Course of Love Part 4/9
Disclaimer - See part one for all important information
Mac's Apartment
9:36 PM
Harm was sitting on the couch while Mac was sitting on the floor absently patting Jingo as they watched the end of the movie. As the movie ended Harm stood up, walked over to the VCR and rewound the tape. He looked at Mac and smiled softly. She looked up at him and her cheeks started to blush. "What?"
"Nothing, just thinking. Did you like the movie?" Harm walked over to the table near the door to get the pictures.
"You know I love Hunt for Red October, too bad Alec wasn't here." Mac laughed.
Harm sat down on the floor next to her and handed Mac the pictures. "No, he and Bobbie had plans."
"These from the weekend?" Mac asked as Jingo got up and walked into the bedroom.
"Yeah. I looked at them in Norfolk there are some good ones in there." Mac started to look at the pictures.
Harm watched as Mac smiled and laughed at the photos. She found the one of her, Harm, and Grandma Sarah on the couch looking at the photo album. "You do know she gave me that picture."
"I know, she told me before we left. You're not going to show it to anyone are you?"
"You never know." Mac said as she turned her attention back to the pictures. She flipped though some more then stopped when she found the picture of them sleeping together.
"I'm think Grandma took that one," Harm said, trying to sound a little calm.
"Well, I know neither one of us did." Mac gave a slight laugh as she wondered why the room was getting warmer.
"Yeah." He got nervous when Mac looked closer at the picture.
"Is that your hand on my…?"
"Yeah," Harm said before Mac finished her question. "It's a nice picture, in a way."
"In what way?" Mac asked, not really understanding his statement.
"Of two friends who are conformable with each other."
"Really? When you and Bud had to share a bed, did you hold him like that?"
"No, and we decided to never mention that night again."
Mac laughed at the memory of Harm and Bud sharing a bed. She looked at the picture again and turned more serious. "It was a nice end to the evening."
"It was," Harm said.
Mac looked into his eyes and fell very still. "I guess we both got our wish."
"Not really," Harm softly said. "There was one more thing to my wish."
"What?"
"This," Harm said as his hand gently touched Mac's cheek and he leaned in and kissed her mouth. The kiss was different than those shared in the gazebo, this one was demanding. Harm waited for Mac to push him away.
Mac was surprised by the kiss and reacted the only way she knew how. Fumbling, she placed the pictures on the couch and wrapped her arms around his neck. She deepened the kiss by pulling herself closer to him. Harm ran his hands down her back and felt his tongue trace the inside of her lips. Her mouth opened and he entered her mouth with no regard to anything but being with her.
Somehow the kisses turned to a relentless passion and Mac and Harm found themselves wrapped around each other on the floor. Their hands greedily touching each other. One of Harm's hands was working itself under the back of Mac's shirt. While Mac's hands were on his back under his shirt, feeling the strong muscles underneath. Mac moved her hands to his sides and moaned as his tongue and lips started to trace her jaw.
Mac moved a hand between the two of them and started to unbutton the front of his shirt. Harm felt her hand and hurried to help her. His intentions were good, but he found something better to do and he started to unbutton her shirt. Mac had removed the last button from the hole and started to run her fingers across his chest. Harm gasped as he felt her fingers on his skin. He moaned when he felt her lips on his collar bone.
Harm's fingers quickly unbuttoned the last button and his hand attached itself to her abdomen. Feeling her stomach and touching the muscles that he knew were as strong as they looked. His hand slipped up the side of her rib cage touching the lace of her bra. His mouth moved down the column of her throat and collar bone, kissing it and the uppermost part of her chest.
Mac arched her back to give him better access. Her eyes flew open as his hand lightly grazed her breast. She moaned his name and heard him sigh as he kissed her neck. Her eyes then barely focused on something moving in the room. She blinked and saw Jingo standing by the bedroom door, staring at them. For some reason, at the sight of Jingo, her brain that had stopped working since the first time Harm kissed her suddenly turned on.
Mac lifted her head and was slightly shocked at what they had done and still were doing. "Harm," Mac said as she tried to get his attention, but he kept moving his finger across her rib cage and his lips kissed her neck. "Harm," she said again.
