DISCLAIMER: Don't own anything associated with the show… I just like playing with the characters in it from time to time. Dance Monkeys! Dance!
RATING: M - Mature (language, sexual situations, adult subject matter)
PAIRINGS: GSR & Yo!Bling pre-established in previous fics of this timeline.
SPOILERS: Sequel to "Displacement", "Transitions" and "Vicissitudes" - Number 5 in the Discovery Series
SUMMARY: Sometimes, the best way the deal with the changes all around you is to stop fighting and evolve in response to them. GSR/Yo!Bling/Nick-OC

A/N: Okay... This chapter took an agonizingly long time to write, with a near catastrophe occuring earlier in the week when I was about to delete the entire thing because I wasn't happy with it. Thankfully, my beta's managed to talk me down from the clock tower, and several pages, rewrites, and edits later, I can FINALLY give you the next chapter. And just so you don't think I've gone completely soft... WARNING: This chapter should not be read in a public setting, and I strongly recommend water, a fire extinguisher and possibly a towel (actually, you should always have a towel with you... And a Babel Fish).

A/N2: I know this one is REALLY LONG, but I honestly couldn't find a single thing to drop from it, or a place where I could split it without losing the impact of the chapter as a whole.I take full responsibility for the length, since both of my betas tried to talk some sense into me, but it just wasn't happenin'. LOL And the last few dozen paragraphs were done solo, since for some reason my betas needed to sleep and spend time with their families over the weekend. So, since it's quite obvious I have no life, I cranked it out and didn't want to make you all wait any longer for this chapter... Man! Even the author notes are long on this one. LOL

REVIEWS: Reviews are the way I know if people are enjoying the work or not. So, if you leave one, THANKS! And if not, I hope you found at least a little something to brighten your day, and thanks for taking the time to read.


Chapter 52
18:55 – 2007.02.23
Desmaiseaux Townhouse

As he rounded the same corner he had ten minutes before, Nick looked at his watch and cursed his bad luck. He was sure he had followed the directions to the letter, but for some reason he doubted himself the first time around, and since he still had fifteen minutes he decided to double check, just to be sure. That was when he managed to get himself lost. The only thing that saved him was running into Det. Sam Vega at the convenience store Nick stopped at to get his bearings straight. The veteran detective pointed him in the right direction and wished him luck. He was sure that all of PD would have the info by shift time Sunday night, but he had more important things to worry about.

Setting the parking brake on his truck, he took in a deep, calming breath and slowly blew it out. He needed to settle his nerves, but the fact that he was sitting right outside of her townhouse was doing nothing to help the situation. Somehow, he seemed to have managed to keep things on an even keel with the Doc in the two weeks since that kiss, so the last thing he wanted after she invited him to her place for dinner was to be late.

That kiss. Whenever he let his mind wander, it always seemed to land smack dab on that kiss again. There had been other kisses since that night, but that one always stood out in his mind and was still making his heart race just a little, simply from thinking about it. It was one of those perfect moments in time, where everything just sort of fell into place and it all made sense, even if only for a moment. When he thought about it, he would find his fingertips reaching up to his lips, as though he needed confirmation it really happened. He still felt the warmth of her lips pressed into his, the intake of her breath as they slowly pulled apart, and the taste of her salt as it lingered on his mouth.

Taking in another deep breath, he made himself ready to walk to her door. As he blew that breath out, he reached into the passenger seat and retrieved the bottle of wine. She expressly told him not to bring anything, but that simply would not do. And besides, wine is always a safe bet. He even made sure to call Grissom and ask which kind would be the safest thing to get for most any dish. Nick was sure the man would question him about the call or the request, but he only gave him the exact type, brand and vintage he should pick up. His former boss even suggested a store where he was sure to find it, and that if Nick wanted, he would have been happy to call it in for him so that he only had to pick it up. The mirth in the older man's voice as he made the offer caused Nick to chuckle just a little. Seeing how much Grissom had changed in the last six months, he began to wonder if he ever really knew the man at all.

As he stepped down from the truck, Nick straightened his clothes more from nervousness than an actual need. After all, it was pretty hard to mess up jeans and a crew neck sweater. When he was getting ready for the dinner, he half considered dressing up just a little more, but he remembered R.J. telling him not to get all fancy, because there was no dress code at her place.

Nick finally managed to take those last few steps to her door and then looked at his watch. He still had one minute to spare. Breathing a sigh of relief, he pressed the doorbell. It was quite possibly the strangest doorbell he had ever heard. As soon as he pressed the button he distinctly heard, "Ding Dong…DAMNIT!" He tried very hard to suppress the smirk that turned up the corner of his mouth.

The moment the door swung open, he knew exactly what the problem was. R.J. stood in front of him with her hair obviously wet, her shirt only half tucked in, and the collar of the shirt was turned under on one side. He could instantly tell she was very frustrated with her current state, but it was pretty much impossible to completely wipe the smile off of his face.

For a brief moment, she tried to maintain her indignant posture, but that was all it lasted before she smiled for an instant. When the blush rose in her cheeks, she hung her head, "It's not funny."

Nick reached down and tipped her chin back up with a finger tucked under it when he said, "It is just a little funny…but it's also kinda nice." As her eyes met his he gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "Disheveled, drowned rat looks good on you." That time she laughed.

"Thanks… I think." She saw the bottle in his hand and cocked an eyebrow at him, "You brought something anyway?"

"It's all that good home trainin'… I just can't show up anywhere empty handed." He passed the bottle over to her and she let him inside the door.

Instead of walking out of the entryway and looking around, Nick brought his hands to her neck where he pulled her damp hair back and straightened the collar of her shirt. "You might want to double check your button technique."

R.J. looked down at the mess she had made of her shirt and blushed again. "Note to self… Fifteen minutes is not enough time."

With his face screwed up into a question mark, Nick asked, "Enough time for what?"

She gestured at her poorly executed wardrobe change and exclaimed, "Isn't it obvious?"

Nick shrugged and answered, "It's definitely a statement." The wink he shot her way told her he really was fine with the whole thing.

"Well, my day has pretty much been an exercise in futility from the moment I woke up. So, I'm really hoping this isn't the capper to end it all." He could tell by her voice that she was frustrated, but there was nothing he could do to stop the smirk from appearing on his face. Apparently, if she let you get close enough, angry and frustrated was another good look for her. "What?"

"It's nothin'…" He made sure his face gave away his sarcasm when he added, "I was just wondering if there's a poor soul out there still tryin' to find his ego after gettin' destroyed by one of your tirades."

R.J. fixed him with a steely glare and said, "Not yet… But there's still time."

For just a moment, he thought she was actually serious, but when she finally smiled he caught on to the joke. After they both laughed at the situation, he asked, "So, is there anything I can do to help with dinner?"

"Shit!" She turned on her cane and went straight into the house, leaving Nick to wonder what was really going on.

"Was it something I said?" He timidly tried to follow her path, but was distracted by the sight his eyes beheld.

