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Chapter 36 - Rules
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"Hello, Ketra," Teyla greeted her pet, her hand sliding over the dragon's head.
Ketra leant into the touch, but her eyes were on John and with a bubble of greeting the dragon moved towards him. The long length of her spine-covered neck angled up towards him, presenting the top of her head in clear expectation of being petted.
"Hey, Ketra," John said with a smile as he did as he was expected to and ran his hand over the top of her warm silver coloured head.
Clearly pleased with the attention, Ketra lifted her head higher against his hand, her neck spines shifting against each other as John scratched around one pointed dragon ear.
"Ketra," Teyla said warmly down to the dragon as she set her sword aside on a side unit, "John has brought you a gift."
Ketra looked around towards Teyla with the adoration of any beloved pet, and John took the opportunity to move out of the doorway to Teyla's quarters. Stepping around the dragon, he set the plant carry case down on the low coffee table to the right, which stood between two large sofas. Behind him, the door to Teyla's quarters swung shut, clicking loudly closed. Whilst Ketra received further ear scratching from Teyla, John pulled out the smaller of the two plant pots. He checked the label on it and quickly removed its entry on the electronic pad, after all they wouldn't want Mino knowing there might have been a second blossoming plant on its way to her.
He slid the pad back into the case and he turned back round to Ketra. The dragon looked up at him with interest as he crouched down to her level and placed the pot down on the floor between them.
"Here you go, Ketra. Try not to eat it all at once," he advised.
Ketra looked down at the pot and then back at him.
Crouched so much closer to her, John could see that there were new faint lines of colour along her snout and down her neck spines, patterns of green, yellow and orange. He was almost certain they hadn't been there the last time he had seen her, which had only been a few days ago. Her large orange eyes lowered back to the plant pot with clear interest, but there were no signs of an impending blossom attack.
"You can eat this one," John told her.
Ketra looked back up at him, then over her shoulder to where Teyla stood watching the gift giving. Gift giving that didn't seem to be going all that well.
"I think your training has working too well," John suggested to Teyla, trying not to feel too disappointed.
Teyla smiled though. "It is likely she will eat it once we have left," she replied as if she didn't want him to feel bad. Which wasn't usual Elite behaviour, but he appreciated it nonetheless.
"You may eat this plant," Teyla told Ketra, her voice pointedly bright to encourage her pet.
Ketra looked back at John though, then over his shoulder where the other plant still stood in the carry case behind him.
"But not that one," John told her, "This one's all yours though." He pushed the plant pot further towards her hopefully, wondering if maybe he should give her the other plant if she would prefer it.
"I think I should hide that other plant somewhere well out of her reach until I can pass it to Mino," Teyla considered as she reached out over Ketra towards him, silently asking him to pass over the other plant.
John stood up, picked up the entire plant carry case and handed it over to her. Ketra watched the hand over with some interest, but her gaze returned quickly to the plant sat on the floor in front of her.
"You are free to eat these blossoms," Teyla repeated to Ketra as she stroked her free hand the dragon's back. "I will find a safe place for this in the other room," Teyla added to John as she turned away.
At the far end of the living space, the room was dominated by a large window that, as he remembered from his last visit here, looked out over the large family courtyard below. The same courtyard that had been the scene of Torren and Zabetha's near assassination, and where Rhakshar had been shot. John wondered if that had altered Teyla's enjoyment of the view.
Passing that window now, the sunlight shining gently over her, Teyla headed towards the exit just left of the window, which, as John had noticed last time, led to two other rooms. The doors had been shut the last time he was here, but he had to guess one was likely to be her bedroom. Wherever it led, she disappeared from view, leaving John alone with Ketra.
He looked back down at the alien dinosaur to see that Ketra had also been watching Teyla leave. The orange eyes moved up to him and then back down to her potted plant.
Thinking some further encouragement might help, he crouched back down in front of her, plucked a large petal from the plant and offered it to Ketra.
"It's good; straight from Earth," he tempted as if she could actually understand him. "Well, not straight from Earth," he amended. "It's been grown in Atlantis from seeds or something like that. I'm not really into plants," he shared with the lizard now contemplating the offered blossom petal.
The orange eyes moved to him as she touched the end of her snout to the petal and snuffled at it.
