so that their bodies could make contact. He reached back to quickly tear his arms from his jacket, his lips not moving from hers for a second.
Feeling his hands working toward his buttons between them, Kiera paused and said breathlessly, "Alec, are you sure?"
"God yes," he answered more confidently than he felt. It became painfully obvious to Alec that Kiera was an experienced woman, and that he had only the foolings-around from high school that were barely committed to memory. His hands trembled as he reached the last button, and Kiera slid his shirt down and let it fall to the floor. He gulped as she paused to look at him in the dark blue light of the computer monitors. Save a desk lamp, they were all that lit up the small bedroom.
"May I?" he barely brushed at the first button of Kiera's shirt. She nodded and helped him undo her shirt, noticing his sharp mind was muddled with emotion. She herself was nervous and guilty, and felt alarmed with her own actions when he mumbled,
"Um I don't actually have any…any condoms. Are you—?"
"Implant. Not one of your inventions," she laughed but then brought their encounter to a halt. She knew in this decade, most young men would have a large selection of sexual necessities stockpiled for chance encounters. Holding onto his bare shoulders, she winced and asked, "Alec, is this—am I—your first?"
He nearly tried to describe his juvenile not-quites but settled on a simple, "yes," while adjusting the collar on her open shirt.
"Fuck…Alec, I don't know if I should be the one to take your virginity…"
This wasn't her wine-induced, sultry affair with Kellog that had stemmed out of loneliness and a grab for power. She loved Alec. She wanted to protect him, even if that meant protecting him from herself. That was her job.
"Kiera," his voice was steady now. His heart was threatening to beat out of his chest, but he had a newfound confidence in assuaging her guilt, "I want you. You're the perfect one, and already the person I'm closest to in the world. I really can't describe how much I want it to be you. But I understand if that's not enough for you—"
"Shut up, Alec," Kiera breathed tersely, kissing him again. She brushed her palms down his bare chest, finding his hands and bringing them up to cup her breasts. She felt him smile against her mouth.
He guided her down to his bed, her eyes trusting as he pulled her shirt off. His kisses were gentle down her neck. His eyes glanced up to hers as he fiddled with her sleek black bra. The way he flung it from her body made her give in to the heat. Her long legs wrapped around him and she rolled them over.
Alec's breath was knocked away as his back hit the bed. Kiera was passionate. She yanked his jeans off and finished undressing herself in one fell swoop. His hand came around her rear and he pulled her down on top of him, sucking between her breasts while his fingers carefully trailed between her thighs. She shivered and moved so her mouth was back on his, but it only stayed there for a moment before he swiftly moved back on top. Alec cradled her head onto his pillow and paused his voracious kissing of her chest.
"Can I just cherish every inch of you, Kiera Cameron?" He asked, gazing at her face before he licked briskly down her stomach to meet the crease of her thigh, "Was that a laugh?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Haha, yes," she twisted her fingers through his curls as his nose perched on the mound between her legs, "It's just that when your voice came through my CMR, I never would have imagined pillow talk from my geeky genius friend and mmm," she quit speaking as his tongue found the right spot to flick. Other young men would have just gotten their ideas about sex from porn, but Alec was scientific. There was an element of field work to this. While he was finally free of inhibitions, he was not about to let Kiera down with shoddy work. He quickly found just how to rub her clit with his thumb and lick beneath. His other hand stroking from her thigh to her ass. After a few tantalizing minutes, Kiera rose up and climbed back over him to tear off his soft blue boxers to stroke the hardness underneath.
"Kiera," he gasped, "When I saw you I said you were so pretty—"
"The purest thing I've heard in this decade," she chuckled.
"Yeah but you're actually fucking gorgeous."
"You're easy on the eyes yourself," she whispered hotly over his ear. She pulled herself into his lap, wrapping her legs around him and urgently guiding him into her. She moaned into his shoulder as they began working their bodies together, slowly at first and then into a mind-numbing rhythm. Alec kissed Kiera fervently as he came, shuddering into her embrace. He caught his breath and continued on her with his fingers, still throbbing in her heat. She followed quickly in an ecstatic moan, egged on by the aftershocks of sex. She fell back and he peppered kisses in all the right places.
"Would it be corny to thank you?" he asked, level with her on the pillow again.
She rolled her eyes in response and kissed him, pulling him close as their hearts fluttered together, still touching all of each other.
"Will you stay tonight?" Alec asked, after they had cleaned up.
"If I can find something to sleep in," Kiera mumbled from his dresser. When he saw her donning nothing but an old t-shirt of his, Alec felt nearly ready for round two. He patted the space beside him and Kiera settled in with a long kiss. He wrapped around her and wondered if his future self had lived this moment or only imagined it.
"Goodnight, Kiera," he whispered against her skin, and closed his eyes.