In every conceivable direction were rows of industrial metal shelves with countless artifacts, samples, journals, notebooks, surveys and geological materials. He felt like he had just walked into a less inviting and overcrowded version of the rock shop warehouse. It gave way to an almost cave-like feeling as he made his way through the immense collection of materials.

When he came to an open corner in the wall at his right, he found what was probably supposed to be a dining room. Instead, it looked like a war room for geologists. Crowded with white boards, maps, map rolls, a bunch of core samples leaning in one corner and a mess of survey equipment resting against the other, the big table in the center covered in more maps and datasheets was the only thing giving any kind of indication that the room was intended for another purpose.

Making it past the last row of metal shelves, he finally spotted her standing in the pristine and perfectly functional kitchen. Every surface and appliance was made of brushed metal, and the shelving was nothing more than restaurant grade baker's racks. It was all very sterile and unfeeling, almost like the whole place was an institution, instead of a home.

Nick found he was unable to refrain from commenting about the conditions. "I'm gonna guess you don't get much company here, huh?"

R.J. laughed at his careful remark and watched as he blushed a little from her response. "You could say that… This is where I work when I don't want any distractions, so it's a matter of form fitting function, I guess. But you're right…I think Sandi and David are probably the only people who've been in here in almost ten years. Even my parents only ever visited me at the cabin." She gestured to the darkened corner at the end of what was probably the living room and said, "That's pretty much the only thing to have survived the research expansion over the years. And I don't get to use it nearly as much as I'd like to anymore."

Nick tried to peer around the darkened mass, only to find a tiny sliver of soft light leaking out of the space. He looked back to her for confirmation and she said, "Go ahead and check it out. It'll give me a chance to get this in the oven and finish getting dressed."

He took a few timid steps toward the corner, until the light grew larger in his field of view. By the time he took a few more steps, he was able to make out some thick, heavy, black walnut bookcases from the darkness. As he peeked around the first case, he was amazed to find that they were actually arranged in a tight square, blocked off from the rest of the house, with only a small opening to provide access to the books contained within, but there was just enough room in there to accommodate a big overstuffed sofa.

Looking around the space, he found an old standing lamp and table with a soft pink light which shone from under the shade. His next discovery was found at the end of a bookcase, on a deep shelf holding an old-school hi-fi system, complete with a turntable. Directly underneath the stereo was another large shelf filled to capacity with at least a couple hundred LP's. He casually flipped through them, only to be surprised by the number of old jazz and blues artists.

He took another survey of the area when it registered to him that all of the colors in that little area were dark and rich and inviting. It was almost like a microcosm of sanctuary from the perfunctory nature throughout the rest of the home. He began to understand so much more about how R.J. operated; cold, hard and functional on the outside, but deep inside was filled with all the comforts and intellectual pursuits of fancy.

Once he was able to pull himself away from the whole feeling of the library nook, his attentions turned to the other items contained within those walls. Grissom once told him you could learn a lot about a person by the things they chose to read. The books on her shelves were a far cry from the analytical texts surrounding them in the outer collection; travelogues, classics, poetry ranging from classical to French and modern styles, philosophy, and the complete C.S. Lewis library. There was also an ample supply of the Southern elite he already discovered at the cabin (Williams, Faulkner, Conroy, Welty, and O'Connor). However, the hardcore science fiction novels appeared to outweigh the rest, with the likes of Piers Anthony, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Timothy Zahn, Douglas Adams, & Ray Bradbury making up the bulk of those shelves. But, along with those heavy hitters, there were also a bunch of Star Wars and Star Trek related novels. He decided that those were obviously her guilty pleasures, and it made Nick chuckle a little to imagine her curled up on that couch as she became lost in the adventures of Princess Leia in a galaxy far, far away.

Upon further inspection, down in a dusty corner of the farthest bookcase, he found a clump of motorcycle maintenance and racing books, programming guides and computer language bibles, some photo albums, yearbooks and some odd bits of paper here and there between the books. However, the inch of dust on those items told Nick they had remained untouched for a very long time. That was when he realized those must have belonged to her fiancé, and he stored the bit of information away for another time.

As he continued to look through the shelves, he knew Grissom was right, you really could learn a lot from what a person read for their own fulfillment. In front of him, every tome spoke volumes about the person in the next room, and all of it made him want to learn even more.

When he heard R.J. make her way back to the kitchen, Nick pulled himself away from the private library nook. After rounding the last bookcase, he stopped to lean against the corner of the wall and watched as R.J. went straight to work in the kitchen.

It never ceased to amaze him how adept she was in the kitchen. She skillfully made quick work of the asparagus and set them to steam on the stove. It was so much fun to watch, that he could not find it in his heart to tell her just how much he hated asparagus.

He observed how she carefully drizzled a light orange liquid over the steaming bowl of rice, and then vigorously tossed the rice with a large spoon. The actions were in direct opposition with one another, but her grace of motion kept them in perfect balance and flow.

Once it registered to him that she was placing the food onto the small bistro table sitting just outside of the kitchen area, he snapped himself away from his observational post and stepped in to offer his assistance. "Anything I can help with?"

She looked up from the table and smiled. Drowned rat might have looked good before, but Nick practically came unglued when she smiled up at him with those dark mirrors dancing in the light and framed by her silky raven tresses. "Thanks… But I'm just waiting for the timer on the chicken." When she straightened up, he watched as what appeared to be concern played over her face for a moment.

"What's the matter?"

She bit down on the left corner of her bottom lip and frowned. "Well, I seem to have forgotten that Sandi took the other chairs when she moved out, and I only have the one."

Nick could not believe what he heard, but he never meant to voice the comment that went flying out of his mouth. "Sandi lived here?! You've got to be kidding me!"

R.J. immediately went on the defensive. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

His embarrassment shone brightly on his face, but Nick held up his hands to show surrender and tried to explain, "Sorry, it's just that I can't imagine somebody like her making it even two days in such a cold and sterile space. It's like the backroom at a museum or something."

"Gee thanks!" When she started laughing at his explanation, he visibly relaxed just a little. "Do you really think the whole house looks like this?"

"Well, everything I've seen so far, outside of that tiny little nook over there."

He could tell she was about to defend herself again, when she was suddenly struck with an idea. "OH! There's a chair in the office we can use." She was about to hobble past him when Nick realized that she was not wearing any shoes on her feet, and was not entirely sure she was wearing either of her braces.

"Here…" He touched the top of her right forearm to stop her, but before she could protest, the timer on the oven went off. "You get the food, and tell me where the chair is. I'll get it."

R.J. gave him a careful stare, for only a moment, before she grinned a little and said, "Okay…this time. Down the hallway, second door on the left."

As he started down the hall, she called after him, "And if you look in the first room on the left, you'll see how Sandi was able to bear being in such an unfeeling and industrial environment."

Nick shook his head as he made his way down the hall to find the chair. As he was about to pass the first door on the left, his curiosity got the better of him and he peeked around the open door. The room positively exuded softness with all of the pastels and some subtle earthtones. Nick was instantly struck with the very girly feel of the whole thing, and he knew without a doubt that Sandi had decorated the room herself.

