"You look…" Lindsey's smile grew wider as Marcus tried for what had to be the fourth time to say something
"You look…" Lindsey's smile grew wider as Marcus tried for what had to be the fourth time to say something. He stood there looking shell shocked. His befuddlement set her ego soaring. Feeling brave, she shifted her legs, letting the dress ride up just a tiny bit higher. Marcus's eyes glazed over, and she wasn't sure he was still breathing.
"I look what, Major?" Her flirting was what shocked her most of all. Damn, Lindsey thought to herself, this dress must have magical powers. Lindsey had never felt so feminine in her life. She would have never believed that she could stop a man like Marcus in his tracks, but here she was making him sweat. She owed Cadman big time.
Marcus was sure he must have blacked out for a moment. One second he had been answering the door, and now he was looking at what had to be the sexiest pair of legs ever created. Letting his eyes follow the legs up, every nerve in his body was humming. Feeling sure that he looked like a complete ass, staring at her like a love sick fool, Marcus forced himself to form a coherent sentence. "Wow!" Okay, so that wasn't really a sentence, but it was better than the gaping he had been doing.
Lindsey couldn't handle it anymore. This had brought her into all new territory, and even though it was somewhat liberating, she figured she better do something before he burst a blood vessel. Deciding that she was done with the whole sex bomb thing, she burst out laughing. "Wow?" She teased, "Is that the best you can do Lorne? What happened to my smooth talking Major?"
Meeting her sparkling eyes, Lorne felt his whole body relax. This was the Lindsey he knew. She was wrapped in one mouth watering package, but was still the goofy scientist he had come to care for. "Wow, is just the beginning, Doctor." He circled his arms around her waist, pulling her into the room, letting the door slide shut after them. "Add to that smart, kind, and one hell of a sexy woman; then you might hit somewhere near what I'm thinking."
"Hmm, nice." Lindsey whispered, cuddling more into the heat of his body. Her softness molded against his hardness, creating a wonderful sensation for them both. "It's a pity, though." She said pulling back to look up at him.
"What is?"
"How long it took for me to look like this, seeing as how in a few minutes you will have wrecked the effect."
"Wrecked the effect?" Lorne looked at her in puzzlement, and then smiled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and slid her body up against his own. This time, she took the initiative, placing a light, almost teasing kiss on his lips. His brain registered that she was pulling away and sent his arms into immediate action. Pulling her tighter against him, his hand cupped the back of her neck holding her in place to take the kiss deeper.
Lindsey couldn't breathe as she felt the heat of his lips against her skin. No man had ever treated her like this. She inhaled the warm scent of his skin, which was tinged with some sort of aftershave and a rich, masculine scent. Lindsey shivered as he left her lips and trailed his kisses to her throat where he nibbled the sensitive skin there. Good grief, he was so innately masculine. So incredibly hot, and every lick he delivered to her skin made her stomach contract. "Make love to me." She was shocked that she had said it out loud.
Marcus pulled back, letting her words sink in. A smile that Lindsey had never seen before formed on his face. It was pure heat, and it made her body tingle in anticipation. Reaching up, he pulled her hair down around her shoulders. Running his hands through it, he pulled her lips to his. "Yes Ma'm," he whispered, before he ravaged her mouth again.
Katie Brown sat down at a table full of other women. They all slid their eyes to her, each of them wanting a certain question answered. She played a while with her coffee, adding just the right amount of cream and sugar, before finally looking up at them. "She wasn't in her room this morning."
Everyone tried to contain their smiles, as they too became very interested in their food. After a moment, Laura Cadman joined them. This time the scientists didn't have to wait, Cadman got right down to business. Taking a quick look around to see who else might over hear she leaned in closer to the center of the table. "He didn't show up for his normal Sunday morning workout." She waited a beat, so that everyone could let that information sink in, and then flashed everyone at the table a mega watt smile. "I knew that dress would be a killer!"
Lindsey came awake slowly. She could feel warmth to the side of her, and moved closer wanting to burrow into it. The instant her fingertips touched skin, the night before came flooding back.
