A/N: This is set at the end of Chapter 28 of 'Forever.' Alice and Hatter are reunited, and finally steal some alone time. The first portion is from Ch 28, skip past the line break for the new stuff (sounded abrupt without it). It's been a while since I've done one of these, I hope you enjoy it and think it's worth the wait.
Stolen Time in the Moonlight
I found you," Alice smiled, though her eyes were filling with tears. She'd come too close to losing him.
"So you did," Hatter admitted, emotion welling up in him; he'd been thinking the very same thing.
Alice bent down, brushed her lips over his. It was too much for him, too much for him to withstand, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to. He deepened the kiss, tasting her heated response.
He broke the kiss, swept up the blanket and the sword as he moved to stand, and then held out his hand for her, "Come on… we'll stay close," he whispered, glancing over at the sleeping forms of Charlie and Ryan.
She took his hand, how could she not when he was looking at her like that?
They slipped through the forest, careful and quiet, though Hatter kept casting fleeting looks back towards the campsite. He pulled them to a halt in a small grassy clearing; they were far enough away from the camp for privacy, but the flickering firelight was still a visible reassurance that they were close enough if they were needed. He cast a hopeful glance out to the starry night sky, asking that he could have this moment with Alice, sans interruptions. It had worked pretty well for him so far; if Wonderland was feeling giving, he'd happily take what she offered.
A warm gust of wind blew through the clearing, stirring leaves in its path; he felt it on his face as a soft caress, heard it as a soft sigh of 'yes.' He swallowed and looked about, uneasy, but then he caught sight of Alice waiting patiently for him lit softly by the light of the full moon, and his doubts and fears vanished in the face of what was waiting for him.
He thrust the sword into the earth as Alice took the blanket from him and spread it over the ground. She was sat on the blanket, watching him intently. He shrugged off his jacket, then peeled off his t-shirt and stepped out of his loosely laced boots. Alice was still just staring at him, the barest hint of a smile on her parted lips as she watched him strip.
The shadows played over his taut wiry muscles as he moved; she stared, transfixed. She licked her lips, determined to try to give him at least as good a show as he'd given her, and just as determined to draw out this delicious tension as long as she could stand it.
She pulled off her cardigan and shirt, and then kicked off her Converse in a conscious mirror of his actions. As she unfastened her bra, she kept her eyes locked on his. His breath was coming faster already, his tongue darted out to moisten his lips and a shiver coursed through her at the sight of it, at the sight of him. Her eyes were drawn to where the muscles of his stomach drew down into a vee as they disappeared into the waistband of his jeans, and to the fine trail of hair below his navel.
"Take off the rest," she demanded with a challenging lift of her eyebrow.
Hatter smirked and undid the button and zip, and then slid his jeans and boxers down over his slim hips and stepped out of them. He stood in front of her, hands at his sides, letting her look at him.
"Your turn," he said, his voice gone low and rough.
She stood and shimmied out of her jeans and panties, posing in the light of the moonlight for him. She reached up and pulled the elastic from her hair, shaking it out to fall in a soft dark curtain over her shoulders. She smiled as his hands formed fists, heat burning behind his eyes; he was close to losing this one… but there really were no losers in this game. They would both get what they wanted in the end.
She looked him up and down slowly, and then slid around behind him. He watched her from the corner of his eye, but made no move to halt her inspection. Alice's eyes lingered over his ass, surely the nicest she'd ever seen, clothed or otherwise, and then they moved up to his back. Once it had been smooth and relatively unmarked compared to the rest of him, but now a deep laceration scored it diagonally from shoulder blade to hip. It was healing, and he hadn't complained, but then again, he wouldn't.
To hell with it, she thought, bringing her arms around him to form her front to his back, being careful to not put too much pressure on his wound. She wanted, no needed to feel him skin to skin. He shuddered at her touch and breathed out her name in a sigh as she pressed a soft kiss at the termination point of the cut. She mouthed her way up the strong line of his shoulder, butterfly soft, the merest brush of lips, then moved to the nape of his neck. She placed a wet openmouthed kiss there, biting down gently as her hands roved over his chest, down his torso, shaped over his beautiful ass.
Too much and not enough, he turned to face her, crushing his lips to hers as he let the storm of urgency that had been building within him free. His arms came round her like a vise; she tangled a hand into his hair, the other at his jaw to hold him to her. Dominant and hungry, he fed at the long column of her neck as his hands kneaded and caressed her body. She wound a leg around his hip, desperate to get closer. He gave a low groan as her hip pressed against his erection; it did nothing to ease the ache, it just inflamed his desire.