Once his curiosity was placated, he returned his attention to the task at hand. However, as he looked up at the first painting on the wall he was overcome with the intensity of the landscape he found there. Looking around the hallway, he found several more absolutely amazing oil and acrylic paintings of different desertscapes. They were all breathtaking, but more than that they seemed to have a very unique perspective in each one. He found it difficult to pull himself away from them, but he tucked away a few questions about the paintings to slip into conversation later and finished his walk to the second room on the left.

The door was pulled closed, so he cautiously pushed it open. As he stepped through the doorway he was overcome with the feeling he had just entered a different place and time. If he had not caught sight of the computer on the intricately inlaid, hardwood desk and hutch, he would have sworn he had just stepped into an old Spanish mission. The walls were painted in the same color as the redstone of Sedona, the shelves appeared to match the desk (complete with their own pieces of inlaid design) and carried small pieces of handmade pottery. If Nick had ever wondered about her connection to the place that raised her, it was answered in crystal clear clarity by everything in this room.

When he heard her calling after him to see if he needed any help finding the chair, Nick realized just how long he had been gazing through the room. He quickly grabbed the guest chair by the door and made his way back to the kitchen.

As he exited the hall, he found R.J. just about to sit down, but she stopped as soon as she heard him. "Please… Go ahead and sit. No need to wait for me."

He put the chair down in front of the open place setting and quickly took his seat. "Sorry about that, but I was a little mesmerized by the paintings in the hallway. Are they all one artist?"

She nodded her head and handed him the salad bowl. "Actually, yeah… That's my Uncle Petey. He has a very unusual perspective in his paintings, and they always remind me of the way the valley looked to me when I was a little girl."

"That's it! I was trying to figure out what that perspective was doing for me. It was like looking through a child's eyes at the wonder of the desert." Nick piled some of the salad into his bowl, as he shook his head at the revelation.

R.J. smiled at his conclusion and added, "Well, that would be one way to put it."

Nick handed the salad back to her and said, "I don't get it."

"My Uncle Petey is my mother's baby brother, in a lot of ways…" She carefully pulled the salad into her bowl with one hand, and then explained, "He was institutionalized for being feeble minded when Momma was a teenager. He's basically just an overgrown ten year old. But he's such a gentle soul that I can't understand why anyone would have put him away."

His face took on a solemn expression as he remembered his grandmother talking to him about a cousin with a similar fate. Shaking his head he replied, "Different times, I guess. They just didn't know what we do about all that stuff. And what they didn't know scared 'em."

"Yeah, when Momma was old enough, she petitioned the state to allow her to take custody of her brother. After their parents died she did everything she could to get him out of that place. Unfortunately, the state was not willing to let an unmarried college student have custody of anyone. So, when she started dating my Dad, she told him up front that if things got serious between them, she was going to be a package deal." A smile finally peeked through the sadness.

"How'd your Dad react to that?" Nick knew that he was setting her up for a punchline, but he was enjoying it.

"He took her to the home where Uncle Petey was staying. Dad sat them both down and asked my uncle if it was okay that he married his big sister." Nick laughed at her answer, and then she continued. "To Momma's surprise, my uncle took it very seriously, and asked my Dad if he was gonna be able to take care of her like a husband was supposed to, and if he had at least fifty dollars in his pocket."

"Why fifty dollars?"

She laughed at his question and explained, "He had just watched some movie that said it cost fifty dollars to get married, so he wanted to know if my Dad could afford it. Because Uncle Petey told him he couldn't give him any money until he finished collecting his soda pop bottles at the end of the month."

"That's great…" Nick smiled from ear to ear, soaking in the warm feelings her story evoked in him. "That's really a great story." Even though Grissom claimed you could learn a lot about a person from the books they read, Nick knew you could tell even about a person by learning what kind of people they came from.

The rest of the dinner was filled with the normal topics of conversation, the fluff used to occupy the uncomfortable spaces of nervousness. When it was all said and done, Nick managed to win the argument that it was his responsibility to clean up the dishes. She fought as much as she thought was necessary to give him the impression she was not giving in, but the fact was she always hated doing the dishes, so she was glad for the help.

The only compromise he was willing to offer her was that she could find something for them to listen to by the time he was done. Carefully using her pedestal cane to make her way over to the hi-fi, R.J. did her best not to lose her balance or stumble. When she had been getting dressed earlier, she managed to break one of the buckles on her ankle brace, and so she was trying not to make an idiot of herself by falling over her own leg.

When she reached the turntable, R.J. lifted the lid and chuckled at the layer of dust she found there. It reminded her how little time she spent at home ever since Sandi had moved out the year before. She never liked to admit it, but having her there was one of ways she had been able to cope with all of the other loneliness in her life. Just knowing that there was someone else around made it easier for her to be in the house she once shared with another.

She started flipping through the albums at the far end of the shelf to find something appropriate for the rest of their evening. R.J. took in a deep breath to clear her head and then blew it out in a rush. When she originally suggested the dinner, it was under the impression that Nick was most likely working over the weekend. But then he went and made arrangements to get the night off, and that was when her nervousness started to amplify.

While she truly enjoyed his company, and was extremely attracted to the man, R.J. was having a very difficult time dealing with the realities of a new relationship. She had been flying solo, on autopilot, for so long, she was not entirely convinced she even understood what it was she was doing anymore.

As she withdrew an old Billie Holiday album from the shelf, R.J. decided to try something new; taking someone else's advice. When she had let it slip to Sandi what she was doing that evening, the young woman told her to "Just relax and let whatever's going to happen, happen."

Just relax, and let it happen naturally. She spent her entire childhood listening to those same words. Her parents were always trying to get her to slow down, take things in stride, not force anything, and to relax. R.J. always met their advice with a snort and a stronger determination to achieve whatever goal it was they felt she was rushing at the time. However, after ten years of living on sheer will and focused on nothing but goals as the markers of her success and relative happiness, she began to understand what they were trying to teach her all those years ago.

Without a doubt in her mind, R.J. knew her life was empty. She always felt that she had disappointed her parents with that fact; all the way to their graves. Her professional goals could be as weighty and important as she could have ever dreamed, and their successful achievement could shape the history of mankind, but the only thing her parents ever wanted for her was to be happy. In that respect, she felt like an unbelievable failure in their eyes.

Her body and her mind may have survived that horrible wreck, but her heart and soul had been sucked from her chest in a blinding instant of twisted metal and broken bones. After the accident, she used all of her energies to rebuild her body and prove to everyone that her will was stronger than their science. During those first six months of recovery, she never once considered the damage done to her heart. She simply ignored that reality, and with her back turned on it, it only grew into a hideous beast of a thing waiting for a vulnerable moment to pounce on her.

That moment came when she was finally able to return to the townhouse, alone. R.J. insisted to her parents she would be fine, and that they should not change their own plans in order to follow her back to Nevada. As soon as the door was closed and the lights turned on, everything came crashing down around her.

With the darkness lifted, her eyes immediately focused on the worn and battered jean jacket near her hand. She drew in a sharp breath at the sight, but that was a mistake because she was standing close enough to smell the bubble gum he always kept in his pockets. Franticly scanning the article of clothing she found the tear in the left sleeve, where he had caught it on a barb while chasing her around the backside of the cabin after she turned the hose on him.

