A/N: The predecessor to this was a fic called "Dear Diary."
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The tallow candle sputtered in the draft. Laura made a mental note to add more mud to the chinking tomorrow. The light danced over the shiny rectangular tablet resting on the hand-hewn table. It looked out of place and familiar at the same had Angelina said? Something about four thousand books? They had read a few recommended novels when she'd been alive, books she'd pulled up for them, but had never fully explored the gadget.
"Are you sure we should do this?" She leaned on Bill's shoulder as he fumbled with the touch screen.
"She wouldn't have made the passwords so easy to find if she'd wanted to keep this private."
Laura checked the icon in the top left corner again. It still read "fully charged." She'd been particular about putting it out in sunlight every few days over the past months, turning it on just long enough to check the battery, then turning it off again. Anything else felt…intrusive. She glanced through the window Bill had crafted from the Raptor's windshield. The small sapling growing from Angelina's grave was still visible in the twilight; fresh and green and waving in the light wind, like a beckoning hand in a "Well? Go ahead!" motion.
Something about the graceful branches reminded her of the disgraced assassin who had saved her life. She hoped she was finding peace on her personal Shore.
Saul, Ellen, and the others had added to the grave, planting flowers and carving two benches from the local wood. Other graves had joined it over the past year, but not as many as Laura had feared. Cabins similar to theirs dotted the area, close enough for community, not so close as to infringe on the privacy that still felt new after years in cramped ships' quarters.
"What are you in the mood for? This folder's all thrillers," he said, swiping across the screen. "This one is horror…"
"Have we looked at this folder yet?" She tapped the tempered glass.
"Romance?" He snorted. "I thought you liked stuff more in the detective genre—oh."
They both scanned over the newly revealed titles filling the screen.
"Is it just me, or is the word 'Erotic' in every other title?" Laura scrolled down the screen.
Bill tapped on a few titles before answering. "No, it looks like those are anthologies. All these are Best Of's for—my Gods, how many years are in here?"
She tapped again. "Oh, here we go. Sub-folders. This one is all non-fiction." She moved into his lap, relaxing against his chest as he wrapped an arm around her. "How…instructional." She tapped on a title and examined the cover. "That reminds me. You and Helo making progress on rope fibers?"
He chuckled. "Yeah, we're getting the process down. You in a hurry for rope all of the sudden?"
She gave a soft giggle. "You have to admit, that looks like a lot of fun." She flipped the electronic page, revealing another folder. One eyebrow lifted as she read the name.
"Smut?" she said, a bit doubtfully.
"Smut," he confirmed. "Wonder why this was filed separate from 'Erotica'?"
A couple of taps and twenty minutes later, they knew why.
"It doesn't read like commercial fiction, but..." Laura squirmed, acutely aware that everything south of her navel had gone liquid and tingly. Bill gasped at her movement, and she belatedly realized he was hard as a rock underneath her. She wasn't sure if it was from her movements or from the words on the page.
"It's, um…visceral, isn't it? Very…earthy," he said.
She wasn't sure when his hand had traveled under her leather skirt but it was more than welcome, and she opened her legs a bit wider to his touch.
"Earthy, my ass. Some of these are really, really dirty." She couldn't keep the smile off her face. "And I mean that in the best way possible." She gave a deliberate wiggle that was more of a grind against him. "You found a favorite yet?"
"Still going through—umm…look at that." He nodded at the glowing page, one hand now cupping her breast under the red-dyed top, the other stroking her inner thigh.
"Threesomes, Foursomes, Moresomes " she read out loud. "I like the sound of that. My gods, there must be a hundred stories there."
She tapped the screen again."Oh, yum…so many entries under "Slashy Goodness," she hummed. "And over here, we have Tongue-Tied, Bottoms Up, Wet & Wild…" Her voice faded as she clicked on one excerpt after another.
Her arousal was embarrassingly evident, her juices beginning to coat his fingers as he teased her folds. The characters in the current story were just adding a fourth, in a lush exotic setting replete with lubricants and toys, when Bill stopped stroking her long enough to get up and lift her into his arms.
"Bill, your back…"
"Not going that far," he assured her, taking the few steps to their fur-covered bed. He pulled her two garments off in a flash, then stood, hard and ready as she stripped off his tunic and pants. Their lips met in an unusually frantic kiss, all tongue and teeth and deep-throated growls.
Right before he joined her under the covers, she stopped him with a hand to his chest. They were perfect together…they always had been. But there were some things she frankly missed.
"Bring that thing over here, dear." She gave him a wistful grin, edged with remembered playfulness. "I always loved your reading to me in bed."
His deep soft rumble was a perfect match to the luscious descriptions of love-making in various permutations-and that was just in the first story. Midway through the second, his breath turned ragged in time to her light strokes under the covers.
"That's enough for now," he said, switching off the screen and getting out of bed, "Don't want to run the battery down." She grinned at his nonchalance as he laid the tablet on the table...she'd noticed him bookmarking a few favorite passages in "The Ranch Hand & the CEO." Their subtle teasing while he read had her soaking wet and beyond ready. She flung the covers back as he returned and leaned over her, cupping her face for a tender kiss.
His lips traveled down her body and she settled into sweet anticipation of his tender ministrations...then gave a startled gasp as he lifted her thighs in a firm grip. This is different was her last coherent thought, then she was gripping the soft fur of their bed, arching under his tongue. He had changed his usual pattern, licking and sucking everywhere but where she needed it most. Her climax was building from a molten circle around her clit, pleasure radiating outward, making her belly clench and her legs shake.
"Gods, Bill, stop teasing...please...more-there, damnit, there..." His hummed denial next to her clit had her panting, grabbing at his arm, and a panicked thought shot through her:this is too much, it's overload, I can't-then his mouth was firm and centered, lips and tongue focused with keen precision at her epicenter. Sharp sparkling waves built and crashed against her senses, and she screamed until his lips, still spiced with her taste, moved over hers, silencing her as the shaking slowly
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The sun was high in the sky by the time Saul saw the Adamas emerge from their cabin. The Old Man must've thrown his back out again, he mused, watching his former commander's stiff movements.
Or not, he silently added, seeing Laura's hips sway in a "got frakked hard last night" walk. Saul cocked his head and tried to make out the rectangular object in Laura's hand. She carefully set it on the bench nearest the gravesite, where it would catch full sun. He turned back to the wood he was splitting.
He'd have to remember to ask Bill what that thing was.