Sydney repaired her makeup and combed her hair before going down to the dining room. She didn't know exactly where she was supposed to go and ordinarily, she would have asked one of her armed escorts, but when she opened her bedroom door to head back downstairs, her two bodyguards were nowhere to be seen. Apparently, Irina was sending her a message that she now trusted Sydney. Well, that's her first mistake, Sydney thought wryly as she descended the marble staircase.
She was able to follow her nose to her destination and came upon a large, airy room with exposed wooden beams, lots of windows to let in the natural sunlight and a pair of French doors that led out onto the grounds. The formal dining area took up only about one-third of the space, but it was still sizable enough to hold a large rectangular wooden table with seating for twelve, a mahogany sideboard and a matching china cabinet as well as a comfortable amount of room around the table to allow for foot traffic. Tonight there were only four place settings on the table along with four high-backed green brocaded chairs, two on each end and two in the middle, one opposite the other.
The rest of the space was taken up by a game room of sorts. It was a cozy expanse with hardwood parquet flooring topped by a large faded but beautiful Oriental rug. A pool table dominated the middle of the room and it looked as if someone had been in the process of playing a game, judging by the position of the billiard balls scattered about the green felt surface. A cinnamon-colored suede sofa and matching chairs were positioned in front of a huge stone fireplace--currently unlit due to the warm weather--along with a low-riding wooden coffee table. A lovely hand-carved chess set sat at one end of the coffee table, its pieces ready and waiting for two opponents to square off, with an assortment of magazines neatly arranged at the opposite end. Built-in bookshelves flanked the hearth on either side and judging by the full-to-the-bursting-point amount of books on the shelves, Sydney could see that someone living in the house was a voracious reader.
A handsome bar was situated in one corner of the game room and to Sydney's surprise, everyone had already arrived ahead of her and was having a drink before dinner. Sark was behind the bar mixing drinks while her mother supervised. Sydney was delighted to note that Vaughn was also in attendance, having exchanged his all-black clubbing ensemble for a pair of khaki trousers and a collarless long-sleeved white shirt that he wore untucked and open at the neck. His hair stood up in little spikes as if he'd just run a wet hand through it and his eyes were impossibly green. He looked gorgeous and sexy and she felt her heart skip a beat when she saw how his eyes lit up as she came into the room.
Irina looked up just as her daughter appeared in the doorway and she too caught the look that passed between Sydney and Vaughn. She was very eager to observe the two of them interacting with one another, just to be sure that their swift-and-sudden confessions of love were not part of some devious plan they had cooked up just to spare the young man's life. But as Irina watched the handsome (ex?)-CIA agent walk over to greet Sydney, even she could see through her own jaded eyes that it appeared to be the real thing that existed between her daughter and her former handler. Mr.Vaughn was showing all the signs of being head over heels for her daughter and by the way Sydney was blushing, it was obvious she felt the same way.
Sark was also paying close attention to the goings-on, but not for the same reason his mother was. He was already feeling out of sorts because Irina had displaced him at the head of the table, telling him that "Sydney was the guest of honor tonight." It was already starting, he noted with a sullen grunt. Now to add insult to injury, he would also have to endure watching the two infatuated lovebirds making eyes at each other all night. His mother was probably already envisioning the beautiful grandchildren (and heirs to the throne) these two would make.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep everyone waiting." Sydney said apologetically.
"It's quite all right, Sydney." Irina smiled at her. "Sergei and Mr. Vaughn just arrived from the guest cottage themselves."
Vaughn came over to kiss her cheek. "You work fast." He murmured in her ear, too low for anyone else to hear.
"And you changed your clothes." She smiled up at him.
"Your brother lent them to me." Vaughn told her with a smirk, letting her know just by the expression on his face that Sark hadn't been too happy about having to share his wardrobe with Sydney's paramour. "Hey, and do you know what I just realized? I lost my chick magnet of a leather coat somewhere." He grumbled with a perfectly straight face.