"Good morning," Marcus said, wrapping his arms around her, gathering Lindsey close to him. "You okay?" He asked, placing a light kiss on her lips.
"You're amazing!" she blurted out, and then began worrying that she had said the wrong thing when Lorne fell to the mattress, shaking with laughter. She laid there, feeling her cheeks heat up. He probably thought she was some teenage girl, who couldn't have a normal conversation after sex. "I'm sorry," she clipped out and then started edging her way off the bed.
"Sorry?" Lorne asked, pulling her back around to face him. He still had a smile on his face, but Lindsey didn't think it was a mocking one. "That was the best possible thing you could ever have said to me."
"Then why are you laughing?" Lindsey mentally flinched at how needy she sounded.
"I am laughing at me, Lindsey." He said gently tracing her long neck. "I didn't realize how nervous I was, until you told me I was amazing. The relief that flooded through me just seemed funny at the time."
"You were nervous?"
"Hell yes!" Marcus said, pulling her even closer entangling their legs together. "Here I was with a woman that men would die for, and I didn't want to mess it up."
"Men wouldn't die for me," Lindsey said, letting her head rest on his chest. "Men don't even notice me."
"That's okay by me. While those sorry S.O.B.s are snoozing, I get to run away with the prize."
"So I'm a prize, huh?" Lindsey popped her head up, and smiled.
"You're the only prize in life that matters." Lorne said looking directly in her eyes. His eyes held none of the sarcasm they usually did, he was dead serious.
If it had been any other man saying that to her, Lindsey would have gone on a tirade about women being more than just a "trinket" for men to lust after, but hearing it from Marcus, she felt treasured. Treasured for everything that she was made of; mind, body, and spirit. Letting her own smile surface, she maneuvered their bodies so that she was straddling him. Leaning down, she took feminine pride in his eyes going dark with lust. "I think you should show me again why you deserve the prize, Major."
There was an excitement buzzing around the room. The Daedalus scientists were finally going to find out what their test was going to be. Today was the start of their last week in class, and all were fired up to prove themselves. The gym door opened, and everyone came to their feet as not only Lorne came through the door, but also Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen." Sheppard said his voice light. When all the people continued to stare at him, he turned to Lorne and motioned to take over. Fighting back a smile, the Major stepped to the forefront and addressed the class.
"Colonel Sheppard is here because he will be an integral part of your test." Marcus let his eyes wander the group, until he came to rest on the ones he searched for. As always he felt his pulse quicken when he saw Lindsey. It was the beginning of their second week together. Soon this class would be over, and her ship would be leaving, but he didn't want to think about that right now. In fact, Marcus reminded himself, he shouldn't be thinking about her at all right this second. Mentally shaking himself, he again paid attention to the rest of the class. "In fact, we are still waiting for some more people before we tell you what is going on."
"Ah, here they are now." Sheppard cut in, as the gym door again slid open. The group was puzzled as other members of Sheppard's team walked in.
"Teyla, Ronon, and I will be breaking into teams." Marcus continued. "The Colonel will be in charge of the exercise. The test will be based on which team can come out alive."
"Alive!?" Tyler choked out, causing all eyes to focus on him. "Just what is our test going to be, Major?"
Marcus smiled and then let his eyes hit every single member of the class. "We are going to war."
"I'm excited about this," Benning cooed at the others while they sat in the mess hall eating lunch.
"Of course, you would be excited." Tyler sneered. "Your team leader is Lorne, how can you fail with him? My team leader is Ronon, it's like he will eat me if we don't win."
They had all just come from their off-world class, and were excitedly chattering about their "test". Major Lorne had put together exactly what he said…a war. Each member of the class was assigned to their "commander" and would become a SG-team (four members plus the team leader). They were actually going to be able to go off-world (probably what they scientists were most excited about) and participate in war games at the beta site. It was where the military assigned to Atlantis, did their own training ops, and the off-world class was going to take it over this coming up Sunday.
