The Muse seems to want to go play with Daniel and Sha're now. I've been reading the Bill McKay series of books based on Stargate the Movie and it seems all Daniel and 'Sha'uri' do is fight. Not exactly what I want to read.

I also think the Muse is just avoiding dealing with the events of Meridian, which is getting closer over on my other story line - Sunshine and Shadow.

Not sure how long this will wind up being, for now it is still in progress. If you want more please let me know.

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A noise at the cave entrance alerted him to her presence. He had come up here – to the fascinating caves of Kaleema - to give her some space, some time to think. A month was not a long time in the dance that was courtship; or at least he thought it wasn't. But his relationship with Sha're remained awkward, in spite of his attempts to make her fall in love with him.

He was very very certain how he felt about her and not at all sure how she felt about him. It seemed at times that she was more resigned to their situation than happy about it. It seemed she had never thought about whether she would actually like her husband.

He didn't want resignation. He wanted the passion he saw underneath the lowered lashes. He wanted the spirited hellion he suspected lurked below the obedience that had been drilled into her by her culture.

He knew that Sha're had gotten the worst of this bargain. He was an anthropologist and could adapt to any culture if it fasvinated him enough. But he was utterly foreign to her, from his height to his eyes to his odd obsession with the pyramid and the caves of Kaleemah. But was it really too much to ask that his wife want him as much as he wanted her?

"Danielle?"

She had always said his name as if it was the female French variation. It had never bothered him. In fact he found it endearing. He hadn't had a nickname since his parent had died in his childhood.

"In here," he said.

She had brought a torch with her. It lit her as if she were a pagan goddess of fire as she came into the large antechamber. He had discovered the remains of a civilization in here and had the floor marked out in a grid. Sha're put the torch in the holder secured to the wall, adding its light to the ones he already had going.

She spoke in the odd patterning of English and Abydonian that had somehow become theirs.

"I brought you …." She began confidently in her own tongue; then hesitated as she searched for the English word, "food."

She smiled hopefully, wanting to please him. God, if only she knew how much she already pleased him. "Are you hungry?"

Not for food, he thought, resisting the impulse to let his eyes sweep over her body like a caress.

"Thank you," he said, then repeated it for her in English.

She appeared to consider it, rolling the odd combination of sounds around in her head. But all she offered him was a shy smile.

She put the basket down on the makeshift table he had made from a crate. Daniel watched her, captivated. The mass of black hair – the same iridescent color as a blackbird's wing – framed her lovely face. She lifted her eyes and her black velvet gaze met his. She stood for a moment, twisting her laced fingers and looking so beautiful and vulnerable that it was all Daniel could do not to rush over and pull her into a comforting embrace.

Letting out huge sigh, Sha're boldly walked up to him, put her hands on his chest, rose up high on her toes and pressed her closed lips against his. Then she stopped abruptly, scampered back out of his reach and eyed him warily.

They had kissed before. But he had always initiated it and made certain that he was tender and reverent and almost chaste. As a kiss, this one had left a lot to be desired.

As a kiss from a woman he wanted with an almost desperate passion it made his breathing come hard and his body harder.

"Danielle?" she asked cautiously, "Aren't you going to do anything?"

It took him a moment to sort out the garbled English and Abydonian.

He tried a soothing smile, forced his body to relax and carefully answered.

"I'm too terrified that I'll say or do something stupid and you won't want to kiss me again."

Sha're stared at him, wide-eyed.

"You want me to kiss you again."

"Very much."

She continued to regard him uncertainly. Then her hands fluttered in a gesture of exasperated helplessness.

"I don't know how."

"But you just did," he protested.

"Not very well," she murmured.

Considering his physical response he decided not to answer that. He abandoned language to study her carefully. Her enticing feminine frame was tense with frustration, embarrassment; and something in her midnight eyes that knocked the wind out of him.

Longing.

"I don't want you to laugh at me," she said.

Daniel's eyes widened. She was the one alwayslaughing at him for one thing or another.

"Habibi, laughing is the last thing that occurs to me to do," he murmured. "If it helps, I don't want you to laugh at me either."

Sha're looked puzzled.

"You don't?"

"Of course not," he answered, in that voice that had charmed people in the past and he hoped worked for him now.

Sha're would yield to him if he demanded it. He had always known that. She was conditioned to obey.

It wasn't what he wanted and never had been.

Enough, Daniel thought. Jackson, you're an idiot.

Sha're was over her head in this and he had been waiting for her. Of course, he could count his own sexual experience on one hand and not use all his fingers, but it had been utterly foolish of him to expect Sha're to welcome him to her bed as if she knew what she was doing.

As if she had ever thought she had a choice.

Daniel held out his hand.

"Come here," he said, quietly.

Sha're's eyes flickered once toward the exit to the cave. Then he saw the way her spine stiffened with resolve and she walked to him without hesitation. He set his hands on her hips and pulled her closer. The top of her head barely reached his heart. He tipped her chin up to look in his eyes.

"We've kissed before," he reminded her, "Like this." He brushed his lips cautiously, delicately, against the corner of her mouth and waited while she repeated it; "and like this." He pushed the glorious mass of her hair out of the way and bent over to kiss her throat, just below her ear; and stayed bent over so she could do the same to him.

He feathered kisses over her face and neck and ground his teeth together to keep his body from over reacting to the wonderful way she imitated him. She recreated each tender move until he kissed her and felt the tip of her tongue cautiously flick against his lips. Then he fastened his mouth on hers and kissed her in earnest, asking for entrance and finding it granted. His tongue danced restlessly with hers. He kissed her with all the yearning that had been building in him for the past month and for all the long years before, wanting someone to love – someone who loved him back. He kissed her and his hands began to roam over her back and hips, up the curve of her waist to hesitate just below the swell of her breasts.

He kissed her until her hands slid up his back and curved over his shoulders and her moans turned to a desperate whimper.

And then he realized this was going too far, much farther than he had meant to. He eased back to a gentle kiss, returned his hands to her hips and leaned back to put a small space between their bodies.

Her reaction was immediate and shocking.

Sha're broke away, would have run if his hands hadn't prevented it. There was anger and frustration and hunger in her voice.

"You still don't want me!"

"That's not true!" He protested.

Daniel brushed his hips against hers to prove his point. His body's response was too immediate not to be obvious. Sha're's eyes flew open and for a moment Daniel was sure he had made a mistake. His height intimidated her. He didn't want his length to do the same thing.

He put his hand on her lower back and held her lightly. He nuzzled her neck and murmured, "I won't hurt you. I would never hurt you; and have mercy, Sha're I do want you. I just don't want our first time to be on a cave floor!"

Her anger vanished. She leaned against him and let her body get used to the feel of his when it was aroused and ready. She nodded. Her forehead brushed against his chest as she did. He tilted her chin up again.

"Bring me dinner tonight?" he asked, hopefully.

Her mouth twisted ruefully. He was the most helpless man she had ever met when it came to food.

"Yes," she answered, softly.

"Bring a blanket?" he asked, moving her hair to tease the skin below her ear with his tongue, "and candles and wine?"

She shivered a little.

"There will still only be a cave floor," she observed.

His voice was low and sexy. "In here," he agreed, "But outside we'll have starlight and sand ….. and each other."

Sha're smiled a little. She reached up and cupped the back of his head, drawing him down until his lips touched hers again.

Her kiss was all the answer he had hoped it would be.

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Habibi – beloved, Egyptian/Arabic