"You can eat it, go on," John offered.
The tip of a long pink tongue appeared from between the two lines of small pointed front teeth and wrapped around the petal. John let go of it quickly and watched as the petal disappeared behind the large lips and Ketra began to munch on the petal slowly.
"See, there you go," John said with a smile. "She's eaten one petal," he added louder to Teyla in the next room.
"Be prepared for her to devour the rest," Teyla called back. He could hear small doors opening and closing, like Teyla was going through some cupboards, probably to find the safest place to hide the other plant.
John smiled as he looked back to Ketra, to find the dragon watching him closely as she continued to chew on the petal, slowly and thoughtfully like a cow.
He met the slit, somewhat Wraith like, eyes of the dragon and suddenly Ketra's attention seemed different somehow. He felt like she was studying him more intently than ever before. The strange slit pupils moved slightly as she looked at him. It wasn't a threatening intense study, but it felt somehow far too piercing for a simple lizard.
Then she blinked and looked back down at the plant, but there was no sign of a impending vicious blossom attack.
"Earth blossoms not so good, huh?" John asked, aware that it was probably silly to try to fill an awkward silence with a large lizard. Not that it was entirely silent, because there were a few more light bangs of cupboard doors being closed next door.
Ketra looked at him again, her gaze meeting his directly again as if she was a person and they were having a proper conversation. Then she extended her neck forward, presenting the top of her head to him again in another request for him to pet her. Pleased at least that she liked his ear scratching technique, he willingly stroked her strange soft reptile skin.
"Not sure she's all that impressed with Earth blossoms," John called to Teyla as he scratched around Ketra's other ear.
"She may simply be concerned she will get into trouble again," Teyla called back and from the sound of her voice he got the impression that she was lifting something, possibly the plant case up into a high cupboard.
"Take your time with it," John told Ketra as he ruffled the top of her head and stood upright. "You don't have to eat it all at once."
He turned on the spot and took in the sight of Teyla's quarters around him, rather pleased that she had felt comfortable leaving him alone in her living room.
He had been here before, but it felt different now, though he wasn't exactly sure why. He felt more comfortable stood in her space, hands on his hips looking around with open curiosity at her home. Or rather, one of her homes.
He wondered which set of quarters she preferred.
The front door to her quarters was set into the wall to his left, on one side of which were the sofas and the coffee table, set for a full view of a large screen set into the wall. On the other side of the front door, there was a large side unit made out of solid wood, carved by hand by the looks of it. In the wall opposite him, there was a large stone hearth, with a thick rug set before it. On both sides of the hearth, there were bookshelves set against the wall. He hadn't noticed them last time, and he found his eyes drawn instantly to what was displayed along the busy packed shelves. As well as Earth like paperback books and scrolls, there were rounded pieces of stone, small statues and a purple shell. Curious, John crossed the room, stepping carefully around the pale rug so his boots wouldn't leave any mud on it. There were some soft toys piled at one end of the rug, one of them familiar to him from Ketra's old tiny sleeping box back on the Sythus. John smiled at the tiny fluffy toy that surely the large scary looking lizard couldn't still want.
At the shelves, he angled his head to look at the books' spines, only to remember that they were in a language he couldn't read. He forgot that about being in Pegasus; that though he could understand whatever people said, regardless as to which planet they came from, thanks to some weird trick of Gate travel, it didn't mean he could read their written languages. He wondered if the symbols on the books were Athosian or some standardised Alliance language, though by comparison he decided a few of the books were in a different second language.
In the next room, he could hear Teyla mutter something to herself and a cupboard shut firmly, only for another to open. Amused at that, he continued his study of her things, turning his attention from the indecipherable books to the knickknacks dotted along the shelves. He was surprised at them, as he wouldn't have thought an Elite warrior would have sentimental things like these. Or maybe they were just traditional Athosian paperweights.
He picked up a hand-sized chunk of green stone, its edges glittering in the sunlight entering from his right. The rock was heavier than it looked. He imagined that the geologists in Atlantis would love to look through this small collection, but they were all just rocks to him. But she had chosen them for a reason, had kept them and displayed them. Maybe they each meant something to her, collected from places she had been or were linked with special memories from her life. Or maybe she had just thought they looked pretty.
