Metro Court, Port Charles 2022

"Let's not…talk about…anything," Anna said softly.

To prove that the subject of truth, lies, secrecy, and honesty was closed for the moment, she brought his hand to her lips and kissed it gently before tucking it securely under her chin with a gentle smile, and she recognized genuine relief in his eyes. Time stood still as she averted her eyes, letting herself feel rather than see his body moving closer to hers. She felt the press of his lips to her forehead, then lifted her chin so his lips could capture hers. Then they were both lost.

Valentin's lips pressed against hers, his hands moving to encircle her waist, nimble fingers readying to dip under the hem of her dress. His warmth enveloped her fully and added to the burning furnace of the warm night air around them. Her hands moved to his cheeks, and she pulled him forward, kissing him hungrily. Her body responded to his touch.

"Er…ehem…"

A very embarrassed-looking waiter was holding a tray laden with what looked to be the first course of Valentin's planned meal. He stood awkwardly, trying not to look either of them in the eye.

Valentin's lips paused and moved away from her with apparent reluctance; his hands trailed down her arm as he released her, stealing a last brief caress on their way back. His hands abandoned her body, and her warmth was more distant while he took a dutiful step back.

They resumed their seats opposite each other and pretended that food would satiate their hunger when they were only hungry for each other. They were careful in their conversation, neither wanting to throw their fragile detente off course. He wished to avoid questions; she wished to avoid needing to ask them. Finally, dessert was set before them, and Valentin whispered something into the waiter's ear and slipped what looked to be a sizable stack of bills into his pocket. The young man nodded and hurried away quickly, never to return.

They were alone.

He sat looking at her thoughtfully, his feelings hidden even from her perceptive gaze. She did not mind the pause; it was a warm night, and the day's heat still held within the paving stones of the rooftop. The full moon shone on the cloudless sky, illuminating the darkness with a silvery glow. Anna glanced at the orb high above Valentin's head, but he didn't seem to notice it. His eyes were fixed on her as if she were glowing brighter than the moon. She waited for him to say, do, something. But he kept looking at her with the same mysterious look.

"Is it time to call it a night?" she asked a faint note of regret lingering in her voice. If so, she felt she couldn't get home fast enough. She needed a moment to herself when she could relieve all this tension.

He suddenly stood up and took her hand. The hand gripped tighter, and he pulled her to face him. Anna's body met his, and a sigh was on her tongue, but the sound was swallowed in an instant by his mouth upon hers. He tasted of wine and heat, like a strange blend of enticing spices she couldn't name but knew to be his specific flavor. His lips were insistent and hungry, each kiss feeling as if he were worshipping and devouring her all at once. Anna met him in his frenzy, her mouth as unrelenting in its caresses as his. She was just as starved. Valentin's broad hands moved down the line of her back, leaving a scorched path through the fabric of her dress, then settled on the small of her back. He grasped her roughly and pulled her hips to his, no longer bound by the rules of propriety. A moan of appreciation sounded within Anna's throat while she eagerly pressed herself against him. The space around them turned dense as the warmth of their growing passion absorbed the oxygen around them. Her head swirled; Anna did not remember the last time she breathed, air no longer feeling like a necessity. Arousal pooled in her belly, desperate to spill over, and she did not trust her legs to hold her steady, the heels wavering dangerously like thin twigs. She tipped backward, feeling as if her balance gave up at last, but she soon realized it was Valentin taking a step forward and urging her body to follow.

SNAP!

Anna heard the sound of her heal give way before she felt it. She pitched backward, and Valentin tried to catch her, but the momentum was too much to counter, and they both tumbled from the pool deck and into the water.

SPLASH!

Their impact caused the water to slosh over the sides of the pool, and the floating orbs bobbed up and down as they both surfaced. They gasped for air but also out of sheer surprise. Anna coughed to clear her throat and treaded water, trying not to show how inelegant she was in aquatic environments. Her dress floated around her, making it difficult to move, so without hesitation, her hand tugged on the knot that held her dress closed and freed herself from it. Anna's dress clung to her and rode up at her stomach, and her soaked dark hair that so beautifully framed her smiling face. Valentin looked at her clad in nothing but black lace and then swallowed. He couldn't even speak as his eyes devoured every inch of exposed flesh. The planes of her shoulders, the slope of her breasts, the dip in her navel…she was breathtaking. He wished the water wasn't obscuring his view.

"Anna ..." he started, noting that it got her attention when he used her name. He moved closer, dropping HIS eyes to take the sight of her in and then back up to her lips.

"Valentin…?" She responded hotly, his name a challenge. Her entire body was aflame with the very idea that Valentin might encompass her bare waist with those broad hands of his…kissing her again…

There was mischief in his eyes. He shrugged out of his suit jacket and tossed it to the side; then he unbuttoned the shirt stuck to him like a second skin; that garment was soon cast aside.

