A/N: Later that night….
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Dylan had just finished towelling his hair when he heard his doorbell rang. He frowned at the sound as he was pretty sure his food order was going to be at least 30 minutes away. He checked the peephole briefly before opening the door with a grin on his face. "Hey, you're early!"
"Yeah, sorry." Kate smiled sheepishly. Her hands were holding a bottle of wine in one and a six pack on the other. "I wasn't sure which one you have in the fridge for drinks, so I got both."
"Thanks." He then took the drinks from her hands and gestured for her to come in. "I'll chill the wine in the fridge for you. I'll save the six pack for later."
She nodded in gratitude before making her way in. Now that she was here, she felt her nervousness even more acutely, which made her a bit frustrated. She had been in this place, she knew her way around and she had even spent the night here, but right now, she didn't even dare to take a seat. So, she just stood there on the entrance fiddling with the strap of her small handbag.
"Kate?" He looked at her quizzically, "what's wrong?"
"How are you so calm?"
He shook his head at her question. "I'm not that calm. You should see me a couple of hours ago panicking when I realised that I don't have a proper dining table."
She tilted her head in confusion. "I know that. Your coffee table is the dining table."
He moved closer to her and offered both of his hands to her, which she then held on hers. "I just thought that tonight is important. I felt like you deserve a sit-down dinner and not just a casual one."
She tightened her hold of his hands. "I really don't care about that stuff."
He nodded, "I know that. I think I was nervous."
"Me too." She finally confessed.
He smiled softly at her. "Come on, let's sit down while waiting for the food."
She let him pull her to the direction of the couch and then sat down close to one another. For a few minutes they didn't know what to do and just sit there silently. This was the first time they felt awkward near each other since their first few months in Hammersley together. It felt like high school all over again when you had a crush on someone sitting next to you and you didn't know what to say.
"Why are we like this?" She sighed in frustration. "It shouldn't be this hard. We are friends for goodness' sake. We've had conversation that lasted through the night."
"Hey…" he squeezed her hand, "it's OK. Maybe a drink will help?"
"Maybe…."
"The wine won't be chilled yet. So, either beer or tea?"
She chuckled, "Tea, please."
"Ok, I'll make you one." He got up from the sofa but not before giving her a peck on her cheek, making her blush.
She could still feel her burning cheeks as her eyes followed his movement. It was good to see that his body language relaxed considerably at home. The last patrol was especially challenging for him physically and mentally. Often, he was too hard on himself, especially when he either made a mistake or perceived himself to be making one. Usually after such incident, he would try harder to atone for his supposed sins, which either could help the cause or hinder it. In this instance, all was well at the end. But she couldn't help the vice in her heart when she remembered the helplessness she had felt the moment the gunfire had started. There had been too many close calls for them lately and that and her conversation with Jim had brought home the importance of taking chances in her life.
"Here you go."
"Thanks." She accepted the tea gratefully. She could feel the aroma slowly brought her to the present and took her away from the unpleasant memory.
"Better?" He took a sip of his beer while watching her body relaxed further to the sofa.
She nodded at his question before putting her mug to the coffee table and resting her head on his shoulder. She then closed her eyes when she felt him resting his head on top of hers in return.
They just sat like that for a few minutes before she took his right hand and entwined their fingers together and spoke softly. "I'm scared."
He frowned at her words. He straightened himself a little bit and encouraged her to face him. "About?"
"Everything." She looked up to meet his eyes. "What if I'm not good for you? What if we end up hurting each other? What if we don't work?"
She then sighed, "and of course, we are still serving on the same ship, whose CO is my ex and don't forget the SAS operator who we often have to work with is also my old flame. Do you see how I'm dragging you to my mess?"
He couldn't help but chuckled at the way she introduced all the players in their saga.
"And I'm older than you, with huge baggage…."
He tried to interrupt, but she kept going ahead.
"What could I possibly give you that other girls with much younger bodies and much less baggage couldn't?"
"Are you done?" He felt almost angry at her tirade. "Do you think I'm that shallow?"
"No!" She shook her head strongly. "You are thoughtful, brave and kind. But that's my point. You could do so much better than me. So why bother pursuing me?"
He cupped her cheeks with both of his hands. "I don't want better. I want you."
She was silenced by the conviction she could hear in his voice.
"I'm far from perfect Kate. Neither are you. But I think you are gorgeous and smart. Stubborn yes, but with such a big heart that you can't help but trying to solve all the problem in the world. Look at Ruby Johnson, look at Lara Strauss, you were trying so hard to help strangers like them. But who is taking care of you?"
"I can take care of myself." She rebuked half-heartedly, eliciting a small smile from him.