A small crack of plastic behind him made him look round to see that Ketra had picked up the plant pot and was carrying it over to the rug. She had one edge of the pot's rim held delicately in her smaller front teeth. He watched her with amusement as she set the pot down carefully next to the rug and then settled down on the rug herself close to it.
Pleased that it was a sign that she was in fact pleased with the gift, John turned his attention back to the shelves and two tiny statues that might have been made out of clay. The end corners of the shelves were utilised as hanging points for what looked like necklaces or perhaps they were just decoration. He fingered a long length of coloured thread that held different coloured pieces of glass. It was all so much more girly than he would have expected.
He liked it though.
Turning from the shelves, he surveyed the rest of the room. Behind the sofas and the side unit that currently supported one of her swords, stood a table that looked like a workspace. A tablet computer sat on one corner of the desk and a stack of Alliance electronic pads beside it. The desk chair sat on a nice earth toned patterned rug, and he wondered if it was there to keep her feet warm when she worked at her desk.
He moved around the rug and Ketra, pausing to scratch around one dragon ear, before moving on through the room, towards her desk and the window. A painting hanging next to the shelves caught his eye and he paused to study it, while Ketra snuffled at the plant. The painting was in a sort of smudgy style, depicting tents set in dense woodland, a cooking fire in the centre sending a column of smoke up into a sunset sky above the tree line. He decided it was likely a traditional Athosian settlement that Teyla had described to him before. At which point, he realised he couldn't hear Teyla moving around in the other room anymore.
"You've got a nice place here," he called to her as he turned away from the painting. He had told her that before, but he felt he meant it more this time, having had the chance to nose around a bit.
"It serves me well when I am here," Teyla replied from the other room.
Curious to see even more of her place, he moved idly towards the open archway by the window through which Teyla had disappeared. Just like last time, he could see two doors set off the small lobby space beyond the archway, but this time the furthest door stood half-open. Through that space, he could see built-in wardrobes and cupboards lining the far wall. Giving in further to his curiosity, and rather too eager for the chance to see her bedroom, he moved out of the living room into the small lobby so he could see a little further into the new room.
"Looks like Ketra's decided she likes the plant," he called to Teyla, peering further into the room, whilst still actually keeping back from the open door.
"Has she eaten the blossoms already?" Teyla asked as she came into view across the room. She crouched down in front of an open cupboard in the built-in storage space. She had an armful of folded clothing and she was piling some of them inside the cupboard.
She was either putting her laundry away or he suspected she had had to make space in another cupboard to hide Mino's plant.
He moved closer to the door, taking her conversation as something close to an invitation. "No, but she's put the plant by the rug," he told her as he reached the half-open door.
He could see the end of a large bed and a dark wooden chest at its foot, on which there were piled more folded clothing, which she probably had removed from another cupboard.
"That is a good sign indeed," Teyla replied, her voice somewhat muffled by leaning into the deep cupboard.
As she leant forward, the back of her top rose slightly showing more of her elegant back and consequently more of her line of tattoos that he could now see ran diagonally up from the left side of her waist. He had to wonder if the line would wrap around her right ribs eventually to meet up with the line of tattoos running down her neck. A long line of markings wrapped around her. He wondered how many there were – each one a Wraith Queen killed by her own hand.
Except right now, she wasn't the Elite warrior; this was an acutely domestic situation. Teyla sorting her clothing and talking to him about her pet.
The fact hit him strongly, pushing up his confidence and pleasure suddenly.
He was getting to see more of Teyla, the woman, and not the warrior.
Emboldened somewhat by this, and her easy acceptance of him standing at the edge of her bedroom, he reached out and pushed the door open a little more so that he could stand fully at the threshold of her bedroom. He craned his neck into the room to see more.
Her bed was easily a king-size and it had a surprising display of prettily patterned cushions at its head, and a large warm looking patchwork throw over the covers. She didn't have bedside tables, but a shelf at pillow height set against the wall at each side. He noticed immediately that the right shelf had more space on it as well as a digital looking clock, a cup, and a small knife. She probably referred to sleep on that side of the bed.
He moved a little further forward so he could see into the far left corner of the room. There was a tall chest of drawers and two side units, one of which supported a stand that held her other sword. Her familiar long dark coat hung from a large hook next to the side unit, the harness she wore for the swords hanging beside it. Beside that stood a free standing tall mirror and hanging from a stand next to it was something that truly caught his attention. A long pale dress with gold detailing.
