Formal Wear Part 2

Annie kept Auggie close all evening, playing her new cover to the best of her ability. The Kennedy Center event was lovely and she returned to the crowd after a stop in the ladies room and Auggie was nowhere in sight.

She found him out on the terrace overlooking the Potomac.

"Thinking about jumping?" she asked playfully as she slipped her arm through his.

"Just getting some air," he smiled but it wasn't his full smile.

"Something wrong?"

"You know you don't have to stick to me like glue right? I can navigate a crowded party just fine, if you have work to do don't worry about me," he shrugged.

"You think I have been sticking to your side because I was afraid you'd get lost in the crowd?" she shook her head.

"Yeah, I thought you were going to take me to the ladies room with you," he sounded sad.

Annie turned him from the railing where he was facing out towards the Pentagon and slid her hands along the lapels of his tux. She liked this cover, it allowed her to have a boyfriend who looked amazing in a tux.

"From the minute we walked into the room every woman here had her eyes on you. I didn't leave your side tonight because I didn't want a single one of them to think you were available. I wasn't worried about you navigating a crowded room, I was staking my claim on the hottest guy in the room," she finished the thought whispering in his ear, her words sliding along the column of his neck and causing them both to shiver.

"Have you sufficiently flaunted your cover?" he whispered in return.

She didn't answer verbally, but nodded, her silky hair moving along his cheek.

Hours later dozing off in bed Auggie brought up the earlier conversation.

"You don't think another woman is going to sweep in and displace you, do you?" Auggie asked quietly.

"No," she answered not very convincingly.

"Annie? You know I love you and have loved you or a very long time."

"I know," but her voice was still shaky.

"Do you? I love you in ways I never knew I could love anyone."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I know there were women before you and I know I rushed into a proposal with Parker, but I had no idea what I was missing. That was all lust and sex and fear and loneliness. I had no idea what love really felt like."

Annie was intrigued now, she and Auggie had talked a little, mostly about Parker, but this was new information.

"Annie, I am never scared and never lonely when I am with you. You don't fill a void for me, because with you in my life there is no void. Even before this," he indicated the naked together in bed thing.

"Yeah?" she apparently only knew one word now.

"Yeah, after I met you the one night stands started to dwindle. I realized I didn't need that to feel whole again. You made me feel whole."

Annie found her voice again.

"You are more than whole Auggie. You are more than I ever thought I could have."

"So we are OK?" he stroked his large warm hand up and down her back until she practically purred.

"I'm still not leaving you alone when you wear that tux, someone might kidnap you," she smiled against the warm skin of his shoulder and he felt her eyelashes flutter there as she drifted off to sleep.

The End