Sydney let out a little giggle. "That's okay, you don't need it anymore, anyway, sweetheart." She gave him a comforting pat on the shoulder and returned his kiss to her cheek with one of her own.
"Sydney," Irina called out to her. "Would you mind doing the introductions?"
"Oh, yes, I'm sorry." She looked at her mother and gave a cursory glance to Sark. "Mom, Sark, I would like you to meet Michael Vaughn." She said graciously, turning to Vaughn. "And Michael, this is my mother, Irina Derevko and her…Sark." She finished, making an obvious snub towards her brother.
"I'm very pleased to meet you, Michael." Irina extended her hand. Vaughn took it without flinching, hoping his father would understand that he was only doing this to survive.
"You too, Irina. Sydney has told me a lot about you." Vaughn smiled warmly and Sydney could tell Irina was instantly charmed by him. He did have a certain effect on women, although Sydney was sure he didn't even realize it.
"Not all good, I'd venture to say." Sark muttered under his breath, but everyone heard him, anyway, which was what he had intended. He ignored Sydney's glare as he stuck out his hand to Vaughn. "We've already met." He said, a bored expression on his face.
"Have we?" Vaughn asked innocently.
God, were they both going to pretend it wasn't them in Denpasar? "Yes, we have. In Denpasar." Sark replied in an overly patient manner. "You were there helping Sydney."
Before Vaughn could answer, Sydney jumped into the conversation. "Sark, I don't know why you keep harping on that. Give it a rest." She wasn't really quite sure why she was busting Sark's chops about Denpasar, but their constant denials seemed to annoy him, so she played along just to irritate him.
"Sydney, would you like a drink before dinner?" Irina asked.
"Oh, no, thank you." She demurred.
"Fine, then let's go in to dinner, shall we?" The four of them headed towards the dining room. "Please sit down." Sark seated Irina at the end of the table as she gestured towards the other chairs.
Sydney started for one of the chairs in the middle of the table, but Sark scooted in front of her, blocking her from pulling out the chair. "No, you are at the head of the table tonight." His tone was smarmy.
"I am?" Sydney picked up from the contemptuous tenor of his voice that Sark had been relocated from his normal place at the table and was undoubtedly seething over it.
"Yes, dear." Her mother nodded.
Sark jerked his chair out rather abruptly and sat down before Vaughn could even pull Sydney's chair out for her. Irina frowned at her son's bad manners. A gentleman always waited until the ladies were seated before taking his own.
The dinner was an extremely awkward affair. The four people sitting around the table were so intertwined by their pasts as well as their futures that any attempt at normal conversation appeared to strangle them. They all knew so much about each other yet they had nothing in common. They couldn't talk about work because they all had been on opposite sides until very recently and it didn't seem quite prudent to be telling "corporate" secrets at the dinner table. Besides which, Vaughn hadn't yet been approved into the inner circle.
Nor could they talk about themselves without being reminded of their troubled family histories and neither Irina nor her children wanted to delve into such a touchy subject on their first night as a reunited "family." They had no friends in common or even casual acquaintances, so Sydney's attempt to tell a funny story about her and Francie and Will fell flat because no one could put a face or a personality to the name.
In the end, they had to resort to the weather (which was hot and muggy), the latest movie they each had seen (Sydney found out Sark had a crush on Nicole Kidman and she thought to herself that she could definitely see him as the obsessed Duke from Moulin Rouge) or sports (unfortunately, Sark was a major fan of cricket due to his teenage years in England and Vaughn couldn't relate since a) he'd never even seen a cricket match before and b) it wasn't hockey).
It also didn't help matters that Sark became progressively more intoxicated throughout the meal. His aperitifs before dinner flowed freely into the wine they had with the rack of lamb and baby peas. After the meal, when they were served coffee and liqueurs, Sark waved off the young serving girl pouring the coffee to concentrate solely on his overly full snifter of cognac. Irina found she had to divide her attentions between shooting disapproving glances at her son while still trying to keep a watchful eye on Sydney and Vaughn.