Her heart began to pound in her chest and she needed to break away from the jacket to save herself. That was when she stumbled and fell to the floor. Her hand searched for the source of her fall and came into contact with Andy's mud-covered hiking boots. Losing her balance and crashing into the floor became more than a physical act. She also lost her hold on that carefully controlled façade she used to keep everyone and everything at arm's length. There was nothing left to protect her from the growling snarling beast of grief that smothered her in unbelievable pain.

It had taken several days before the tears began to dry up, and it was to be weeks before she spoke to another living soul. Her next move set the tone for the rest of her life; she went to work. Work would be the salve to all of her wounds. It would be the one thing she could always control. It was the one thing in which she would never find fault. It was the only thing she still had to connect with her past; her past with him.

As she stood in front of the hi-fi, she realized that for ten years she kept her promise, at the expense of everything else. She had been so lost in thought that she nearly fell over from fright when Nick hollered from the kitchen with a question about the dishwasher.

"What?" She really had no idea what he said when she hollered back from the library, but she was not prepared to face him just yet.

"Where's your dishwasher liquid? It's not under the sink." Luckily for her, Nick had chosen to stay in the kitchen and call out his request.

"Inside the pantry door… Middle shelf." She looked around her after setting the turntable arm to autoplay, and found that she had dropped the album cover onto the floor. When she precariously balanced the cane into her hip to reach down and retrieve the cover, a book came loose from the dusty section of the bookcase. If she was someone who believed in signs, that certainly would have been a big one.

Bringing the book up with her, she brushed off some of the dust with her twisted right hand to reveal a UNLV seal and the year; 1996. R.J. was mesmerized with the plain jacket of the yearbook. There was a sliver of paper sticking out from the pages, and without thinking, she slowly opened the book to that page. She was instantly met with all of the ghosts from her past.

The page she found was a feature piece on her research team, complete with pictures. Staring back at her was someone she no longer recognized; herself… Her old self. When the slip of paper began to slide down the page, she finally broke her gaze from the spectre of a life lost to find the handwritten note.

Hey Docs!

Thanks for letting us hang out with your crew to get this silly PR piece done for the Dean. We had a real blast at the site and the camp!

Here's hoping the survey is done before we graduate and we'll get to do the follow-up.

Thanks Again!

-The Media Major Monkeys

Between the music drowning out any other sound from the small, enclosed space, and being lost in her thoughts, R.J. failed to notice the approaching footsteps of the other inhabitant of the house.

His voice was once again the source of her sudden fright. "I haven't heard this one in y-" As he turned the corner of the cases, the book fell to the floor with a thud and Nick instantly saw her startled expression. "Sorry about that… I didn't mean to sneak up on you." His smile beamed throughout the tiny alcove. "Let me get that for you."

When he leaned over to retrieve the fallen book, he looked at the cover and immediately recognized it as a yearbook. "Uh-oh… Are you tryin' to hide the evidence here? Embarrassin' pictures of you with a face full of braces? Or maybe a picture of you in the A/V club in high school?"

R.J. sucked in a quick breath and tried to regain her composure. "Don't be silly… I didn't even go to high school."

Nick handed her the book, hoping to use it as a gesture of faith, he winked at her and asked, "Don't tell me…another one who just skipped straight to college, right?"

She was grateful for the change of subject. "Not hardly! No, I was too much of a trouble maker, so my folks had me work with tutors while we traveled around the world for my father's work."

"Ah-ha… So, this isn't a new thing for you, huh?" He punctuated his comment once again with a wink.

"Something like that."

There was a pregnant pause in the conversation, and Nick looked around them nervously, as he tried to figure out the logistics of the space.

R.J. must have picked up on his discomfort and tilted her head toward the sofa. "It's a little claustrophobic in here if you aren't sitting on the couch."

His smile came out automatically. "After you." Nick was rewarded for his gesture by the first real smile from R.J. since dinner.

He waited for her to carefully take a seat on the big sofa, and once again, he noticed the brace she normally wore on her ankle was missing. His curiosity got the better of him and he asked, "So, are you trying to prove a point, or something?"

Following his pointed finger to her bare ankle, R.J. blushed for a moment and then took in a deep breath. "Not exactly… More like, I shouldn't try to get dressed in such a hurry, unless I enjoy breaking the buckles on my brace."

"Oh man…" Nick looked around in a futile attempt to spot the offending item in question. "Is it beyond hope? 'Cause I could take a-"

"It's fine… I'll just get it fixed at PT on Monday. And I have a spare around here somewhere." Her hand grazed over the cover of the book once more and drew his attention away from her ankle.

"All right." Fidgeting in his seat, Nick desperately tried to think of a way to turn things back around. "So, was there something in there you wanted to show me?"

Her grip on the book tightened at his question, and he was suddenly very sorry that he had asked. "Look, I wasn't try-"

"No… It's okay." She tried to shake some of the nervousness as she spoke, "I just hadn't looked at this in a very long time. I think I was trying to forget about it."

"What is it?" One day, Nick thought, I'm gonna learn how to keep my curiosity in check, before it really gets me into trouble.

"The last picture that was ever taken of me." She quickly corrected herself, "Other than my driver's license and passport photos, that is."

Slowly, she began to open the book, as she continued, "The Dean wanted to have some promotional stuff done about the project, so he sent a couple of communications majors out to the site for a week." R.J. looked away from the book for a moment and explained, "See, we used to take crews out there for one and two week sessions when we were gathering data. While the data was being processed, I taught on campus. It worked really well. With a ton of kids, we could get several weeks' worth of data in one session." She finally had the book open to the right page and held it out for Nick to see.

He leaned over for a closer look as she went on. "It was the last session I ran before we finished the first phase of the park survey. It was the last one before the accident."

Barely a glance at the page gave him a small piece of her life, captured in time. Her hair was much longer, and tied back in a thick braid. She wore shorts and a sleeveless camp shirt, but the thing that struck him most was the broad, unguarded smile on her face. It was obvious the picture was taken in the middle of a laugh, with her head thrown back just a little to expose her neck to view. His breath caught in his throat as Nick realized he knew that expression.

Nick looked up from the page and sought out her eyes. "I don't even know who that person in the picture is anymore." There was a pain in her voice that nearly broke his heart. "I can't even fathom that I was ever that person." With her words, a tear tumbled its way down her cheek, but Nick brought his right hand up to catch it with the thumb he stroked along her jaw.

Shaking his head, he took the book from her grasp with the other hand and rebuffed her conclusion, "You're wrong."

Her eyes shot up to meet his with a profound confusion playing over her face. "You are that person, R.J.… And I can prove it." Nick took his hand away from her cheek and reached into his pocket.