"I still wonder why Novak wasn't assigned to Lorne's team." Benning said as her eyes came to rest on the pair in the corner of the mess hall.
The other scientists followed her gaze, and stared for a bit. Lindsey Novak was practically shinning, while she laughed at something the Major was saying to her. That Novak and Lorne were dating was old news to everyone on Atlantis, most of the scientists in the off-world class accepted it with no qualms after it was proven that Lorne didn't treat Lindsey any differently, than before, in their class.
"Probably because they knew Tyler here, would blow a gasket if he thought there was any cheating going on." Andrews spoke up, causing the whole table to snort.
"I already looked into that," Tyler said, choosing to ignore the laughter. "Colonel Sheppard said that none of the team leaders knew any more than we did about Sunday's exercise."
"You actually went and bothered the Colonel to make sure no one could cheat?" Another scientist asked, most of the table staring at Tyler with their mouths hanging open.
"Yes, I did. He was actually quite abrupt with me about the whole thing."
"Monday will be here soon."
"You mean Sunday," Lorne said, pulling Lindsey closer as they leaned against the railing. "Sunday is when we have the test."
"No, Marcus, I mean Monday." She turned in his arms and looked up into his face. "Monday is when the Daedalus will be leaving."
Sighing, he leaned his forehead against hers. "I know, let's not talk about it now."
"Well, we're running out of time to talk about it." Lindsey whispered, moving to circle his waist and rest her head on his chest. She could hear his heart beating under her ear. If anyone had told her that she could know a man for a month, date him for two weeks and fall madly in love with him during that time, she would have called them crazy. Yet, here she was two weeks into a relationship, and she knew that no one could ever mean more to her than Marcus Lorne. She pined like a love sick fool when they had to be away from one another to do their jobs and worried herself into knots when he and his team were off-world. More and more she was feeling huge respect for military spouses and what they had to go through, at least she had the classification to know what was going on…but she wasn't sure if that made it better or worse.
They had come to one of the out of the way balconies on Atlantis. Marcus had scrounged up food from the mess hall and brought a blanket, so they could have a picnic under the stars. The sound of the waves hitting against the city, the tangy smell of the ocean, and the cloudless star filled sky made a magical setting that only lovers could appreciate. Lindsey had joked that all that was missing was smooth jazz playing in the background.
"There really isn't much to say on the subject." Marcus broke into her thoughts, forcing her to pay attention to what he was saying. "There is nothing we can change about it. You have your job on the Daedalus, and I'm assigned to Atlantis. Talking about it will only get us down. We just need to have our fun while we can."
"Fun?" Lindsey stiffened, pulling herself out of his grasp. "Is that all this is, fun?"
Lorne knew he had just put his foot in his mouth, as he looked down into her hurt eyes. "No Lindsey…I didn't mean…" He reached out for her, but she moved further away.
"Thank you for the picnic, Major." She said in a cold formal tone, causing Marcus to flinch.
"Lindsey, listen to me…" Marcus started, but Lindsey was already out the door. He could hear her feet running down the deserted hallway. Swearing softly to himself, he followed. "Lindsey, stop!" He yelled as he ran after her.
The chase ended at the guest room, Lindsey was staying in during the month at Atlantis. He almost had the button pushed to open the door, when he heard the click of the lock. "Lindsey don't do this!" Marcus yelled and gave the button a try anyway. When the door stayed firmly closed, he hit it with his fist. "I didn't mean it the way you think!" He pressed his ear to the door, but heard no movement coming from her side. "Open the door, so we can talk!" he yelled, letting his fist hit the door, one more time.
Suddenly, Marcus could feel eyes burrowing into his back. Turning, he wanted to curse. There stood one of the Atlantis scientists…Miko, if he remembered the name correctly. She stood there staring at him, her eyes wide in shock. Looking further down the hall, he realized that there were several people who were standing right where Lindsey and he must have run past like bats out of hell. Most of the military personnel were moving on, their heads down pretending that they didn't notice one of Atlantis' ranking military officers acting crazy. Most of the civilians were staring at him exactly like Miko was. Turning back to the door, he gave the button one last push. When nothing happened, Marcus squared his shoulders and started walking back down the hallway. He didn't look to the left or right, he really didn't even care about what the people thought around him…he was more worried about what Lindsey thought.