"You know, you are not a bit like Will Tippin." Sark suddenly commented during one of the (many) lulls in the conversation. He had long since exchanged his snifter of warm cognac for small shot glasses of chilled vodka.
"I beg your pardon?" Vaughn was a bit startled by Sark's out-of-the-blue remark.
"Will Tippin." Sark repeated crisply. He was not your typical drunk. He didn't slur his words or stumble over his feet. No, when Sark overly imbibed, his senses felt sharper and his brain became more acute. At least, that was his point of view. "You do know who he is, don't you? One of Sydney's male friends?" The insinuation in his tone came across loud and clear and Sydney found herself doing a slow burn.
"I do know who Will Tippin is." Vaughn replied in a calm and composed manner. "He and Sydney have known each other since college."
"Is that all you know about him?" Sark inquired.
"He doesn't come up in our conversations very much." Vaughn admitted. "I know about him what Sydney tells me about him."
"Oh," Sark nodded simply and it appeared that the subject had bored him to the point where the matter would be dropped.
"Michael--" Irina began after a brief moment of silence but Sark immediately cut her off.
"Did she ever tell you that he was in love with her?" He could feel his sister's eyes boring into his skull, but the vast quantity of liquor in his system was dulling the effects of her laser-like glare.
"Sergei," Irina said his name with a warning note.
"What are you talking about?" Sydney said furiously.
"I was there for a little bit of the time when he was being questioned about The Circumference." He looked around the table, at the three pairs of eyes who were staring back at him in stunned silence. "No need for secrecy about that, is there, since we all know it exists." He slapped a hand to his forehead. "I mean, existed, seeing as how Big Sis over there just destroyed months and months of backbreaking work." Sark tipped his head and tossed back one of the vodka shots in a single motion, the iciness of the liquid chilling his insides as it went down.
"Sergei, I think you have had too much to drink." Irina's calm exterior was a far cry from the irritation and annoyance she was feeling inside at her son's out-of-control behavior.
"Maybe just a little too much, Mother." Sark agreed with a little smile, but gave no indication he was about to stop. "Anyway, I heard Mr. Tippin say quite clearly during one of his drug-induced confessions that he was in love with Sydney and that he had been for a long time even before she got engaged to--what was his name again? Denny?"
Sydney flushed, obviously not having a clue as to Will's true feelings for her or to the extent of time with which he had felt this way. Vaughn, however, was rather interested in finding out the details.
"His name was Danny." Vaughn uttered in a controlled voice before Sydney could angrily correct her brother. She took a quick glance at Vaughn. He didn't appear to be overly concerned with Sark's attempt at stirring up trouble, but she could tell he was up to something. She wisely kept her mouth shut and let him speak.
"Oh, so you know all about the dead fiancé?" Sark said callously.
"Yes, I do." Vaughn replied. "It was an extremely difficult time for your sister, so I would appreciate it if you didn't act so cavalierly about it." He spoke softly, but his words carried a big stick. Sydney felt a rush of love for him and even Irina was impressed by his protective attitude towards Sydney.
"Fine." Sark said dourly, backing down. It wasn't that he was intimidated by Vaughn (No, most certainly not! He tried to convince himself while wallowing in his drunken haze). He just didn't feel like duking it out with the man over Sydney of all people, someone he didn't give a bloody damn about (Never mind the fact that he was smashed out of his gourd and couldn't have taken a single punch from Vaughn without falling flat on his back, anyway).
"Getting back to Mr. Tippin," Vaughn began again. "You said you drugged him?"
"Among other methods of torture, yes." Sark smiled briefly, downing another shot. Sydney had to clench her fists together to keep from pouncing on him.
"Did he tell you anything?" Vaughn knew the answer to that question, but he asked it, anyway.
"Not about The Circumference, no." The younger man shook his head. "The only juicy tidbits of information we could get out of him were about Sydney, so he was of no use to us."
