As soon as Maka heard the door shut, her body tensed and her pulse began to race.
For the first time since they met, they were totally alone.
No one was trying to kill them, they were not sleeping in a cave, on a plane, or on the run.
Soul was holding her like he'd never let go and she had her hands firmly pressed against his beautiful body.
They were alone, and now Maka didn't know what to say.
Or what to do with her hands!
The room was silent and heavy with the unspoken implication.
Thankfully, Soul was not at a loss for words.
"Maka, my sweet Maka." He sighed as he nuzzled the top of her head.
The sound of her name slipped from his tongue like honey whiskey. It sent small little shivers quaking down her spine.
"I'm so glad you're safe, lass."
Soul ducked his head and slanted his mouth hungrily over hers.
She melted into him, against the hot steel of his lean body, threading her fingers into his wild white mane, parting her lips, yielding to him.
Abruptly, he dragged his mouth from hers. He broke the kiss and drew back, gazing down at her. His mouth was slightly parted on the hard, fast breathing of someone needing air.
His crimson eyes were darker than normal and hooded with undeniable need. There was a dangerous glint there, but also a strange sort of gentleness she had never witnessed before.
He reached out and lightly brushed her jaw with the back of his knuckles. When he finally spoke his voice was gravely, hot, and low.
"What's amiss lass?"
Maka shook her head. With the instincts of a natural born predator, of course he could sense the slight change in her body.
"Are you scared of me lass?"
Swallowing audibly she shook her head again.
"What then?" He asked.
Maka shrugged helplessly. She had no words. She couldn't explain. She wanted Soul right now more than she'd ever wanted anything in her life, and at the same time, she felt as if she'd suddenly found herself perched on the edge of a ledge, and had no idea what she was doing there.
She didn't understand it.
Maka Albarn was no coward. She knew she wanted him.
And not just the physical want, but much more, which is why her heart felt so dangerously close to giving out.
She loved him.
It was the first time she had truly admitted it to herself.
Somewhere along the way she had unknowingly given her heart to this man.
He was arrogant, cocky, and a big brute of a Scotsman. But... he was so much more than that. He was fierce and brave, loyal to a fault, and had a genuinely big heart.
Here he was, standing before her, the man she desired.
And oddly enough he wanted her too, despite all her short comings.
So what in the world was wrong with her now?!
Why was she feeling so hesitant?
He stood here patiently waiting for her to answer, but how on earth was she supposed to tell him all this?
She could barely put into words herself what she felt for him.
Soul leans forward, scrutinizing her closely. Her face is cloudy, like she is at battle with herself.
He'd give just about anything to deep read her right now.
He runs his hand gently down her arm.
Perhaps he had rushed this? Or maybe she truly didn't want him the way he wanted her?
Soul had known many women in his past, all lasses that he had found attractive or interesting at the time, but they didn't hold a candle to this fiery lass.
He had never wanted anything more than her.
Even his vengeance on Wesley paled in comparison, and that was no easy feat.
He waited for her quietly to speak her mind, rushing her would do neither of them good.
Would she reject him or push him away?
In all his life Soul had never been more terrified than in this moment.
After some time, she looked up at him, her eyes vast and so impossibly green. The color of lush summer pines in the highlands.
He held his breath as she began to speak, mesmerized by the soft curve of her mouth and sizable blush creeping up her neck.
"Why me, Soul?"
It was a simple question, but he felt his heart drum a little faster.
There were a million reasons why his heart chose her, but how could he put them into words?
Soul cleared his throat, willing the right words to come. He had always been better at action, not words. It was easier to be on the battle field than spilling his heart out.
He runs a hand through his wild hair as he contemplates what to say.
"Lass, you are a very special person, in more ways than one. Telling you why would be no easy task for me, so bare with me as I stumble through this."
Maka nods in agreement, her face hopeful.
He takes a deep breath before speaking, mustering his waining courage.
"I've been a broken man for so long lass, even before I was imprisoned in that mirror I wasn't completely whole. But you've put me back together and made me whole again."
Soul takes her hand tentatively and she squeezes his in return, silently encouraging him to continue.
"In the short time I've known you, you've made me into a better man."
He pauses, only long enough to dust a few kisses across her nose, cheek and forehead.
She sighs softly, but cocks her head to the side, still intent on listening to him.
