Disclaimer: Not mine. No money made. No harm, no foul.
Muchos gracias to Gamine for the assorted help.
~*~
Fire and Ice: Third Time's A Charm
After Wes had finished talking to her, Taylor chewed over what he'd said. It sounded as if any relationship with Eric -- beyond simply working with him -- would be a lot of hard work. Would it be worth it? Would he even let her try?
She glanced up to see what Eric was doing now. Looked as if whatever Jen had been talking to him about was done. In fact, she and Wes seemed to be settling down in a corner of the temple ruins, leaving Eric sitting alone.
As Taylor watched, she caught the wistful look Eric shot in the direction of Wes and Jen. A look that underlined the truth in Wes' words. A look that told her it was definitely worth a shot. No-one should look that lonely.
Before she even consciously realised her decision, she found herself quietly walking around the temple fire pit towards him. As she neared, he looked round, presumably hearing her footsteps.
"Hey."
He looked self-conscious and abashed. "Hey."
"I...ah..." Taylor stopped. What did she want to say?
"Sorry." The word was abrupt, the tone was sheepish. It was also, comfortably, the last thing she'd imagined Eric saying. "About...y'know."
Taylor blinked. What the hell was she supposed to say now?
"'Spect Wes told you," Eric continued, looking down at his hands and avoiding her gaze completely. "Don't exactly have a great record with relationships."
"You got scared."
After a glance around, presumably to make sure there was no-one else listening -- which there wasn't -- he admitted softly, "Not scared. Petrified."
Taylor blinked again. Something else she wasn't expecting: Complete honesty. And it was honest. She could see it was, just from the awkward set to his shoulders and the embarrassed expression on his face. "Why?" she asked softly.
"Bunch of reasons." He shrugged stiffly. "Guess mostly...you get kicked often enough you figure everyone's gonna kick you. So you kick first."
Taylor nodded. That made a twisted sort of sense. "Did you mean it?" Part of her didn't want to know the answer. The rest of her was determined to know where she stood. Even if that did mean hearing something that had the potential to hurt. A lot.
"No." The word was quiet. Sheepish. Suddenly restless, he stood up and held out an almost timid hand. "Walk with me?"
Taylor felt her heart skip a beat. He seemed to be full of surprises tonight. "Of course."
She took the proffered hand and found herself noting that it felt strong and warm if slightly rough. Why didn't I notice he had nice hands before? she found herself absently wondering, as they wandered out of the temple ruins and into the Animarium jungle. The clear moonlight and the pale light from the stars lit their way bathing everything in an almost ethereal glow. It was, Taylor decided, possibly the most beautiful sight she'd ever seen.
And probably the most romantic, too.
For a while, they just walked in silence. Taylor sensed Eric was trying to order his thoughts and she didn't want to interrupt. On the other hand, as nice as this was, she was completely confused -- and that was only going to be cured by breaking the silence.
She finally said, "Eric -- talk to me. Where are we going?"
"I don't know." He sighed. "Everything's out of control."
"Still scared?"
"Still petrified."
They stopped walking. Looking around, Taylor realised they'd wound up at the pool where they'd argued earlier in the day.
There was another lengthy silence.
"Eric, what do you want?" she asked softly.
The question hung on the air. For the longest time, Taylor wasn't even sure he'd heard it, much less was prepared to answer her. Then he did answer. A simple, single syllable.
"You."
Taylor felt her breath catch in her throat as she turned to look at him. Eric's eyes were dark in the half-light and glittering with desire and promise. The smile, though, was tentative. Hesitant. As if he was expecting her to turn tail and run. She smiled back. She wasn't going anywhere.
Tentatively, he reached out a hand and traced her jawline with his fingers. The touch was barely there, enough to tease, not enough to lean into. She found herself making a soft sound, somewhere between a whimper and a moan.
She met his gaze, almost daring him to go further. Eric's smile strengthened at that. Gently brushing a few strands of hair off her face, he leaned forwards and lightly brushed his lips against her temple. It was an oddly chaste yet strangely intimate gesture that sent Taylor's heart rate soaring. She moaned again. He was so near now. She could feel the way his heart was hammering in his chest, she could smell the exotic, earthy mix of the cologne he'd used that morning and his own, unique scent, she could see the question in his eyes, silently asking permission.
She gave it.
He leaned forwards once more and brushed his lips against hers in the lightest of kisses. So gentle and teasing. She moaned softly. Not enough. She felt his arms go around her, one encircling her waist, the other gently cradling her head. Then he kissed her again.
This time, it was the real thing, and yet it was about as different from the two kisses they'd shared that morning as it could be. That morning had been about aggression and power. This was about something infinitely more tender than that. He teased her lower lip, gently coaxing her mouth to open into the kiss. When it did, he slipped his tongue in to taste her, lightly skimming the planes and hollows of her mouth in exploration.