Coming to his own quarters, Lorne thought back to his conversation with Lindsey. When he remembered the part of him saying they just need to have fun, he felt like kicking himself. He should have worded it better. For some reason, Lindsey was still very insecure about their relationship. No matter how many times he told her she was amazing, she always thought he would move on to some other woman. He could imagine what had gone through her thoughts when he used that phrase. To her, it was a confirmation of her worst fears, that he was using her for kicks and giggles…until she left and he could find someone else. "Lorne, you're a jackass," the Major mumbled to himself, as he pushed the button to enter his own room.
Looking around, he could see the little things that said Lindsey had been here often. She had several books littering his table, all written in machine code; he had teased her that those books were their own alien language. Sitting down at the side of his bed, a small smile formed when he looked down and saw a pink fuzzy slipper peeking from under one of the fallen blankets. The mere fact that there was a blanket on the floor, denoted the changes Lindsey had brought in the two short weeks they had been seeing each other. Usually, Marcus was full on military when it came to his room. Everything was in its proper place at all times, and his blankets would have never dreamed of coming out of their tightly made corners. That had all come to a stop after Lindsey began spending time in his room. He remembered thinking that it was a good thing Sheppard didn't really conduct inspections like he should on the rooms, because his own room would fail miserably. Lindsey was such a messy person when it came to where she was living. She had told him that in her job, everything had to be precise and exact, so she liked a bit of clutter in her room. Marcus smiled when he remembered her explanation of the room not being dirty. She had said that dirty implied unclean, and went on to say that everything in the room was clean; it was just not set with perfect precision on the desk or in the closet. She had used the word "homey" to describe his new and improved (to her, anyway) room.
Out of the blue, a thought hit him. He loved Lindsey Novak.
Sunday was finally here, and Major Lorne was about as pissed off as a man could be. He had tried to talk to Lindsey every day, several times a day even, but had been stonewalled. The off-world class had split into their teams, so he didn't even have class to try and clear things up. It had irritated him to no end, to have to watch her across the room practicing with Teyla's group and have no way of talking to her alone. He had even braved Hermiod's ire and tried to talk to her on the Daedalus. She had asked him politely, but firmly to leave.
"Everyone ready?"
Lorne came out of his dark thoughts, when Colonel Sheppard spoke from the doorway. Forcing himself to be the leader he was, Marcus turned to his commanding officer and gave him a tight smile. "All teams are ready and waiting, sir."
"Good," John said, looking at each team commander with a huge grin on his face. "Let's go have some fun." He turned, and the others began to follow the Colonel out of the room. Lorne stayed back, hoping that he would be able to snag Lindsey for a quick second. It was quite a sting to his heart, when she walked right passed him, for all intents and purposes, ignoring him.
"Major, are you okay?"
Lorne almost jumped when Doctor Benning placed her hand on his shoulder. Looking around he realized that his "team", had been standing around waiting to follow him out. Telling himself to get it together, he gave all of them a smile he hoped was reassuring. "Let's move out."
By the time, his group got to the gate, Lindsey had already gone through. He didn't let himself think about Lindsey, right then. It was game time, and he needed his game face. He and his team might not be going to a real war, but he was going to treat it like one. One thing that his commanding officers had always told him, was to practice like it was the real thing…so when the real thing actually came, you would be ready for it. Scanning his team's off-world gear, he gave each of them a nod when he saw that they had all the correct equipment, and it was all in the right place. "Okay people, listen up. Jensen you're on point, and I'll cover our sixes. Does everyone remember the rules Colonel Sheppard told us earlier?" The group all gave him excited nods, and then walked towards the gate. Lorne could see that some hesitated, but it was brief, and in what felt like a second his team had arrived at the site.