This is it, the last chapter of this fic. I want to thank everyone who read, reviewed and put it as their favorite.
Bonus points for the ones who will find the Castle reference.
My next multi-chaptered fic will be up next Sunday.
Later that night, Magnum is in bed, lying on his back and almost asleep when he hears someone slip into his room. He recognizes Higgins' gait by ear so he keeps his eyes closed, comforted by the fact there is no threat.
He has to admit he's rather surprised she's here. For all the times she came to him for sex, she has never done it while she thought he was asleep. The dynamic between them has truly shifted in the last few days. He doesn't move and decides to let events unfold.
The moon is absent from the sky tonight therefore there's not the slightest light to see what she is up to, though he hears the rustle of clothes so he guesses she's undressing. He smiles to himself when she mutters a curse, probably frustrated with her injured arm.
A few minutes later he feels the sheet being lifted and the mattress dipping as she slides next to him. He pretends to sleep, curious about the way she's going to rouse him.
But she doesn't, she just turns on her good side and huddles up against him, her back to his side, ready to fall asleep with his arm as her pillow. Magnum rolls on his side so he can spoon her and hisses at the feel of her totally naked body against him.
« You're naked. », he growls into her neck.
« So are you. », she states as she wriggles her butt against his crotch, making him groan.
« Yeah, well I was sleeping. », he advances, slightly breathless.
« You were not sleeping, Thomas. », she chuckles humorlessly. « I could tell from your too short breaths. »
He squeezes her tighter against him with his arm around her waist and shakes his head.
« And you wonder how I found out you were a spy? You're too observant for your own good. »
He brushes light kisses across her shoulder, neck and cheek.
"Are you okay?", he asks her, slightly concerned by her silence.
"I am now.", she answers quietly.
« What is it? »
She doesn't respond for a long time and Thomas almost believes she won't answer when she speaks again.
« Today, and for the first time in three years, I was afraid for someone else's life. And I really didn't like the feeling. »
He doesn't know quite how to respond to that. It sounds like there's some subtext and he's missing some key elements however he can help her get rid of her distress.
« What do you need? Reassurance, distraction, sleep? », he asks her, willing to do anything to make her feel better.
« Probably all three. », she chuckles darkly.
He rolls her on her back, mindful of her injury, before climbing on top of her. She spreads her legs to allow him between them.
« Since we're both awake, maybe we can find something to occupy ourselves. », he suggests before diving for her lips.
She responds to his kiss but controls the slow and leisurely pace, like she wants to savor and explore his whole mouth. When they break apart, she whispers in his ear.
« Make love to me, Thomas. »
His heart starts racing in his chest. Something is definitely different. She is different: softer, raw, like she finally dropped down the walls that were erected all around her. He kisses her deeply one more time in an attempt to show her he registered the change in their relationship and that he's here to catch her if she's willing to meet him halfway.
His lips glide across her cheek towards her neck where he runs his front teeth down to her shoulder. She shivers and threads her fingers into his hair at the back of his head. He continues his journey by mapping her collarbone with his lips and tongue before reaching the soft swell of her breasts. He worships one, then the other with his mouth, titillating the nipples with his teeth.
Her breathless moans grow louder until she growls in dissatisfaction when he abandons her chest to trail light nips across her stomach. His hands stroke her sides while he dips the tip of his tongue into her navel. She squirms under his ticklish touch and pushes on her heels to chase after the slightest contact against her sensitive center.
He drops his forehead to her lower belly, pressing his nose into her neatly trimmed curls and inhaling the sweet scent of her arousal. He's awed at how ready she always is for him.
"For me.", he growls against her and she whimpers at his sudden possessiveness.
"Yes, only for you.", she breathes as she arches her back and pushes his head towards her wetness.
He applies his lips to her folds and sucks her clit into his mouth making her hips fly upwards and her neck arch. He keeps a hand on her stomach to restrain her movements against his mouth as he continues to pleasure her. She pants his first name, again and again, chanting it towards the ceiling as he alternates between thrusting his tongue into her and dragging it back to her clit to apply the pressure she's expecting. He doesn't stay long enough in either location to allow her orgasm to build and soon she's getting restless.
