She began kissing him again, falling into his embrace, wrapping his arms around her, looking into her eyes and stroking her cheek softly with his finger. She was looking at him with so much trust and need that he had to take a moment to get his emotions together.

He kissed her softly and began unbuttoning her shirt while watching her, both of them silent, absorbing every detail of the moment.

With her shirt unbuttoned and her pants unfastened they both moved closer to the bathe and stood beside it, just enough light in the room from the candles to see one another. She unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it back off his shoulders and arms.

He pushed her shirt off her shoulders and down her arms, reaching behind her to unclasp her bra before slowly gliding the straps down her arms and watching it fall away from her body and to the floor, savoring her naked breasts and the bare flesh of her stomach and back

He pulled her closer into his chest. Feeling her trembling slightly he began kissing her mouth and then around her jaw-line and neck up to ear, whispering words of comfort and assurance while his strong hands moved over her soft, bare back, holding onto her as if he were the only thing supporting her.

She was becoming putty in his hands, all of her senses heightened and her brain slowly giving way to the blissful fog that was attempting to cloud her thoughts. He began sliding her pants down her legs, leaving her in her panties wanting to squirm under his watchful eye but paralyzed with anticipation of what was coming next.

She watched him unbutton and then unzip his khakis, letting them fall to the floor and slowly stepping out of them. She sat up and placed her hands on either side of the waist band of his boxers, looking up at him, blushing. He wanted her and only her, his body, his mind, and his heart hungry for her.

"So you like all this?" He asked, once all clothes were removed, each of them vulnerably exposed.

Michelle's eyes trailed over the bathtub filled with bubbles and rose petals, before moving to the bottle of wine. She kissed him, allowing her fingers to play with the hairs at the nape of his neck, until he ran his hands up her back and she lost all motor functions.

"I love. It's perfect," Michelle replied. She gave him another kiss – a quick one this time.

He was lying on his side, their faces just inches apart. They looked at each other in the dim light. She curled up next to him, laying her head on his chest, kissing the area around his collarbone, breathing in the warm steam.

She wrapped her hands around his neck and found his mouth again, eager to be connected to him, their rhythm intense and hungry, nothing between them, flesh on flesh. The moment was intensely intimate, a slow healing process beginning, yet neither aware that they were helping to exorcise the demons that haunted the other.

He grabbed the bath sponge and dunked it into the hot water, startling her a little.

"I thought I'd wash your back for you." He offered; his voice soft and sweet.

She sat up, pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, letting her chin rest on her knees. He began moving the sponge over her back, letting the water run slowly down. She closed her eyes and enjoyed how relaxing the moment was.

He sat in the tub, taking in her beauty, her soft skin wet and pink from the hot water. He dropped the sponge in the water, placed his hands around her waist as he leaned in and began kissing her neck and shoulders.

He continued to place light kisses over her shoulder and upper chest and then pulled back some, looking into her eyes and then kissing her slowly, his mouth hot and wet and swallowing hers, the desire there nearly taking her breath away. He pulled away and smiled at her.

"Loving you is the easiest thing I've ever done Michelle, it's never been something I had to think about." He admitted.

"I love you to. Help me dry off?" She asked her head still resting on her knees, her face lightly flushed and glowing, the light hitting her eyes perfectly and making them twinkle.

He stood, grabbed a towel and held it up, ready for her step out of the tub and into it. She stood, stepped out and into the towel, him wrapping it around her and then pulling her into him, his hands holding gently to her lower back.

He stared intensely into her eyes for while he walked them over to his bed, stopping and then turning her around, keeping her back pressed into him, bringing his mouth down and kissing the back of her neck, his warm breath making her shiver.

No words were needed as he gently lay beside her in bed, hand finding hers in the darkness. She snuggled closer until their noses were almost touching, and, unable to resist, Tony wrapped his arms loosely around her, bringing the cool sheets up around their waists.

"Mmm, can we just not go to work and stay here forever?"

He lifted her hand and brought his fingers to his mouth, kissing them softly one by one.

"You okay?" He whispered as he saw the faraway look in her eyes.