"Does that mean you let him go?" Sydney finally realized what Vaughn was after. He was trying to find out what had happened to Will for her sake. Her brother made no secret of the fact that he delighted in tormenting his older sister and somehow Vaughn had deduced that Sark would have gleefully withheld the information about Will from her if she had asked him herself.
But Sark was oblivious to Vaughn's true motives. "We left him off with her father last night." He revealed, his eyelids suddenly feeling heavy.
Sydney breathed a sigh of relief. Will was safe. She shot Vaughn a grateful look and he smiled back at her. It was the least she could do to try to rescue him now.
She suddenly stood up from her chair. "If it's all right with you, Mom, I was thinking that it would be good for Michael if he had a little fresh air and exercise after what he went through. Do you mind if we go for a walk along the grounds?"
"No, dear, go right ahead." Irina shook her head. It would give her some time to talk to Sergei about his disgraceful behavior. "If you go out to the lookout, there is quite a lovely view of the valley."
"I'd advise you to be careful out there when it's dark." Sark piped up. "The retaining wall is quite low and it's a very nasty drop if you happen to go over."
"Your concern is so touching, Sark." Sydney smiled sweetly. "Too bad it's also insincere."
"Sydney, I believe your brother's warning is a valid one." Irina put in, not wanting to show favoritism for one child over another. Sark gave Sydney a smug grin.
"Fine," Sydney didn't want to spar any longer with her brother. "We'll be careful." She grabbed Vaughn's hand and they exited through the French doors into the cool night air.
Vaughn let Sydney lead him down the lighted path towards the lookout point without uttering a word. The moon was out that night so in addition to the dimly lit lanterns that lined the walkway, the light over their heads provided enough brightness for them to at least see each other's faces, if only in shadow.
Sydney let go of Vaughn's hand when they reached the lookout. She walked over to the edge of the cliff and took a tentative look over the wall, grimacing as she did so. It did look like a painful drop especially if one fell against those sharp, jagged rocks protruding from the side of the mountain.
"Sydney?" Vaughn said her name with a somber note in his voice.
She turned to face him. "Yes, Michael?"
"Swear to me that we will never have to endure another evening like the one through which we just suffered." He suddenly let out a moan that was not unlike that of a wounded animal and staggered towards her as if in sheer agony. Sydney caught him before he collapsed at her feet, laughing as she did so. She managed to keep the two of them upright until they moved to sit beneath a nearby weeping willow tree. Now settled in place, Vaughn placed his arm around her shoulders, loving the sweet smell of her hair as it brushed his cheek.
"It was pretty excruciating, wasn't it?" Sydney buried her face into his shoulder to hide her mortification. "I was so afraid to introduce anything into the conversation because everything seemed either too volatile or too obscure. We barely have anything in common and the things we do have in common, we can't talk about!"
"Yeah, once we skip over your family and my father and our work and their work, what else is there?" Vaughn commented wryly. "We're left with me asking the woman who murdered my father to pass me the goddamned bowl of carrots!"
Sydney burst out laughing at the absurdity of it all. "It was truly the most bizarre gathering of people with whom I've ever had the misfortune to dine." She gave him an apologetic smile. "Present company excluded, of course."
"Of course."
"Well, look on the bright side, Michael." Sydney shot him a mischievous look. "We get to do it all over again tomorrow night." She chirped brightly.
Vaughn groaned as if he were carrying a two-hundred pound weight on his back. "Sydney, do we have to?" He whined unbecomingly. "Can't we just say we have a headache or something?"
"I think my mother has this notion that we're going to turn into some big, happy blended family now that we've been reunited." Sydney rolled her eyes. "You know, the kind of family who sits down to dinner every night and shares happy stories of their day with each other." She said dryly.
He snorted. "Yeah, and after we muddle through that exhaustive conversation, what will we find to talk about for the next three hours and fifty-five minutes?"
Sydney giggled. "I believe the highlights of the evening were Sark's monologues on why cricket is better than American football and how Nicole Kidman is much better off without Tom Cruise." She poked fun at her brother.
