Chapter 12: Completion

Laura roused first, the warmth of his body, the hair of his chest tickling her cheek and arm, his smell surrounding her, drawing her from her dreams. She kept her eyes closed, afraid at first it was just that: one of the dreams that had haunted her sleep for years. Her fingers sought to confirm this was real, gliding over the rise and fall of his ribs, over his dense-haired chest. But it wasn't until his cheek nuzzled the top of her head, his arm tightened further around her, that she dared to open her eyes, finding him blissfully asleep beneath her.

Carefully, she extracted herself from his embrace, he mumbling unhappily, but remaining lost in his dreams. Slipping from the bed, she walked to the closet, and opening it, fingered through his robes. Even the shortest of them, a royal blue silk, hung to her ankles when she wrapped it around herself. Retrieving her purse from the living room, she closed herself in the bathroom to use the facilities, taking the time to finger brush her teeth and put to use the brush from her purse.

Purse in hand, she crossed the bedroom and opened his bedside table, in search of what they would need when he woke. Her brows lifted in surprise, and she turned to bestow a smile on his sleeping form when she found the drawer devoid of what she sought. It was food for thought, that empty drawer, even more so the brown paper bag in the shave kit he'd left by the front door- the receipt still within. She returned to the bedroom, setting the box of condoms on the bedside table and dropping the robe, she eased her way back onto the bed, then propped on one arm, leaned down and kissed him, allowed her lips to linger until a pair of blue eyes opened and met hers.

He lifted a fall of hair back over her shoulder and cupped her neck with a palm, drawing her lips back to his. Pushing up, he rolled them until she lay on her back, his lean body stretched over hers. Ending the kiss, he stroked her neck with his thumb, and looked down at her with twinkling blue eyes.

"Have something on your mind, Miss Holt?" he hummed, with a sway of his head. With a smile and a lift of her brows, she drew a hand down his back, then caressed a firm cheek of his bottom.

"Surely, we haven't played out all your dreams yet, Mr. Steele," she replied, drawing out each word in a seductive voice. He kissed her again, teasing her, groaning with contentment when she parted her lips for him. He stroked her tongue with his, in a suggestive rhythm of what was to come, leaving one of her hands clutching at his shoulder, while the other contracted against his hip.

"It could take years to play all those dreams out," he murmured. Shifting atop her, he lowered his head to tease her neck with lips and tongue.

"Years?" she breathed, then drew in a sharp breath when his lips settled at the base of her neck to suckle. "Then maybe we should—" Her thought, and words, ended when he shifted again, to draw the nipple of a breast between his lips.

They were the last words spoken for a long, long time, the silence of the room broken only by the rustle of sheets, quiet sighs, soft cries, and whispered names as he investigated her body as thoroughly as the detective she'd trained him to be. He treasured every sound she made, every arch of her back, the way she writhed beneath him, clutched his shoulders, arms, back and head as he brought her to climax once by hand… and the second? He left her hovering on the edge of oblivion with his mouth latched over the bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs while he slipped the pair of long, slim fingers, which had been moving rhythmically within, her out of her body with a mischievous grin.

With a growl, she grasped his head, urging him upwards, as her legs parted in unmistakable invitation. As he held himself poised over her, his lips devouring hers, she reached for the box of condoms, managing to work one free. Tearing her mouth from his, she ripped open the foil packet with her teeth and shoved the condom into his hand.

"Now," she panted.

This. This was the woman he'd dreamt of, daydreamed of, had had hundreds of fantasies of. Passionate, uninhibited, giving and taking equally. But he wanted to slow things down, to savor each and every minute ahead. He leaned down, kissing her languidly, tenderly, until her hands stopped clenching him, flattening out to caress, to stroke his back, his arms. Only then did he roll the condom on, and poise himself at her entrance.

"Laura," he moaned hoarsely, as he pressed forward, burying the pulsating head of his erection within her.

He moved slowly, allowing her muscles to relax until he was buried to the hilt, then established a slow, mesmerizing pace, which, in not too long, she matched with the rise and fall of her hips. When her quiet cries and soft moans grew more frequent, he pushed up on outstretched arms, grinding his hips against her swollen mound with each thrust, until her legs wrapped around his hips, and her short fingernails dug into his arms. He watched as her back arched, her eyes closed, her lips parted… closing his own eyes when she broke, calling out his name. The feeling of her tight passage clenching at his shaft, fluttering around it, as he continued to move his hips was more magnificent than he'd ever imagined.

Before the last shudder passed through her body, he shifted again, and bracing himself on a single elbow to bed, hooked his elbow around the back of one of her knees, drawing her leg up, then leaned down and claimed a puckered peak in his mouth. The chest beneath his mouth rose and fell hard, rapidly, as he nipped at her sensitive nipples, flicked at them with the tip of his tongue, suckled them, as he moved within her. He moaned, arching into her touch, when she took advantage of the position, nipping at his shoulder and collarbone, drawing the skin deep into her mouth to suckle as she drew her nails lightly down his back then kneaded the cheeks of his ass, teased its cleft with deft fingers.

This time when she went up in flames, he went with her, his arms circling around her, keeping her as close as possible, wanting to absorb every ounce of her pleasure as her slim form shuddered and he exploded within her. She was alike in this thought, her short nails of one hand digging into his back while her other hand buried itself in his hair, pulling his head down so she could burrow her face in his neck, breathe in his scent, as she called out his name, then whispered it.

"Laura," he breathed a final time, when, at last, his hips stilled and he collapsed on top of her, trying to catch his breath.

Her fingertips toyed with the damp hair at the back of his neck, whispered over his sweat glistening back. She grimaced when he finally moved his hips, slipping out of her body, then with a kiss dropped on her nose, rolled to his side to discard the condom. She strung a line of kisses along the back of his shoulders, then lay back and rolled to her other side, taking his hand in hers when he spooned around her body and tugged her close. He couldn't help a brush of his lips against her shoulder, neck, from time-to-time, until they fell into well-sated sleep.