He took in a deep breath and brought his wallet around into full view. "I've been carrying this around with me since that first weekend out at the cabin. Everybody was just kind of waking up and milling around that Saturday, and I'd gotten up with the dawn. I was using the quiet to get off a few pictures of the camp. Ever since the first time I saw the cabin, I was just so overcome with the beauty of the whole place. And I was just trying to take a still of the cabin and the shadowed area beside it when I caught some movement at the end of the porch, so I zoomed in." Nick opened the wallet and paused as he drew in another deep breath. "When I got the camera focused in, I was-… It was like I was forced to snap that picture to capture the moment. I just had to have that picture."

With the air caught in his lungs, Nick pulled the picture from his wallet and gazed on it for a moment before he turned it around and passed it to her. She held his gaze for a while as she stalled, before finally looking down at the photo. R.J. found herself staring at her own image. She was standing on the edge of the porch with her right hand being held up to tuck the hair behind her ear, and from the small flash of fiery hair in the corner of the picture she had to conclude that she must have laughed at something being said by Sandi as the picture was taken. It was eerily similar to the picture from the yearbook, and it forced all of the air out of her lungs. However, the words she was about to hear would prove far more difficult to breathe through.

She looked back up into Nick's eyes as he sighed, "It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen, and I was afraid it might be my only chance to ever see that look on your face." He squeezed his eyes shut tight and said, "I haven't been able to let go of that picture ever since. I never wanted to forget such a perfect moment. A moment that showed me…anything is possible, if you're just willing to try hard enough."

When he opened his eyes again, he turned slightly to share her gaze completely. He could see the confusion in her face and knew what he had to do. He leaned forward and gently touched the right side her face with his fingertips. As she leaned into his tender touch, her eyes fell closed and he suddenly felt like everything had finally fallen into place for him.

With his lips hovering over hers he whispered, "I'm willing, Roxanne." Her frightened eyes flew open with his words as she struggled to come to terms with the meaning behind them.

Seeing her search for something to say, Nick waited patiently for her to find a way.

As she worked to come up with a way to voice her thoughts, R.J. pressed her forehead into his for support and for some kind of connection to him. "I-I'm-" R.J. swallowed hard and fought to find the words. "I… I'm scared." Nick closed his eyes because of the pain dripping from each of those hard fought words. The vulnerability she showed him in that moment opened his heart to her completely. He wanted nothing more than to wrap her up in his arms and keep her safe from ever experiencing pain like that again.

His mind began to search for the right words to express his emotions, but there was nothing to rival what he felt in that moment. When his own eyes started to fill with unshed tears, he did the only thing that felt right; he kissed her. Gently, tenderly, and filled with as much promise as he could muster, he kissed her lips in reverence and with hope.

If there was ever any doubt in Nick's mind before, it was completely wiped away when she not only accepted his gesture, but returned it. Their first kiss was more than a milestone, it was the thing dreams were made of, and the kisses that followed were always sweet, but this was a completely different realm of kissing. It felt as though he was promising her the world without saying a word, and she accepted each of his offerings, all the while supplying her own covenants to him.

Words became meaningless after that, and Nick knew that if he was ever going to have the ability to express the way he felt, he had to demonstrate it. As his left hand cupped her cheek and held her close for the kiss, his right slowly moved from her shoulder to slide down her back. His fingers splayed to take in as much of her as they could, and he danced them over the expanse of her back.

Lost in his own motions, Nick was almost startled when her left hand came up to grasp the back of his neck and helped to draw him further into the kiss. But when she twisted around on the sofa to face him, he was ready to take the kiss to a deeper level. He thrust his tongue past her lips, and was delighted to find her welcome to the intrusion as her tongue began to writhe in unison with his. It quickly became a dance of decadent pleasure shared between two people, but it was the feel of her right hand pressed into his thigh for some leverage that made Nick lose control for a moment as he practically captured all of the air from her lungs with the depth of the kiss.

When their lips finally parted, they both gasped for every breath of air they could muster in a short span of time. Nick recovered first, and started to explore other areas with his heated lips. First item on the menu was the left side of her face, as he kissed his way across it to reach the space behind her ear. As he ran his tongue along the back of the ear's shell, he could feel her hot breath escaping into the crook of his neck where she tried to kiss him.

Once his curiosity for that side was satisfied, Nick pulled back and out of her reach to flash R.J. a dangerous smile as he moved to the other side of her neck. Switching his hands, he brought the right up to rest below her ear on left side of her neck, while the left hand took pleasure in stroking along her back as his lips descended along her hairline to the right side of her neck. When he began to drag his lips across the underside of her jaw Nick felt a distinct, but reserved flinch from R.J. and it stopped him in his tracks.

Careful not to leave her head unsupported, he continued to hold her at the nape when he looked up into her eyes to ask, "Did I hurt you?"

He nervously watched as she breathlessly bit down on her bottom lip. "Not rea-"

He pulled back further in a panic. "I'm sorry, I just got a little carried aw-"

R.J. brought the fingers of her left hand up to cover his mouth. "I'm fine." She did her best to pour every ounce of sincerity into her words as she explained, "It's just…I-I'm a-a little…worried." She took her hand from his mouth and leaned forward to press her cheek into his as she avoided looking him in the eye when she admitted, "This is all kind of new to me."

Nick sat there for a few moments as he let those words sink into his mind. When they had filtered through his overwrought brain he held her away from him and asked, "You aren't saying you've never-"

"God no," she laughed. "No, no… It's just-…" He could see that she was struggling with what she had to say, but he was at a loss about how to help her, and so he waited. "It's been a…long time."

When it finally dawned on him what she had been trying to tell him, his eyes widened and he reached down to bring her lowered gaze back to meet his. "No one?"

He watched as she clicked her jaw from side to side and then shook her head very briefly. Nick heaved a huge sigh, drew her into his arms, and held her to his chest. After a few moments, he brushed the hair away from the left side of her face and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "Well, then I guess that means I'm not the only one nervous here." He was relieved when he felt her chuckling into his chest.

She looked up from his chest and said, "I'm sorry, I ju-" That time it was his turn to silence her with a finger to her lips.

"No apologies. We just need to relax…and see what happens." He gave her one of his most tender smiles, hoping to relax them both in such a tense moment.

However, he was not prepared for her to sit up from his embrace and smile back at him with a sparkle in her eyes that sent jolts of electricity coursing through his body. "That sounds like fantastic advice." Between the surprise at her move, and the magnitude of the kiss she laid on his mouth, Nick was thrown backwards into the arm of the couch with R.J. resting over his chest.

Fortunately, he was quick to catch on, and to catch up. Nick began to run his hands up and down her back, alternately, doing his best to reach every inch. With each pass, they drifted lower and lower, until his right hand rested over the swell of her ass when his left arm wrapped around her shoulders. In one gentle motion, and with her attention diverted by squeezing her cheeks, he managed to spin them around until she was flat on her back beneath him.

Nick lifted up on his arms to hover over her with an almost predatory glint in his eyes as he gathered up enough breath for his next move. Dropping down to rest on his elbows, he began an assault on her neck as he felt her hands run over his back. He was careful to keep nearly all of his weight off of her, with one leg on the floor while the other knelt beside her legs on the sofa.