He stepped properly into her bedroom at that and moved towards the dress.
"Is this what you're wearing to the wedding?" He asked her, making sure she could hear his surprise. He pointed to the dress and watched her turn and look at him over her shoulder.
"Yes, it is," she replied and he heard the faint defensiveness in her voice as she returned her attention to the cupboard.
"It's a dress," he pointed out to tease.
"Well noticed," she replied from inside the cupboard and he grinned, enjoying this way too much.
He studied the beautiful dress more closely, mentally picturing her in it. It looked like it was slightly corseted in the middle, with the rest of the dress hanging in smooth clean lines.
"And it's not black or brown," he added again, sounding shocked, as he looked at her again. Both of them knew dark colours were standard in a military life, well unless you were fighting in a desert, but he already knew that Elite dressed to expect battle at any moment.
She stood up from the cupboard and turned to face him, her hands on to her hips.
"I am capable of wearing other colours of clothing," she replied, her voice defensive still, but he could tell she was amused.
He gave her a doubtful look as he purposefully looked her up and down to make his silent point, but also because it was a nice excuse to just look at her new Athosian/Elite outfit.
She crossed her arms over her chest, lifting her chin and she narrowed her eyes at him. "I have yet to see you dressed in any colour other than black or blue."
The comment was true enough, but he didn't miss her extra meaning, that he was often supporting bruises and getting himself into trouble.
He smiled at her. "True, but half the time you're to blame for that."
"As far as I have seen, you have been quite capable of finding trouble without my presence," she told him.
The flirtation was again causing the warming tingle of arousal through his veins. He turned away from her dress to face her more directly.
"Maybe, but I've definitely been in trouble a lot more since meeting you," he replied, belatedly realising his own double meaning. He was definitely in trouble where she was concerned, because the urge to kiss her was getting stronger with every passing moment.
It might not be the smartest move, but the opportunity was here, and he was enjoying the challenging flirtation between them, though she stood with her arms crossed and one eyebrow lifted doubtfully.
"I believe you have misread the situation," she told him quite seriously, and his heart dropped, "for you will recall that on most occasions I have arrived in time to save you from a troublesome situation that you had already found by yourself."
He grinned at that, his heart lifting again, as he pretended to study her bedroom around them. There was a good metre and a half between them and her arms were crossed, but her words were saying something different, as was the sparkle of enjoyment in her eyes.
"You're right, what would I do without you around?" He replied, working a different angle and a charming smile.
She let out an elegant snort at that and turned away back to the cupboard behind her. The crossed arms came down as she closed the cupboard door and then turned back towards him to collect up some more of the folded clothes piled on the wooden chest.
"I believe that you are quite capable of looking after yourself and I cannot always be rushing to your rescue. I have other duties," she said as she moved away to the right to open another cupboard.
John smiled as he watched her turn her attention to the small storage space, looking for space for the items in her hand. She thought of rescuing him as a duty?
"I understand; you've got Wraith to kill, Queen's to hunt," John replied as he moved slightly further to the right as well, keeping level with her across the room. "Planets to save and all that," he commented. "Can't be saving my ass all the time."
She looked over her left shoulder at him, the movement twisting the line of her tattoos that ran from under her ear down to her collarbone. "Just ensure that you look where you are walking."
He grimaced at her reference to how he had fallen down into a slaver's pit, which had resulted in her having had to 'buy' him out of slavery to save him. However, he liked the way her amusement brightened her face, even if it was at his expense.
"You never know, you might miss having to get me out of trouble all the time," he suggested as he continued past her to the end of the room where the large window looked down over the family courtyard.
She gave him a doubtful smile over her right shoulder now before she returned to adding the remaining clothes to the open cupboard.
She hadn't answered him, he realised, which he decided meant that she would actually miss working with him.
He reached the window, drawn by the large wide dark wooden sill, which supported a statue at each end. The statue stood at the furthest end from him was clearly of an Elite warrior. It was carved out of a dark grey stone, the lines clean, strong and highly polished, reflecting the stoic posture and features of the Elite warrior. Only the tattoos along the warrior's bared arms were painted to stand out, the black paint clear and shiny in the sunlight making it through the net curtain closed over the window.