"Mac," he said into her ear in the bedroom voice she'd only heard in her dreams.
"Harm, we need to stop."
Harm heard the word stop and did. He blinked and looked into Mac's eyes. His world stopped spinning as he quickly realized he and Mac were lying down, making out, shirts unbuttoned, on her living-room floor. He watched as her eyes changed from passion-filled to fear and embarrassment.
Harm slowly sat up, careful not to look at Mac until she had covered her chest. After a second or two, Mac sat up and started to button her shirt. Harm did the same with his shirt. Neither knew what to say, so Mac tried humor. "That was one hell of a wish."
"Yeah." Harm gave a nervous laugh. "So where do we go from here?"
"Physically or emotionally?" Mac glanced at him as she smoothed down her hair, in a vain attempt to keep her hands from shaking.
"Both."
Mac took a second and swallowed the lump in her throat. "We should probably talk."
"Yeah." He saw the nervousness in Mac's face as he said, "Are we dating?"
"What?" Mac asked, suddenly thinking about the conversation with Bobbie and Harriet.
He took a deep breath and realized he had to figure out why he asked that. "Are we dating?"
"A few kisses on my living-room floor and you think we're dating?" Mac asked, finding herself getting defensive.
"No, I was wondering this before."
"How long have you been wondering this?"
"Since Coates told me this afternoon that we were dating."
"Why would Coates say that?"
"She saw the pictures."
"Coates saw the pictures?!" Mac exclaimed.
He looked at Mac with slight fear as she stared at him. "I asked her for a pen in my briefcase this afternoon and she saw the envelope and asked to see the pictures. I said sure. I didn't know that picture was in there."
"And since you didn't know that makes it all right?" Mac quickly grabbed the pictures and put them back into the envelope.
"No, but Mac, I think it's a valid question. She told me everyone thinks we're dating," he told her.
"We're friends. Friends hang out."
"We were not friends a few minutes ago," Harm told her as he stared into her eyes.
"What were we?" Mac asked, scared of the response.
"A man and a woman who find each other desirable," he stated.
Mac stood up from the floor and handed Harm the pictures. "Harm, I think it'd be best if we just left tonight as is."
"What?! You want me to go?!"
"Harm, I need to think about what we did and with you here I can't do that."
Harm walked over to her. "Why can't you think about it with me here?"
Mac looked into his eyes and took a deep breath. "Because with you here, all I can think about it doing it again."
Harm looked at her with a smoldering gaze. "Then let's do that."
"We can't," Mac said, walking towards the other side of the room.
Harm looked at her and noticed the space between them. "Okay, I'll leave but we need to talk about this before it blows up."
"I know," Mac said as Harm walked to the door.
"Good night, Mac."
"Good night."
PRESENT DAY
"Wait a second, you sent him home?" Chloe asked, surprised at the story at this point.
"I did," Mac said.
"I was at your wedding. I've seen you two go at it on the couch and I don't think I need to mention your four kids," Chloe stated, trying to understand why Mac would ask Harm to leave.
Harm looked at Mac, then at Chloe. "Chloe, you have to understand that Mac and I were just touching the surface of this whole relationship."
Chloe got a mischievous grin on her face. "And what are you two touching now?"
Harm covered his eyes, while Mac took a deep breath. "Do you want to hear the rest of the story or not?"
"Like you, Mac, I like embarrassing him, too. And, yes, I want to hear the rest. I have a feeling we're at the good part," Chloe stated.
Mac laughed at Chloe's words. "You're probably thinking that the two of us talked the next day and worked everything out."
"Yeah," Chloe said.
"Couldn't be more wrong," Harm said. "We ended up not talking and arguing with each other."
"It was so bad the admiral threatened to send us for psyche reviews." Chloe laughed at Mac's words. "Luckily he just sent me to Iran for a few days to investigate a case."
"However, during her absence I acted worse then I did when she was around. So our dear friends decided to do something about it to fix us. The British Embassy was having a summer ball and invited the JAG senior staff. AJ told us we all had to attend. I would have asked Mac to go with me, but we were still fighting."
"And Sturgis already asked," Mac interjected.
"So I asked Manetti to join me. She agreed."
End of Part 4