He moaned in a soft sound of need and took them down to the forest floor, blanketing her body with his own. Alice breath came faster as his mouth moved down the line of her body, soft lips and sharp teeth, tongue and wet mouth tasting her in a storm of frenzied frantic need, his clever hands stroking across her breasts, down her ribs, over her hip before moving back up to brush over the hard peaks of her nipples. She dug her fingers into his shoulders, his biceps… anywhere she could get purchase as the sensations overwhelmed her. He was all hot soft skin, hard muscle and fevered need, touching her as if he was a man possessed.
She let him take what he needed, his reassurance that she was alive and with him in this moment. She moved to stroke his hair to try to soothe the desperation in his touch, but his mouth closed over her nipple, his tongue lapped at the edge of her breast where it made her shiver and shake, and it was all she could do to hold on. She fisted her hand in his thick hair and pulled him up to kiss her again, wanting to feel those soft perfect lips moving against her own. Their tongues tangled, and she kissed him back as fiercely as he did her. She'd been so afraid she'd lost him. She broke off to nip at his throat, breathing him in, feeling the rasp of his whiskers against her cheek. She'd thought she'd never see him again.
Her throat tightened, a sob escaped despite her best effort to suppress it. He pulled back, shifting to lay on his side to look down at her, love and concern in his dark eyes, displacing the raw lust that had been there seconds before.
He brushed a tear from her cheek with his thumb, "No, love. I'll not have that. It's okay, in't it? We're both safe now," he smiled gently and attempted to break her sadness, "Safe-ish, anyway."
She laughed softly and nodded, "I don't know how you do this to me. I'm not a crier," she defended.
He smiled gently and brushed her lips with a soft kiss, "I know you're not, but if you'll not stop that, you'll make me into one."
She looked up at him, the emotions chasing across his face, always so close to the surface for her… and saw that his eyes were shining with unshed tears. She nodded and smiled; she didn't want this to be sad. She closed the distance between them, taking his lower lip in her teeth to encourage him to kiss her again as her hands moved over his smooth chest. Alice feathered her fingertips over his nipples, wanting to give back some of the same pleasure she'd been receiving. Her Hatter had a tendency to give without allowing himself to take, and she was not going to accept that, not tonight.
He returned the kiss heatedly, his body aching for her. Her hands and mouth moving over his body were driving him mad, and he honestly didn't think he could take much more. He needed to be inside of her, and as much as he was enjoying her attentions, the drive to bury himself inside of her was so powerful that he hadn't the strength to deny it much longer. When her hand closed over his cock, he nearly lost his tenuous control. He had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out; it came out as breathless curse instead.
He needed her, but he needed her to be ready for him more. Hatter's hand drifted down between the valley of her breasts, over the stomach, and down to brush over her cleft. He pressed his palm to her mound and she cried out, muffling the sound into his neck; she was wet and open to him, but he wanted more. He wanted her to need him as badly as he needed her; he wanted her writhing and mad with pleasure. He knew her body well; her hips were rolling as he began alternately circling her clit and thrusting his long slender fingers inside her. She bit the juncture of his neck and shoulder to try to quiet the moans torn from her by his insistent touch.
His breath was hot in her ear as he murmured words of need and lust and love, all the while stroking her in a delicious steady rhythm. She had to work to maintain the rhythm she'd set with her hand on Hatter's cock, but his hips kept thrusting against her even when she faltered. As the first crest of her orgasm hit, he let out an anguished cry and rolled on top of her, entering her with a hard deep thrust. She wrapped her legs around his narrow waist, opening herself to him as he began to move inside of her, long forceful strokes that left her mewling and him growling with pleasure at the apex of each one.
He held her tightly to him, claiming her mouth with his. He had needed this, her body wrapped around his, his name falling from her lips in breathy sighs that he eagerly swallowed down. He had his precious Alice, and he'd never ever let her go again. Not for the whole world, not for anything. Time and space constricted down to this one point, this one moment, as his nerve endings sang and fire rushed through his veins. They rode the crest together, clinging to one another desperately as sensation and emotion crashed over them.
They held each other afterwards, trembling and spent. Hatter pressed kisses to her face, her neck and her hair and she did the same, kissing every place she could reach.
He pressed his forehead to hers, needing to say it, needing to tell her how he felt, "I'm sorry. Never again, I promise. I swear it," he moved back so he could look into her face, "I'll never let anything happen to you again," he rasped, his words breaking along with his heart. He'd failed her.
She shushed him, stroking his hair, "I wasn't your fault, it wasn't. I love you, Hatter, and I don't need you to protect me… I just need you to love me."
He nodded, but the pain was still there, "With all m'heart, Alice," he replied, searching her face to see if she understood the depth of feeling he had for her.
She kissed his lips, then stared deeply into his dark eyes, made darker in the pale moonlight, "I know."
He smiled slowly, his heart made a little lighter "Good."
A/N: Soooo? Man, this was a long one. I hope you liked it, and please do review if you did (or didn't, for that matter). Anon reviews accepted here ;)
