Some months later.
When Gunnar woke early in the morning, he barely dared to move, fearing to disturb the beauty still sleeping in his arm.
It had been the first night for months he had spent at home. Not at his, but at their place. And not at the guestroom she had frostily assigned to him early in the evening the day before, but in their bed.
Silver had obviously been planning to proceed slowlier. The thought made him grin. She had equally obviously fallen victim to her own desire. Well, he hadn´t seen the necessity to stop her.
Six months. Six long months of frustration and rage, ups and downs, progress and regress, despair, hunger and doubts.
He listened in on the quiet morning, her breathing and his feelings.
Six months of hoping to re-experience waking up right next to her just like this.
He couldn´t withstand the temptation to follow the lines of the breathtaking tattoo winding up her spine with his fingertips. The touch made her move, but only to relax again with a deep breath.
He had fallen for her right the night he had first seen her. Not that there wouldn´t have been plenty of other goodlooking girls there that night. In fact, there had been some kind of table dance contest. Her rivals had been mostly faceless blondes wearing too much makeup, dancing to the usual lasciviously innocent songs. And then, there had been her, the tall black-haired girl with the amazing tattoos in the silver dress. She had danced to some epic darkwave song, doing her own thing, never averting her eyes, the message clear : You want something, buddy ? Come try and get it.
He had tried and succeeded. And, he mused, he should be damn grateful for that.
Don´t screw this up, dude, a warning voice told him inside his head.
Drifting slowly from sleep back to consciousness, it took Silver a short while to realize what had happened to her carefully made plan for his return.
Well, that plan had not come together. That much was clear.
Still, she felt good. Right. And, admittedly, some sweet pain reminding her of last nights intense exercises of conjugal rights and duties.
Instead of turning towards him to wish him good morning, she kept silent and motionless and concentrated on taking it all in.
His free hand rested warm on her hip by now. He was awake and was surely aware of the fact that she had woken as well, but he didn´t push things. Well, better for him that way.
Silver closed her eyes again and cursed herself. With him around and the first kiss exchanged, she hadn´t stood a damn chance to stick to the plan and banish him for another while from their bedroom. She should have known that.
Closing her eyes caused some memories of the last night to come up again. Memories speeding up her heartbeat. After their first, admittedly rather badly needed and therefore not very romantic encounter, he had done what she used to love and hate him for at the same time and had taken his time to torture her softly into surrender.
It made her think back of how all this had begun years ago. Like so many decisions she had taken ever since regarding him, the one to share not only a drink, but the night with him as well had been taken within the instant.
Silver had never had a problem with an occasional one night stand, but she had usually known the guys she spent the night with longer than some hours. With Gunnar, things had been different. For some reason, she had trusted him despite the fact that he had surely been the biggest badass she had ever gotten involved with. He hadn´t betrayed her confidence. In some ways, the last night had been just like this first one back then. She had been lost right after the first kiss.
She remembered waking up right next to him back then, in a messy bed in the middle of some equally messy bachelor flat, with memories of a long and hot night not unalike the last one.
At first, things had been about sex only. The first couple of nights had been simply long and delightful. Then he had left for a job. The two weeks following had felt awkward and empty to Silver, and had made her start to think about the reasons for that.
When he had returned, covered in bruises and cuts, she had been in trouble. But instead of looking for some other nice company to spend the nights with, he had backed her up. She remembered with a smile that back then, he had not even known her real name.
When she finally turned towards him, they eyed each other up for a moment, as if to become aware again of with whom they had just spent the last hours.
„Missed you", he said after a long while quietly.
She threw him a dark look. They had seen each other almost every day during the last months and if that had not been possible, they had talked at least.
She was close to reproach him sharply, but bit her tongue.
They both knew that it was not what he had been talking about. He had been talking about the fact that she had refused him to come home again and had just allowed him to do so for the first time the night before.
He watched her facial expression soften again.
„I want that back", she said gruffly instead of a rebuke, tugging softly at the small ring he was still wearing on the chain around his neck right next to his own.
„Right now ?"
„Later on", she answered.
Averting her gaze, she nestled up against him, her head against his chest.
„I missed you too", she whispered.