Common Ground
Chapter 10 – Irresistible Forces
Bleary-eyed, Carth groaned as he slowly came to consciousness, and discovered that there was a throbbing, dull ache where his brain was supposed to be. Worse, it felt like someone had stuffed a wad of polyfab cotton down his throat.
"Here. Take this," a feminine voice ordered in a commanding but thankfully soft tone.
Carth rubbed his gummy eyes with the back of his hand and tried to focus on who was talking. Eventually, he realized that it was Julia, his squadron leader, who sat on the edge of the bed, holding out a glass of water and a pair of painkiller tablets. Strangely, she was in a robe and her hair was mussed up; it looked like she'd just gotten out of bed.
It took him a second to will his body into a sitting position. Carth swallowed the water and the tablets gratefully. "Julia?" he croaked when he found his voice again. Slowly, he registered that he was back in his apartment. "What happened? Why are you here?"
A wicked smile spread across her pretty face and her eyes swept across his body; Carth belatedly realized that he was completely naked, and only barely covered by a thin sheet. Carth was sure that he turned crimson when Julia arched an elegant eyebrow at him.
"Don't you remember last night, Onasi? You were fantastic."
Julia leaned forward and trailed a finger down his bare chest; Carth nearly dropped the glass of water as he tried to scrabble backwards to get away. Both his brain and his voice sputtered as he tried to remember what the hell had happened last night, while simultaneously dodging Julia's roaming hands. While his bleary mind struggled to input all of this information, Carth realized that his nose and hands were covered in bandages. He remembered going out and drinking with his friends, and he definitely remembered kicking Brell's ass and the barroom brawl, but what had happened after that was extremely fuzzy.
Carth sputtered, "We- You mean we-"
"Oh, yeah. All. Night. Long," she murmured in a voice that would have made most men sit up and beg.
But all he could think about was how he'd blown it with Morgana. Hot shame and despair lanced through him, because he knew that when Morgana found out about this, she would never, ever forgive him. There was also the fact that Julia was sleeping with Captain Karath, and Carth knew that if he found out, Saul could make his life a complete and utter hell. Having betrayed both the woman he cared about and a man he deeply respected, Carth figured his life was over.
And the worst part was, he had been so drunk that he didn't even remember the fun part of his colossal screwup.
How could I be so fracking stupid
Carth boggled at Julia as she inched closer to him, and Carth was left with nowhere else to retreat when his back hit the headboard.
"I have a bit of time before I go on duty. We could go for round two." She cocked her head to the side, giving the idea deep and careful consideration. "Or technically, round four…"
Carth's eyes grew wide as he choked out, "Four?" The Gamorrean pig-man part of his brain couldn't help but be a tiny bit proud. Julia was a beautiful woman, and Carth knew that, in other circumstances, he wouldn't be nearly as horrified as he was right now.
Julia's grin broadened as she advanced, and Carth began to panic. Putting his hands on her shoulders in an effort to keep her at bay, he fumbled to find a way to gracefully get his squadron leader out of his bedroom.
"Ah… Julia… I, uh…"
Masculine snickering floated in from the doorway, cutting through Carth's frantic panic; he turned to see both Jordo and Dustil standing in the doorway, grinning from ear to ear. Dustil was even holding a cheap holorecorder in his hand. When they saw that Carth had noticed them, they both doubled over in fits of laughter.
"Oh man, Onasi. You should have seen your face. It was priceless," Jordo pronounced.
Dustil held up the holorecorder. "He'll get to see it. I've got it recorded here for posterity."
"You bastards!" Carth raged, his panic and guilt forgotten in his fury at his friends' practical joke. He pointed at Julia. "You put her up to this, didn't you?"
Julia pinned him with a wry look. "It wasn't hard to convince me. I didn't appreciate getting a comm in the middle of the night from the Corellian Security Force, telling me to come and get my wayward pilots. And from what Jordo and Dustil told me, it sounds like you were the one who started the trouble at that bar."
Carth's panic returned, because if CorSec had been involved, he and his friends were in very deep trouble.