"Please, Thomas.", she begs him and he would lie if he said he didn't like having this kind of power over her.
He doesn't make her wait any longer before pushing his tongue firmly against her bundle of nerves and sliding his index finger into her core. He keeps a steady rhythm and lets himself be guided by the sounds coming out of her lips. In less than two minutes he has her quivering beneath him when her climax washes over her body.
While she recovers, Magnum lays his cheek on her hipbone and grazes lazy swirls with the tips of his fingers on her thigh, side and belly. If he didn't have a raging hard-on right now, he would gladly fall asleep in this very same location, surrounded by her divine scent, especially when her nails draw mesmerizing patterns across his scalp. He hums and presses a kiss on her flat stomach next to her navel.
He deplores the loss of her hand in his hair when she glides her fingers down his neck to knead his shoulder.
She's starting to wonder about his stillness when she asks him: "You still with me?".
He answers her with a grunt but a few seconds later he pushes himself on his hands to crawl back her body until their hips are aligned. This time he doesn't ask her what position she'd favor, it's pretty clear they'll keep it traditional tonight.
The room is still plunged into darkness but they manage to distinguish each other now that their eyes are accustomed to the pitch black.
"Look at me, Juliet.", he tells her and when her eyes lock with his, he breaches her slowly with his erection.
She struggles to keep her eyes open until he's fully inside of her but Thomas sees she's doing her best to maintain their visual connection and he's so proud of her and all the efforts she's making to let him in.
He withdraws slightly from her before driving back slowly into her tight heat making them moan in unison.
"You feel heavenly around me, a perfect fit.", he pants directly against her lips.
She wraps her legs around his waist to bring him even closer so Magnum has to keep his thrusts short which suit them because they're not chasing their release just yet, merely enjoying this new intimacy between them.
That's why tonight is different. They are making love. They are expressing feelings they can't put into words yet.
They continue to move slowly against each other, their foreheads pressed together as they share the same air. His skin is tingling and his heart is beating erratically, which is not due to the physical activity he is currently engaged in. He knows that's a reaction of being intimate with someone he has romantic feelings for. Surprisingly, this piece of information exhilarates him more than it scares him.
He joins his lips to hers as he speeds up his moves, suddenly desperate to achieve orgasm and bring her the same amount of pleasure. She grunts at the change of pace, adding her own gyrations of her hips to his quick and sharp thrusts.
The moment he senses the telltale signs of her climax - sharp intake of breath, walls fluttering and contracting around him, nails digging into his skin – he lets go on his self-restraint and they come together, their cries of pleasure swallowed by each other's mouth.
He doesn't stay on her, worried about her wound and how their lovemaking has taken a toll on her arm. Once he's lying on his back he draws her to his side and she immediately snuggles against him.
They both drift off, exhausted by the last few days.
XXXXXX
He's slipping on the jacket of his white dress uniform when he sees her coming into his room, trying to hold her open dress to her body with her valid arm and carrying her sling in her other hand.
"You walked all the way from the main house with your dress open?', he asks, amused.
She's in a less cheery mood.
"I'm sick and tired of this thing.", she grumbles as she shows him her sling.
He wraps his arms around her, knowing he can't tell her anything that would make her feel better, she's still going to have to put it on.
"Would you help me, please?", she asks, turning around in his embrace to present him her back.
He slowly pulls up her zipper until her dress is securely attached.
« I have the feeling I'm being tricked here. I'm spending more time dressing you up than taking clothes off of you."
"What are you talking about? You got me naked last night as I recall.", she tells him as she turns around to face him.
« You got naked on your own, actually. », he corrects her.
"Why does it matter? The important thing is that I ended up naked, right?", she questions as she slides her hand to the back of his neck to draw him closer.
« True. », he concurs and seals their lips in a tender kiss.
When he woke up this morning he almost expected her to be gone. He was glad to be proven wrong when he felt her back pressed to his front. They had shifted in their sleep but stayed close to one another. He opened his eyes and, when he saw the creamy skin of her neck at his disposal, he couldn't resist brushing his lips against it.
She stirred and hummed when his kisses woke her and they both couldn't fight the need to be joined again as Magnum tilted her hips to slide into her heat from behind. They undulated against each other for the laziest and softest morning sex they had ever had.
