'Absolutely not,' said Jesse.
I froze in my dramatic delivery of the plan. 'W-what? Why?'
He glared at me, and I bit my lip.
'Oh. That.'
Standing up suddenly, he cried, 'Of course, that, Susannah! Don't you understand what you are saying? Instantaneous death! How can you talk of this so calmly? I don't understand.'
I shrugged. 'You're only coming as a precaution. I fully intend on coming back as a ghost, but just in case I don't, you can take the sword back and go make mashed potatoes out of him with it. But that probably won't happen, so don't worry - '
He just laughed softly in disbelief. I blinked. 'Jesse. What's the problem? I'll still be with you.'
Dr. Slaski snorted. 'Not the brightest choice in a girlfriend,' he commented sardonically to Jesse, who rounded on him and growled, 'Stay out of this, old man.'
I too shot the Doctor a dirty look. 'Yeah,' I snapped. 'Shut up, or we're putting you in the Courtesy Chair.'
He settled, looking irritated.
Turning back to Jesse, I sighed. 'Listen - '
'No,' he interrupted angrily. There was actual fear in his eyes, that I was serious. Which I was. 'You listen, Susannah. Listen very carefully.' He sank to his knees in front of me, holding my shoulders in a tight grip, 'You are not going to die. Not here, not now. You are going to live your life. All of it.'
I shook my head. 'No, I'm not,' I replied gently, touching his face. 'There's no other way to do this, Jesse. Gabriel...he made a very real threat against my friends. I'm almost sure he told Paul about CeeCee and Father Dominic helping me, that they were finding information for me to use against Paul, to get Paul to take care of them - when it was really the other way around. He knows we're close to finding a way to destroy him, and the longer I draw this out, the more danger the people around me are in, so I've got to - '
'To die?' Jesse gasped in horror, his eyes a fiery black. 'The price you pay is your life?'
'Yes,' I responded.
'B-but,' he stuttered urgently, 'What about your family? Your mother? What will this do to them? Susannah, be reasonable. This isn't the only way to - '
He didn't understand. I groaned a little in impatience, which made his temper flare. 'Susannah!' he scowled, shaking me to bring my attention back to him. My eyes found his in some alarm. I just didn't see why he was so upset. I mean...I wasn't planning on going anywhere after I kicked it. What was the big deal?
'Oh, just let the girl die,' Dr. Slaski whined in annoyance. 'Hopefully she'll be a damned lot less infuriating as a ghost...'
Jesse stood up to his full height in absolute fury. Sensing a lot of shattering glass in the near future, I too stood up and grumbled at the Doctor. 'Okay. You? OUT.'
And promptly materialising him into the rusty Courtesy wheelchair in the corner, before moving him to Father Dominic's bedroom. Jesse slammed the door closed telekinetically, making the whole room seem to shudder with his unchecked emotions. I ran my hand through my hair tiredly, staring at him. 'Jesse,' I pleaded. 'Calm down, seriously.'
'I will not calm down,' he shot back furiously, 'Not until you show anything but calmness about what you are so calmly discussing. What is wrong with you?'
I shoved my hands on my hips. 'Nothing is wrong with me,' I said, stubborn. 'I'm just doing what I always do: whatever it takes.'
His expression was utterly scandalised. 'I don't - how are you so...'
I rolled my eyes, my irritation escalating quickly. 'If you won't come with me,' I said coolly, 'I can just ask Lily. It's no problem. She won't question my judgement. She'd understand that I'm doing what I need to in order to keep my family - '
'Locura!' he cried. I flushed angrily at his use of Spanish. He turned away from me with a jerky, uncontained movement of wrath. A flicker of disappointment echoed through me. After all these weeks of being apart from each other, the first night we could have been back in each other's arms, he was already too mad to even look at me. This wasn't how I'd predicted our reunion. Perhaps I should have left out the dying thing. I had no idea he'd get so upset about it.
'I'm going to bed. Stay here tonight, we'll talk about this tomorrow,' I said stiffly, dematerialising to my room. It was almost three in the morning...of course I wanted sleep.
The second I'd arrived in my dark bedroom, he was standing in front of my bed, waiting for me. His arms were crossed and his face was like thunder.