The male Elite statue looked like a cross between Si and Oneakka's build, a tall overly muscular man, but with an elegance and regal edge to him. His chin was high and in his fists he tightly held the handles of a long sword and a knife.
"It is Sythus," Teyla said, having seen the subject of his focus, and he wondered if he had missed her reply to his previous teasing comment. "It is a pair. The Hastos statue is in my quarters on the Sythus."
John nodded at that, struck by the elemental nature of an Elite warrior, as presented by the statue, which today felt in sharp contrast to the woman only a metre away from him now where she rearranged her clothing in a closet.
He turned his attention to the other statue at the end of the sill that was closest to him, and he picked it up with a smile. It was of one of Ketra's species, stood strong and proud, but its eyes seemed soft and intelligent. It had been expertly carved from a warm pale wood that reminded John of pine.
"And this one?" He asked, for the first time asking about one of the small details that filled her home.
Teyla stood up straight and closed the cupboard as she looked over at him. "Kanaan carved it for me, not long after he gifted Ketra to me."
John immediately didn't like the statue anymore. He set it back down on the windowsill. "Wooing was he?" He asked her.
She pursed her lips against her smile at his return to their earlier conversation. "At the time, yes," she replied.
John turned to face her more directly, leaning his right hip against the windowsill. "I didn't see him onboard the Sythus when we travelled to Milioc."
There was the faintest pause before she answered, during which she narrowed her eyes slightly at him, letting him know that she saw through his 'innocent' question.
"Kanaan has left the Sythus to work on Athos once more," she told him.
"Shame," John replied, not even trying to hide his pleasure at hearing that.
"And Larrin?" Teyla asked.
"Larrin?" John asked confused at the mention of the name.
"When I last saw her in the City of the Ancestors, she seemed intent on her own wooing, or perhaps she had already been successful," Teyla replied, surprising John to the point of shock. Was she jealous?
"No, no wooing, and even if she had tried, I don't trust her as far as I could throw her," he told her honestly.
Larrin could be provocatively flirtatious, but, at her heart, she was a self-serving scorpion ready to turn and sting at any moment that would serve her best interests. He would be frightened what she would do to him if he turned his back, let alone slept next to her.
"I am surprised, she seemed quite territorial," Teyla replied with a faint smile. "Besides, I am sure that there have been many women across the stars who would seek to woo a man from another galaxy."
John wasn't entirely sure how to take that, but her expression was teasingly playful. Was she just teasing him or was this her way of asking if he had anyone other than Larrin, as she had suspected. From the sparkle of her eyes and the tilt of her head, he suspected it was both. He hoped.
"No, no one's been trying to woo me," he replied, though admittedly there had been a disguised Ancient priestess and one brunette Hoffan scientist who had made him a surprising offer.
"I'm usually too busy fighting the Wraith," he added with a casual shrug, pleased he was comparing their lives that way.
"And falling down into mud pits," Teyla finished as she moved towards the windowsill, still moving parallel to him.
"Only the one time," John responded to her teasing, glaring at her continuing enjoyment of reminding him of that embarrassing moment of his life.
She smiled at that as she reached the windowsill, her attention moving to something down in the courtyard below. Her hands touched down onto the wooden windowsill and the sunlight cast beautifully over her profile.
John let his eyes wander over her, drawn to the line of her tattoos sweeping down over the rise and fall of her left collarbone and down into the side of her cleavage. Wearing her new lower cut top today, he could see that the black markings continued far lower down the left side of that tempting shadow than he had seen before. Surely the line had to meet up with the tattoos running up and around her back. The enticing desire to find out buzzed through him.
He was hardly going to get as good an opportunity as this to make his move.
He turned against the windowsill to look out at the courtyard below with her, which meant he now stood almost beside her.
"Guess you're going to head out on the Sythus pretty soon," he asked, though fully aware that she couldn't tell him any details of her next mission. He watched her out the corner of his eye, having absolutely no interest in what looked like a few gardeners moving around in the yard outside.
"I will be returning to the Sythus tomorrow," she replied easily enough.
John nodded, turning away from the window again, resting his hip back against the sill again, but he was now so much closer to her.
