Chapter 7
Their union was like a homecoming for both of them. He led and she followed, moving her body against his, taking every inch of him and squeezing tightly when he thrust into her. Harm was so wonderfully thick, the hardened steel of his length filled her completely so that the deep sense of emptiness vanished.
He slid slowly into her, marveling in her warm, silky depths and how her body felt beneath his. Harm used his elbows to prop himself up so they would kiss as he entered her. The tough Navy fighter pilot may have cried and the Marine kissed those tears away so that her lips tasted of salt and sweetness.
Lord how she loved him, missed him and this intimate kind of dance that had her quivering beneath him. If they were older, she wouldn't have known once slow lovemaking became heady meeting of flesh. She dug her nails into his six, urged him to move harder, faster.
Harm still knew what she liked, he knew how to drive her mad with need for him.
It was morning when Mac's eyes fluttered open. She lay on the softest mattress, the warmth of a hard, male body wrapped around her. The air smelled of him and her; of them and a night of passion that far surpassed anything they shared before.
She blushed remembering how she begged for him without foreplay because she was much too turned on, too wet that any waiting would have made her combust. Mac longed to feel him move inside her again, to see if that thing between them still ignited like wildfire although she knew it would.
It was astonishing, marvelous and magnificent. It felt new - a rebirth of a relationship forged in flames. And it felt right, complete and timeless, things their first time around had been missing. Back then, it had all been rushed in effort to get her to San Diego with a retired Harm in tow.
They hurried to find a place to stay, she hurried to learn her new job as Harm tried to find something to keep him busy while Mattie recovered. There was little time to slow down and enjoy being a couple. Little time to fight. They'd both been firing on all cylinders and their engagement took the brunt, so did any other plans like a remodel for the house or a vacation for just the two of them where life and work didn't matter. They neglected each other and she didn't realize why until he was no longer serving with her.
It was easy to step into work and see him there, his bright smile and wit made her pleasantly aware of his presence for nearly ten years. He wouldn't know how much she missed that - their partnership, the one thing that made sense even when everything else was falling apart. It was something they both took for granted but was the cornerstone of the relationship they'd slowly build.
Now,they had time. Her job rarely rushed her into things and barely sent Mac away save for about five times a year. She kept a nine-to-five with weekends off for the most part and Harm…she didn't yet know what his retirement entailed but given how relaxed and happy he looked, the split from the Navy seemed to actually suit him. When he slept, he was at ease, no worry lines or concerns - a stark contrast from the fiance who would wake in the middle of the night to pace nervously up and down their halls. She never knew him to be an insomniac and for a time Mac had wondered if she brought it out in him. That was likely yet another reason for their impending split.
Mac stretched lazily, her body protesting in a good way - a 'I've been properly made love to' kinda way. She grinned at the feeling, sensed the blush covering her body from head to toe.
"I can hear the wheels turning. Seven billion years later and you still can't power down, can you?" Harm's voice was rough from sleep, a sound that still served to thrill her. As she shifted in his arms, Mac turned so that they lay side by side, face to face. He was still so devastatingly handsome, so sexy especially with the stubble on his cheeks, dark whiskers with a sprinkling of gray that made him look a little dangerous. He really was the most handsome man in the World.
"Hey, beautiful." Harm popped open one eye and then the other. He smiled when he caught her staring and then leaned in to press a kiss against her lips. "Did you sleep?"
"I did, yeah. Better than I had in a while." She'd forgotten how well she slept next to him, how the insomnia seemed to disappear in his arms. "The wheels only started turning twenty minutes ago."
"Hmm." His hands slowly ran down her spine, stopping to cup her six and push her close while their lips tangoed in a deep, luxurious kiss that Harm broke only to rest his forehead against hers. "What's wrong? The wheels are still turning…I could always sense that about you."
They were turning, over and over finding little things about him that were different from before. "I'm comparing things. You, me, the past…You were never this relaxed."
"Neither were you." His nose touched the tip of hers, his lips kissed her cheeks and then her mouth. Harm might have rolled her beneath him, his body resting between her parted thighs. "I need to ask you something."
The way he said those words made a chill run down her spine. Something couldn't be wrong, not now. Mac was tempted to ask if there was someone else in his life, God only knew they played that game once before and she was not about to have her heart trampled again. "Sounds serious."
"It might be a stupid question."