'Nice try,' he said. 'I will not be dismissed as easily as that, querida.'
My heart fluttered at the word, but he'd said it so quickly and with such anger in his voice that the sentiment had been tarnished a little. I just shrugged. 'Talk all you want,' I offered with a nonchalant look that probably got right under his skin. 'I don't care - I'm going to sleep.'
As I tried to slide into bed, he stopped me. His hands on the skin of my arms sent a thrill of familiarity throughout my body. 'Susannah,' his voice was very hard. 'We will deal with this now.'
'It's been dealt with,' my voice, in comparison, was soft and quiet - but obstinate. 'It's decided.'
'I don't trust you to be making a decision like this!' he hissed, his face close to mine. There were no thoughts of kissing on his brain, though. He was too angry with me. With narrowed eyes, I replied crisply, 'I don't trust you to be making any decisions either, since you haven't exactly been Joe Sanity lately.'
Shock appeared on his face, and instantly, I felt terribly guilty for stooping to that. He'd been going insane on the Forgotten Plane without me - he'd been tortured into near madness, and I'd just trivialised that completely. The shock, however, was shoved aside, and his hard infuriation returned.
'Let us not exchange jabs at who has more completely lost their mind - even though it is clearly yourself,' he added. 'The only way you will be deterred from your plan is if we come up with another, so I'm prepared to negotiate all things except your life - '
'No.'
I swatted his hand from my arm, and got into bed. My serenity was maddening him. Sure enough, barely a second had passed before the covers were ripped back. A rush of cold drenched my skin and I glared at him accusingly.
'Susannah!' he shouted at me. 'That is enough!'
I launched myself back out of bed, standing angrily before him. His livid eyes were flashing in the moonlight. 'Hey,' I said, 'I've accepted it, okay?'
'No, you haven't,' he laughed confidently.
I hesitated. 'What do you want me to do? Cry about it? Moan how it isn't fair? Beg for there to be another way? Because I'm - '
'Yes!' he threw his arms in the air. 'Yes! Cry, moan, beg - anything but this transparent façade of apathy you present now! Show me you want to live!'
'Of course I do,' I spat. 'But I, unlike you, am not as naïve to think that everything is going to get a happy ending. However, like I said before, there is a big chance I'll come back as a ghost anyway, so I really don't see what you're so pissy about - '
'BECAUSE I CAN'T LOSE YOU AGAIN!' he roared in my face, seizing me. His eyes widened in desperation, and his lips parted to release his shallow breaths of utmost panic. I went very quiet, impassive. His face crumpled as if in pain, and he bowed his head against my neck, drawing me into him. He was shaking. The tension in his strong arms sharply alerted me to the fact that Jesse was very scared - which always made me scared. Nothing seemed that bad, until the point where his fear made me realise it was.
I wrapped my arms around his waist, feeling his lips quivering against the skin of my throat. His presence consumed me, and my heart started hammering. Whatever calmness I'd built up before was about to deteriorate, and I could feel it.
'I'm sorry,' I whispered.
My body started going cold with dread, as the ice encasing my heart started to crack. In his ear, I breathed urgently, '...I don't want to die...'
He pulled me even closer to him. 'Of course you don't...'
'But,' I went on. 'I'm going to.' Why was it so cold? The temperature had just plummeted in the room.
Jesse moved back to stare turbulently into my eyes. 'No, I won't let you,' he promised me.
Images fired relentlessly through my mind, each one tearing its previous to pieces. I saw myself once again plastered to the inside of a BMW by my own blood. My eyes wide with shock before I'd had a chance to know what had happened. My breath stopped completely in my throat, never to be released. His hand, aiming right between my eyes. His gun, catching a flicker of light from the setting sun. Blood pooling over my white shirt...
'I can't...' I started to sob. 'Jesse...I can't die like that...'
He frowned in concern. 'Like what?' he demanded.
I choked on a gasp, my eyes closing heavily. 'I know how Paul's going to kill me,' I told him. 'It's...going to hurt. I just - I don't want to die that way.' It got colder, and colder... 'This way, though - it...maybe I won't even feel it. It'll be easier - '
'Querida,' he stopped me, his hands caressing my face. They were so warm, but it felt like the chill of my skin wouldn't allow any of his non-existent heat to transfer to me. He gazed into my eyes which were suddenly alight with a wild terror. I didn't want to be saying these things to him, telling him how scared I was of dying. But I couldn't stop.
