The following lyrics are from a song I heard a lot writing this fic. Unfortunately it's in Italian, but I dug around the Internet and found an English translation (being to lazy to do one myself).

Sei nell'anima
E lì ti lascio per sempre
Sospeso
Immobile
Fermo immagine
Un segno che non passa mai
Gianna Nannini-Sei nell anima

You're in my heart
And I'll leave you there for always
Pending
Motionless
A still image
A scar that never goes away

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my brilliant and fantastic beta antisocialite! I can't even begin to say how much I missed you!! huggles

She was curled up at his side, her head resting on his shoulder, her arm sprawled over his chest. They hadn't spoken for awhile just revelled together in that content silence that was stretching out between them. There was no need for words, when everything could be communicated by touch.

He turned on his side so that they came face to face. She smiled at him. Little laughter lines formed around her eyes that were looking at him friendly. He reached out his hand to cup her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb. The smile slowly faded from her face and though it was now gone he could still remember every little detail about it.

"I want to stay like this forever." His statement was sentimental and childish, but for once he didn't care. It was how he felt.

Her face lit up again. She knew him, knew how out of character it was for him to say something like that. He never talked about what he wanted, regarding it as a weakness instead. As a spy, he never could afford wanting something, it would have made him vulnerable. Sentimentality would have had an even more devastating effect: it would have cost him his life. So of course, the implications of his words didn't pass her by.

"I love you too," she said softly, before she closed the distance between them with a kiss. Her words all of a sudden, seemed strangely inadequate for expressing her feelings, so she tried to pour them into the kiss, into the way her fingers tenderly stroke his hair. Her fingers didn't stop their caress even after she had pulled back.

She was still smiling. Somehow it now refused to fade. He was almost afraid her face would break in two if she kept on doing that.

"Oh, don't look at me like that!" she gave his shoulder a playful shove.

"Like what?"

"Like you're asking yourself whether I've finally gone completely bonkers. I'm just happy, you know."

"Really?"

"Yes, I'm quite positive. What about you?"

"I suppose so," he said cautiously. The corners of his mouth were twitching suspiciously as if he was trying hard to suppress a smile.

"You could be a little more enthusiastic about it," she propped up her head on her hand, looking at him with a mirthful twinkle in her eyes.

"I was being enthusiastic."

She grinned. "I know."

"You little minx," he growled playfully. She let out a surprised little shriek that mixed with happy giggles as he flipped her over and pinned her to the mattress with his weight.

"Again?" Abigail asked with a grin on her face. Her eyes travelling southward while her left eyebrow quirked up ironically.

"Any objections?" His pale face was framed by a dark curtain of black hair as he looked down at her.

"Is that how you woo a girl?"

"It's how I woo you. Why? Didn't I strike the right tone?" he whispered into her ear. The timbre of his voice made her body tingle and sent a pleasant shiver up her spine.

She was slightly breathless when she answered. "Oh, believe me the right tone isn't the problem." He looked rather smug upon hearing that. "But there are ways we could make this even more pleasurable." Now the smugness was gone.

"Is that some sort of hidden criticism?" he was frowning.

"No, merely a suggestion."

"Continue…" He let go of her wrists. The frown was still firmly in place. The situation had reached a critical level, but it would soon enough divert into disastrous if she didn't do anything about it.

Their first love making had been a little bit like their first kiss: a beautiful disaster – a beautiful disaster that had left both of them breathless and with a telltale boneless contentment. Oh yes, she had definitely enjoyed every minute of it. It was aspiring to very good, but why not exploit its potential for mind blowing if it was there? All it needed was just a little nudge in the right direction.

"Don't pout," she said softly, giving him a pleading look.

"I don't pout," he informed her coolly.

"Yes, you do. In fact you're doing it right now," she sat up, the blanket slipping down her naked upper body.

"It's hard to argue with you, when you're half-naked," he said, his eyes momentarily lingering on her breast, before they finally settled on her face.

"I didn't want to argue at all," she said softly.

"What did you have in mind then?"

"Will you let me show you?"

"Depends. Will I like it?" his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

She smirked. "Definitely."

"Alright," he said after a moment of hesitation.

With a nudge of her head she motioned him to lie down. He complied begrudgingly.

"Do you trust me enough to let yourself go?" she was leaning over him, her hand on his chest. "Because that's what you'll need to do."

"I don't know if I can." She could tell he was uncomfortable, because once again he was avoiding eye contact.

"I don't know if I should," he added more softly after a moment.

"I want you to. I want everything of you."

He looked up at her, taking in her pale skin, her slender body, the bed sheet slung around her hips like a sari. Her brown hair was mussed and hung around her head in wild tangles. Her lips, red from kissing, revealed a set of white teeth when she spoke. He had always thought of her as beautiful, not your ordinary kind of beautiful that immediately revealed itself to the observer, no, it was more subtle and gradually unravelling the longer you looked. She was unashamed of her nakedness, radiating a glow of happiness and she was his. She had never been more beautiful to him than now.

She said she wanted everything of him, but did she know what she was getting herself into?

"I'm not sure you know what that means."

"What does it mean?" Abby asked patiently.

"I'm not always gentle," he admitted finally.

"You don't always have to be gentle," her smile was positively devious now. Maybe he didn't know what he was getting himself into either.

"But…" he started.

"No buts, this time," she shook her head.

"You don't…."

"Shush!" She laid her index fingers on his lips. He glared at her.

"You think too much," Abby said simply, as if that was enough to explain everything. "Give me five minutes. If you still want to talk then, we'll talk. Okay?"

"Okay," he agreed finally.

He was anxious to find out what she was up to, because even though he did trust her there was still this vestige of scepticism he had trouble getting rid off. Her hands were warm against his skin. A shudder went through his body when she slowly let them glide down his arms. She noticed his strong reaction when her fingers brushed over the crooks of his arm, so she leaned down to kiss them. First her lips on his skin, butterfly touches, then her tongue. From there she slowly worked her way upwards to his neck.

Nagini's bite had left scars there and for a second he was worried she would be repulsed. Her hot breath fanned against his skin - a moment of hesitance. Maybe he had been right. "I don't want to hurt you. Tell me if I'm doing something you don't like," she whispered in his ear. He only managed to weakly nod in response.

She felt the faint beginnings of stubble underneath her lips when she kissed his neck. With her nose so close to his skin, she could smell his scent, that odd mixture of potions and soap she had always found so pleasant and was now intoxicating to her. She stopped her ministration of his neck for a moment to kiss him on the lips, but before he could deepen the kiss she pulled away.

"You're playing with the fire," he breathed. His eyes sparkled at her dangerously

"That was the idea of it," she said breathily. It had cost her a lot of strength to not give into him right away.

She moved on to the other side of his neck. A playful bite to his shoulder elicited a soft moan. The sound alone almost made her loose her mind. She wanted to seduce him, but that was a rather hard thing to do. She was barely able to resist him as things were, but if he started to make sounds like that...

Their second kiss was even better than the first. In fact it almost made her forget she wanted to stop just before things got out of hand, but this time he wouldn't allow her to toy with him. He slung his arms around her shoulders and pulled her close. Her heart sped up when she felt his body flush against hers, felt how much he wanted her.

"I now what you're trying to do," he whispered in between kisses. His voice was low and velvety. He knew all too well which effect it had on her, because she had already told him so repeatedly. The bastard!

"Is it working?" she whispered back, barely able to form a coherent thought.

"I think given your position you should be able to tell. So?"

"Yes," a shudder of pleasure went through her body.

"Good, I think it's my turn now," he growled. "And I don't intend to have any mercy on you, at least not any time soon."

tbc