A/N: I have no idea why, but I've just watched this ep again...and for some reason the fact that you can see Bruce's throat is just so undeniably sexy...

Chapter Four - The Non Existent Night

Bruce was back in his room, pants on and was putting on his shirt when the door opened. For the second time in as many minutes, it was Diana. She was flushed, minus her jacket and hat. It had amused him the first time, but now it was beyond a joke.

"Diana, what the-"

She shut the door behind her. "What happens in Oklahoma, stays in Oklahoma?"

He frowned. "What?"

She licked her lips nervously. "If we get this time travel belt back, then history will resume its normal course, correct?"

He nodded.

"So…in that case, whatever happens now will be isolated from the rest of time."

"Yes…" he said, not sure where she was going with this.

It was Diana's turn to nod, and then she moved closer, sitting on the edge of his bed. She looked at him with a very odd look in her blue eyes.

"Give me the reasons again."

Bruce let an impatient sigh out, hoping that she'd take it as annoyance and drop the topic. Of course, this was Diana. Not even the Batglare had an effect on her. "You heard me the first time, Princess."

"Humour me," she said simply.

He gritted his teeth. It had been hard forcing sincerity into his voice the first time, let alone doing it again. "Fine. One: dating-"

She held up a finger. "In reverse order."

"What the hell difference does that make?" he growled.

She bit her bottom lip slightly. "Please?"

His hands curled into fists. "Three: if my enemies knew I had someone special, they wouldn't rest until they'd gotten to me through her."

Diana smirked. "Not valid even in the twenty-first century, but in this time and place your enemies don't exist."

"Two: you're a princess from a society of immortal warriors; I'm a rich kid with issues."

Her smirk didn't fade like he was expecting – if anything it got wider, though couldn't be called a full-fledged smile just yet. "I've been exiled from Themyscira – no longer a princess. And since your grandfather hasn't been born yet, and you won't inherit anything for more than a century, I don't think you can call yourself a rich kid anymore."

His mouth opened, but he couldn't think of a single thing to say. She was right, in a really twisted way. "Bruce?" she prompted. "The first reason?"

He recovered, and swallowed to wet his suddenly dry mouth. "Dating within the team always leads to disaster."

There it was – the smile that slowly formed on her face was like the sunrise. She got up and walked toward him, stopping only a foot or so away. "I'm not asking for a date, Bruce."

His mouth opened again. "You mean-"

She raised an eyebrow. "You're an intelligent man. What do you think I mean?"

The immediate reaction – only not so immediate – finally kicked in, and he shook his head. "Diana, we can't. If the people in the League found out then it could jeopardise-"

"We're never going to get another chance like this, Bruce," she said flatly. "If something happens between us now…the League will never have to know."

He didn't say anything – she had a point, and he really, really didn't want to admit that.

Unperturbed, Diana stepped closer. Moving with deliberate care, she gathered her hair and twisted it into a coil, then pushed it to hang over one shoulder. The little eddy of air that it created wafted her scent over the six or so inches to Bruce. He inwardly groaned. Rose oil. It was such a simple scent, so…old fashioned, almost, but on Diana…It was irresistible.

"Could you do it, Bruce?"

"Could you?" he growled. Then his voice softened. "Do you honestly believe I could break your heart like that, Diana?"

Her expression did not change. "I don't believe you could break my heart at all, Bruce. I am stronger than you give me credit for."

"Diana, you're the strongest woman I know-"

She took his face between her hands. "Then do not treat me as though I will break if you kiss me."

He put his hands on her hips, tried and failed to summon the willpower necessary for pushing her back. If she kissed him then there was no way he had the strength not to return it.

"I am not fragile, or frail, Bruce. I know what I am asking," she whispered. "And I do not want anything you cannot give." His eyelids flickered shut when she stood on her tiptoes, brushing her lips over them. "Do you want to live…" Down the bridge of his nose, across his cheeks. "…your entire life…" She moved her mouth along the stubble of his jaw line, her breath unbearably hot against his ear. "…without ever knowing…" She stopped, millimetres away from his lips, her gaze fixed on his, and just as heated. "…how wonderful it could be?"