When he found a white line peeking out from the collar of her shirt, Nick paused just long enough to focus on the object. Running from the right side of her neck, and vanishing below the shirt on her shoulder, he finally came into direct contact with the evidence of her past. To his surprise, he found himself intrigued by the sight, and set out to explore the phenomenon, with his lips.

He followed the path of the scar down her neck with supple kisses until he reached the barrier of her shirt. His curiosity was not satisfied yet, and so he reached up to pull the fabric away. The skin felt thin under his kisses, but it was also more taut than he imagined. As he pressed his lips along the pale and slightly raised flesh he tried to imagine what his own scars might feel like. While they were no match to the few he managed to catch a glimpse of on her body, they were still there; constant reminders to him of the horrific events in his life.

The feel of her fingers tickling through the bristly hair at the nape of his neck interrupted any further exploration as a chill ran through his spine with the contact. He returned his mouth to hers for another deep and pleading kiss. Nick was amazed by the way her eyes lit up even more when they kissed, and he found himself fighting to keep his eyes open every time, just to see the glimmer in those darkened pools.

His next assault was guided by the pull of her left hand on his neck, which sent him down along the left side of her jaw to the ear. As he kissed the space below her ear, his nose was buried in her hair and he inhaled through it to fill his nostrils with her scent; berries and something that instantly reminded him of the timberline. When he exhaled the delicious scent, it came out like a heady sigh. Everything about her was intoxicating, and Nick struggled to maintain his control.

The control slipped further from his grasp when he felt her hot breath over his left ear, just before she drew the lobe into her velvety soft lips. But when she pulled it in over her teeth and touched it to her tongue, he grunted from the intense sensations that simple action created in his body. Nick found himself panting into each kiss he trailed down her neck. For someone who had suggested that they relax and take things as they came, he was finding it increasingly difficult to follow his own advice, as he fought his baser desires. In that moment, with the heat from their bodies pouring into the space between them, Nick knew one thing for certain; he wanted her, all of her. But, when he nudged her shirt to the side, he was sure he felt her tense, just a little, and it made him question if it was the right thing.

Squeezing his eyes tightly shut, he forced himself to straighten his arms and push away from her so he could see her eyes when he spoke. After several heaving breaths, he opened his eyes to find an equally overwrought beauty below his gaze. It was a struggle to keep from simply diving into her arms and forgetting about everything else, but he was just not that kind of guy, and he never could be.

Before he could find the words to explain himself, R.J. reached up with her left hand and stroked the side of his face. His eyes closed for a moment and he reveled in the feel of her skin touching his, and then she asked, "What's wrong?"

Nick shook his head and explained, "Nothing… I just-… I don't want to rush you, if yo-… If you're not ready, I'll underst-" The guilt he saw well up in her eyes made the words stick in his throat. The last thing he wanted was to cause her any pain, but that was exactly what his doubt had done. Nick could not bear to look her in the eyes any longer, and he hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry… I jus-"

It was her turn to bring his gaze back to hers as she pulled his chin up. He watched as a tear fell from her eye, and right as he was about to speak again, she stopped him with a subtle shake of her head. "That's not it." He gave her a puzzled look as he tried to process the meaning behind her words. "I want this…" She sighed and sank further into the sofa as her chest fell with the exhaled air. "God, do I want this."

In any other frame of mind, Nick would have chuckled at her exasperated admission, but as it was he was glued to every syllable falling from her lips.

"It's just not easy…knowing that you can…" He watched as she drew in first one and then two breaths in an attempt to calm herself. Nick had no idea what could be so difficult for her to tell him, but he was filled with a need to take as much of the pain from her as he could. He reached up and brushed some of the hair from her face with his left hand, and as he tried to tuck it behind her ear he noticed it again; she flinched.

At first, he thought he might have hurt her with the gesture, but when he watched her draw the locks of hair back down around that side of her face he finally understood. "Don't." Her eyes instantly shot to his at the sound of his voice. He pushed the hair back again and leaned down to kiss the barely visible scar that ran along her jaw. "I don't care about that…" He stopped himself, and then looked her in the eyes when he started again, "No, I do care about it, because it reminds me what an incredible person you are, but I don't think it defines you, or that it takes away from the fact that you are a beautiful woman." He could see in her eyes that she was not entirely convinced and he tried to think of some way to prove her wrong.

Nick reared up and rested on his knee when the idea struck him. He reached for the hem of his sweater and pulled the whole thing straight over his head, revealing his own slightly marred body. There were pencil thin lines on his arms to show where he had been shoved through a second story window, but the small raised dots and circles completely covering his body told the most gruesome story.

He took her right hand and pressed it into the small surgical scar on his chest as he leaned back down to her. "They had to dig out a mess of fire ants that managed to burrow into a cut I'd gotten when I had to shoot out a light in the box I was being kept in." She drew in a sharp breath with his explanation. "The rest were just regular bites, but they've mostly faded now." He stopped when she began to trail the fingers of her left hand up along the scar from the big gash on his right arm. "That was from a picture window somebody decided I should be thrown through." He gave her a cautious smile when he added, "Course, the knock I took to the head was probably the worst part. But I've been told it might've knocked a little sense into me, so it was most likely worth it." Her timid smirk was his reward for revealing to her the comedy of errors his life had been.

With his hand covering her right hand as he pressed it tighter into his chest he explained, "These scars…they're just the reminders of the things in our past that we've overcome. They aren't who we are, and they certainly don't make us any less than we are just because of them."

Nick leaned over her once more and kissed her tenderly on the lips before he sat back up and brought her with him. "And when you're ready… We can try this ag-"

Once again, he found her fingers pressed over his mouth to silence his words. She held his face between her hands and then said, "I can't promise you I won't be a little awkward at first, but I can promise you that I want this." She kissed him on the mouth, searing his lips with the heat she fed into the act, before slowly pulling away and adding, "I really want this, Nick… I want you."

The fire she stirred within him, as she stared straight into his eyes, was more than enough to convince him, but as he lunged forward to capture her mouth, she stopped him. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she whispered into his ear, "Just not here…" He pulled away suddenly to look into her eyes when she finished. "End of the hall."

She was about to push off from the couch when a bright and broad smile spread over Nick's face as understanding finally filtered through his brain. With a speed and grace he was not aware he possessed, Nick managed to capture her in his arms and lifted her up into the air, as he stood up from the sofa. Her surprised yelp was silenced by his lips as he chanced one more kiss before maneuvering them both out of the library nook.

R.J. wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on, as Nick swiftly carried her through the house. He was stunned to find that he enjoyed feeling the weight of her in his arms, the way she gripped his neck and shoulders, and the delicate touch of her warm breath over his skin. But he found that the most satisfying aspect was the simple fact that she never so much as batted an eye when he had lifted her up into his arms.

As they reached the door at the end of the hall, she smiled timidly and he was unable to resist kissing that smile. When she returned the kiss, he turned to the side and nudged the door open with his shoulder.

Nick expected to find a pitch black room, so he was not surprised when R.J. reached out for the switch. However, what he had not expected was to be completely blown away once the lights came on. It felt like she had just lit a few dozen candles with the flip of a switch, because the light in the room was so unbelievably soft, and the effect was amazingly enhanced by the deep chocolate brown paint on the walls.