The kiss deepened as Taylor's arms went around his waist, pulling them closer together until she lost all sense of where she ended and where Eric began. He seemed to be in no hurry to move on from the kiss, which surprised her a little. Most of the guys she'd ever been with used kissing as just a prelude to sex, but this unhurried, long, passionate kiss seemed like an end in itself.
And just as Taylor was thinking that she could get used to the idea, there was a footfall from somewhere behind them. They both froze, caught in the act.
"Um," said Alyssa. "Oops!"
At least it's not Max, Taylor found herself thinking as she heard Alyssa turn tail and flee. That's gotta be something.
The sound of rapidly retreating footsteps echoed in the still night air, but it wasn't until their very last echo died away before either of them moved, and then it was only to move a little further apart, a gesture that left Taylor almost painfully aware of how aroused the kiss had left her.
"Maybe...we should..." Eric began.
"So help me, if you say we shouldn't do this, Eric Myers, I can promise you the rest of your life will be very short!" Taylor retorted, a little more harshly than she intended, but the sense of frustration, particularly after the assorted false starts of earlier in the day, was too great to be completely swallowed.
Eric, for his part, gave a sheepish sort of chuckle. "I probably deserved that." He reached out to gently brush a couple of errant strands of hair away from her face. "I was going to suggest, maybe we should find somewhere more private?"
It took Taylor a second to comprehend what he'd said. Then it dawned on her that if she felt frustrated, he probably felt the same way. Reaching up, she captured his hand. "This way."
She led him around the pool to the edge of the cascade.
"Uh, excuse me for asking," Eric began.
Taylor shot him a half smirk/smile. "Trust me." So saying, she stepped onto a narrow ledge that led behind the cascade. Two steps, and a light dusting of spray later and they were both in an ample cave. "I found this first time I came swimming," she explained. "You can't see it from the pool side -- great place to hide...or do other things," she finished, her voice dropping to a lascivious murmur.
"Good."
Not giving her a chance to reply, Eric leaned down and captured Taylor's mouth in a long, heated kiss. Lips and teeth and tongues clashed while hands roved over back and sides and anything else they could reach, rapidly deepening the kiss.
As Taylor felt Eric's hands start to try and work her vest off her shoulders, she insinuated her hands between the waistband of his pants and his skin. His well formed buttocks felt smooth beneath her finger tips and oddly devoid of underwear...
"Surprised?" Eric asked, breaking the kiss with a chuckle.
Meeting his amused gaze, Taylor grinned. "Hell yeah -- figured you'd be too straight laced to go commando."
"Straight laced, huh? Been called a lot of things, never straight laced." Even as he spoke, his hands made their way down her sides to brush across the smooth fabric of her pants.
"Surprised?" Taylor quoted.
Eric smirked. "Not really."
He silenced her with another dizzying kiss while his hands resumed attempting to remove her vest. Taylor obliged, moving her arms so that the garment would drop away. As it fluttered to the ground, she started undoing the buttons of his uniform shirt, seized by the desire to see if her assessment of the day before was right, but haste made her fingers clumsy and finally, in frustration, she gasped either side of the shirt and pulled, ripping buttons free. As the last one came free, she pushed the ruined garment from his shoulders...only to realise there was a t-shirt underneath it.
"Geez -- what is this, gift wrapping?"
"Like you have any room to talk," Eric retorted, plucking at the long sleeved t-shirt she had been wearing beneath her vest.
Before she could say anything more, he had disposed of her shirt, by the simple expedient of gripping it at the neck and tugging until the thin fabric gave way before, in one fluid motion, removing his own t-shirt, and Taylor forgot her momentary irritation. Sure is nice to be right once in a while!
Eric's chest was very nicely muscled. Well developed without being over developed. She couldn't resist running her fingers over rock hard pecs and feeling the way he tensed at the touch.
"Ticklish much?" she teased.
"Maybe," he answered.
Taylor opened her mouth to reply and found it promptly filled as Eric leaned in for another intense kiss. As she sucked on his tongue, she felt his hands go to her waist. He picked her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, locking them closer together. Her hands went to his head, caressing his face as they kissed. She was aware that he was moving them, but it wasn't until she found herself being gently set down and she felt the mossy cave floor against her back that she realised what he'd done.
Taylor lay back, drawing him down over her, loving the way they fit together. The kiss finally came to an end and Eric moved down her body, kissing, nipping, licking, sucking. Taylor let herself be carried away by the haze of sensations, while outside the cave a lone Eagle kept watch over an apparently empty glade.
~*~
Much later, lying together in a sated, tangled heap, Taylor couldn't help but think the wait had been worth while. Anything they'd managed to do earlier would have been perforce hurried, whereas this had been and extended exploration of each other. She shifted a little to see if Eric was asleep. He wasn't. Instead his dark brown eyes were regarding her with a mix of curiosity and no small amount of trepidation.