Anna tried to keep her gaze nonchalant, but she would be lying to herself if she hadn't been curious to see what was under all those starched and pressed suits. And she wasn't disappointed with what she saw. He acknowledged her looking him over with a smirk.

"What? Maybe with this look, I could find extra work as a pool man if Drew and Micheal ever figure out how to rub their two brain cells together and oust me from ELQ?" he said teasingly, "But hold on. things might be more romantic if you weren't still thrashing around."

Valentin smiled, taking Anna's hand to tug her toward the pool's shallow end. Not one to squander such assistance, Anna let him and glided through the water. Only when she saw Valentin from the corner of her eye, looking at her with a cocksure grin, that churned a feeling of playfulness in her. Valentin stood up in the chest-deep water, raking his hands through his wet tousled hair - only to feel two smaller hands on his shoulders and irresistible laughter at his back. Knocked off balance, he was nearly dunked underwater and only just managed to pull himself a little shallower with Anna mischievously wrapping herself around him. Arms looped gently around his neck with Anna's petite yet powerful frame pressed to his back, and Valentin found himself laughing at her audacity to do so.

"Remembering the grappling and escape lessons from the Academy, are we?" he chuckled, wading easily through the water with a woman with very playful intent in tow. Just then, Valentin realized he had never spent much time with such a buoyant personality and enjoyed it. He found that he didn't know what he would do without it. Anna's energy was contagious, and he felt his heart lift at the possibility of holding her a little closer looked around at the pool, the soft light dancing on the walls.

"I love the water," he said dreamily, "Gravity and my spine were never friends. Back before my surgery, water was one of the only ways I could get relief. Do you remember the lake at the Academy? I used to go swimming there when the weather was good.

"Oh yes, I used to skinnydip there," Anna said, ignoring Valentin as he inhaled sharply at her words, "However, I'll admit I'm not much of a swimmer.

"That's a sight I would have loved to see," he said huskily.

Anna brought her head daringly to the side of Valentin's neck - her chin to his shoulder with a grin. Her reaction spoke of both her impish guilt and the lust that stirred unmistakably inside of her at the proximity of this complicated and fascinating man. She let out a little humming moan at that, only to feel Valentin tense at the sound. She smiled when she realized the effect she was having on him.

"I'm not sure if I should be concerned that you know my weakness," Valentin muttered with feigned frustration under his breath, forcing himself to relax should Anna worry and remove herself. At the very thought of such a vacancy, Valentin lifted his hand and held the slender arms at the base of his neck as he walked another few steps so that the water level rested more comfortably at his abdomen.

"Yes, it must bother you that I have that leverage over you," Anna jested, only pulling herself closer to Valentin when he stopped in place - allowing her front to press into his back. It was in that position that she could feel both her heart and his increase in pace. Instead of shying away, Anna found the anxious excitement the push she needed - pressing a very soft kiss to the vertebrae at the base of his neck, a place she had always imagined paying particular attention. Like her, his body carried the marks of his experiences. She did a mental inventory of all of the visible effects of a lifetime of danger...and familial neglect. The faint thin white lines that crossed his flesh here and there from incisions. If she looked close enough, he could see a faint pinkness that showed the location of his surgeries. She could see the indention on his lower back where Peter's bullet had pierced him.

Valentin froze at the fragile kiss lingering on his spine, with Anna wrapped around his back. He felt as though he had forgotten how to breathe altogether. His resolve crumbled at the soft way Anna expressed her desire with him, and his eyes closed with the gentleness of the exchange: he was no longer afraid of broaching the subject of his feelings. She was at last unafraid of wanting MORE with him. He hoped so much more.

Before Anna could tease that he had turned into the world's most handsome statue, Valentin twisted to catch her in his arms. He held both arms in his hands as he pulled her around so they came face-to-face, and he appreciated the bewildered and dreamy gaze in her eyes. He admired that it was there for him, even after all the others who had kissed and loved her.

The fact that Valentin was about to kiss her again gave her shivers that motivated him to act with a more daring sense of play. With Anna smiling at him, Valentin bent his legs, brought his hands to the backs of her thighs, and lifted her so she could wrap her legs around his waist. As he did so, she gasped, and Valentin thought he had never seen such a delectable look on a woman's face.

