Despite my bold intentions as I walk out of my bedroom, I hesitate a few inches from the bathroom door. You could need just a little bit of time to yourself. A lot has changed since last night. I'm not selfish enough to think that just what we shared might be on your mind. You broke off your engagement with Frank and even though you were playful this morning, I know it has to weigh on your heart.

Your beautiful heart.

The same heart that was pounding as I worked my mouth along the curve of your neck.

Maybe I'll just take a peek. A small peek and I'll be on my way.

I roll my eyes. I can't even lie to myself anymore.

I ease the door open slowly, a litany of excuses running through my head like a menu. Sarah Connor? I clamp a hand over my mouth to stifle my giggle. What is wrong with me?

I know what is wrong with me. I'm giddy. Giddy and in love. With Natalia Rivera. I drop my hand to my side as the laughter fades away into a smile.

The steam from your shower has filled most of the bathroom and I can feel its warm fingers trailing along my body, seeking to escape through the open door. I step forward quickly and leave the door open just a little bit. I'm so focused on trying to make out what you might be doing that I don't notice that other than the flickering of water against the curtain, there is no movement.

I take a tentative step forward, my hand raised to pull back the curtain.

"If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure I told you to wait."

"Natalia!" Your hands wrap around my waist and I wonder if you realize that you almost just took back the precious gift you gave me over a year ago.

I break away from you and step closer to the counter, one hand held protectively over my heart. "What are you doing?"

"What am I doing?" You're leaning back against the door, trying desperately not to laugh. "I was starting to take my shower when something told me to hide and wait."

"You were going to hide from me?" I'm trying to play the injured party here but now that I'm sure I'm not going to keel over in this very steamy bathroom, the truth of what you just said hits me.

Your hair is wet, the curls tangling together along the skin of your shoulders. And despite the moist heat of the bathroom, your nipples have hardened under my scrutiny. The water from the shower is mixing with the condensation from the steam and indiscriminate rivulets are running along your body. There, along the slope of your shoulder. And there, racing along the plane of your stomach. Helpless, my eyes follow its progress until it disappears between your legs.

Definitely not waiting.

Whatever playful response you were going to give is cut off as I close the distance between us. I hear your sharp intake of breath a moment before I push you back against the door, pinning your body with mine. I brace my elbows to either side of your face, my hands pressing flat against the door. I rub my lips across yours slowly, your bottom lip catching against mine.

The steam and the water have made your body slick and I take full advantage of that fact, slipping my thigh between yours with little resistance. Your hands are sweeping from my biceps to the base of my spine and it is driving me crazy.

All playfulness from before is forgotten in this overwhelming need for you. Your tongue runs along my bottom lip and draws me into a kiss. Your hands are pulling at my hips, trying to find purchase along my wet skin. I arch my back a little further and the softness of your breasts against mine is my undoing.

I break away from the kiss and push off the door, pulling away from you completely. Our panting is swallowed up in the cushion of the steam but I can hear your soft moans echoing in my head. I grab your hand and tug you towards me, angling my body to press you against the counter.

Your mouth is bruised and swollen from our kisses and your eyes never leave my face. You brace your hands behind you and my mouth goes dry. I brush the backs of my fingers against your nipples and swallow hard.

"I want you." We've been lovers for less than 24 hours and I can honestly say that I have never wanted anyone as much as I want you right now.

I keep brushing my fingers lightly against your stomach, content to just watch you as I touch you. My hands reach your hips and I distract you by leaning forward and running my tongue along the length of your neck.

Without warning, I tighten my hold on you and lift you up to sit on the edge of the counter. Your hands slip along the condensation on the marble and I'm forced to brace my body against your knees, my hands clamped to your shoulders to prevent you from pitching over the side.

Not quite as smooth as I had imagined it would be.

I realize that both of us have frozen, waiting to see if it's safe for you to stay up there. I look up to see your eyes as wide as saucers and I can't help but start laughing. Before I know it, I'm doubled over your lap, wheezing out an apology. I hold onto your hips and I can feel your body shaking with laughter. I lift up and meet your amused expression.

"If that was payback for before…" You start, holding me playfully at arms' length from you.

I raise my hands quickly in innocence. "It wasn't. It wasn't, I promise." I rest my hands against your thighs, moving forward to brace your knees a little wider. I smile at you and place an almost chaste kiss against your lips.