"Luckily for the three of you, the bar owner and the other idiots at the bar weren't interested in pressing charges, otherwise Captain Karath would be extremely unhappy, and you all would be in some extremely deep shit. As it was, it took me over an hour to patch you three nitwits up." Julia shook her head. "I don't think I've ever seen you that drunk, Onasi. I worried about you for half the night."
Carth sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck with one battered hand while Julia unwrapped the bandage from his nose. She thoroughly inspected his face and hands before sitting back with a tired sigh.
"Your split lip is pretty much mended. I picked the glass out of your hands, and the kolto patch for your nose should have reset the cartilage by now. You're just going to be sore for a while and pretty bruised-looking, but I've given you some serious painkillers, so you ought to be fine."
Finished with her poking and prodding, Julia gathered up the dirty bandages and stood. Carth touched his nose gingerly; it was sore, but it seemed like it was back in one piece.
He cleared his throat. "Uh… Julia… thanks for patching me up and for helping us out."
Julia waved a dismissive hand at him. "Not a problem. Bailing my idiot pilots out of trouble is part of the job. Just don't do it again, okay?" She turned and headed out the door. "I'm going to get you some more painkillers that should last you the rest of the day, so I'll be back in a few minutes. In the meantime, you might want to clean yourself up, because at the moment, you're pretty ripe."
Carth took an experimental sniff with his newly repaired nose, and discovered that she was right; he stank of typical bar smells: beer and sweat and smoke and blood.
Jordo and Dustil let her pass, although Dustil took the opportunity to check out her backside, the way he always did, as she left Carth's apartment. Both of them were dressed in their flight jumpsuits, and Carth remembered that they were both on duty today. However, he had the day off, since he'd swapped duty rosters, hoping to take Morgana away for the weekend.
Dustil scowled down at him. "You lucky bastard, at least you get to sleep your hangover off. We're on duty in an hour."
Jordo rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Like you didn't enjoy every second of the fight last night."
"Yeah." Dustil's troublemaking grin returned. "That was a lot of fun. I was pretty awesome."
Carth shifted nervously in the bed as it occurred to him for the first time that Morgana wouldn't be very happy if she found out that Carth had beaten her ex-boyfriend to a bloody pulp. He knew that she wouldn't understand why he had to do it, but hopefully she wouldn't find out. Carth doubted that she'd find out from Brell, who probably wouldn't want to share his humiliation with his girlfriend. Ex-girlfriend. Even if she did eventually find out, he was pretty confident that he'd be able to sweet-talk her into understanding.
As Carth managed to haul his tired and sore body out of bed, he was treated to Dustil's blow-by-blow account of his fighting prowess. Carth, wanting to clean himself up in peace and needing to come up with a plan for handling Morgana, interrupted his friends and tossed the two of them out of his apartment, promising to catch them later, where Dustil could brag to his heart's content.
He stumbled into the refresher and winced when he saw himself in the mirror. His face was a bruised mess, both of his eyes were blackened, and his lip, which had been split, was pink and tender. There were bruises on his chest and legs, and for some strange reason, his back was sore. Expecting to see a large bruise on the small of his back, Carth was shocked when he turned around and saw the black bird of prey insignia tattooed on his space-pale skin.
Carth groaned out loud and tried not to think about how disappointed his mother would be if she ever found out, or how much his father would tease him; he could practically hear the lecture word for word ringing in his tired, hungover brain. Thankfully, he'd somehow had the foresight to put it somewhere easily concealable, so hopefully he would never have to deal with that.
After a quick check to make sure there weren't anymore surprise injuries or tattoos on his body, Carth swallowed more painkillers and jumped into the sonic shower. He emerged fifteen minutes later, feeling a hundred times better. Pulling on a pair of shorts, he was about to shave the stubble off his face, when there was a knock at the 'fresher door.
The 'fresher door slid open to reveal an extremely worried-looking Julia. "What's wrong?" Carth asked, wondering if the other shoe was going to drop and Captain Karath was going to call him in for disciplining.