I looked away, my gaze falling to my hands. I didn't want to fall apart. I had to keep pretending that I was going to be okay, because when I pretended, I almost started to believe it -
But I wasn't okay. I didn't want to die. I didn't want this to be the way it was meant to happen.
Jesse, suddenly alarmed, felt my arms. 'Susannah, you're freezing,' he gasped. A pathetic whimper slid from my lips as I completely lost all motivation to hide my terror, falling into him weakly.
With a protective growl, he swept me up into his arms hurriedly, rushing with me into my bathroom, using his mind to switch the water of my shower on. It started to steam. He concentrated harder, and the steam lessened somewhat. I just shivered, crying. I felt so empty, so scared...
And then, clothes and all, Jesse carried me into the shower. I hissed from the shock of the overwhelming hot water pouring on me, soaking Jake's clothes on my body and making them heavy and sodden. Jesse pulled me into him and my arms curled around his neck as I kept crying. I was so weak. I couldn't possibly win this game against Paul...I'd die with a violence that only my nightmares could conceive. And I couldn't stop it from happening...
The water was warm, but my skin was so mysteriously cold that it felt physically painful to endure as it cracked through my icy skin. I pressed myself against Jesse even harder, trying to hide my skin. I hated the sensation - when you were so cold, and the water was so hot, and your body couldn't adjust quickly enough, and everything just stung sharply -
'Jesse,' I breathed with some panic, 'I - '
He just shushed me, a whirring noise I barely heard in my ear over the hammering of water against my skin and clothes. I hid my face against his jaw, water dripping off of my lips. My hair swathed around my face, sticking to my cheeks wetly - Jake's tee clung to my back as water travelled through the fabric, pouring hotly on the tiles below. There was no way to distinguish my tears from the shower's torrent anymore. Hysteria engorged vividly within my heart, making it drill even harder inside my chest as it tried to overwork so hard to the point of ceasing. My heart was exhausted with this life - with these constant trials and tribulations. My entire body felt like it was already half dead... I'd lost so much of myself to Paul Slater. What would a little thing like my breath, my consciousness, be to lose now? Nothing, surely...
'I just want it over...' I moaned against Jesse's wet skin. 'Make it all go away, please.'
He kissed my temple, unknowingly catching a tear in his lips. 'Querida,' he urged. 'You cannot give up.'
This only depressed me. I sagged wearily from this information. He noticed with alarm that his words, which he'd intended to be inspirational and supportive, had had the opposite effect. Quickly, he slid my legs from his hold, pulling me against him so I wouldn't fall because my knees weren't fit to keep me standing. I wanted to crumble, wither, and just make it all stop. I held his shoulders wearily.
I was so scared to die. Paul had asked me what I would choose for my death. I wasn't ready to let go...but I just wanted the pain to end. I hated it. It made me numb to Jesse's presence. It was like he wasn't here yet...still trapped, planes away from my reach... why couldn't he be all here?
Steam rushed into my lungs, making me splutter a cough. Jesse forcefully pressed me against the wall of the shower, his eyes dark again. This made me miserable...
'Susannah.' His voice was hard again. Stern. 'Dónde está mi obstinata Susannah... I know you're stronger than this! I realise what I'm asking - for you to keep fighting after all the suffering you've endured. I know what he's done to you, querida. Nothing could inform me of the extent of your pain... I'm a fool if I claim to truly understand what you've gone though. And yet, here I am, asking you -' He shook his head, flecks of water flying from his tanned face. 'No, I'm begging you. Don't give up now. I love you too fiercely to let you go. I refuse to let you lose yourself to this pain, when I know that somewhere inside you is my strong, powerful Susannah, who is not ready to quit.'
I cried even harder. 'She's dead - ' I sobbed pitifully, but he jostled me.
'No!' he rebutted. 'She is not! She is here, in my arms. She is just so tired from the game that she thinks she cannot go on. But I believe in her.'
My tears lessened as my heart blazed with heat; with love. The ice was melting. The pain was dying...and the strength was in sight. It was within reach.