"Some big dangerous mission no doubt," he asked her. Beyond her, the statue of Sythus seemed to be peering around her from the far end of the windowsill.
She looked up at him and smiled, but her cheeks didn't show their dimples. "I know how to take care of myself." The tone teased him again that he wasn't so careful at staying out of trouble.
He was immensely pleased with the teasing and that she hadn't backed away from him moving closer. "You're never going to let me forget falling into that mud pit are you?"
Her smile became a grin, her closest cheek dimpling temptingly. "I suspect I may find it useful to remind you of it again in the future."
He liked that; that she thought of them meeting up again.
He shifted against the sill slightly, moving nearer to her as he did. He was well in her personal space now and she hadn't moved away from him, but her right shoulder was still closest to him as she stood facing the window. He had her full attention though.
"Of course we may never get to see each other again, so you could just let it go," he suggested with a smile, leaning fractionally closer to her as he did.
She smiled along her shoulder, her eyes sparkling up at him with mirth. "All the more reason why I should recall the event."
He really liked the idea of her thinking about him.
"If you're going to miss me, maybe you could try to recall some more flattering memories of me," he told her, having added plenty of emphasis to the missing him part as he angled his head to see more of her face.
Her eyebrow had lifted at the suggestion of her missing him, but she hadn't argued against it. "Flattering memories?" She repeated as a doubtful question. "Such as?"
It was a full on teasing and tempting challenge, and it gave him the last push to take the leap of faith he had been desperate to take for far too long.
"Such as…" He suggested quietly as he leant in towards her, across the last distance, his height allowing him to easily lean around her shoulder between them.
She had already been looking up at him, her lips parted with a smile, and, as he lowered his mouth towards hers, he saw her lips part a fraction more, maybe from surprise, or perhaps with the same arousing rush of anticipation as he felt.
Her chin lifted as their mouths met, the kiss soft but a solid mutual meeting.
Her lips were warm and softly dry as she met his kiss with equal pressure. Her strong feminine scent, highlighted with touches of incense and something flowery, filled his senses, as did the warmth of her body radiated against him as he leant even closer to her.
Breaths held as long as possible, he pulled back just enough to part their lips, then a little further back so he could see her pull her lower lip into her mouth. A flash of her tongue and teeth tightened the taunt arousal humming through him, which had become all encompassing now, slowing his thoughts and causing him to lose all awareness of the rest of the universe around them.
"This is perhaps unwise," she said quietly, but he was certain that she had moved a fraction closer to him as she had said it.
"Perhaps," he repeated, not really agreeing with her, but understanding that they had just crossed a line. He didn't move back from her though, he kept close enough to keep them hovering just a few inches away from each other.
He didn't see any hint of real reluctance in her darkened eyes.
"Our people may one day become enemies," she said and he nodded his agreement again - it could happen.
His gaze dropped to her lips again, drawn in by the acutely recalled sensation of kissing her.
"Maybe," he replied. "But then, we may never see each other again after today."
She took a breath, the sound profoundly intimate stood so very close to her, and the feel of her breath against his cheek felt like a soft teasing caress.
"That may be true," she agreed softly.
John lifted his eyes from her mouth to meet her gaze again. "And we did agree to keep work out of our friendship."
She smiled at that, her eyes sliding down to his mouth. "Is that what this is?" She asked.
He had to smile in reply, though most of his attention was focused to her lips again. They were too inviting and he moved across the tiny distance again to brush his lips against hers.
"Sure," he replied before he kissed her again.
He was well aware that he was tempting her, using sensuality to fight both their concerns, but, right now, it was all he had against the political reality in which they both lived.
Right now, it was just the two of them.
The two of them pressing together, sliding hands over shoulders and down backs, tongues tangling, sliding and tempting.
Awareness of that political reality dropped away from John's consciousness. All that existed for him was her; her warmth, the womanly softness of her breasts against his chest, her lips wet and demanding against his, her hands caressing the back of his neck and up into his hair.
He threw himself into the kiss, tasting, touching, and sinking into a sensuality that engulfed him completely.
The passionate lock began to ease an indefinable time later, and John's thoughts finally slid out of sensuous bliss as their lips parted. Fast breathing and lingering hands held the spell for a few moments longer, through which John fought back the oncoming tide of rational over thinking.
