Love and Marriage

Chapter Twenty-Nine

That night, Sam emerged from the bathroom and placed a glass of water on the table by the bed for Martin so that he could take his pain medication. She was impressed that he wasn't taking the pain medication all the time since it had only been a week since the shooting. Instead of taking it all the time he was only taking it at night. Of course there were days when his leg hurt more than others, and on those days he would take an extra pill during the day. But for the most part he wasn't relying on them to help.

"Thanks." Martin said when he looked up from reading his book and saw the glass of water. Sam was being very attentive to him ever since the shooting and he was grateful to that. They had started growing closer to each other as a result of it, and as much as he hated to admit it, it was almost worth getting shot just for that.

"No problem." She replied with a shrug. Truth was, she liked doing little things like that for him again. She used to do things like that for him all the time when they first got married and even after they had Claire. But somewhere along the way she stopped doing nice things like that for him as often. It made her feel good to do those nice things for him and made her start thinking that maybe they were getting back to normal again.

"How was your session with Leslie?" They hadn't gotten a chance to talk privately until now and he was curious about how it went.

She had been walking over to the closet but instead turned around to look at him. "It was…exhausting."

"Well no one ever said therapy was easy." He joked.

She chuckled and then moved to sit at the end of the bed on his side. "I know, but this was really hard. I told Leslie about everything that we talked about."

He knew that couldn't have been easy for her. "Did she have anything usefully to say about it?"

"Of course she did! It is Leslie we're talking about here." Sam smiled. "She's really trying hard to help me. I know she is. But I'm not sure I'm ready to be helped yet."

He understood what she was saying and nodded. It was much easier to hide from your problems than face them, and she would only be able to face them when she was ready. "I understand."

She looked at his leg. "How are you doing?"

"Better." He answered. "It still hurts a lot, but I think it'll get better."

"It will." She assured him. Although her experience hadn't been as dangerous, she'd been there before and knew from experience that his leg would heal in its' own time. "Are you ready to go back to work tomorrow?"

"Yeah I guess so." He sighed. He hated the fact that he was going to be stuck on desk duty. He'd rather be out in the field actually doing something productive, but that wasn't an option. He was able to walk but only slowly and not for a long period of time. "I'm not looking forward to desk duty though."

She understood. Desk duty and paperwork were definitely not her two most favorite things in the world. "I'm surprised that Jack is letting you come back so soon."

He nodded in agreement. "I am too, but I'm not going to object. I'm just glad that I don't have to sit around the house anymore watching those bad soap operas."

She couldn't help but laugh. "You actually watched them?"

"Well…there was nothing else on. I had to at least see what they were like. I only watched them for a few minutes." He explained, trying to regain a shred of his masculinity.

She couldn't get the image of Martin watching soap operas out of her head. It was a pretty funny image and she continued to laugh.

"Can you please stop laughing at me?" He asked with a smile.

"Sorry." She apologized, containing her laughter. He went back to reading his book so she made her way over the closet and started pulling out her pajama bottoms and a tank top. As she took off her shirt and pants she glanced at Martin, who was staring at her. She wasn't necessarily embarrassed that she was half-naked in front of him. She was only wearing a black bra and matching black panties. He'd definitely seen her wearing less than this before. But his staring was eliciting responses from her that she hadn't experienced in quite a long time. His stare was almost predatory—the same look he used with her in the past. They stayed that way for a while, with Martin staring at her as she bit her lip.

He had looked up from his book to find that she was stripping out of her clothes. Not meaning to stare at her, he tried very hard to take his eyes off of her. But it was no use. There was no way that he could go back to reading his book when the most beautiful woman in the world was standing so close to him half-naked. When she turned and saw him looking at her, he knew he should look away. However, he couldn't seem to do it. His eyes just continued to look up and down her body, devouring the sight in front of him the same way a man in a deserted island would stare at a mirage of water—only she wasn't a mirage.

"You're staring." She finally stated softly.

"I know." He answered, locking his eyes with hers. "I can't help it."

"You know, a picture would last longer." She grinned.

He grinned back. "And if I had my camera I'd be taking a lot of pictures right now."

Without another word she slid on her pajama pants and pulled the tank top over her head. "Sorry, but the show's over for tonight." She told him as she walked over to her side of the bed and peeled back the covers.

"Will there be another one tomorrow night?" He grinned.

"Maybe." She chuckled. She couldn't believe it. Were they actually flirting with each other?

He closed his book and placed it on the table before picking up his pain medication. After washing it down with water he turned onto his side so that he was facing her. She had already climbed under the covers. "Sam?"

"Yeah?" She turned her head to look at him while he talked.

He'd been thinking about the way things had been between him and knew that he still had some things to feel guilty about. One of them was the fact that he made her feel like he didn't want her. "I'm sorry that I haven't been doing a very good job of letting you know how much I love you or how much I want you."

"It's not entirely your fault. I didn't do a good job with that either." She admitted.

"But I hope that you believe me when I say that I have always loved and desired you." He gave her a shy smile. "Even seeing you just now with only underwear on was enough to get me going."

She wasn't sure what to say to that so instead she leaned in and kissed him, placing her hand on the back of his head to pull him closer. Their tongues met and started an elaborate dance with each other, each battling for dominance.

His arm reached under the cover, wrapping around her waist and gently tugging at her to pull her closer to him. He kept a tight hold of her as they continued to kiss.

She let herself be moved over to his side of the bed and welcomed the physical contact she was experiencing with him. Her free hand reached under his shirt and started roaming around his chest and back.

"Sam…" He panted in between kisses. As much as he wanted this, he couldn't help but think that maybe it wasn't the right time for them to start something like this. Unfortunately he couldn't stop kissing her.

"Martin…" She tried to find words, but found it was useless. Her senses and mind were being taken over by the sensations caused by his kisses and touch. She knew that they had to stop this though. It wasn't the right time to be doing this. They still had a lot of things to work through without introducing this aspect into their relationship.

"We should…stop…this…before…" He finally managed to get out.

"Yeah…we should…stop…" She agreed.

"I'll stop when you stop." He told her.

"That's not very fair." She complained, not wanting to be the one to stop first. But after kissing him a few more times, she pulled away.

He still had his arm wrapped around her waist and kissed her forehead. "We need to wait a while before…"

"I agree." She interrupted. "But could you just hold me tonight?"

He smiled, glad that they both agreed to wait. "Believe me, I had no intention of letting you go."