"Morgana's here."
"Now?" Elation that she had come to see him warred with panic. He desperately wanted to see her, especially since he thought that she and Brell might have had a falling-out, judging from Brell's angry words last night, but he'd been hoping he could put off seeing her until his bruises faded more and he wouldn't have to explain how he'd got them.
"She was standing in the doorway just a minute ago." Julia frowned, and she looked over her shoulder at the empty doorway. "I told her you were in the shower and would be out in a minute, but I think she got the wrong impression, because she seemed really upset when she saw me."
Carth looked at Julia who was still in her robe. Oh frack.
"You'd better go after her, Carth," Julia said, but Carth had grabbed his bathrobe and was already running out the door.
Hot, sharp tears pricked Morgana's eyes and threatened to spill down her cheeks as she rushed out of the building into the dreary and chill autumn rain. But Morgana didn't even notice; she just moved blindly, not really looking where she was going, just wanting to get away before her mortification and hurt and anger overwhelmed her.
Stupid. You're so stupid. You waited too long to make a decision and lost him.
Morgana knew that it was her own fault that Carth had gotten tired of waiting. When the beautiful brunette answered the door in a robe, what had happened had become obvious.
Despite her efforts to keep her composure, tears slid down her cheeks and bitter jealousy clawed through her. She knew she had no right to be jealous, but that didn't stop the feelings of hurt and betrayal.
Carth's voice cut through her misery. "Morgana, wait!"
Morgana really didn't want to talk to him, but short of flat-out running away, there really wasn't anything she could do. So she swiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and smoothed her features into blankness before she turned to face him. But when she turned and saw his face, her jaw dropped, because he was standing in the freezing rain wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and robe, looking like he'd just gone three rounds with a Gamorrean guardsman — and lost.
Her cool and calm façade collapsed under the weight of her concern. "Carth, what happened to you?"
Shivering, Carth wrapped his black bathrobe around his body and cleared his throat. A distinctly guilty expression crossed his face. "I, uh… I got into a bar fight last night."
Morgana's eyes widened. "A fight?"
For a second, Morgana wondered if Carth had found Brell and the two of them had finally fought, but she discarded that thought because she simply couldn't fathom the idea of Brell actually going to a bar, let alone a bar where a bar fight would erupt.
Carth shifted from foot to foot, and Morgana realized that his feet had to be freezing wet on the cold permacrete walkway. The small, petty part of her was glad.
"Ana, please come inside and let me explain."
The tone of her voice matched the freezing temperature. "I don't think so."
He tried appealing to her better nature. "Come on, kitten. It's freezing out here."
Morgana couldn't stop herself from saying, "Go back inside. I'm sure she'll help warm you up." Strangely, he looked almost pleased by her jealous outburst.
Shocked by the vehemence of her own jealousy, she turned away and walked off before she embarrassed herself any further. Or at least she tried to, but Carth stepped around her and into her path.
"That's… it's not like that!" Morgana ignored him and tried to pass, but he grabbed her and forced her to look at him. "Dammit, woman, listen to me! She's my squadron leader, and she's the one who patched me up last night. She was just checking on me this morning, to make sure I was okay. I swear that's all it is. She's just a friend."
Morgana couldn't deny that it was a completely rational explanation. Besides, Carth looked so earnest that she had to believe him. Her mortification tripled, and she flushed bright red, wishing the walkway would just open up and swallow her whole.
"Oh."
When he took her hand, she could feel him shivering, and Morgana felt horribly petty and guilty for making him stand outside in the freezing drizzle.
"Please come inside."
Morgana bit her lip and nodded, and they walked brusquely back to the building. When the warm air hit them, Carth let out a sigh of relief. He didn't let go of her hand even when they were back in his apartment and sitting on his nerf leather couch, as though he were afraid that she would bolt and run again.
Unfortunately, his squadron leader, whom Carth introduced as Julia, was still there. As Carth rubbed warmth back into his feet with one hand, Julia did a final check of Carth's injuries while amicably chatting with the both of them, reassuring Morgana that the only reason she was in her bathrobe was because she'd come over from her apartment to check on Carth as soon as she'd gotten up. Morgana was so embarrassed that she could only manage one-word responses, and it was an intense relief when Julia finally left.