'You believe in ghosts?' I asked him tearfully.
He grinned down at me, his hair glued against his forehead from the force of the surge. His smile was so beautiful... 'She is not a ghost,' he pledged. 'She is bursting with life - a life I know she's not prepared to forfeit yet. And she is glorious.'
My lips quivered and my eyes closed. It almost hurt, how much faith he had in me. It was vast, and devastating, and irresistible. He believed in me so much. Even after this sliver of Susannah Simon that I had been reduced to. Even now, he still had faith that I could be great...
It seemed uncanny, that such belief could have survived this torturous hell. My incoherent thoughts could barely remember the nightmare he'd been though on the Forgotten Plane. Paul had placed him there to limit the time on our deal, to add the pressure, assuring me that Jesse would soon fade to nothing, erasing him completely from existence... And yet through it all, he'd steadfastly clung to his consciousness.
'Jesse,' I wheezed, my skin finally warming. 'All that time - how did you not vanish?'
His thumb gently stroked my dripping face with such adoration that I almost cried again.
'I had you,' he told me. 'Memories of you...you laugh, your smile, your eyes...your unyielding integrity. You kept me strong, mi querida. You saved me, just as you said you would. Now, please...let me save you. You promised me that I could.'
I recalled this vow, and I knew I had to honour it. I wanted to. Every now and then, I guess I did need rescuing, no matter how many times I tried to refuse it.
'Save me,' I relented.
Make me believe in her again.
His intensity did not die - instead, it switched from his frustrated determination to something else entirely, something I recognised only too well. The blackness in his eyes shimmered away until they were suddenly scorching down at me, his breath quickening. Invigorated by his ongoing faith, my body flourished with vigour as I grasped his shoulders, drawing his lips to mine. Meeting my urgency, he crushed me gently against the shower wall, cradling the back of my head with his cupped hand while the other slid to the small of my back, pressing me further into him as if our proximity could never be close enough. The kiss, assisted by the heat of our scolding environment, heated up as both of his hands slid to the edge of Jake's tee, dragging it up and over my head.
Due to the glamour, no purpose would have been served by wearing my usual upper undergarments, and so when I'd finally tugged his shirt off, nothing inhibited our contact. I gasped as the dormant reservoir of pleasure was fuelled by this memory, flaring up instantly. Thrill took its wicked toll on my body and my hands roved his slick skin. His arms were so strong, so familiar... The muscles flexed beneath my fingers as he moved. His lips, achieving a balance between softness and firmness, descended to the flushed skin of my throat, his teeth grazing there. My nails bit into him. It felt wonderful...addictive. I needed more of him...
I couldn't remember the last time I'd felt this way. My body had been poked and prodded and teased until it couldn't stand it before...abused by lips and hands that dared to touch that which did not belong to them. I thought I'd be forever numbed to how this was supposed to feel, but I was wrong. Jesse was melting the ice with his gentle heat, coaxing me to feel again instead of the force I'd grown accustomed to.
His hands smoothed up my sides, making me shiver from the pleasure. He would have chuckled playfully at this reaction, usually - but now, there was something so heavy in our passion that it only made his eyes burn with more intensity. Water trickled between our lips as they collided. My skin hummed, electrified from his presence. Wet jeans hugged my legs thickly, reminding me that clothes really weren't intended for the shower setting. As if in tune with my rambling, nonsensical train of thought, his thumbs slid into the already too-large jeans, sliding them down my legs easily. My breath shuddered quite a bit, and I grabbed the sides of the shower to keep from staggering as his fingers trailed down the length of my legs, making my nerve endings crackle with life. Easily, I stepped out of the wet pile of denim, thankful to be freed. My body felt lighter, more mobile, and absurdly, even hungrier for him.
Once again, he could do no wrong. My silent desire was heard loud and clear as he returned to stand over me, his hands wandering all across my body, remembering it, awakening it... They slid to my hips, which they held with a firmness that suggested what he wanted to do. Understanding the unsaid request, I nodded, my gaze locked with his. And then, he'd hoisted me up, pressing my back hard against the moist, chilled shower wall. My legs wrapped aggressively around his waist. My thighs just went mad from the contact, and I arched my back as I gasped loudly.
