Author's Notes: This is NOT part 2 yet! This short thing here is just sort of a continuation for part 1—just something to get you through the New Year and the first weeks of the month. :D I don't know if I could finish part 2 by the end of January (even though that is far too long), so I thought of giving you something to read while I continue to work on part 2. I wanted this to originally be in the first post, but I had then decided otherwise. Now, though, I think it is quite appropriate to add, and besides, I think the occasion calls for it, don't you? :D
I really hope you like this as a consolation for a while… *;)) Please, please, please be a little more patient with me! Everything is happening all at the same time, demanding tons of concentration and attention, and it's so confusing when you have to think of what task or event to prioritize. ;) Yes, it's absolutely busy being a student. Have fun and enjoy!
~*~
Maybe she had dozed off for a while, he wasn't exactly sure. For the past fifteen minutes everything had been very quiet; he didn't speak as he held her and she relished in the silence, content of being in his arms at last. Though they knew that someone could walk in on them anytime, for some reason, they didn't mind. They were with each other, finally, and they wanted to savor the moment before their responsibilities cry out again for their attention.
It seemed like hours since they had found each other and, even though only fifteen minutes have passed, they felt utterly at peace—everything had felt perfect during those fifteen minutes of surprising familiarity. What they were experiencing was heartwarming bliss and pure love, and nothing could ever change that.
He closed his eyes and kissed the side of her head. This was just too good to be true.
She had told him she loved him and that was what's most important right now. She didn't reject him; on the contrary, she accepted him, accepted his love for her, and right after her emotional confession, she had moved into his arms and held him. He had smiled and no words had been exchanged between them. Sighs of joy and love echoed in the cold evening air and, oh, it was just perfect. Everything, they felt, was so completely attuned to their state of mind: the air, the privacy, the atmosphere—it was as if they had been negotiated to radiate perfection at a time like this. In one way or another, the whole thing was simply romantic—a sharp contrast to the rather anxious atmosphere of when he had arrived earlier.
~*~
From a distance, a cricket sounded, interrupting the comfortable silence in the gazebo. She decided to speak.
"Joseph?"
"Hmm?"
"What do we do now?" Her words didn't surprise him. After all, even though they were Joseph and Clarisse, a man and a woman in love, they were still the Head of Security and his Queen, the employee and his employer.
"We love each other." He smiled at her, pulling from their embrace to look her in the eyes. "We just have to do so without anyone knowing about it."
She smiled rather sadly, then cast her eyes downward and sighed. "Do you think we can do it?" Her question was sincere and he felt the seriousness of it flowing from the familiar hint of fear in her eyes. She was scared and he knew exactly why. Someone might find out about them and ruin what they had just begun. It was risky enough to be out here in the open, even if it WAS dark, but it would even be more risky for her to engage in a clandestine love affair with her bodyguard. There's just too much at stake, but they are willing to take chances knowing that, right now, with what they have just established, it was too difficult to throw away their love after having just found it.
"If we love each other enough, we can do it." He reached down and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "And, God, Clarisse, you don't know how much I love you." He smiled and stroked her cheek with the back of his hand. Her face was very soft, softer than velvet it seemed—oh, years of beauty creams and beauty treatments and those stuff which he knew nothing about—but he didn't particularly care. She was beautiful in every sense of the word, brave yet tender at the same time, lovable, caring, intelligent, witty on occasion and with a lovely sense of humour; and he loved her simply for that. She wasn't just his queen, she was the someone that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.
"I do. It's just as much as I love you, Joseph." She breathed, cupping his cheek lovingly in an age-old gesture of affection. She gazed into the depths of his eyes and, for a moment, saw his desire flicker in them. Oh, good Lord, this man wanted her and, unsurprisingly, she wanted him just as much. There was no sense of using buckets and buckets of self-control when they were alone now, each knew what the other had hidden from them all these years, and it felt wonderful to finally push it away from the shadows.
From a farther distance, another cricket sounded, joining the first one in its singing, both of them sounding weirdly melodious in the stillness of the night. The two people in the gazebo still sat, staring at each other in silence until he spoke.
"Am I free to do what we both want, Clarisse?" he asked, his desire to kiss her now coming out in flames. At her slight nod, he grinned a silly grin and leaned down.
He moved with agonizing slowness, postponing the moment of truth. He knew that once they fought together in this battle, there would be no turning back. He was giving her some space to see for herself if she really wanted this, if this should happen. And she did, she DID want this to happen. Meeting him halfway, Clarisse held her breath as their lips finally made contact and they were surrounded by a haze of wonder. Time stood still, it seemed.
His kiss was soft at first, feather-light, and she felt his mouth caress hers, dropping little kisses on her upper lip, burning her reluctance away and making her surrender to the intensity as well as the tenderness of his love for her. His lips were moist and yielding and it made her feel as if she was floating in heaven. Perhaps she was. He tilted his head and slanted his mouth across hers, deepening the kiss with her permission granted. Ah, the point of no return. She moaned in reply and deepened the kiss herself as well, their tongues dueling first in the warm cavern of her mouth, then parted, only to convene and tangle again in his. She felt dizzy and giddy, and she tightened her arms around him so as not to fall off the bench in a trance. Their hearts had interwoven into a tight rope right there on that bench, and she did not want to fall off away from it.
They were one, finally and forevermore, his mouth and hers possessing each other with an urgency and a passion that neither had experienced for years. They kissed in abandon, their tongues snaking in and out of each other's mouths, sending a shocking thrill to course through their bodies and warming their stomachs in less than a minute. They loved each other and there was no doubt about that anymore. They could and would do what it takes to make that love blossom—even in the darkness of the shadows.
The need for air had overpowered their need for each other, however, and they separated; their lips warm and swollen, their breathing once more heavy and laboured for the second time that fateful night.
"Clarisse, I…" he whispered, unable to continue, breathless. She felt a tear run down her cheek and she rested her forehead against his, taking a deep breath.
"I know, Joseph. I know."
They looked at each other straight in the eyes and smiled affectionately. This was real. This was definitely their reality and this was their dream come true.
To be continued…