"I've been trapped in that godforsaken mirror for an eternity. But then, without reason, you came to me... a vision of womanly perfection. The perfect balance of fiery wit, kindness, and a warriors heart. In that moment, when I first saw you, I knew it was destiny. I knew you were my destiny. I could feel it depends down in my bones."
Maka smiled softly. "I felt the same way when we first met. I was just too stubborn to see it."
"Aye, but when are you not stubborn lass?"
Grinning she swatted his arm. "Please continue before this turns into an argument."
"Aye, that's one argument I never wish to have." He chuckles.
"The more I get to know you lass the more it dawns on me that this is fate. Why so many horrible years had passed and why now I am here. Why so much bad luck had befallen me. Everything brought me to this moment, to this century. It all led me right to you. And I'd gladly go through it all over again, just for the chance to meet you."
Maka's blush deepened. She spoke hesitantly, like she was scared of the answer. "Are... are you saying you have feelings for me?"
"Aye it does." Soul smiled softly down at her.
"I want you to ken, you are the only person I want. The person I'd like to wake up next to every day, to spend my every breath with, the person I say goodbye to when my time has come. Because only when I met you did this thing I call my life make any sense."
Soul closes his eyes, and takes a long shuddering breath.
"I guess, what I'm trying to say here Maka... is that I love you. I love you lass. As surly as the hills are green and lochs are cold and deep."
He hears her suck in a startled breath and can feel her beginning to tremble in his arms.
He slowly cracks one eye open, worried at what he will see.
Her lips are on his so swiftly she almost knocks him over.
A huge feat for such a tiny lass as her.
He stumbles backwards into a solid peice of furniture. Maybe its a desk or a chair, or something else all togehter. He doesn't bother to look, he simply trusts that it will hold them both as he drags her body onto his.
Maka breaks the kiss and places her mouth along the plains of his neck.
Soul groans in pure agony and rakes his finger through her beautiful golden hair.
"I love you too," She pants against his neck. "I think I've loved you from the first time we met."
"Even though I was a brute and I ordered you to remove your clothes?" He chuckles softly.
Maka leaned back to look at him fully.
She grins at him, her eyes full of laughter and warmth.
"Yes, even then. Although if you asked me to remove my clothes now, you'd get a much better reaction than you did the first time."
"Oh is that so lass?" He asks, a feral smile gracing his face.
Maka couldn't fight the blush she felt creeping across her cheeks.
Soul let loose a devilish laugh that echoed across the empty library.
He had never felt so happy.
It was all he'd dare hope for and more.
She actually returned his love, and judging by the way her body pressed so intimately against his, she shared his desire as well.
Maka Albarn had accepted him as her man, and not for just one night.
In one swift motion Soul pivots, switching their position.
He presses Maka back against the furniture, which turns out to be a very solid desk.
He pins her beneath his weight, their bodies melding together.
Her eyes go wide and she opens her mouth to protest, but he lays a rough finger against her lips. His lass was a strong and independent woman, a modern woman accustomed to being in control.
Being with him, her control would probably be threatened.
God, with her soft curves under him though, he intended to threaten the hell out of it.
Maka flicks her tongue against his finger and he let's out a strangle sound.
"Shall I take you right here, right now my lass? He questions, his restraint fading fast.
"On the desk!?" Maka squeaks, looking suddenly unsure.
"Aye, not only do I get the pleasure of ravishing you, but to do it on my smug kinsman's desk would be immensely satisfying."
"Geez, what is wrong with you?" Maka snorts in mock offense.
He grins down at her, a wolfish smile. "I've got a lot wrong with me lass, too much to even count."
They both let loose exuberant laughter that fills the entire room.
Maka laughs so hard that all the built up nerves she had been harboring seem to dissolve instantly.
This crazy scotsman; no one could make her laugh like this sweet, high strung man could.
God, she truly does love him.
She has no reason to be nervous with him, no matter what they do together.
She had trusted him to protect her from that start, and he had proven himself time and time again. He had had fought hard, putting his life on the line for her well being. Now, she would also trust him with her own heart and body, without question.
"Hmm maybe you're right lass, tis not very romantic."
Without hesitation he scooped Maka up in his arms as if she weighted nothing at all and walked them across the room.