And his lips were earnestly roaming my chest, kissing every inch with a fierce love that made my body shudder non-stop. My hands slid to the magnificent black curls of his hair which I netted my fingers in, dragging him closer. His mouth found my collar bone, his breath hot and damp on my wet skin.
'Jesse,' I cried out. I adored him. With all I had to offer.
Around him, my thighs tugged him closer to me. He wheezed sharply, looking up at me. His eyes were intoxicated with passion. I swallowed, shocked and pleased at how affected he was by this. His face returned to my neck, kissing insistently. I pressed my lips to the crown of his head. 'I love you so much,' I whispered, a declaration that was probably lost to the volume of the crashing water.
But he knew.
Again, his gaze moved purposefully up to mine, a burning question in his eyes. My hands slid to his shoulders as my chest heaved from panting. He inclined his head. 'Susannah...' he said in a voice so tightly choked with passion that my thighs gave another involuntary squeeze.
I bit my lip, which made breathing even harder. God, I wanted to. He did too. Here he was, asking my permission...offering me something I'd wanted for so long. However, the barely audible conscious part of my mind filled me with a guarded sensation. I sighed. 'We shouldn't,' I murmured with regret. Immediately, he nodded. 'B-but - ' I said quickly, scared that he'd put me down, '...don't stop just yet.'
He continued to stare up at me, his gaze overpowering and inscrutable. I worried for a moment that I'd disappointed him. 'Jesse?' I asked, still breathing heavily. 'What - '
'I'm thinking,' he replied. 'No easy feat, given our...' his eyes trailed back to my chest, and I swelled with pleasure, '...situation.'
I moved in to kiss him again, but he hindered me. 'No,' he whispered, 'I have a better idea...'
Staring at him with wild curiosity, I drew back slightly. Then, without another moment wasted, he slid his hand between our bodies and I suddenly felt his fingers right between my legs. I gasped loudly, shocked. 'Jesse - '
The corners of his mouth curved up, definitely not in a way I could call innocent. His fingers traced around the soft flesh of my thigh, so close to -
- And then, it was.
I gasped again, my head falling to the side and my eyes fluttering closed, inundated with a fresh, sharp sparkle of pleasure. But he hissed, 'No, querida...look at me.'
I blinked quickly and returned my gaze to his. His expression had changed dramatically in a single second. My lips parted as a breathy wheeze escaped. His eyes were glowing, ablaze with heat. He continued touching me, his fingers slow and enticing. I moaned very softly, my eyes locked on his just as he'd asked.
'I love you...' he told me. 'More than anything in this life.' He didn't rush the words. It looked like putting his emotions into that form had taken effort. I nodded hurriedly, my nails digging into his shoulders as I tried to stay quiet, concentrating on him and his eyes...
His fingers quickened all of a sudden, and I cried out his name, staring directly at him. This urged him on as he applied more force. My thighs screamed in strain as they constricted urgently around him. 'Jesse...oh my God...' A fluttering outbreak of pleasure twisted inside me, deep down. I just tried to breathe, tried to keep focusing. My skin was on fire; blissfully so. Again, I swallowed back a fitful moan, instead appeasing my lustful love by whispering that name, over and over...
He didn't stop. I never would have asked him to. I quivered over him, my legs curled around him, gripping me as tightly against him as I could possibly manage. His fingers continued to twist and turn and tempt and I panted hotly, my breath trembling in the steaming air. The pleasure just kept coming. I'd hoped the more he continued, the more it would lessen - but it didn't. It kept flooding in, increasing, getting stronger, building higher and higher, more than I'd ever known before. I couldn't smother the long, loud, high moan as my body begged for delivery from this place of clenching, guttural, raw lust.
'Jesse!' my voice was too breathy to be a scream, but he got the message. And suddenly, I'd reached higher than I could possibly go.
The only way to go now was down.
And I was free falling. My eyes were open, staring at him, but all I saw was wind and space rushing at me as my whole body seized suddenly. Tears were in my eyes. I couldn't stand it - I broke eye contact and allowed myself to fall, faster and faster, the cry of release born in my throat -
- He silenced me with a hard kiss, swallowing my transcending scream. Every part of me gripped him; my legs held him helplessly prisoner; my arms pulled him tautly until the empty space between us was gone, his chest against mine, our heat battling that of the searing water...
