~Odo~
He stood with her, stilled and slightly dumbfounded, on fire and enjoying the sensual meander of her fingers.
"Tonight," she whispered conspiratorily against the line of his collar bone, after she had tasted it with the warm, wet, trailing tip of her tongue. "I want you as you are. In your natural form."
The request alone nearly sent him to his gelatinous state. He knew she felt it as it rippled through him. She stood on her toes and caught his mouth in a searing kiss and as he returned it he slowly let go of his solidity. She gasped when she felt the strange current of his natural form and her eyes opened. He shivered against her, alive and expectant with the feel of her. The taught skin, the slide of hard muscle beneath it. He held a roughly humanoid shape against her.
"You are so beautiful," she told him, as he curved and shimmered around her, taking her in. The words made him ache like nothing else could. He unfurled coils of amber to delicately undress her. She responded with the same level of desire that she had the night before, running her hands sensuously over and through whatever part of his being she could lay claim to. He wrapped around her lower abdomen, drawing erotic sighs from his lover's mouth, and lifting her off her feet, eased her into the other room and onto the low bed. He shifted parts of himself from gel to a vapor and drifted electric mist across the pale expanse of her skin, drawing the fine hairs of her body to rise, sensitively. She slid against him and her body tensed, muscles rippled beneath her skin. He teased the humid cleft between her legs, dipped into the place that most reminded him of his own true nature. He felt her move rapidly towards her release when something began to happen. He sought her body with his substance, and suddenly felt her thrilling through him; her body began to melt into amber where it touched him. He shivered in disbelief and at the sudden tide of her experiences, ideas, emotions.
She gasped at the sudden change of awareness; then he could feel it surge through her. She panicked, seemed to lose herself momentarily in the overwhelming influx of sensations. Wide eyed, she thrashed enough for him to pull away from her and solidify.
"Nerys, you're safe." He wrapped her struggling body in his arms, as soon as they reformed, and stroked her hair, shaken by her panic. He closed off the fleeting, impossible impression of the beginnings of their link into a far corner of his mind, "You're safe."
"What happened?" she panted, wide eyed. "We didn't start to…"
He nodded, trying not to think about how exquisite it had felt to know her like that, for the briefest of moments, "To link."
She blinked rapidly, swallowing her breath to calm the cold prickle of adrenaline. He had known her long enough and through enough situations that he recognized it in her eyes. He could see as she shifted into Colonel mode. Her face went blank, professional, focused, her words vibrated through his whole body. "They … they asked me what I would be willing to do, when I went to the Link."
"You went to the Great Link?" His voice took on a strained tone, fighting the sudden sense of shock.
She nodded, searching his eyes, her face softening slightly. "How do you think I found you?"
He was silent, a little afraid of what they had done to her. Tried not to think of how they were before he left.
"I don't know what it all means." She rolled away from him and wrapped her arms around herself. He watched her silently, willed her trembling fingers to still. "They seemed angry at first. The Link crashed like waves against the rock, seemed divided, like part of them wanted to know more and part of them wanted me gone. I stood my ground and pleaded with them. They sent a representative. Several. They asked about you, about us. They left me. I waited for days, beamed down emergency rations from the ship. When they addressed me again, the Link rippled, but seemed calm. They asked me how much I loved you. They asked me what I would sacrifice to be with you." She stopped as if she had forgotten this part of the story until she told it.