His mouth was open now, his breath teasing across her lips, and trembling. He still couldn't talk, but Diana had expected it, so she only smiled and moved her hands again, into his hair this time, teasing with the ebony strands. "And it will be wonderful, Bruce. I promise you that."

With that, she kissed him. He knew she was going to do it, and the suspense of the last few minutes had been killing him, but it was another three seconds before Bruce moved. During that time, Diana did her best to help him along, nipping at his immobile top lip with her teeth, then sucking lightly on his bottom one. It proved to be the final straw – his hands grasped her hips harder, pulled her toward him and pressed her body against his. She responded eagerly, opening her mouth readily as he deepened the kiss, his tongue flicking out to explore her mouth and duel with hers.

Diana moved her hands down from his hair to his shoulders, finally settling her palms against his chest. Her hands felt like heated brands against his skin, and he drew back from her mouth in order to drop kisses down her neck. She tilted her head to one side, letting him gain better access. Suddenly it struck him: tomorrow it would be as if this night had never existed, as if Diana, for however brief a time she would be, had never been his. The urge to mark her that suddenly welled up was startling in its intensity, but he obeyed it, sinking his teeth lightly into the skin of her throat and suckling at it. Diana gasped, her hands coming up to tangle in his hair. He drew away a few seconds later, running his tongue over the red-purple mark he'd left behind. She kissed him again, passionately, but not too hurriedly, and with the same dominance that he'd used when he devoured her neck.

Her hands pushed the still open shirt off his shoulders without taking her mouth from his. It pooled at their feet, swiftly followed by hers. He stopped with a chuckle. "That's cheating, Princess."

Though she'd removed her bodice, she was still wearing the armour underneath the shirt, the golden breastplate revealing and somehow still hiding her form. He took the opportunity to run his palms down her bare back. At the feeling of his rough hands on her, Diana arched her back and yanked the armour away from her, needing to feel as much of him as she could. Both of them groaned when her breasts met the wall of his chest. Diana pulled back from his lips to breathe, nipping along his throat.

"How…was that even…attached?" he asked raggedly.

She took a moment to tease his earlobe with her tongue. "Stop thinking, Detective."

When her hands reached for the waistband of his trousers, he had no choice. It wasn't a difficult, and since the zipper hadn't been invented yet, she didn't have to worry about things getting caught. She did, however, have to worry about simply tearing his fly open, since buttons would go rolling in all directions. But this was taking a ridiculously long time.

Bruce chuckled and took her hands, dropping kisses on both of them. "Diana…we have all night."

A light blush spread across her cheeks, which he found utterly adorable and another reason to kiss her again. She found her fingers knew what to do once she had something else to focus on. When they drew apart, his flies were open. Diana giggled. "I guess I'm better at this than I thought."

She pushed him back – putting no strength into it whatsoever – onto the bed while slipping out of her own trousers. Moving like sinew, she moved over to the bed slowly with an almost mesmerising sway of her hips. It certainly mesmerised Bruce. After what seemed like an interminable amount of time, she was poised above him, her body aligned with his but not-quite touching. She leaned down, creating a dark curtain of hair around their faces, and kissed him again, sliding her tongue out to memorise his taste. At some point his hands had settled on her hips and now felt as though they belonged there. To emphasise this, he pulled down slightly; Diana obliged and let her weight rest on him, her hips pressed against his.

Bruce sat up slightly, kissing down her neck and running his hands up her body to stroke the underside of her breasts. When his thumbs skimmed her nipples, Diana arched her back with a small moan. Unconsciously she rocked her pelvis downward against the bulge she found there, and it was his turn to groan. For a moment she pulled back, and they froze in their positions, Diana with one hand fisted in his hair, Bruce with his hands covering both her breasts, and both equally certain of how they felt about each other, and both knowing that this would never happen again. Diana smiled – sad and relieved that she'd been right – then kissed him slowly, almost, dare he think it, almost lovingly. And God help him if he didn't return it in the same way.

When he rolled them, Diana went willingly, giggling when her back hit the mattress as well as at the look in his eyes. The giggle was gone instantaneously when he lowered his wonderful mouth again, skimming along her collarbone before descending to her breasts. Diana arched her back to let his hands slip under her, and she found herself being lifted up and fed to his gluttonous mouth. Tendrils of pleasure spiked upward, only to recoil and pool between her legs again. She didn't know how long he lay there, inflicting pleasurable torture on her, but when her impatience grew too intense (which didn't take long), Diana moved again, rolling them back the other way until she was back straddling his hips.