He knew that they were due to attend a wedding, that afterwards he would return to Atlantis and tomorrow Teyla would disappear off into the unknown reaches around Alliance territory.
As much as he had said that they had checked their work lives at the door, it wasn't true. The reality of their lives meant that this could never be anything. It was a moment, a resolution to a wondering teasing desire, to reach out and kiss her, this stunning powerful Alliance warrior.
Yet, in now having tasted a little of that passion, of the curiosity fulfilled, he felt an uncomfortable pit ahead of him, because by the end of the day they would say goodbye. He would go back to his usual life working in Atlantis, fighting Wraith, but now with the ever-present aching hope that he would walk into her again.
He pressed his mouth to hers again, seeking another of the soft mutual kisses, drawing out the moment for as long as he could.
As before, she responded immediately and he quickly became absorbed in the feel of her against him, of her arms around his shoulders, the scent of womanly skin and Athosian spice, her tongue licking against his between their mouths, and the soft strong sound of her aroused breaths against his lips.
She pulled back from the kiss first this time, their lips popping apart, and John drew in a breath, easing some of his light-headedness. He opened his heavy lidded eyes enough to look at her hooded eyes.
Her hands slid warm paths down over his shoulders to stop on the front of his chest. The touch could mean she was about to pull away, to step away and reassert the truth that they couldn't really indulge this fantasy anymore, but he resisted the idea, just for a little longer. He flattened his hands against her sides a little more, memorising every minute detail so that he could always remember how it had felt to hold her.
She licked her lips slightly as she looked up at him from where her hands caressed gently across his chest.
"There would need to be rules," she said in a husky breathy voice, "as there are for any who become a lover of an Elite."
Lover?
The last wisps of John's previously enjoyed soft sensual haze transformed instantly into a sharp penetrative attention at that word.
"Sure," he managed to say out loud, his own voice huskier than normal.
Her hands stilled in the middle of his chest, her upper body held further back from his, pulling the soft arousing feel of her breasts away from him, but her eyes held his strongly.
"This would need to remain solely between us, no one else must know," she told him.
He nodded at that, agreeing with her wholeheartedly, but also because he was almost to the point of agreeing to anything she might say. He blinked to try and gain a little intellectual control though.
"And we check work at the door; no politics," he told her, his voice far steadier than he would have expected with his heart hammering in his chest.
She inclined her head in agreement as she took a breath, her ribs expanding against his hands on her sides. He looked down into the deep tempting shadow of her cleavage, so much closer, almost pressed against him. He trailed his eyes up the lines of her tattoos, arching up around her left breast to trail up to her collarbone and throat.
"We both need to be free of infection," she continued, another rule that he readily agreed with.
"Doc gave me a clean bill of health just yesterday," he told her with a smile as he slid his hands around to her upper back, encouraging her lean back against him.
Her back arched slightly in response, her belly pressing further against his, and her hands slid further up his chest to allow their chests to meet again. He angled and dipped his head as he gave in to another desire he had been harbouring for a long time. He slid his nose and lips into the warm tattooed area just under her left earlobe. She relaxed her head aside immediately and he felt her sigh as he brushed his lips against her skin, tasting with a kiss and then another.
Her hands slid back around his shoulders, one tight around the back of his neck needlessly encouraging him to keep nuzzling the warm womanly angle of her jaw and throat. He slid his hands around and up her sides, grazing his thumbs against the outer swells of her breasts as he pulled her tighter against him.
Her taste, her smell, and the press of her erect nipples tight against his chest, all compounded the rush of desperate desire and quickly poured the last of his blood supply south.
She wriggled slightly against him, pressing tighter to him, but her head tilted away, parting her skin from his mouth.
"There is one last rule," she said huskily, her hands tight at the back of his shirt.
John pulled his head back enough to meet her eyes again, as he fought against the tide of unthinking sensuality he was on the brink of losing himself into, and made himself focus on what she was saying.
"Okay," he managed to say.
"An Elite warrior," she said, her voice soft yet strong, this last rule apparently very important to her. He prayed it was something that he could agree to. "Never lies beneath another," she finished.
He paused a moment, letting his hormone engulfed mind process that, and then he smiled at her.
"I think I can work with that," he told her as he lowered his head and pressed his open mouth to hers.
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TBC