Hello All - I know this isn't as long as my usual chapters and I haven't updated in a while. This little scene has been percolating for a few days and, in honor of Valentine's Day, I'm saying to blazes with plot progression for the moment and just writing a love scene for its own sake! If you like the story so far, let me know. I tend to run out of steam without feedback! Note the rating change on this story - due to this chapter.
Helen rolled over in the tangle of sheets, reaching with one arm to find nothing but a lingering warmth where Nikola used to be. She frowned and opened her eyes, sitting up and pushing her hair back out of her face, she pulled the sheet up with her and held it in place with one hand. "Nikola?" She said to the empty room. For a brief, panicked moment, she tried to recall if she'd locked the door behind them. Then she felt guilty about worrying if her dear friend and new love had "escaped" to cause damage in the Sanctuary. She blew out a breath. Life was always so complicated.
"Here." Nikola strolled in from the bathroom wearing only a pair of black trousers and wiping the remnants of shaving cream off his face with a white towel. Helen drew her eyebrows together at him quizzically. His eyebrows rose in questioning response as he neatly put the towel into a hamper.
"I just don't think it ever occurred to me that you shave." Helen said with a laugh.
Nikola looked miffed. "Of course I shave. You've seen me with a mustache."
"And a beard...oh, and that horrible Van Dyke in the thirties." Helen recalled with amusement. "I've just never seen you with...stubble before."
"Of course you haven't. Until this week you also hadn't seen..."
Helen interrupted by laughing. "Point granted." She said. "So do you always shave after seducing a woman in the middle of the day?"
"I noticed that I had..." Nikola approached her and stroked the skin above the sheet she held to her breasts. She shivered pleasantly at his touch. She glanced down and saw some faint red abrasions on her skin.
"Oh." She said on a blush, recalling what it was Nikola had been doing when he gave her those marks.
"Oh." Nikola mimicked her with a knowing smirk. He bent and kissed her, then rubbed his now-smooth cheek against hers. "See?"
"Mm." Helen sighed. She tilted her face up and he kissed her again, toppling her backward across the bed and following her down, resting his weight above her on his elbows. "Nikola." She sighed as he moved to her collarbone. "About your theory..."
"Hm?" He murmured against her skin. He stopped and his head reared up to stare at her with a frown. "What?"
"Your theory. How do we test it?" Helen asked.
Nikola blinked then shook his head briskly as if clearing it. "You want to discuss this now?" He blinked at her. "We're losing the magic already." He complained dramatically.
Helen laughed. "I think we proved quite conclusively that we still very much have the magic less than an hour ago. We're going to die from sex overload if we keep this up."
"One, that isn't a real thing." He said, pointing down at her. "And two, you said yourself that it would take a lot to kill either of us." But with a smirk and a resigned sigh, he rolled to lie beside her. He remained propped on his side, lazily stroking the curve of her cheek. "So what about my theory?" He said idly.
"How could we possibly test it?" Helen asked again. "How could we prove or disprove that you were an abnormal before taking the Source blood? Because the facts surrounding your...growing pains could suggest a hyper-accelerated adolescence of sorts if you were already an abnormal."
"How offensive." Nikola remarked offhandedly. He was still absorbed in tracing patterns on her flesh with his fingertips. "Adolescence, indeed."
"Oh, please, Nikola." Helen rolled her eyes. "It's hardly the first time someone has said that of you."
"It's hardly the first time you've said that of me. It still hurts my feelings." Nikola replied with a tragic expression.
Helen laughed out loud. "At any rate, I meant the adolescence of your abnormality. Perhaps we arrested what might've been a gradual process when we gave you the Source and now you're...catching up all at once. Perhaps..."
"Once I'm all grown up the problems with stop?" Tesla finished. "I have considered that." He paused for a very long time.
"Nikola?"
"Helen, I don't do my best thinking in this environment." He admitted. "I am profoundly distracted. So, get some clothes on and talk business or let me have another shot at the death-by-sex scenario you described. Your choice, my dear."
"Hmmm." Helen considered with a twinkle in her eyes. Nikola trailed a fingertip over her collarbone, then slid his hand under the sheets. Her eyes went from twinkling to vague. "Mm, Nikola Tesla you're affecting my judgment." She mumbled.
"Good." He murmured, nuzzling her neck. "Take your time, I'll keep myself occupied until you figure it out." He slid his clever fingers lower and Helen moaned and gave in.
"Death by sex." She decided breathlessly. "But then I really...really....really...um"
"Yes?" Nikola lifted his head and smirked down at her dazed and flushed face.
"I have to...oh, you know what I mean...do work." Helen finally managed weakly before she lost all ability to form coherent thoughts. God, his hands! Those artist's hands of his might actually possess more sheer genius than his mind, she thought vaguely. He slid her over the first peak so quickly she was left panting and dazzled. She reached for him and, with wide darkened eyes filled with naked, terrified love, he went into her embrace and pressed his smoothly shaved cheek between her breasts, shuddering a contented sigh.
"I love you." He murmured brokenly. She stroked his hair.
Only their breaths and the rustle of sheets and clothing stirred the still air of Helen's bedroom as they twined together, lingering in the joy of their union until they both flew together.
They lay tangled together, gasping, Helen's body draped bonelessly across his. Her head pillowed on his shoulder. "I love you too." She whispered breathlessly against his neck. He sighed and wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head.
"I knew it." He proclaimed, too breathless himself to sound altogether as smug and arrogant as he intended.