He deposited her gently onto a lavish looking rug that sprawled next to the fireplace. Maka wasn't sure what kind of animal it had once been, but the fur felt soft and warm.
Soul stretched himself out next to her on the fur, his head propped against his arm and his long limbs curled against her own. It was warm and snug, the fire light dancing across their features.
"Tis not the desk, but it will do."
"You're such a dog." Maka giggled as she slowly traced the ridges of his face with her fingertips.
" Hmm you mean because a dog is a clever hunter?" He hummed.
His hands tracking their own paths over her body, learning each curve beneath her sweater.
Maka gave him a mock scowl. "No," she said. "More like fangs and bark."
"Are you calling me a wild beast then?" He growled suggestively, his teeth flashing.
She thumped him on the arm and laughed.
"Stop fishing for compliments, you vain creature."
Soul rolled laughing, taking Maka with him until she lay fully under him.
Her thighs opened, and he sank against her. They both gasped and stilled, all traces of humor suddenly gone.
If she had no awareness of his body's reaction to her before this—and Maka, by her own admission, was neither that innocent nor that foolish—she couldn't mistake it now.
Forearms braced on either side of her head, he kept most of his weight off her, careful not to crush her.
Maka's eyes were large, her breathing thin and quick, an accompaniment to his own labored breaths.
He played with the curling strands of her hair that caught on his fingers like spun silk.
"I am no poet possessing honeyed words," he said. "But you have always known me to be forthright with you."
Gods, his muscles shook as if from cold in his effort to stay still and not thrust hard against her.
"I want you, Maka. I want to sink so deep into you that neither of us will know where one ends and the other begins."
Only the darker green rim of her irises still shone around her pupils. His voice had gone guttural, and he worked to soften it.
"I've never forced a woman and I never will. If you refuse me, this will stop, with no ill will between us."
Please, he prayed—and he didn't know if he prayed to the ancient druid gods or to the statue-still woman pressed against him—don't refuse me.
Maka's emerald stare sharpened, and she peered into his gaze as if searching for something.
Whatever she found transformed her expression.
Her lids lowered, sinking to half-mast. Her breathing deepened, and her lips parted, revealing the edges of her teeth.
Hardly daring to hope and half dizzy with want, Soul watched, fascinated, as the tip of her tongue darted out to swipe across her lower lip.
The silence yawned between them as she continued to stare at him.
"What is it, lass?" he asked. "What are you looking at?"
His question acted as a catalyst, breaking a spell that held him beguiled and her enthralled.
She opened beneath him; not just her body. All of her. He sensed it in every part of him.
She twined her arms around his neck and tilted her head until her lips brushed the corner of his mouth.
"You." she said. "I see all of you."
He groaned low in his throat as her mouth captured his.
Maka buried her hands in his snowy hair, pressing him closer to slide her tongue across the sensitive skin under his top lip and then his lower one.
Soul returned the caress, plying playful swipes at the edges of her lips and along the corners until she rocked in his arms, hips bumping against his while he learned her taste and she learned his.
This was not their first kiss, but in a way it was something new.
They were here, vulnerable and wanting.
Soul lengthened every kiss; he'd take Maka's mouth the way he would take her body—deep and slow with hours spent dedicated on nothing more than savoring the taste and feel of her.
Maka responded in kind, her hands left trails of fire everywhere they roamed and her mouth followed suit.
Somewhere in his fogged brain, Soul recognized that it was she who savored him at the moment and not the other way around as he originally planned. She was trying to take charge of the situation, his bossy Maka was letting her inner warrior out little by little.
She boldly slid her hand between them, her fingers lightly tracing down his chest and then bodly down to the hem above his trousers.
He sat up and pulled himself out of reach, ignoring her confused protests and captured her wrists in one hand.
Her beautiful eyes were glassy, the forest color of her irises completely surrendered to her pupils. A dark flush painted her pale skin.
He bent and traced the outline of her jaw, first with the tip of his nose and then his lips.
Maka moaned softly in his ear. Her eyebrows rose when he stretched her arms above her head, her wrists still manacled in his light grip.
"You must slow down lass, when you touch me like that I cannot take it. You'll be my undoing before I can take another breath, and I want this day to last far beyond a breath," he said, his voice low, almost pleading.
She frowned and wiggled teasingly beneath him. "But I've only had a taste. I want so much more."
Soul groaned at her words.