"Hey, he was dead-on about Nicole Kidman." Vaughn deadpanned.
"Yeah, you're just jealous of Tom because of Penélope." She scoffed.
"I am not!" He protested, pretending to be indignant.
She gave him a sharp look. "I seem to recall you telling me a few months ago that you actually liked that awful movie with Nicolas Cage and the aforementioned Ms. Cruz." Sydney needled him.
"She was good in that movie, Syd."
"Whatever." She rolled her eyes.
"Now who's jealous?" Vaughn kidded her.
"Who, me?" Sydney asked, wide-eyed, and they both broke out into grins at the same time.
"You do realize your family could be a Movie-of-the-Week for an entire year, don't you?" Vaughn pointed out to Sydney. "The mother who faked her death, the son no one ever knew about, the estranged daughter and the bitter father." He said dramatically.
"And don't forget the nasty neighbor the wife has an affair with." Sydney added distastefully.
"How could I forget?" Vaughn let out an ironic snort. "And then if we add in my side of the equation, we've got a man whose father was murdered by the mother of the woman he loves."
Sydney gave him a sober look. "It doesn't sound as if there's a happy ending in there."
"Well, no one ever said it would be easy."
"No, if it were easy, it wouldn't be my life." She let out a sigh.
They let the stillness of the night air fill in the gap in their conversation for a few moments. Then Vaughn suddenly spoke. "Sydney, what do you think Sark was trying to pull with all that talk about Will?"
"He probably just wanted to cause friction between us." She made a face. "He seems to take a perverse pleasure in doing that."
"Well, hey, we don't need him to cause friction between us." Vaughn pulled her into his lap. "I can think of a more pleasant way to do that." He grinned at her suggestively.
"I bet you could." She smiled and then couldn't help but glance back at the house with a nervous look.
"Syd, what is it? What are you worried about?"
"Michael, I just don't trust that we can say or do anything anywhere in or near that house," She told him of her fears. "Any plotting we do will have to be outside and preferably where no one else can hear or sneak up on us."
"Okay," He nodded with a serious expression on his face. "Whenever we're inside, no strategizing."
"Thank you." She was grateful he didn't trivialize her worries. "Now the real reason I brought you down here was to fill you on what happened before dinner."
"When you talked to Irina?"
Sydney nodded. "Well, to make it short, I told her I accepted her offer and she seemed pretty happy about it. I also told her about you and how you came to be here with me. She knows you're CIA and that you were my handler."
"So since she knows about my past, does that mean she doesn't trust me?"
"Well, when I asked her if she would let you become my partner, she didn't agree right away." Sydney told him. "She said she had to think about it, but she made it sound as if she would keep an open mind until she talked to you."
"Was she suspicious that I could be so easily persuaded to turn traitor?"
"Maybe a little, but I did as you suggested and I let her know that it would make me very happy if she would let you stay and let us work together." She replied. "I also told her that you really had nothing to go back to, anyway, since your career with the Agency will be pretty much over once they find out about our little excursion to Taipei."
"Now there's a situation that might not be so far from the truth." Vaughn said grimly. The prospect that he wouldn't have a job to go home to after all of this was over worried him a great deal. Working for the CIA was not only his way of paying tribute to his father, but it was also all he ever wanted to do and he couldn't imagine doing anything else. "Maybe I should seriously consider working for Irina, after all."
"No, Michael, don't even think that." Sydney admonished him. "I won't allow you to lose your job over this and neither will my father."
"Sydney, you're a remarkable agent, but the idiots in charge don't consider you irreplaceable." Vaughn shook his head ruefully. "And your father is not exactly high on anyone's list right now, especially Devlin's."
"But don't you think it'll all be forgotten if you collar one Irina Derevko AKA 'The Man?'"
"Is that what we're planning on doing here?" Vaughn looked surprised. "I thought we just wanted to escape."