After he had stood speechless for a while, R.J. leaned into his ear and softly reminded him, "I told you it wasn't all cold."

An embarrassed smile turned one corner of his mouth and he turned his head to look her in the eyes. "Point taken."

He moved toward the big four poster bed and carefully came up on it with one knee before he gently lay her down. Nick followed her down to the mattress and nuzzled into the crook of her neck, to kiss at the skin there. He continued to hold himself over her on his arms as he worked his lips around her collarbone.

The feel of her fingers running over his head, through the short hair, and tickling at the tiny hairs on the back of his neck made him close his eyes against the little tendrils of excitement it sent coursing through him. And when she ran her right hand over the outside of his arm, the heat from her touch made it hard for him to stay balanced above her.

Bringing his head back up from her neck to look her in the eyes, he tried to figure out another way to attack the problem. He worried about leaving any of his weight on her, but he was also desperate to explore her body. As he worked out the mechanics in his head, staring down at the space between them, R.J. reached out with her left hand to rest alongside his neck. A slightly sinister smile played at the corner of her mouth and she breathed, "If a Mack truck couldn't do it, I really don't think you pose a threat."

That time he could not help but chuckle as he hung his head in shame. His cheeks were hot with embarrassment when he hesitantly looked back up. "I just don't want to h-"

"We'll figure it out, but we can't both be afraid here." She took his chin in her grasp and held up his gaze, when she added, "Otherwise it's liable to take all weekend. And at this rate, we'd spontaneously combust before anything good happened."

Those were the perfect words to finally break through Nick's nervousness. He fell onto his side next to her in the bed and laughed as he rolled over onto his back. "No kidding!"

She rolled up onto her side to look at him as she laid her left hand on his chest. "Just to clear the air… I have a weak right side, and that knee is pretty much useless without the brace. Other than that, I'm made out of more titanium than porcelain, so I promise, I won't break."

He closed his eyes when he felt her fingers as they started to trace a circle around the scar on his chest. Relishing in the feeling of her touch, Nick sighed with the contact, however he became a little lost when he suddenly felt her hair brush over his chest as she leaned over to kiss the raised mark in his flesh. When she pulled back, she let out a tiny giggle and said, "Just don't expect any gymnastics."

Nick rolled back onto his side and propped his head on his left hand. "Just so long as you accept that I can't stop worryin' about it…" He ran his right hand down the length of her arm and explained, "Because I know it's not as simple as you're trying to make it sound." His hand made its way back up her arm before it dipped down over her shoulder to rest on her neck. She nodded in agreement and Nick leaned toward her to seal their deal with a kiss.

As the kiss deepened, Nick felt her hand move to his side and pull him closer. When he tried to do the same thing, his knee made contact with something hard and metal. R.J. immediately turned away from him to her other side, completely mortified. Instead of getting tense about the situation, Nick simply reached out for her right arm and gently pulled her back to him.

He laid a kiss into the center of her palm and brought it up to his cheek. "Help me."

At first she looked confused by his words, but it quickly made sense to her and she shyly smiled at his request. "The pant leg has a Velcro seam."

His screwed up grin met her admission, and before he sat up, Nick kissed her sweetly. Sitting up on his knees, he smiled and then reached for the seam of her pant leg. It took him a moment to figure out where it began, but once he did it was an easy task to separate the seam.

With the leg finally exposed, he instantly realized just how much that simple brace did to keep her walking. It had a fully functional joint at the knee, and a series of straps running along the rails on either side of her leg, with a form fitted plastic sleeve around the lower leg. He took a moment to marvel at the efforts R.J. went to in order to survive in the world, and then he went to work removing each of the straps.

As he was taking the various straps off of the brace, R.J. leaned forward and propped herself up on her left arm. Nick smiled back at her, just to let her know that everything really was fine with him. When the last strap was undone, he tried to figure out how to remove the brace with that sleeve at the end. Just as he was about to ask her for advice, Nick found the fastener for what he thought was a plastic sheath. It was actually two pieces of plastic sandwiched around her lower leg bones, with a layer of foam on the inside. Once it was free from her leg, he gently placed it on the bench at the foot of the bed.

Returning his attention to the exposed leg, Nick was unable to resist reaching out to run his fingers over the tender, battered and scarred flesh. He could trace over the many surgical scars, but the ones he found himself drawn to were far less smooth. The jagged, raised and discolored patches of skin all over her right leg were hard to miss, and even harder to forget. He dragged the backs of his fingers over the torn flesh until he could no longer resist.

Lowering his head, Nick's lips found the worst of the scars as he kissed the rendered flesh. He wanted to draw whatever pain there might have been away with the touch of his lips to the skin on her leg, but instead he felt her shudder at the contact as he moved to the space above her knee.

When R.J. rolled back onto her side, he crawled his way back up alongside her body until he was once again resting beside her. His hand immediately moved to twine in her hair as he drew her into a kiss. The deeper the kiss became, the closer he wanted to be with her. The need quickly became too much for him, and yet he was still unsure about using any of his weight on her.

The solution came to his mind as her hand ran up his side again. In a flash, he took her into his arms and rolled them over until she was resting on his chest. Without missing a beat, she used the new position to begin an assault on his neck with her mouth. Nick sucked a breath in through his teeth when he felt her tongue running behind his ear.

As she continued to kiss and lap at his neck, his hands began to freely roam over her back. When Nick's hand brushed over the waistband of her pants, he brought the other one inside of it to pull her shirttails out. Before long, he had the shirt pulled all the way out, and he began to bring his hands up under the shirt to make contact with the bare skin beneath it.

He felt her suck in a breath with that first contact of his hands all over her bare back, and it made him smile. By the time she reached his collarbone with her lips, Nick had managed to work one hand around to the front in order to start on the buttons of her shirt. With the other hand, he trailed down her spine until he found her pants again, and then he moved it over them to find his target. He squeezed her ass and made her back arch just enough for R.J. to grind her hips into him, causing him to groan at the contact.

Bringing her mouth back to his ear, R.J. panted, "Might be easier if we switched places."

Her words made Nick release a deep sigh, and he moved to wrap his arms around her, bringing her down into his body. He stayed that way for a few moments before he whispered, "I don-… I'm scared."

R.J. laid her left hand on his cheek and moved her head to kiss the other cheek. "I promise… I'll let you know if I get even a little worried."

Several heart beats, and a few deep breaths later, Nick finally had the courage to nod his head in agreement. Slowly, as he kissed into the crook of her neck, he rolled them back to their sides. R.J. kissed his cheek one more time and then continued to roll over to her back. Nick sighed and then leaned up on one arm as he reached in to kiss along her collarbone. With his other hand he went back to work on the buttons of her shirt. From that angle, he was able to make better progress and his kisses trailed down lower, following the edge of her bra. By the time his lips reached the space between her breasts, he had finished with the last button of her shirt.