Morgana glanced over at Carth, who looked almost as relieved as she felt. "Carth, I'm sorry. I had no right-"
Carth cut across her apology. "No. You had every right. It looked really bad. Hell, I jumped to the same conclusion myself." He told her about the practical joke his friends pulled on him this morning, and Morgana felt like less of an idiot by the time he was finished.
"Besides" - he smirked - "you're pretty damn sexy when you're mad and jealous." For what felt like the hundredth time today, Morgana flushed crimson. "I didn't expect to see you here this morning. I thought you had class today."
"I tried to find you last night, but you weren't home. So I… I skipped it," she admitted. She'd been too anxious to wait until late afternoon to find him, so — for the first time ever — she'd ditched her morning class, hoping to catch him at home.
Delight lit up his battered face, and his lips twitched into a smirk. "You skipped class just for me? I'm honored." It surprised her, because he really did look touched.
Morgana couldn't seem to find the right words, and she wondered why she was so nervous about telling him this. "I wanted to tell you that, I mean… that Brell and I… that we're not together anymore."
Carth's smirk blossomed into a full-blown smile. "You aren't?"
"No," she said softly. "He asked me to marry him." Carth's smirk turned into a dark scowl, and his grip on her hand tightened. Morgana still couldn't quite believe that Brell had proposed to her, however ineptly; last night was one strange and surreal blur. "I told him that I wanted to be with you."
At that, his expression softened into something that made her insides twist in anticipation. He didn't say anything, he simply kissed her, finally releasing her hand so that he could wrap his arms around her. Morgana leaned into him, her hands sliding across the bare skin of his chest, and she nearly moaned into his mouth because she finally had the chance to touch him without his pesky shirt in the way. She tugged at his robe, desperately wanting the material out of the way so that she could see his glorious shoulders and chest. Still kissing her, he obliged her and shrugged it off, letting it pool onto the floor. When he let her back up for air, she gasped as he nipped her earlobe and pushed her back against the cushions.
Morgana decided that she'd better try to apologize again while she still had the presence of mind to do it. "I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have gone to dinner with him. I just felt so guilty."
He stopped nibbling on her and looked her straight in the eye. "Stop apologizing. You're here now, and that's all I care about." Carth's thumb caressed her jaw, making her skin tingle. "I have to admit that I was crazy jealous. I couldn't stop thinking about you and him and what the two of you might have been doing."
"We didn't-"
"I know." He chuckled at himself. "I had this plan. I was going to hunt you down and toss you over my shoulder, so I could carry you off to my bedroom and make you forget all about him."
"You should have done it." Morgana gingerly touched the side of his bruised nose and winced. "I think we both would have had a better night."
Carth looked at her like he wanted to tear her clothes off, and his voice was husky and low as his hand trailed down her jaw and neck. Although the words were playful, the intense look in his eyes seared right though her. "It's too bad you have class this afternoon, because I… um… I could… uh… put that plan into action right now."
Morgana's heart began to race as need blazed through her, and her throat was so dry that she could barely get the words out. "I could skip that class, too."
A teasing smile touched his lips. "You'd skip two classes in one day, just for me?"
They both knew what he was really asking. Morgana trembled and breathed, "Yes."
"Anything you say, kitten." Carth moved so fast that all Morgana caught was brief flash of his wolfish grin before he lifted her up, tossed her over his broad shoulder and carried her across the room.
Morgana yipped and laughed in surprise. "Carth!"
His echoing laughter rumbled through his body. "You asked for it, sister." He tore off her shoes as he walked, tossing them to the side with one hand while his other hand rested on her backside.
Morgana was so distracted by delirious anticipation and sharp nervousness at what they were about to do, that it took her a second to realize that she had an amazingly good view of his firm and tight backside, and the black bird of prey tattoo on the small of his back. Tentatively, she reached out and touched it, sliding her small hand along his warm skin; the sound that escaped his lips made her blood burn.