Finally, our lips parted and he just stared lovingly at me, still breathing hard. He readjusted me on his hips, alerting me to something...
'…Jesse,' my eyes widened.
He frowned, gulping down a little gasp. He turned his head and rested it in the crook of my neck, wheezing, trying to... well, calm down, I could only guess. In the readjusting, he must have...brushed me in a particular way that felt a little too right for him.
He would never ask. He'd never demand it of me. But I just loved him so much…and especially after what he'd just done to me, my heart hurt at the thought of not making him feel the way he'd made me feel.
Still with laboured breathing, his lips grazed across my skin. 'Querida,' he told me, 'It's all right, you don't – '
I responded wordlessly, instead relinquishing my thighs' strong hold around his waist. My feet reconnected with the wet ground, and I stood before him, my skin tingling…glowing.
And after nervously loosening his belt, warmth pooling in my stomach just from the idea of it, I finally reached…
'Susannah,' he hissed in pleasure, his eyes jamming closed. 'You…oh…'
He trailed off, biting his lip and sucking in some air. My other hand trailed suggestively across his chest in chaotic, unrepeatable patterns. He gripped my arms tightly, pulling me into an embrace that only barely left any space between us. I continued scraping my nails over the muscular region of his stomach, and he flinched, mumbling in Spanish. He was breathing heavily. I felt him shudder under my touch, and I knew there was no going back now.
'Shhh…' I soothed, my hand stroking him back and forth, slowly at first in my inexperience. I tried to cast my mind back to my days of Cosmo reading, desperate to resurface some of the advice on how exactly to do this, but nothing returned to me. This made me anxious; I wanted to do this right…
He choked on a breath suddenly, and I looked up, worried.
'Is this–?'
My tone wasn't the cool, confident one I would have preferred – it was dripping with nervousness. His eyes snapped open, and they were pitch black again, feverishly aroused. I faltered in surprise – I'd never seen Jesse de Silva look like that. The warmth in my stomach got hotter at the thought that I had caused that…
Trying to read his expression correctly, I spluttered, '…More?'
He swallowed, and nodded – but then concerned that this was rude – of all things – he found his voice, growling, 'Yes…'
I increased my force, burying my face against his chest to protect it from the sheets of water gushing out still. I was pleased it was still as hot as ever. His arms tensed around me and he rasped something incoherent into my ear before letting his lips rest there, kissing it lightly. I held him harder, and he shuddered powerfully against me, sucking in air with apparent urgency. 'Oh, Susannah–' he groaned, his fingers pressing into my sides.
I continued whatever I was doing for a few minutes as Jesse quivered, gasping above me, his hold on me progressively tightening as my hold on him did. I moved faster, and a large slew of Spanish spilled from his mouth, leading me to believe that I was doing something right.
My mind was heavy, cloudy with passion. Everything felt strangely blurry. His breath quickened all over again.
And then, just when I thought he couldn't take it any longer, he finally shuddered heavily, dragging me firmly against him as he held me. Water pelted us both forcefully, splashing at our feet.
For a moment, he didn't say a word, barely moving at all. His face was at the crook of my neck. I would have thought he were dead if not for the warmth of his breath I felt on my skin. And the fact that he was dead.
But it didn't matter.
None of it did.
Because this moment was ours, and ours alone. He held me in his strong, powerful arms – which could have crushed me, but chose to be gentle. His trousers lay in a heap in the corner of the shower. We stood before each other, completely bare.
And it felt right.
There was no fear, no anxiety – no pressure. A little sadness maybe, but other than that, I felt utterly at peace with him for this one moment in time. The sadness existed because I knew that it was fleeting…
He stirred.
I broke away from him as he turned off the water. The sudden silence, save the slur of droplets which slowed to a gradual, infrequent splash, jarred me. I kissed him softly, holding his jaw between my curled fingers.
'Thank you,' he said gently.
I grinned. 'I'm just glad that I've finally found something I don't suck at.'
…Then I yelped. 'I-I meant–'
He chuckled against my lips, sighing. 'Calm yourself, Susannah. I know what you meant. And you don't. Suck, I mean.' He wrinkled his nose at how vulgar it sounded, but then looked at me quite seriously.