"I think we can do both if the opportunity presents itself." Sydney said confidently. "But even if it doesn't, there's no way the CIA would turn their backs on us, especially when we're the only two agents in the free world to have had intimate contact with The Man."
"Yeah, I think the higher-ups would definitely be interested in finding out what we know." He admitted.
"So I think they'll be willing to overlook what we did here." Sydney said. "I mean, I know no one's untouchable, but I think they'd rather have Irina Derevko's daughter working for them than against them."
"Okay, so where do we go from here?" Vaughn asked her. "Do we just sit and wait until Irina decides to make her next move?"
"I don't think we have a choice." Sydney replied. "Until she knows where you stand, she's not going to want to talk business with you around."
"What about finding our own way out of here? Can we steal a car, scale the fence, anything?"
"With all the armed guards around this place, I don't know if it's going to be that easy."
She grimaced. "But I will nose around and see what I can come up with in regard to the security system." Suddenly feeling bone-weary after such an emotional and eventful day, she laid her head down on his shoulder and yawned. The two of them sat quietly for a few moments, both of them gazing out at the barely visible lights of the city that seemed so far away.
"Michael, have you ever felt so alone?" She asked plaintively.
His arms tightened around her. "Sydney, you are not alone. You have me and I'm not going anywhere."
"I know, I don't mean it that way." She let out a sigh. "It's just that no one knows where we are, Michael. Not Devlin or Weiss or even my father."
"Well, if I know Jack, I know he's doing his damnedest to try to find out where you are." Vaughn said comfortingly.
"I'm sure he is, but I'm not optimistic that he'll have much luck." Sydney sounded forlorn. "What kind of a lead could he follow? We're so far removed from that nightclub, we might as well have vanished into thin air."
"Syd, don't give up hope." Vaughn said sternly. "Your father is one of the most resourceful, most determined men I've ever met and when it comes to you, he's an absolute bulldog."
She gave him a small smile, picturing her father's face with a pair of hangdog jowls and a little body as sturdy as a footstool. "You're right." She said, a bit more positively. "I mean, he has Will with him, right? Will's an investigative reporter and he's used to digging up leads and--why are you suddenly snickering like Mr. Ed?" She slapped playfully at his chest while he tried to keep from bursting out laughing.
"I-I'm sorry, Sydney," Vaughn's eyes filled with mirth. "It's just the idea of Will being helpful…" He shook his head and started chuckling again.
"Michael!" Sydney said with a trace of indignation in her voice. "Will can be useful, you know."
"Right, and have you forgotten that he is one of the reasons we're in this mess?" His lips twisted.
"Along with a certain someone's inability to make tracks when I told him to?" Sydney poked him in the arm. Vaughn ducked his head, having the grace to acknowledge his role in the whole saga. It felt so strange to be able to joke about it now.
"I was in shock." He informed her haughtily, which caused Sydney to laugh out loud. Her giggle was so infectious, Vaughn couldn't help but join in.
"Okay, okay," He said grudgingly. "So everyone's to blame and no one's to blame."
"That's better." Sydney said approvingly, still grinning. "You know, I think you would like Will if you got the chance to know him."
"And would that be because we have so much in common?" He inquired with a straight look on his face.
"What do you mean?" She gave him a questioning look.
"Well, you know, the whole being-in-love-with-the-same-woman thing." Vaughn said teasingly.
Sydney blushed. "I thought we were going to forget about that."
"I never said that." He gave her a playful look. "So what's the story, Syd?"
"The story about what?" She said vaguely.
"You and Will." He said slyly.
"There is no me and Will, Michael." Sydney said firmly. "There never was and there will be."
"Oh, come on, there had to have been a reason why he fell in love with you all those years ago." He raised an eyebrow at her.
"Are you trying to say I did something to make him fall in love with me?" She pretended to be affronted. "Couldn't it have just been my sparkling personality and stunning good looks?" She said facetiously.
"Well, I know that's why I fell in love with you." He nuzzled her neck and she giggled. "Seriously, Syd, did you ever have any feelings for him?" The teasing note had left his voice and he sounded thoughtful.