Taken by complete surprise, Anna steadied herself with her hands on Valentin's shoulders, trusting him. And she recognized at that moment she DID trust him, at least as much as their personalities would allow. She was staring down at him with the simplest of smiles. With the tips of her dark hair matted to her cheeks and neck, she breathed, grazed her thumbs over his shoulders, and smiled her radiant smile before biting the side of her bottom lip. Then Valentin's eyes lowered from her lips to her breasts. This position allowed him, at long last, to enjoy the sight of her, unafraid of being ungentlemanly. In fact, he encouraged her attentions with another lock of their eyes - wordlessly telling her he needed her. He was telling her that he wanted to be inside of her. He was thinking about a very sensual union. One focused on her desires and needs.

"Maybe it's wrong we are here-ahh," Anna moaned erotically as he ground against her. As if she really wanted any space between them. "It's hardly decorous..." she continued with a very telling smirk on her lips, unmoving from her lovely position with her hips level with his.

"Does it feel wrong," he murmured close to her ear before tasting her neck and then making his way down to her shoulder. She instinctively moved her head to the side to give him better access. Her breathing elevated.

"No, it doesn't," she sighed, "But I've been known to do the wrong thing while ignoring the right one from time to time."

Valentin's arms shifted somewhat as she spoke then, only to interrupt her with his hand combing into her hair.

"All that matter is what you want to feel," he said in a low and gruff voice,

As the words were spoken, he pulled Anna to his lips, kissing her. Anna pressed more purposefully against his body as she kissed him deeper - neither spending much effort in keeping their heat from each other any longer. When Anna wrapped her legs around him tighter, she moaned into their kiss. Never before had she been so sure of his need until that moment, with her arms wrapped around his neck, her hands in his hair, keeping his lips with hers.

"Valentin ..." she moaned quietly when both of his hands moved down to her hips to pull her closer. It was the touch of a loving, stirring ache that overwhelmed them both. Valentin smiled at the way Anna came undone in his hands, able to imagine how he might finally please her. It seemed that any touch sent her into a frenzy. When Anna moaned raggedly once again and ground her hips against him, Valentin faltered. It was all so much at once to have her in his arms. They had danced around it for so long, and yet she was, melting in his very hands - aching for more. The trust she showed him with those piercing eyes gave him all the answers he would ever need, but he suddenly found it painful. They were each ready for more, but Valentin wasn't prepared for the shame he felt for lying to her. He wanted her but knew he also knew that it was the foolish man who built his house on the sand. He wasn't here looking for conquest; he was here because she had conquered his heart with her forgiveness and understanding.

Valentin touched her hair and moved his left hand down her chin. Then he looked deep into her eyes, but his blood and hers had cooled. That was when she saw that the storm clouds had returned to his eyes. Her concern returned as well. What burden was he carrying? Why wouldn't he confide in her? Would she ever be able to live and love him without needing to look over her shoulder?

What if she never could?

The thought caused an ache in her ribcage that made it hard to breathe, but she pushed the feeling down as she was so practiced at doing.

"Valentin-" she picked her words carefully, "there is no darkness in you that can't also be found in me," she said softly.

He wanted to believe her.

"Are you worried about me, Anna? Worried about the demons I carry?"

"Yes, I think that's an important concern to settle in any relationship," replied Anna.

"Ah. So you admit this is a relationship?" Valentin said triumphantly.

"Did I ever say otherwise? She said cooly with a defiant tilt of her chin, but she let her eyes dance with his.

"No, you didn't say at all."

"Omission," she retorted with a soft smile. "See? It's a two-way street."

"Touche," he laughed.

She disentangled herself from him and stepped back. As much as she wanted him, she felt like the time wasn't right. She knew he felt it too.

And he did, but he needed to see her and spend time with her. She was the only thing keeping him going.

"This night was eventful, to say the least. I hope you will let me see you again. And I hope you will send me your dry cleaning bill."

"I will be sending you my bill. As for a third date? Yes, I accept. And I think we should clear up one more thing before our next date."

Valentin panicked for a moment, worried about what she would say next. Wondering what misdirect he would have to think up.

"Yes?" he asked cautiously.

"Valentin... I want you to touch me," Anna insisted, placing a single, chaste kiss on his lips only to pull away and leave him wanting. "I just thought you should know."

Just that quickly, Anna was climbing up the pool stairs to send an enticing little smile over her bare shoulder, drawing a wayward bra strap back up with a laugh. Valentin stared after her, not opting to watch her grab her things. He thought that one glimpse of her bent over might be the death of him despite his greater efforts to gather himself for propriety's sake. He stood staring at the stairs, trying to forget the addictive feel of that woman in his hands.

"Goodnight." She bid him farewell with a wink as she picked up a towel, wrapped it around, and walked toward the women's locker.

"Goodnight," he answered. Once she was gone from view, he rubbed his hands over his face. Many thoughts crowded his mind, but one question rolled preeminently through his mind. Was it possible to find room for honesty amid the dishonesty?

And no matter what scenarios his mind conjured, it was a question that he, unfortunately, could find no answer to.