"I am sure you can." He explained patiently," But I want that privilege Kate, I want to be the one whom you share your struggle and frustration with. And more than anything, I want to be the one who makes you happy."
Tears started to well in her eyes as he spoke of his desire. She now realised she wanted that too. A simple pleasure of being cared for, of having someone to share her life with. It shouldn't be about fairy-tale romance and happily ever after, but it should be about seizing your happiness one moments at a time; To create memories with the person who mattered the most to her. And Dylan Mulholland mattered a lot to her.
"Will you please kiss me?" She whispered as her tears fell onto her cheek.
He wiped her tears gently before closing his lips on hers.
She could feel her heart beat faster as their lips touched. Her arms then circled his neck and shoulder as he pulled her to his lap to deepen the kiss. Their bodies were now flushed together, their lips opened and their tongues touched each other in a desire-fuelled kiss.
He tried to pour all his feelings to the kiss as his hands couldn't stop caressing her back, her exposed shoulder and her long blonde hair. It wasn't long before they were running out of air and he buried his face to her neck, inhaling her sweet scents instead.
She closed her eyes as their breathing slowly came back to normal. She felt their hearts beat together in recognition of each other. She could also feel his lips started to pepper tiny kisses on her neck, igniting their desire once more. Her lips followed his lead and peppered tiny kisses on his jaw before meeting again in fiery exchange. This time around, their kisses were surer and deeper. She couldn't help but moaned as his hands caressed her sensitive skin and his lips went lower to the top of her breast exposed by her low-cut maxi dress. Her fingertips were now caressing his scalp firmly, soliciting a low growl from him in reply.
He almost couldn't believe what's happening right now. If someone had told him 6 months ago that he would have been having her in his arms like this, he would have called that person crazy, but right now, with her weight on his lap and her lips on his skin, he had no choice but to believe that things had a way of working itself out.
The sound of the doorbell ringing forced them to pull apart from each other reluctantly. Their foreheads then rested against each other as they tried to regulate their breathing once more.
"I think our food is here." he commented while still holding her tightly in his arms.
"Actually, I'm not really hungry for food."
"Kate…" he warned her half-heartedly, recognising the desire in her eyes that he was sure was mirrored in his.
The second ringing of the doorbell along with the ringing of his mobile phone left him with no choice but to kiss her apologetically while moving her out of his lap and back to the couch. She sighed in disappointment at the interruption, but her lips curved up into a smile when she could see him struggling with the situation in his pants.
"Don't laugh…." He glared playfully at her, but at the end he averted his eyes altogether from the sight of her flushed skin and tousled hair to get himself under control. He then took a deep breath before opening the door once more.
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"This is so good…"
"Yeah?"
"Hu-uh…." Kate closed her eyes as she savoured the heavenly Tiramisu. She then spooned some more to offer it to the man whose chest she currently used as pillow behind her.
Dylan shook his head softly at the offer, not keen on the coffee-flavoured dessert. His preference was more of the traditional sweets he grew up with like a straightforward chocolate cake or butter cake. "You can have it all. I got it for you."
She kissed his cheek in gratitude and snuggled further to his bare chest. He then reciprocated her gesture by circling her waist tighter and resting his chin on her head.
"My T-shirt looks really good on you." He commented while playing with the hem of the T-shirt which barely covered her underwear.
She shrugged, "it's really comfy actually. I might have to steal it from you."
"Just don't wear it as pyjamas on the ship," he teased her playfully.
"Well…." She paused briefly to put her bowl and spoon to the side table before turning on his arms to face him. "When I eventually move to a new posting, I think it'll be good to keep a few for when I miss you."
His lips slowly formed a grin at her words. "You know, this is really wild. Now I can't get rid of that vision of you wearing this in your cabin."
She blushed at his heated stare and tucked her head under his chin to hide it. For a while they just stayed like that, cherishing their time together and enjoying their newly found connection.
"Have you heard anything about your transfer?" he asked curiously.
"Officially nothing. But I did hear from the grapevine about a possible maternity leave cover coming up in Darwin, for either an XO or Nav position. Nothing is certain though. I guess a few people currently in Darwin are also interested, making it hard for me to be considered."
"I've never been to Darwin actually."
"Me too. Have always live in the east coast. What about you?" She looked up to meet his eyes.
"Same." He kissed her lips softly before continuing, "Hunter Valley for all my life until I go to Cerberus for training."
She nodded, "I'm a city slicker through and through, Brisbane until my parents got divorced and then Canberra because my mum got a job there and I stayed until I finished ADFA."
"Darwin is very close to Bali." He grinned, "that's overseas holiday sorted."
Her lips curved up at the idea. "don't get too excited. I may not get that posting."