My face, flushed from the heat, went even redder.
'Now,' he murmured, 'Are you feeling better? That was the purpose of this exercise. Not that I initially intended it to go that far,' he admitted guiltily. 'But certainly no harm done. Well…maybe a little…'
Stopping his nervous rambles, I smiled. 'I feel better. Sorry I got hysterical before… and I'm sorry for getting angry at you – especially the moment you got back from the Forgotten Plane. The last thing I wanted for a reunion was for us to fight…'
He clicked his tongue, declaring this a non-issue. I kissed him again sweetly.
But then – he'd dematerialised.
Shocked and scared, I straightened, looking around urgently. His clothes in the shower had disappeared. I covered myself the best I could, afraid that–
Only, he reappeared a second later, towel in his arms, sweeping me entirely off of my feet. I gasped as he pulled me tightly against him, my hair dripping on his now utterly dry shirt. 'Hey,' I snapped. 'A little warning would have been nice.'
Laughing softly, he settled me down on my bed after drawing back the covers telekinetically. Ever the prude, I clutched the towel to my chest, staring up at him in intrigue as he suddenly crawled over me, sitting astride my thighs. I went very still.
But he only intended to dress me. Picking up a small singlet, he slid it over my head and gently pulled my arms through the corresponding holes. He then pulled silky shorts onto my legs, kissing me as I scooted up so he could get them right. I smiled all the same. Darn him and his insistence that the majority of our activities should involve clothing.
He then pulled a manoeuvre that even I had to marvel at – pressing his knees together, he trapped my legs between his and then proceeded to roll us over so I was suddenly on top of him, my legs parted. 'Wow,' I muttered, impressed. 'Who have youbeen practicing that with?'
Jesse grinned impishly, his dark eyes glittering in the moonlight. His face rose to meet my lips again and I responded ceremoniously, sinking over him even lower. We continued on in this vein until I finally wilted against him, completely worn out.
'Sorry…' I sighed breathlessly, 'I am just so tired.'
He kissed my earlobe, whispering with amusement, 'I'd be offended if you weren't, querida. Come now – off you get, you minx…'
I flopped to the side, and he moved closer behind me, wrapping one arm around me as I rested my head on his other. It was so warm, so comfortable… I almost passed out from cosiness there and then.
'I missed you so much,' he whispered, his lips at my throat. I hugged his hand against my chest, afraid to let it go.
'I missed you too,' I said sadly. 'And I don't want to sleep…'
Against my neck, I felt him frown. He pulled away. 'Why not?'
Blinking, I replied, 'You might not be here when I wake up… Something might happen to you. Or-or maybe this was all a dream, and–'
'You probably have heard this lie a lot,' he said solemnly, 'But I am real, Susannah. And I'm not going anywhere. I promise.'
What a ridiculous promise to make.
'But–' I argued, only he silenced me by pulling me flat on my back, kissing me with gentle force. My mind went numb again, and I forgot who, what and where I was. '…Huh?'
'Exactly,' he smiled, victorious. 'Now sleep, querida, You're exhausted.'
My brain was too dysfunctional to bicker, so I surrendered to the lulling dark place that unconsciousness offered. All thoughts of death, both painless and violent, were postponed until morning at which point we'd promptly resume our heated debate.
-F&I-
Shorter chapter this time…hopefully still a, um, satisfying one.
The shower part was supposed to stop at "But he knew", although Steph is extremely convincing, so we got a little…carried away with their reunion. Oh well. No one can say they don't deserve it, right?
This is definitely the calm – if you can call it that – before the storm, so get your seatbelts on kiddies, because you're about to fall headlong into a bottomless pit of the shrouded possibility in the realm of Fire and Ice…
The climax – to the story, (scowl) – fast approacheth.
And oh my God, I can't believe Fice is about to hit its dirty thirties! Any minute it'll be middle-aged. Wow, weird.
Love,
Lolly and Steph.
P.S. Once again…don't forget to visit my Mediator Writing Competition in the forums – and kudos to Esmeralda 01 Loves You for being the first – hilarious – entrant with her, um, Pokémediator entry to the Jesse Vs. Paul Challenge. (aka, "Testosterone Poisoning.")