"'Sup?" she asked, lightly running her fingertips down the middle of his chest, watching him vainly try not to flinch at the touch.
"Would you quit that?" he pleaded. "Yes, all right damnit -- I am ticklish! Stop!"
Taylor giggled as he tried to squirm away from her fingers. "Make me."
With a growl, Eric managed to shift their positions until he had her trapped beneath him. "Don't be making challenges your nobility can't honour."
Taylor arched up and kissed him on the tip of his nose. "Who says I can't honour them?"
"You're incorrigible."
"But you love me for it."
Eric tensed at the teasing remark. Quietly, he said, "Yeah. I think I'm beginning to."
He shifted, allowing Taylor to sit up. "What's up?" she asked, repeating her initial query.
He gave a shrug. "Nothing, really..."
"But...?" Taylor prompted when it seemed as if Eric wasn't going to say anything else.
"Happiness and me tend to be no more than passing acquaintances," he said softly, staring now through the curtain of water, though Taylor suspected it was more a thousand yard stare than anything else. "Usually because I do something dumb and screw up."
"Not gonna happen this time."
His head jerked round and he turned a surprised gaze on her. "You're sure about that?"
Taylor offered a half smile. "After tonight, you really think I'm just gonna let you screw up without putting up a fight first?"
"But..."
Taylor silenced him by placing a finger against his lips. "Trust me. I have a vested interest, remember?" She leaned in closer. "Besides, you ever try screwing up..." She leaned closer still and whispered a few explicit examples of just what she'd do under those circumstances.
A smile crept across Eric's face almost despite the conversation. "And that's supposed to stop me screwing up?"
Taylor gave a chuckle as she trailed her fingers down his chest once more. "Nope -- it's to distract you so you forget all about it." Then her fingers found what they were searching for and they both abandoned conversation to other, more interesting pursuits.
~*~
"Taylor!"
Alyssa's call slowly penetrated Taylor's sleep fogged brain. There was something about it that bothered her, but for the life of her she couldn't work out why. Until it finally dawned on her that the 'pillow' she was using was gently rising and falling in the rhythm of someone fast asleep. A male someone.
Oh my God! Taylor sat bolt upright, realising that not only was it early morning, but that Alyssa and, as more voices reached her, the entire rest of the Rangers group, including, Oh God!, Princess Shayla were looking for her. And for her former pillow, who had been woken by her sudden surge upwards.
And neither of them had a stitch of clothing on.
And her shirt was wrecked...
"Breathe," Eric advised softly, sitting up. "No good panicking."
"But...they're...out there..."
"And we're in here, naked," Eric completed. "It's not a problem; we just get dressed quiet like and slip out of here when no-one's looking."
For answer, Taylor produced the remnants of her shirt. "I am not going out there in front of Max in just a bra."
"And pants," he pointed out.
"Oh like that makes it all..."
"I thought I might find you here."
And just when it couldn't get any worse as far as Taylor was concerned, it promptly did: The petite form of Princess Shayla entered the cavern, not only smiling in an unsurprised fashion, but also carrying a change of clothes.
Under any other circumstances, Taylor would have found Eric's reaction -- of snatching the remnants of her shirt and using it to cover himself as best it could, while literally blushing with every inch of visible skin -- hysterical, except that she was having much the same reaction, and it wasn't helped by the princess, who was giggling.
"You are both consenting adults," Shayla finally said after an interminable pause. "I'm certainly not going to interfere."
"How did you know?" Taylor finally managed to mumble.
"Contrary to what you might think," Shayla answered, "even royalty is allowed a social life. This is a favoured spot of mine for just such encounters. And," she added, "Alyssa did mention she'd accidentally caught you kissing not too far from here."
Taylor suddenly had the mental image of having just made love in her parents' bed. Ew! To judge by his expression, much the same thought had crossed Eric's mind, too.
"I thought that you might find this useful," Shayla continued, apparently oblivious to the effect she'd just had on the inflagranté duo even as she handed over the clothing. "I could sense a certain...urgency about you both yesterday morning."
Oh God, did everyone know? Taylor wondered.
"If you will let me," Shayla added, "I have some advice. You've both been alone amongst friends for much of your lives -- trust each other and you will never be alone again."
Taylor was conscious of the studious look Eric was now giving her. She gave a miniscule shrug. Looked as if they were going to have to have one of those 'relationship' talks sooner rather than later. Oh joy... And yet, even as she thought that, Taylor realised she actually didn't mind the idea. It might be nice to share some of that story with someone who stood a hope in hell of understanding it.
"I will leave you to dress," Shayla finished. "And I will endeavour to make sure that Max, at least, doesn't wander this way until you return to the temple!"
TO BE CONCLUDED...