Did she even know what her words were doing to him?
"That's more than I've had," he countered. "Let me take my time lass. I promise it will be worth it."
With one free hand he pulled her sweater up, revealing every inch of her beautiful skin.
Maka had more than once complained about not having a bra to wear during their travels together. At this moment though he was glad that whatever a bra was, it did not exist on her beautiful figure.
He could see that she was blushing from her face all the way down to her luscious breasts. She was so beautiful and perfect, like nothing he had ever seen before. He stifled a groan as he placed his mouth to the hollow of her neck.
His mouth devoured a slow agonizing path from the gentle curve of her throat down to the soft swells on her breasts. He savored every inch of her and the sounds he elicited from her made him harder by the minute.
He didn't remember removing the rest of her clothes or her removing his own trousers, but they somehow ended up in a discarded heap on the floor and slung over nearby furniture.
Free of any barrier between them, Soul indulged himself releasing her pinned arms and slowly easing more of his weight onto her.
"Ooh," Maka said on a sigh, her heavy-lidded eyes almost closed. "You feel good."
She drew swirling patterns on his back as he cradled her to his body.
"We should have done this much sooner."
Soul's chortle vibrated between them.
His lass was always forthright.
"I couldn't agree more," he whispered in her ear.
He set her to squirming in his arms, her soft moans a sensual cadence in his ear, while he kissed and licked a path from her shoulders to her belly, stopping for long moments to repay her torture of him by flicking his tongue back and forth across the tips of her nipples.
Maka unfurled along his length, a silk ribbon tipped from a spool to ripple and stroke him from chest to knees.
She would be the death of him. A man could die happily like this though, in her arms, warm and indulgent.
A subtle quiver of tension passed through her body under his hands as he kissed a path downward toward the juncture of her thighs.
Soul opened his eyes. His heightened senses warned him that delicate vibration had been one of unease instead of eagerness.
Maka gazed at him steadily, her features somber.
She lowered her arms to card her fingers through his hair.
She didn't try and wiggle out of his reach.
This wasn't a matter of trust so much as experience, or its lack.
Soul knew that while his lass wasn't completely ignorant of bed play, she was still new to this.
He'd have to tamp down on his eagerness to explore every part of her in a single day.
There would still be time to show her these wonderful indulgences at a later date.
Soul bent and traced the circumference of her navel before kissing a return path up her belly, to the valley between her breasts and finally to her chin.
Maka gave him an abashed look.
"I'm sorry, I'm very new to this." she said.
He framed her face in his hands. "So I gathered."
He smoothed away the lines between her eyebrows with his lips. "It's not a failing, Maka."
"I know, but—" She broke off to return the kiss he pressed to her mouth.
"Hush, consider it your gift to me," he said, noting her confusion.
"I have the opportunity to be your teacher and show you the pleasures of the body, one of the finest acts between a man and a woman."
She relaxed under him once more. "I will be a model pupil."
Maka smiled cheekily.
That smile always had a way of taking the breath from him.
His body trembled as her eyes slowly soaked all of him in.
Suddenly her thighs clamped against his sides. He exhaled a surprised grunt that changed to a groan when her hips lifted to rub against the erection that was robbing the blood from every other part of his body.
Her hands glided down his back to cup his buttocks and keep him in place. Her heavy-lidded expression returned, one Soul was quickly becoming addicted to.
"It isn't fair you know." She murmured against his ear.
"What?" Soul asked bewildered, his body betraying him.
Where had all his control gone?
"I wonder, what will I teach you?" she asked, hips thrusting, pressing, tempting him toward madness.
"Patience," he said in guttural tones that made a mockery of the word.
His arm slid under her buttocks, lifted until her hips tilted toward him.
"Endurance."
His limbs shook with the strain of holding back. Maka's hands moved to his arms, clutched his biceps.
"Love."
His cock nudged the entrance to her body, slick and hot.
"Ecstasy," he whispered and slid deep.
They gasped in unison, and Maka arched in his embrace, her short nails digging half moons into his arms.
Drowning in the pleasure of being inside his lass, feeling slippery muscles gripping him, drawing him ever deeper, Soul fought to breathe, to pause.
Patience. Endurance. And oh gods, the ecstasy.
He settled them both and waited, even as the waiting killed him.
"Maka?"