He raised his head as he dropped the shirt to either side of her torso and his eyes drank in the sight of so much skin bared to him. His chest tightened with all his gaze beheld, and the deeper meaning behind it all. But when he felt her left hand tug on his arm, Nick looked up into R.J.'s eyes to see something even more captivating than her body; he saw her unflinching desire.

Any fear that remained was burned away by the fire he found in her eyes and he moved his body over hers. He still kept most of his weight from her, but he managed to cover her body with his without becoming uncomfortable. Nick pushed the hair away from her face and dipped down to capture her mouth in a rapturous kiss that left them both breathless and sent their hearts racing.

The flames burning in his blood took over at that point and he started to drag his lips down the length of her neck, stopping only to slide his tongue over her jugular and into the dip where her collarbones met above the sternum. Her strangled whimper told him he should continue the path he had already started.

His lips once again found the space between her breasts, but this time his fingers came up to release the clasp of the bra to give him even more access. The feeling of release caused R.J. to arch up into him just enough to make Nick reach out to grasp her at the sides. Holding her in place, he began to drag his cheek up along the inside of the right breast until he felt the bud of her nipple grazing his skin. Once he felt the superheated bit of flesh, he quickly replaced his cheek with his lips and he began to tease the nub into a hardened peak. Satisfied with her aroused whimpers and his work, he repeated the process on the left one, to equal satisfaction.

He looked up to see R.J.'s head thrown back, her angular throat exposed. It was a beautiful sight and brought a delighted grin to his face. It also gave him the courage to try his next move.

With his tongue, he began to trace the outline of her nipple and then he blew a tiny bit of air over the pebbled flesh. The slight moan his ministrations elicited from her throat was enough to send his blood boiling. When he could wait no longer, he sucked a tender and aroused bud into his lips. After a few passes with that technique, he felt her hips rolling with her arousal and it drew his attention to other pursuits.

Once again his lips set out to explore more of her skin, but this time they made their way down over her stomach until they reached the navel and the top of her pants. His hands then trailed down from her sides to skirt the edge of her waistband as Nick nibbled at her navel. He quickly popped the button of her pants, and then slowly brought the zipper down to the end.

Nick had to shut his eyes when her scent filled his nostrils as he began to drag R.J.'s pants down over her hips. He tried counting by sevens when he felt the pressure in his own pants increase as the smell of her arousal flooded his senses. When she rolled her hips to help him remove the pants, it only increased the strength of the aroma. Subconsciously, Nick licked at his lips as he drew the pants the rest of the way down her legs.

Reaching down, he ran his hand up along the inside of her left leg, reveling in the feel of her skin against his. He rolled the hand over to the top of her thigh and around her hip. When Nick slipped his fingers beneath the band of her panties he felt her hand on his head. He looked up the length of her body until he found her face and smiled.

He moved back up her body to offer his reassurance, and along the way he stopped to kiss at her breast once more. But when he brought his lips back to hers for a loving kiss, he found her arms wrapping tightly around his back which made him lose his balance and crash into her body. Before he could worry about the implications of that act, she began to run her hands all over his body while her mouth worked to draw the breath from his lungs with a powerful kiss.

By the time he could grasp what had happened, R.J. managed to unfasten his jeans and had done a pretty good job of pushing them down his hips. Once he realized what she was trying to accomplish, he moved to help her by raising himself up and then worked to shrug out of the denim. But he was frozen in place when she reached into his briefs to wrap her hand around his already swollen member. Unprepared for the sensation, Nick was unable to verbalize anything, and the grunt that erupted from his throat surprised them both.

For a while after that, everything seemed to happen in a blur. The rest of their clothes seemed to disappear into thin air. Wherever the clothes went to, a condom seemed to appear from. Before he truly understood how they had gotten there Nick was covering her body with his completely while he pushed her dampened hair away from her face as he looked deeply into her eyes. From so close, he could see the tiny flecks of brown as they danced around the edges of her irises. He watched as a bead of perspiration trickled down along her hairline. Nick did everything he could to remember that exact moment; exactly the way she looked, the way she smelled and the way she felt beneath him.

R.J. reached up and kissed him sweetly as her hands drifted down over his ass. He knew she was ready, but he just wanted to drag it out as much as he could. When he felt her left hand begin to slide over his hip, he knew she was done waiting. He quickly brought his right hand down to stay hers before he moved his own between them.

Slowly, he guided himself into her, his eyes closed against the sensations flooding his body and soul in the moment of their union. He gradually slid in, leaving plenty of time to adjust for both of them. It was almost painful, but it was important for him to take his time.

He felt her right hand as it slid up to the middle of his back, but it was the feel of the fingers of her left hand pressing into his cheek as she gripped his ass that made him grit his teeth. The intensity of the act was already taking its toll on the both of them and he was still entering her.

When he was in far enough, he moved his right hand down along her hip and ran it down to the back of her knee. Slowly, he raised her leg along the side of his and helped her to wrap it around the back of his thigh. He then slipped both of his arms under her shoulders and kept himself propped up on his elbows.

In one more act of tenderness, Nick peppered her lips with the same soft kisses he then began to trail along her jaw until he was able to nuzzle into her neck. When he felt her left leg squeeze him a little tighter, he sank into her fully, drawing a gasp from her throat and a guttural groan from his.

He felt as though they had joined fully with that complete thrust and it caused a pulse to begin in his groin. That pulse compelled him to move within her walls, and he soon found they were moving together in an increasing rhythm. It quickly became difficult to tell where he ended and she began with their bodies rocking in perfect synchronicity. Her hips rolled through each thrust and repost, working to keep as much of him with her as possible.

Before long, the friction of their bodies and their actions caused a slick sheen of sweat to form over them, and served only to make the act even more seamless. They held to each other as much as they could, their breathing became shallow and followed the same rhythm as their coupling.

His heart wanted it to last forever, but his body warned him the end was near as he began to pick up the speed of his thrusts. Nick wanted to warn her as well, but he had gone beyond the power of speech. Instead, he panted into her ear, and hoped that she would understand. When he felt her right arm as it moved up to wrap around his shoulders at the same time that her left dug into his hip as she tried to grip him tighter he knew she was also nearing the end. However, he was not completely prepared for what that meant.

When her walls began to clamp down around him in a series of powerful spasms, his mind practically exploded with the force of a star going supernova. It also kicked his thrusts into high gear, and before he knew what had happened, he found himself pounding into her until he discovered something brighter than the explosion of a star; the entire universe going out in a single blast as he finally released into her with a scream that could have brought the heavens down around them.

It took a few minutes before he was able get the oxygen to stay in his lungs long enough to enable him to move again. Once he had a few of his wits about him, he made the move to take care of business as quickly as possible before he returned to the bed.

Tucking her neatly into his arms as they lay on their sides, he drew the covers over them before they both drifted off into a desperately needed state of slumber. Nick held her close to him as he pulled her hair back out of the way, and then he laid his head down beside hers. He could tell from her slow and even breathing that she had already slipped into dreamland. He smiled and sighed into her neck as he craned his down to kiss her shoulder. The last thing he did as he too drifted off to slumber was to offer his prayer into the ether. "God… I love this woman."