"I love Will like the brother I wish I had." Sydney said truthfully and then made a face. "Not like the one I actually got." She added, referring to Sark. Vaughn grinned.
"A romantic relationship never would have worked between the two of us." Sydney shook her head. "There was just never any sparks."
"Well, sparks are very important, but I'm still kind of surprised that he never even made an attempt--" Vaughn was watching Sydney's face as he spoke and he caught the flash of a suddenly recalled memory flit across on her face. "What was that look?"
"What look?" She tried to play the wide-eyed innocent, but failed miserably.
"That look that says something did happen, but you're not sure you want to tell me." He gave her a penetrating glance.
"I have a look that says all that?"
"You'd be surprised at how good I am at reading your expressions." He said smugly.
Sydney rolled her eyes. "Well, since it appears you won't let me get out of this one, I guess I have to tell you." She inhaled and exhaled a deep breath. "He--that is, we--kissed." She admitted. "Once." She added quickly and with emphasis. "After Danny."
"So then this was fairly recently." Vaughn felt an irrational twinge of jealousy even though he knew it was ridiculous of him to feel that way.
"Not fairly recently." She objected. "More like in the fairly recent past."
"Was this after we met?"
"Yes." Sydney closed her eyes, suddenly recalling that awful moment when Will kissed her that second time. It had been so hideously uncomfortable she must have blocked it out of her mind. "Oops, I take it back. It was twice."
"Twice?" Vaughn feigned so obvious a jealous outrage that Sydney threatened to dissolve into laughter again. "Once might be considered a momentary lapse in judgment, but twice means there was some serious forethought to the second attempt." He was pretending to be upset, but he wasn't really. He just liked to tease her.
"No doubt true." Sydney acknowledged and then covered her face in embarrassment. "Oh, Michael, it was so awful! We were a little drunk the first time and that one just kind of happened, but the second time, Will must have been thinking about it for awhile because when he did it, he just grabbed me before I even had time to react!"
"It was so incredibly awkward. Right in the middle of him kissing me, I had this feeling of 'Why am I doing this?' and I opened my eyes and stopped kissing him. That caused him to stop kissing me back and we suddenly found ourselves in this situation of having our lips pressed against each other for no good reason at all!" She shot a glance at Vaughn to see how he was reacting to one of the most embarrassing moments of her life and found him barely able to hold in his amusement. He let out a loud guffaw and then lost it completely.
"Michael, it was not funny!" She wailed as he chortled away. Seeing him laugh was a great mood-lifter and she let out a few red-faced giggles.
"I'm glad we can still laugh at a time like this." Vaughn murmured to her a little while later after they had calmed down.
"Why do you think that is?" She asked. "We should be moaning and groaning about our sticky predicament, but instead we're giggling like a bunch of schoolkids."
"Well, I guess it's because we know that if we have each other, we can get through anything." Vaughn said thoughtfully.
"And that's the truth." She whispered to him, snuggling against him. She felt so safe in his arms and that was a rare feeling for her.
"Syd?"
"Hmmm?"
"In case you hadn't noticed, I believe I'm still one behind Will Tippin in the Kiss department." He informed her with a teasing note in his voice.
"Are you sure?" Sydney pretended to ponder, a smile tugging at her lips. "I seem to recall back in the guest cottage--"
"Sydney!" Vaughn groaned. "You're not going to deny a simple kiss to a man who almost met his maker last night, are you?"
"Oh, I could never deny you anything!" She wound her arms around his neck and let out a squeal as he lunged at her, cutting her off before another word came out of her mouth. Their kiss was intense and passionate.
Then she kissed him again, just to make sure he came out ahead of Will.
To be continued…
Author's Note: Hey, we're almost at 100 reviews, so keep 'em coming, guys! This is a good start considering we're not even halfway through yet. This chapter and the next few chapters are turning out to be rather long and I'll try to get them out as quickly as I can. As always, thanks so much for your feedback.