He seemed so embarrassed, Harm's cheeks flushing a shade of pink he rarely wore. For a moment, Several minutes really the question hung in the air until he took a breath and let it out slowly. "I probably shouldn't ask this but... Have you been seeing anyone?"
Mac shook her head slowly. "Yes, but it's been a while. Since before we met in Tehran. He's a teacher, a sweet guy."
"Oh, I hate him." Harm said with a terse smile that made Mac laugh. "I mean it, I hate him."
"Well, It's been over for months he was very sweet but didn't seem to understand the women in the military thing." Or rather, hated that she was a Marine, much like Dalton. The few months that they dated, Alec had attempted to dissuade her away from the Marines, it became exhausting. "How about you? Any lucky lady?"
"Yeah, she's in the Navy. Works on base, I see her sometimes when I'm back from deployment. It's...uncomplicated." He shrugged because dating Kelly had been easy, she didn't want more than what he offered.
"I hate her." Mac retorted, laughing as Harm rolled them over so that they lay side by side. She kissed him soundly and then glanced around the one bedroom suite. "This room, it's not just for one person. You wanted me here. Neutral ground?"
"Something like that." He nodded. "A Marine once told me we could start at the begining and I don't want that."
"What do you want?"
He paled at her question because the answer lay tucked away in the hotel safe where he'd left a little Christmas gift on a whim. Harm wasn't sure where the night would lead but he hoped and he prayed; sometimes God did listen. "To go back to the night when I first told you that I loved you, the night I asked you to marry me."
He slipped out of bed, confidently walking naked to the closet where he fiddled with the safe and pulled put a cinched velvet bag. When Harm slipped back into bed he sat up with his back against the headboard, his hand clutching the bag that he eventually held out to Mac.
"What is this?" She asked even as she yanked open the string and the rings spilled into her palm. One large circle and a smaller, thinner band of white gold gleamed in the light. Mac noted the engraving, roses on the small ring, vines on the larger.
"Our wedding bands...I bought them in Italy during my first deployment before we...before we parted ways."
She'd never seen them. He never mentioned them and Mac felt a pang of both pain and elation. "There's a story here...somewhere."
"There is." A custom jeweler in Milan had created them and Harm could see himself slipping it on her delicate finger while they took their vows. "It made sense to insure and ship the rings to our home."
"I never saw a package from Italy."
"It never arrived. I tracked it. I beg and pleaded with the shipping service. It was gone...vanished." And he took that as a sign that their impending break up was near. "It made me lose faith in me and us. Made it easier to walk away."
He had all but forgotten about the rings, they were no longer important after the split and he wasn't about to mull over inanimate object. And then they appeared out of nowhere, fate was messing with him again. "When I got off the carrier a few months ago, I went past our house." A two story home that was far too big for the three of them and felt even bigger for one man when Mac left him. He sold it to a couple with three children and two dogs.
"One of those dogs had gotten under the porch and dug up a package that was covered in dirt and muck. The box was destroyed, the rings were tarnished but they were there. All of these years they were there, weathering all sorts of conditions." He'd painstakingly cleaned them, shined them, even had a jeweler make sure nothing was wrong.
Harm must have stared at the small circles for days, each time wondering, believing, hoping. "We met again for a reason, Mac. I knew it then, I knew it. I called my CO and let him know that Allegiance's new skipper would no longer join the fight. I was retiring."
"Skipper, you?"
"I never got the chance to tell you I was being promoted."
Mac sat up as well, one hand clutching the rings the other holding the sheet so that it covered her breasts. "No Harm...How could you? How could you retire now? Being a skipper is a once in a lifetime experience and-"
"And I love you. Marrying you is a once and a lifetime experience too."
His words made her mouth drop open. Whatever came of this night, Mac never thought about marriage anymore. That was for other women, not her and loving someone didn't require a peice of paper and a ring. "You still want to marry me?"
"Yes." He plucked the rings from her hand, slipped off her USMC and slid the wedding band home. "Marry me, Sarah."
Mac stared at their joined hands, the way hers fit in his, the way his thumb passed over the white gold. He asked again, was halfway to getting on one knee when she stopped him. "Yes. Yes, I'll marry you."
"Merry Christmas, Mac."
"Merry Christmas, Harm." She sighed happily when he pulled her near, laughed when it took forever and lots of conditioner to yank the Academy ring free of his finger. Mac slipped his wedding band on and thought about this Awkward Moment - wearing wedding bands although not yet married.
She decided she liked Awkward Moments but only if shared with Harm.