I lean my hips back a little bit and continue to place kisses along your skin. I feel your muscles twitch as my lips move along the swell of your breasts and begin to follow the line of your ribs.

"However, this?" I punctuate my question with a soft bite to the skin above your hipbone. "This is payback."

Even as I ease my way down to my knees in front of you, there is a part of me that is about to hyperventilate.

It's the steam. Too much steam. Who thought that steamy bathrooms were sexy? I should probably just get up and open the door a little bit.

I look up quickly to see if you've noticed my hesitation and I'm caught off-guard by the look in your eyes. I see love and desire and nerves. And trust. Such absolute trust. Something passes in our look, some acknowledgment of the final line I'm about to cross here.

As I watch, your hips tilt a little closer to me and hands reach down and grip the edge of the counter, your body bracing for whatever I choose to do.

Your surrender looses something inside me and without pausing, my mouth opens against you as my arms wrap around your thighs. The first taste of you destroys me and I am lost to you.

Of all the fantasies I entertained of you, not one could even come close to what it is like to bring you pleasure like this. At first, I think to try and replicate what I know feels good to me but pretty soon, your body is spilling all its secrets and I just follow your lead.

I can hear you above me, your moans a mix of my name, pleas and even soft profanities. One of your hands has found its way to tangle in my wet hair and I bring my hand up under your thigh to keep you from sliding.

The erotic intimacy of this moment has my own insides fluttering in response. I fight back my own needs and just give in to the taste and feel of you. The sounds I now know as well as my own have reached my ears and my hands tighten against your legs in anticipation.

A few more seconds pass and then you are all hips and groans. I absorb the pain as you pull at my hair and move my mouth to rest against your thigh. My eyes trail up your body and with your head still thrown back, the slender column of your throat draws my attention.

I rise up and press my lips there, pulling you close to me and smiling as you wrap your calves around the back of my legs. I can feel your heart thundering against my chest and I try to think of something to say. Some way to describe how this felt.

"Now I really need a shower." I bring my head up slowly to look at you, answering your grin with one of my own.

What am I going to do with you, Natalia?

I shake my head as your dimples soften your grin into a smile. You stroke the side of my face and all the love I've ever wanted is reflected back at me.

You bump me back a little bit with your other hand until you can brace your hands on my shoulders and ease down from the counter. You step away from me and pull back the curtain to the shower.

"Come on. I'll even let you wash my back."

Thank God for our water heater. I should write the company and thank them. I push the last button through on my jeans and pick my shirt up off the dresser. Facing myself in the mirror, I indulge in a foolish smile.

"Dear Sir or Madam, I had the most wonderful occasion to experience the durability of your water heater. I will admit, at the time, I didn't give it much thought and even took it for granted. I'd like to fix that now and offer testimony to its greatness. With much appreciation, Olivia Spencer." I finish with a flourish, lightly spraying perfume against my neck.

"Who are you talking to?" You're leaning against the doorjamb with a smile on your face. A very relaxed smile, I might add.

I finish pulling my shirt over my head and turn to face you. I should be embarrassed at having been caught talking to myself but I am too happy right now to care.

"I was thinking out loud. I think I should write to the water heater people and thank them, don't you?" I walk just close enough to be able to see the blush creeping along your skin. Amazing. After everything we have shared and I can still make you blush.

"Olivia." You admonish me like you would a naughty child.

"Natalia." Smiling, I mock your tone and close the distance between us. Sliding my arms around your waist, I pull you against me and just take a few moments to hold you. Immediately your hands hold me closer and you nuzzle your nose against the side of my neck.

"You smell so good. You always smell so good. It used to drive me crazy."

I lean back in your arms a little and arch my eyebrow at you. "Used to?"

On a laugh, you kiss me softly on the mouth, drawing out the contact until I can feel myself stirring for you again. Reluctantly, I bring my hands to the side of your face and end the kiss.

"We really need to eat." I watch as a decidedly wicked grin breaks out across your face.

My turn to blush. I grab at hands that have slyly made their way to the edge of my jeans and take a small step back from you.

"Out." You're smiling broadly at me now and that only increases my resolve to not turn to mush in front of you. I point towards the stairs and incline my head in some semblance of a regal nod. At least, I hope it came across that way. Though, judging by your eye roll, I don't think I was too successful.