She leaned down again to lay a trail of kisses and bites along his jaw. "Enough," she breathed harshly. "I want you. Now."

He grinned; a warm genuine smile that made her heart flutter slightly. "There's only two things stopping that, Princess."

Looking down, she saw what he meant. Admittedly her arousal had made both their underwear damp, but no less solid. She raised her hips to let his fingers divest her of her underwear, then did the same to him, instinctively curling her fingers around his length and moving her hand gently up and down. "Oh God, Diana."

He opened his eyes in time to see a wickedly mischievous grin on her face before she took her hand away and moved her hips forward, hovering over his arousal long enough to torture both of them. It took a substantial portion of his self-control not to grab her hips and pull her down, but he managed to achieve a compromise – his hands gripped her skin perhaps rather harder than he would have done if not being driven mad by desire, but he made no move to dictate the pace of it. Diana shot him a grateful smile, though she didn't feel at all nervous. She trusted him; one of the few men she trusted with her life – and the only one she would trust with this.

With a movement that caused so much pleasure it was almost painful, Diana slowly lowered herself onto him. Her hands grasped his shoulders until she was settled against his overheated thighs, both of them gasping. She leaned forward and pressed her forehead against his, almost afraid to move. Wanting, needing to obey the primal urges inside her, but for once lacking the courage to begin. "Bruce?" she whispered.

He kissed her, and slowly began rocking her hips over his until she caught the rhythm. She let out a moan when she did, which didn't take long, and matched his slow, measured thrusts. It was exactly as she'd imagined it would be, exactly the balance of pleasure and the rapidly-fading pain. Unfamiliar and natural together. The beat was prehistoric, ancient, overwhelming in its mindlessness. The pain gone completely now, she moved faster, harder against him, crushing her mouth against his to try and stifle her cries of pleasure when he reciprocated the new-found urgency of her movements. She bucked her hips as he thrust deeper into her, every movement sending waves of bliss through her body, causing her nails to leave tiny crescent marks on his back and shoulders. Diana's back arched against his chest as his mouth moved to her collar bone, kissing and biting it hard enough that she knew she'd have a mark there. Not that she minded in this particular moment, since was too busy biting her lip to stop herself crying out. The euphoria rose up until she didn't think it could get anymore intense, then it did, crashing over her in a wave that destroyed what little capacity for thought she had left and left her moaning Bruce's name even though their lips were still locked together. He came a few seconds later with long, drawn-out groan of her name.

Sweaty and unable to breathe and utterly satisfied, they leaned against each other, chests heaving. "Why…were we denying ourselves that?"

Bruce laughed breathlessly. "I have no idea."

She took his face in her hands and kissed him again. "Thank you." They were both still too out of breath for the kiss to last long, and he leaned back onto the pillows, Diana still atop him and with her head buried in his shoulder.

If she was expecting to feel the desire she'd felt to fade with the act, she was very wrong. Rather than draining away, she felt it would take only one spark to fan the flames once more into that same inferno. She knew that to say it would bring something far too dangerous into existence, but the look in Bruce's storm-coloured gaze told her the same thing. It was inevitable now. It could be tomorrow, or in a year, or in a decade from now, but one day they'd be here again. Unwilling to consider how long that might be, or to waste the rest of this non-existent night, Diana kissed him again.

"Diana, I-"

She put a finger to his lips. "Hush. Not tonight. Just make love to me."

So he did.

---

It had been years since Bruce's body needed an alarm to wake it up, and sure enough, at dawn, his eyelids fluttered open of their own accord. Less familiar was the feeling of smooth limbs and silky hair, the warm body stretched across his.

Her head was on the pillow next to his, her palm splayed on his chest, and one of her endless legs possessively placed on top of his in an almost feline pose. The expression on her face was perfectly restful, and utterly satisfied. She looked, in short, like the cat who'd gotten the cream.

Looking down at her, he tried to find regret for what they had spent most of last night doing. He found none.

He kissed her forehead. "Princess."

"Mmm?"

"We have to go."

---

A/N: So what did you think? Review please!