"I didn't know you had a tattoo."
"It's new. I was a bit… um… inebriated," he admitted in an embarrassed and sheepish mumble.
"I like it."
"You do?" She couldn't see his face, but he sounded pleased, and his walk practically became a strut as he carried her to the bedroom.
"Yes. It's very" — she searched for the right word — "attractive."
When they reached his bedroom, Carth slid her down his body and set her on his rumpled bed, and Morgana was mesmerized by how masculine and sexy he was. Want and need and desire tied themselves into one tangled knot in her belly, and she simply couldn't stop staring at him. Carth was solid and muscular, without an ounce of fat on his chiseled and toned body. His jaw, darkened by a night's growth of beard, should have made him look scruffy, but instead it made him look dangerous, and even with the faded bruises and healing cuts, he was utterly magnificent. It was nearly inconceivable to her that Carth was all hers.
Impatient, Carth growled her name and shoved her onto her back. He joined her on the bed, his large hands fumbling with the buttons on her shirt, and he cursed under his breath when it took longer than both of them wanted.
"Did you have to wear something so damn complicated?" he muttered, exasperated when one of the buttons caught on the thin fabric of her shirt, his voice hoarse from his urgent desire.
Morgana laughed and pushed his hands away, deftly unfastening the material and shrugging her shirt off. "I didn't realize buttons were too complicated for you."
White teeth flashed as he grinned at her. "You're the smart one. I'm just an unintelligent, arrogant, cocky pilot."
Chagrin stained her cheeks bright red once again. "I can't believe I said that to you."
"I can't either, but you were so sexy and beautiful that I wasn't about to let that stop me."
Morgana's throat went dry as she looked into his honest brown eyes. "You think I'm beautiful?"
Carth cupped her face in his hands and caressed her soft cheek with his thumb. "Ana, you are the most beautiful woman I've ever known."
When he said it like that, he really did make her feel beautiful, and a desperate ache filled her as Morgana reached for him. They melted together on the bed, and logic and reason and coherent thought, until all that was left was pure instinct and the desperate need for connection. For quite a while the world narrowed to just the two of them; no one else existed and nothing else mattered.
Eventually they were still, and a warm haze settled over them. Neither one of them moved or spoke, and Morgana just soaked in his presence in silence, in a state of happy disbelief, until her joy spilled over into a hiccup of happy laughter.
She shifted so that she could look down at Carth, who was frowning. "What's so damn funny?"
Morgana couldn't stop herself from grinning. "I just… I just can't believe that we're actually here. That I'm lying naked on top of a gorgeous pilot, in the middle of the day, and skipping class." She shook her head in bewilderment. "This is the kind of thing that only happens to other people."
Realizing that she wasn't laughing at him, Carth grinned back at her. "It's going to happen to you a lot more, if I get my way." He began to nuzzle her neck. "You're going to stay for the rest of the day, aren't you? Because I have more plans."
The way he said it sent a tingle throughout her body, and any objection she might have had was completely and utterly forgotten. "What kind of plans?"
"The kind that involve you and me being naked… a lot."
"Oh." She brushed his forehead with her fingertips. "I think I can live with that."
"Good." Carth rose up and gave her a lazy kiss. "But somewhere in there, we have to make time to eat, because I'm starving."
"Do I get to wear clothes while I eat?"
"No," he teased. At her raised eyebrows, he relented a bit. "Okay, you can wear my robe, but that's all. I'm putting my foot down, woman, because you and I are just getting started."
Heat began to curl in her belly again, and she had to admit that going to bed with Brell, while fun, had never been as spectacular as this. With a chuckle, Carth rolled her onto her back; their lips met again, and soon the two of them were lost again in their own private bliss.
As usual I owe a big, huge thanks to xenzen for the beta. She also sketched Carth's tattoo, which I've linked to my profile page.
Thank you again for the feedback everyone. It is amazingly helpful to know what worked and didn't work for the readers of this story (the comments about Brell were especially useful).