So who cares who gets who naked as long as he has her lithe body against his every morning when he wakes up.
She runs her right hand on his chest, fingering the decorations pinned above his heart.
"Are you ready?", she asks while meeting his eyes.
"Not really, but I don't have a choice.", he sighs.
"I'll be here if you need anything."
"I do need something. Do you think we can change the rules of our deal?"
"What do you want to add?", she asks, surprised.
"I don't want to add anything. I want to erase all the rules. I want to get attached because guess what, I'm already attached. I want to sleep next to you every night. I don't want to have sex with anyone else but you, which is exactly what I have been doing for the past three months. »
« But I saw you with all these women you brought to the guesthouse late at night. I thought… »
She doesn't finish her sentence but she doesn't have to, he already knows what she thought and a while ago that's exactly what he wanted. Now he needs her to know he only has eyes for her.
« For drinks, but I didn't sleep with them. I couldn't, not when the taste of you always lingered on my tongue. I didn't want to erase it with another woman's taste. »
She smiles before fusing their mouths together again.
« Then we need to make sure you get recurrent reminders. », she whispers seductively before diving for his lips again.
« Great idea. », he mumbles against her.
He breaks away to slip a few curls behind her ear, becoming serious again.
« I want to be with you, Juliet. In every way. »
She sighs and for a few seconds, Magnum is scared of being rejected but she dispels his worries quite quickly.
« When I offered you the deal, it was purely physical. I didn't want nor have the time to take a dip in the dating pool of this island. You being nearby at all times was quite convenient and your agreeable physic didn't hurt either. When you proved yourself to be a truly skilled lover, I thought this 'friends with benefits' arrangement couldn't get any better. »
Okay, maybe he is still worried about where this is going.
« It was the case for the first month or so but then, and I didn't realize it at the time, our time together kept growing into something more personal and intimate and less about the sex itself. I was fooling myself because I wanted to keep you at arm's length and pretending you were only good enough to tend to my physical needs was my best defense. What I was oblivious about was that you were already worming your way into my closed up heart. But my brain wasn't ready to hear what my heart was saying. »
She cleared her throat and dropped her gaze.
« I guess Nuzo's death made me open my eyes about us not knowing what tomorrow could bring. Also, seeing you in distress was one of the most difficult thing I had to face in a long time and I started to understand that my feelings for you ran deeper than I thought. What sealed the deal had been thinking you were going to die in that stupid Ferrari without knowing how I felt about you. »
Her voice is starting to shake at the end of her monologue and Magnum is speechless. He knows she cares more for him than she let on, but he is far from the truth. He takes her back into his arms and sways them gently.
« Hey, it's okay. We're both fine and now we can stop being such fools in denial. We care for each other and that's all that matters. », he whispers in her ear.
She basks in his embrace for a few minutes and Magnum could really get used to this softer version of Juliet. He's glad they finally faced their feelings. When she breaks away from his arms she catches his eyes with hers.
« I also want to be with you in every way, Thomas, even though that's pretty much what we've had for the last couple of days. »
« We can finally tell everyone we're together. », he raves.
She sighs dramatically.
« Rick is going to be so disappointed, he won't be able to flirt with me anymore. »
Thomas groans, he's not going to miss his friend's player act towards Juliet.
« Okay, we can tell your friends, but I'm going to need something in return. », she states.
« And what is that? »
« When I'm better, we're definitely having sex with you in that uniform. », she leers as her eyes travel up and down his body.
He chuckles. The uniform always works like a charm. He throws his cap on her head and pulls her against him again.
« Deal! »
She laughs as she adjusts the hat before she pecks his lips. Magnum smiles, he knows today is going to be hard, burying his best friend, but as long as he has her by his side he knows he can cope.
Because even during the worst days there's always the possibility for joy.
She places his cap on his head, her eyes bright, before she dangles the keys of the black Ferrari in front of his face.
"Come on, I'm driving."
He scoffs.
"With what hands? You need two arms to drive a stick."
"Need I remind you, you wrecked two Ferraris in as many days. One arm is still safer.", she quips as she turns around and leaves him behind.
The End