"Come on, let me take you home," he said to her, lifting her up as he did himself. The whole ride back to her place was laden with silence, and when she reached out to place her hand in his, he couldn't bring himself to anything but slide his fingers through hers. When finally they reached her place she didn't go up, but stood at the door of the car, watching him, pleading with her eyes, begging, and like the fool he was for her, he stepped out and gave his keys over, quiet as she took his hand in hers and walked him through the front door. As they stood facing each other in the elevator, the slight sheen of tears in her eyes, they said nothing. Even after they had entered her apartment and she tried to make him take a seat on the sofa burned into the playbacks that tortured his mind, his expression enough for her to take him to kitchen instead. A glass of whisky in each of their hands, she moved herself to stand in front of him after he sat.

"Bill I …., you have to know…" Words seemed to be failing her. He said nothing.

Holding her hand against her face, "I just…," she looked away from him, "to forget the hold you have on me, and he was there, and it just…", she huffed out a breath. He said nothing.

Placing her hands on his face, "All I have ever wanted was you," a kiss placed on his lips, "only you," words whispered into his mouth before she moved back, eyes on him. He said nothing.

His hands moved to her waist, the feel of holding her close a balm as much as it was pain.

"We are going to talk about this," he said, moments before he pulled her to him, giving into his incessant need to touch her, kissing her until he stole her breath, until she breathed her life into him.

Steffy gasped when he lifted her, legs wrapping around him, his hands holding her as he placed her on the counter, grabbing her hands when he felt fire leap on his skin, her hands on his back, inched under his shirt, a hiss breaking out from him. Shackling her hands behind her back, he moved in closer, chest to chest as the beast growled,

"Mine…," as his tongue moved down her throat, her head thrown back as moan slipped from her. Her legs tightened around him as his lips moved down her chest, her breath panting,

"Mine…" he growled again, placing one hand against her blouse, with one jerk, buttons flying, his hand trailing down as he stepped back to look at her.

By gods, she was breath-taking. Releasing her hands, he picked her up, her hands coming around his shoulders as he walked took her up the stairs, placing on her feet, held hostage as she took off all her clothes, a shy smile on her face, even as he felt his breath stop short, knowing this was years in the making, knowing that after this she would be his and only his. Stripping out of his clothes, as she laid down on the bed, he lowered himself onto her, whispering, "All mine," against her mouth, breathing her essence in, unhurried as he explored her soft, warm skin, music to his ears her every moan, and stutter, her gasps in his ear, he knew he had never felt anything like it, that moment when, her leg wrapped around his back he pushed inside her, eyes locked with hers, the completion that rocked him, as her hands grasped his shoulders, head thrown back against the pillows, the sheer ecstasy that grounded him as he feels her shaking beneath him, lightning striking him as he joined her in the abyss.

"Enough," Steffy screamed, as she brought her hands sharply down his back, the scoring tingle of pain making him redouble his efforts to bring her to ecstasy one more time, head buried in her neck as he moved, hands holding her in place, her weak protests a contradiction to how she kept pulling him back to her, until he felt her come apart again, and he let himself go. Falling back down to the bed, he moved her to his side and held her, running his hands through her hair.

"That all depends on if you're going to say it or not"

"Bill,"

"Yes," he interrupted her, "say it."

"You, I belong to you,"

The smile that broke out his face was nothing compared to the satisfaction that pulsed through him,

"And I to you Steffy, and I to you," he told her, placing a kiss on her forehead before he pulled her close and let the embers of sleep take them both.

He couldn't keep the smile of his face, and it had been stuck to his face all day long. He could tell it was beginning to draw attention from those around him. First with Allison giving him a look like she knew exactly the reason behind it, which she couldn't because that made no sense, to Wyatt, who kept asking him if it had anything to do with Brooke. All that happened was that his smile dropped almost immediately along with him reaching for the closest thing he had near him to throw it at him. Wyatt walked out laughing each time. When he saw Justin, though, the knowing grin he got in answer was enough words spoken between them.

As the day progressed, his thoughts would keep on playing back to the night before, and the morning after, how she had basically pushed him out of the door as she ran off to Forester, maybe a tad bit over three hours late for her meetings, which in this instance had been entirely her fault for thinking they had enough time after breakfast, had even dared him to be on time. Like he would have rushed it. When lunch time came by, he hopped out of his seat, phone in hand with a message telling him to meet her for lunch. He met Justin on the way down,

"Who would have thought hey?" Justin asked him,

"I would have, I have, and I never will Justin. She is it, and I'm going to hold on to her this time."

As they made their way into Giardino, Steffy seated next to Genevieve, he watched as she smiled at seeing him, a chuckle escaping her when he reached down and lifted her from her chair, kissing her for all the world to see.