"When you know for sure where they are sending you, can you let me know so I can sort mine out?"
She tilted her head in contemplation. "Don't you want to see where this is going first before you decide on something like that?"
"Well, where do you see this is going?" He stared at her seriously.
"I don't know." She diverted her eyes from his. "I mean this is nice…. Really nice…."
"But?" He understood her reluctance, but he couldn't help the pang of disappointment in his chest.
"I don't want you to make sacrifices that you later regret." She played with his dog tag while caressing his chest, "you are a damn good sailor and I think your talent is suited to the major operations in frigates. Darwin's fleets are all patrol boats, so you'll be stuck. Posting to Kuttabul in Sydney or Stirling in Perth will be better suited for your career progression."
He was quiet as he contemplated her words. He knew that career was important to her, and frankly it mattered to him too. But he didn't agree that one path is better than the other to progress. It was all about which path suited your needs. He must admit that he accepted this posting to try to move on from what happened in the gulf as quickly as possible. He didn't even think about career progression at the time. But he never felt hindered. He never felt that what he did in Hammersley mattered less than what he did in the gulf. The scale might be smaller, but he believed that it was no less important.
"Do you remember that night at the Tiki bar?" he finally said after a prolonged silence.
She grimaced at the memory, "you mean when I was so drunk that I vaguely remembered complimenting your bicep?"
He smiled at the memory, "now that you have your comparison between my bicep and my abs, which one is harder?"
"Very funny…." She glared at him playfully, but her hands couldn't help tracing the ridges of his well-defined muscles. "Why do you ask?"
"If I didn't meet you that night, I was going to go home and draft up my transfer request to frigate. And then I was thinking a year later to try out for promotion to CPO."
She looked at him in dismay. "I am ruining things for you."
"Hey, absolutely not." He pulled her closer to him and cupped her cheeks, "you saved me from making a decision that may not suit me actually. I was only going to transfer because I wanted to get as far away from you as possible. To forget you. To get over my feelings for you."
She closed the gap between them and pulled his head down for a kiss. He deepened the kiss almost immediately and she responded in kind. They then rested their forehead against each other as they took a few deep breaths together. She was suddenly grateful for her impulsive decision to walk into the bar that night. Otherwise, they might not be in each other's arms right now. And she would never have known the depth of his feelings towards her.
"Promise me that you won't make unilateral decision about us?" he pleaded quietly, "that you won't decide for me based on what you think is best for my career?"
Realising that she had really hated being on the receiving end of that kind of unilateral decision from Mike before, she relented, "I promise."
He kissed her gratefully before holding her tightly in his arms once more.
"How are we going to do this then?" She then asked, recognising that they were in this together now. "What should we do to make this work?"
He looked at her thoughtfully, "I think the chances of this working out is higher if we are at least in the same city or base."
She nodded, "patrol boats or frigates for you? The reason I asked is because I really didn't specify any preference in my request. So, they might send me anywhere. If you prefer frigates but they offered me Darwin which has no frigates, I might wait for a different one to come along."
He shook his head. "I don't really want to hide our relationship longer than it's necessary. I am struggling to contain the rumour below deck partly because I am too transparent. I don't want us to get caught and be reprimanded or put anyone in a difficult position to report us."
She sighed, "True. Maybe we should just not hang out at work."
"I think they'll be more suspicious that way. Maybe we'll just hang out in groups from now on. Always be in different watches and maybe no more arriving together to port."
"I'm vetoing the last one." She pouted. "I love riding your motor bikes."
He grinned at her pout. "Ok, maybe once or twice but not every patrol. You know that everyone notices that, even Swain. They've already ribbing me about it."
She rolled her eyes at the nosiness of her crews, but she relented, "fine. Every 3rd patrol then."
"Deal." He nodded, "as for patrol boats or frigates, I don't mind either way. I have honestly experienced more actions in Hammersley than my early days in frigates. And the war in middle east surely would end soon. Even a few years ago there were talks to scale back our participation in that region and to focus more on our own borders. In that case, maybe they'll invest more in patrol boat operation."
She searched his eyes for any doubt that might linger around, but she couldn't find any. "So, we agree that if we were still going strong by the time I got a new posting, you would transfer to the same base?"
"Not if…. when." He flicked her nose playfully. "I'm not going anywhere. Unless being with me makes you unhappy."
Her eyes softened at the serious note in his voice. "I am happy. And I promise not to run when things get rough."
"Good." He whispered softly as happiness overwhelmed him. "Because I definitely could get used to coming home to you."
"Me too." She whispered back as their lips met again.
And later on, when their bodies entwined once more, they promised each other to never let go.
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To be continued….