You wink at me as you turn around to leave. "Chicken." Your stage whisper threatens to let loose the laughter I'm trying to hold back.

Chicken? Couldn't be farther from the truth, of course. I just feel like a randy teenager and if we don't make it downstairs soon, Emma is going to come home to find us passed out up here from dehydration and starvation.

I hear your footsteps on the stairs and release the breath I had been holding. "Are you coming?" You call out to me from the bottom of the stairs. My short bark of laughter is followed by another laughing admonishment from you.

"Okay, okay." I follow you down the stairs, my hand sweeping across the railing. Was it only last night that we stood here? It seems a million miles away from where we are standing now. I look up to see you watching me, your thoughts apparently running parallel to mine.

"I'm sorry." You're still smiling at me but the edges of last night's pain creep into your voice. I get to the bottom where you are standing and reach out to clasp your hands.

"No, Natalia." I squeeze your fingers, hoping to ease some of the guilt I see in your eyes. "Don't apologize anymore. You did the right thing. It wasn't right for me to stop you like that and it wouldn't have been right for you to let me continue. I know that." I stop briefly to kiss your forehead, the pain of remembering still making me ache just a little bit.

Keeping your hands in mine, I bring them to rest against my heart. "What you did last night, going to Frank the way that you did, took strength. More strength than I could ever hope for."

"But I hurt him." Your eyes drop from mine, trying to shield me from the pain you feel from loving Frank and having hurt him.

"I know, sweetheart. I know. And I'm so sorry that you had to feel that. But if there is anyone to blame here, it's me." Your eyes jump to mine, an automatic denial already springing from your lips.

"Yes. Shhh, yes. Listen to me. I've had these feelings for you for a while now. I knew I was falling in love with you, Natalia. I fought it. Believe me, I fought it but everywhere I turned, there you were until one day it occurred to me that I couldn't remember what it was like to not be in love with you. I thought if I kept it to myself, if I tried to pretend I didn't love you as much as I did, I could protect you."

"Protect me? I'm not a child, Olivia."

"No, you're not. But you have innocence to you. It's one of the things that made me fall in love with you. Look at how you reacted to Emma's presentation. To my kissing you."

Placing a kiss to your fingertips, I drop your hands and run my fingers up your arms to hold your shoulders. I gather strength from you and continue.

"I know how vicious people can be. Especially in this town. I didn't want that for you. Frank is a stand-up guy and he loves you. He could give you a safe, happy life and even if it killed me, I was going to make you see that Frank was the one you should want. So I held back how I was feeling and pushed you away towards Frank. So you see, if I hadn't been such a coward, you never would have to have gone through what you went through last night."

"Do you think me so easy to manipulate?" A wisp of anger has colored your voice and stops anything I was about to say. "Olivia, I may not have understood right away what was going on between us, but I'm not as naïve as you think I am. I saw the way you would look at me. I knew how I felt when you touched me, either in affection or for no reason at all. I even think a part of me knew what it was you were doing with all your cheerleading for Frank. But I let it continue. I did that."

While you were talking, my hands had slipped from your shoulders but you grab them now and bring me closer to you. "Maybe you could have said something but so could I. Neither of us did but I was the one that accepted an engagement with another person so that is my burden to bear. Do you understand?"

"Yes but…"

"No. Olivia," Your voice implores me and I'm helpless against it. "I love you for wanting to protect me. But I'm not going to let you feel all the guilt here. What I did last night, I did for all of us. You, me, Frank, Emma, Rafe…to let the engagement continue would have just kept hurting everyone I love. I know that there are still so many things to deal with and I will. We will."

"Okay." I pull you into my embrace and close my eyes against all the emotions battering at me. The warmth of you, the realness of you, calms me and brushes everything else aside until it's only your love that I feel.

"I am sorry I hurt you last night but I have no regrets about being here with you now." Your lips tickle against my ear as your voice drops to a whisper. "I love you."

Will I ever get tired of hearing that? "Say it again."

I feel your smile a second before your lips move. "I love you, Olivia."

I tighten my grip and hold you closer, content to just feel the length of you against me. "Do you love me enough to make me breakfast?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Do you love me enough to help?" I stiffen, for form of course, at the accusation and grab your hand, tugging you along behind me.

With a laugh in my voice, I answer you. "Oh Natalia. That's not the real question. The real question is do you love me enough to eat it?"