"I am satisfied," she hears from the bed as she picks up her boots and pads, silently, towards the door. She freezes, and Samantha continues. "I see, dance, laugh, sing…"
The dark-skinned woman sits up in bed, the sheets spilling down her front and pooling in her waist, and there is honest joy in her voice - not the recrimination Ashley was expecting. "As the hugging and loving bed-fellow sleeps at my side through the night," as indeed the Spectre had remained, dead to the world for nearly seven hours, "And withdraws at the peep of the day with stealthy tread."
Ash hangs her head a little, ashamed both to have so abandoned herself the night before and to have attempted to sneak out in the morning as if that could make it somehow un-happen, could somehow wipe her slate clean of the attraction, previous and lingering, that had drawn her to the specialist's side to begin with.
She can't say any of that, of course.
"I didn't know you were so into poetry," she murmurs instead, boots still in hand and eyes only daring to flicker up towards the other woman for instants at a time. It's enough, though, to take in the bare expanses of smooth skin, to remember the softness of a body that has never seen combat, and to begin to grow excited all over again.
"I'm not," Sam replies, stretching and causing Ashley's heart to thud so loudly that she's put in mind of Poe, "But I picked up a few things here and there."
She should leave, should turn and make her walk of shame in the early-morning hours of the Citadel's day cycle, should flee the apartment that they have occupied with Shepard's permission but not her knowledge, should absolutely not linger here for even a moment longer.
"What else do you know?" she asks instead.
"Mostly the standard bits. Whitman was a special favourite of mine, you see." There's a smile in her voice and on her face, soft and promising, and the Spectre inches back towards her.
"Recite some more." It's a terrible idea, it's the worst idea she's had since jumping into the other woman's arms the night before, and yet she thrills at the idea.
"I sing the body electric," Samantha replies, her voice low and inviting, and Ashley is lost.