She gave him a quick smile. Her hands abandoned his arms for his lower back.
She kissed him, tongue flicking over his lower lip.
Soul pulsed inside her, and her smile widened.
"I'm fine, my lovely druid," she said and kissed him a second time.
"Don't stop."
Her clasp on his back tightened, and a soft moan threaded her voice. "I need you Soul..."
Grateful and relieved, Soul needed no further reassurance.
She was fire in his arms, hot and sweet.
Her moans and softly worded encouragements, the feel of her surrounding him as he thrust inside her—slow and deep, shallow and fast—destroyed any lingering coherent thought he possessed.
Every near withdrawal had her clawing at his back; every hard pump of his hips made her gasp her pleasure in his ear.
They made love on the floor, both taking their time.
Soul angled his hips, a minute change in his position.
Maka's eyes grew wide, and she emitted a strangled sound.
Soul froze, horrified. He'd hurt her.
He stared down at her, eyes equally as wide. "What's wrong?"
She held his hips prisoner when he made to pull out of her.
"No!" Her legs flexed on him. "Do it again."
"Do what lass?" He gawked at her, bewildered.
She didn't act as if he hurt her.
"That thing with your hips," she said and wriggled hers to coax him into action.
He tried to recall exactly what he did.
The angle, a mere shift in his body that forced his pelvis down onto hers and stroked a different spot with each thrust.
Soul repeated the motion, and Maka did her best to climb up his body.
His jaw dropped. "That?"
She nodded frantically, her thighs clamping so tightly against his torso, his muscles protested.
"Again," she commanded him between pants. "Do it again."
"Yes, Your Highness," he teased, exultant that he could make his lass burn the way she made him burn.
Whispered affections, drugging kisses and the steady rock of hips: Soul balanced on the edge of release, struggling to read Maka's ever-changing expressions as she met his thrusts and moaned her pleasures.
She suddenly stiffened, her arms tensing as her fingernails carved tiny crescent moons into his skin.
Her moans flattened to harsh gasps, and her eyes closed.
"Soul. Soul." She chanted his name, and whether it was a desperate prayer or affectionate curse, it didn't matter to him.
Maka came apart in his arms, her body flushed and hot, and arched until he thought he'd hear her spine crack.
The sleek muscles gripping his cock tightened and pulsed with her release. Soul buried his face in her neck and surrendered his control.
His groans chorused with her gasps as he came hard inside her. His climax rolled through him, leaving him both blissful and utterly stripped of vigor.
His heart pounded in his chest, and he sucked in sweet gulps of air like a man saved from a drowning.
Were he a smaller man, he'd collapse on her, letting her take his full weight. He braced on his elbows instead and raised his head to regard his silent lass.
The flush to her skin had receded a little, though her chest rose and fell in shallow pants.
She regarded him with an expression in her eyes even he could read: stunned amazement.
She opened her mouth, closed it and opened it again only to say nothing.
Soul brushed the tip of his nose across hers.
"Breathe, lass," he said between his own short gasps. "Just breathe."
She exhaled a strand of his hair away from her face.
Her smile held the smug satisfaction of a cat that had caught a particularly juicy mouse.
"If I had known how amazing it felt, we would have definitely done this a lot sooner."
Soul smiled, glad to see his lass so flushed and happy.
"That wasn't awkward or messy like I thought it would be either."
His pale eyebrows climbed, and he tucked his hips even closer to hers to stay inside her.
"Oh, it will get messy, lass, the moment we move."
One small heel roamed up his calf to his knee. She traced his cheekbones with her fingertips. "I don't mind," she said softly.
"Nor do I."
He kissed her, and she kissed him back, her mouth working its magic so that his blood heated once more, and his cock hardened inside her.
He took her a second time as the moon marched west and then a third when they were both drowsy and exhausted from their lovemaking and lack of sleep.
The third time was a slow melding of bodies and low sighs.
When it was over, Soul rolled to his back with Maka draped over him. She was asleep before he could cover them haphazardly with a blanket he pulled off a lounge.
He wrapped them both up and kissed her temple lightly.
God she was beautiful.
"I love you lass." He murmurs as he wraps his arms protectively around her.
"Til my last breath."
For now she was safe, he could finally rest easy. So he followed her into sleep, and for the first time in decades, he slept peacefully without dreams.