"Yeah, just…thinking." She said, idly tracing his chest with her fingers.

He closed his eyes in contentment, enjoying the feel of her breath mingling with his and the feel of her skin against his in the small room.

"What about?" Tony asked empathically, looking with concern into her deep brown eyes. Michelle looked back, and for a moment was lost in his mysterious orbs before she tore her eyes away and instead looked down at her fingers lazily playing with the sheets.

"Everything." So much has happened, I mean the bomb, everyone we lost. But despite everything it brought me to you. I guess I just feel guilty being this happy when so many people suffered."

He didn't take his hand away, and instead stroked her cheek gently before cupping her face with his hand and tilting it so he could look her in the eyes.

"Hey, there's no reason to feel guilty about this, being happy. We'll always be grateful that it brought us together, but that doesn't mean we miss the people we lost any less. And now I have the most beautiful woman in my arms, I'll never regret that. " He said with a reassuring smile, dropping a chaste kiss on her lips and tightening his arms around her waist so that she was closer to him.

"Are you flirting with me Mr. Almeida?" She asked after a minute, trying to lighten the mood.

"Maybe" He chuckled.

Tony smiled down at her. "You remember the night we first met each other?"

Michelle lowered her head back down to rest on his chest. Her lips curved into a smile.

"I do. CTU was in the middle of that network breakdown. I was so nervous I tripped right into you when we were introduced. " She told him, remembering how she fell into his arms that night.

Michelle felt his chest rumble in soft laughter.

She rose up and leaned her upper body on him in order to look him in the eyes. He looked back at her with such intense feeling that Michelle began to flush. She reached out with one of her hands and caressed the side of his face.

"You know," she began, "The first thing I noticed about you were your eyes."

Tony's eyes lifted in curiosity.

"My eyes?"

Michelle smiled. "Yeah," she said still stroking him. "The way you looked at me… It was as if you were really looking at me, like I was really there." She then blushed in embarrassment at revealing such an intimate detail of her feelings for him.

Tony reached for her chin and brought her lips down to kiss his. Releasing her lips he told her, "The first thing I noticed about you was your smile." He began to trace her lips with the tip of one of his slender fingers.

Michelle couldn't help but smile. "Really?" she asked him.

"It's so beautiful." He kissed her.

"So warm. And I hoped that you would look at me with that smile every day." Tony told her.

They lay like that for a few moments, Tony languidly drawing small circles with his thumb on the small of her back and Michelle's head tucked behind his shoulder, leaving small kisses on his neck.

Michelle rested an arm over his shoulder, placed her hand to the back of his soft, downy neck and pulled his face closer to hers. Her breath tickled his ear as she spoke, whispering silky words into his subconscious that he heard as clear as day.

"Thank you," she said simply before planting a damp kiss to his earlobe. Tony's hand pressed harder into her back as he needed them to be closer and he pulled his head back so his lips rested outside of her ear.

"What for?" he teased, playing the dumb card. Michelle pressed her head to his and rolled it so that their foreheads were touching and they were eye to eye.

"For everything," she told him seriously, her smile wilting from her face as her auburn orbs bore into him. Tony lost his own smile, communicating with only their eyes and a flickering of lip movements.

"This is the best day in a long time," she confessed, looping her tiny fingers around Tony's thumb as their hands rested to his heart.

"You're welcome," he smiled at her and pressed a kiss to her eager lips.

Michelle melted into Tony's embrace, everything was slow and they became lost in the romance, neither saying a word. Tony closed his eyes as his cheek pressed against Michelle's silky soft ginger hair and his hand roamed the bare skin on her back. Michelle gripped at the sheets and leant further into his touch, her own eyes pressed tightly closed as the feel of their bare skins touching set her on fire.

Author's Note: I just wanted to briefly explain to people why I didn't have them be "together" yet in this. I've had a plan on how I want to set it up in the story, so I simply wanted to establish a sense of trust in a vulnerable state in this chapter, and I hope I've done that, and I hope know one was disappointed I decided to wait a bit

Also next chapter a conversation between Tony and Jack…