Listen to Bite by Troye Sivan for this chapter.

You won't regret it.

-g.

Tala touched the base of her throat, humming to herself as she picked up a small wash cloth, rubbing away at her already soaped skin.

The glass door of her shower for once wasn't covered in fog, her shower nearer to the temperature of the polar ice caps rather than the hot spring feel she usually bathed in.

It wasn't helping a damn bit, the heat that still consumed her after her little dalliance with James still burning. The cold of her shower in turn was instead causing goosebumps to erupt all over her body, making her skin even more sensitive than it had been when James had had his hands on her.

She had excused herself after they'd both pulled themselves from the floor and polished off the sandwiches in near complete silence.

Tala knew that if they spoke again, they'd either end in the same position on the floor, or in a fight. Although they hadn't fought yet, which intrigued her slightly on how it would end, she had the innate sense to know that although he'd come to her home under the intent of pulling the memories forward, he hadn't appreciated her dalliance in his mind without his consent.

Throughout his glances of heat, his eyes also held a sense of wariness. He had chewed his food slowly, his eyes wandering over her hands, and her face intermittently leaving her feeling torn between desire and guilt.

Tala had not a drop of power left within her, and it left her feeling strangely foreign in her own skin. She'd never been without a semblance of power since they'd been bestowed on her, but with weeks of constant use and the past day of frantic wasteful uses it made sense.

So, as her plate stared at her with nothing more than crumbs, she'd mumbled an explanation letting him know he was welcome to anything he'd like, and she'd be upstairs taking a shower, which he was welcome to take after she'd finished.

She'd nearly sprinted up the stairs to the second level of her home as he'd wordlessly picked her plate up for her. She entered the hallway of the second level, rushing into the last door past her guest bedroom, closing her door with a slam.

Her breathing had remained labor as she tore off her clothes in agitation and with nearly trembling hands had started the water.

Tala felt a little foolish, definitely different than she had this very morning. Had it only been this morning that she'd had an uncomplicated future?

Now she harbored a fugitive in her home, a past killer, one who had harmed others, and had done so with little else than a few sentences spoken to each other.

Had her level headed attitude finally done her in, had she completely gone mad, or did she let her damn libido speak for her? At that exact moment, Tala could recall her reasoning, only that damn he had felt good as he'd held her.

A prude, Tala was not.

She'd been with a man after her first successful hunt, at the age of fifteen. As tribe tradition had dictated after she'd brought down the first elk of her life, she was given choice over the accomplished hunters of the village to bring her into womanhood.

She'd chosen an older warrior, to the disappointment to many her own age, to teach her about her own body. The practice seemed taboo to most beings in this day and age, but had been a tradition in her own time.

He'd been gentle and calm as she had fumbled through their experience, and after they'd emerged from her quarters the next morning ( as was custom for the woman's comfort, being in her own element) she'd been held up as an eligible match in her village.

Only after a woman had been experienced and comfortable with herself was she eligible for marriage proposals, now able to lay with a husband without fear of harm.

Although her father had been offered many tributes and parcels of goods and land for her hand, her father had loved her far too much to part with her for anything less than her approval and although she had enjoyed the sensation of sex, Tala didn't find the idea of partnership appealing.

She had wanted to be a great warrior women, become legend and myth to her people, and had refused every offer for her wife hood until she'd offered herself as the gods instrument at the age of twenty four. An age that had found her referred to as an old spinster.

As she'd lived through the centuries, she found herself periodically taking lovers to stem the loneliness for another soul, satisfying the urge for a few days before disappearing once more to the humans.

She'd been concerned at first at the possibility at pregnancy and disease, unsure if there was even a chance, but had been careful and as contraception had advanced, she'd followed suit.

In this day and age, at twenty four she was still seen as a child and had more than once had to bite her tongue as even tribesman who knew her true age referred to her as such.

Now she wanted to help Bucky make sense of his confusing and hidden past and where ever it brought them, but she couldn't deny the undeniable attraction between them. It was always there, like a crackle underneath her skin for each smile and eye contact shared between them.

Tala sighed underneath the flow of her shower head her eyes closed in thought, resigning herself to the fact that a cold shower was doing nothing for her now.

As she reached for the spigot and its small lever which would divert the water to it once more, Tala nearly shrieked in alarm when the glass door on her shower came open its doorway filled with a very naked Bucky.

Tala turned quickly glaring down the smug faced Bucky, his jaw set and facial features hard. He was clearly comfortable being bare around others as he stood with each hand on either side of the door frame.

"I don't believe an invitation was offered to you for this event." Her tone was clipped as she casually crossed her arms across her chest, not bothering to fall into the trap of hysterics. Her nakedness was less alarming to her than the reality that she hadn't known he had been making his way to her, unable to feel his mind with her own.

She had never felt more vulnerable than she did now, with the inability to sense the world around her and to protect herself.

A slight tremor entered her subconscious as Bucky huffed stepping into the shower area, closing the door behind him his hands finding their way to his hips, standing with his legs spread in a wide stance.

Craving.

He was not being Bucky in this moment, as he stood before Tala with a zombielike need. He'd slammed down his inner monologue which preached to him of harassment, of predator instincts, as he'd paced throughout the length of her downstairs as he'd faintly heard the groan of pipes awakening.

He was a monster, he'd been a monster. It haunted his every movement now that she'd awakened the memory, beating against his sanity to know what he'd done.

Touching her in the moments after her intrusion had been like a cool glass of water after walking through a desert. Her presence had quelled the hate and self-loathing as he'd held her.

Christ, it was like his very mind was ripping itself apart unless her presence was close enough, and as she'd abandoned him to scuttle upstairs he'd felt her absence like a burn.

A day now, a day in her presence pulled an animal, and a human from within him. He couldn't handle both at once, as he listened to the animal within him, without remorse or conscious vaguely understanding that the Winter Solider had taken control of his psyche in these moments.

As the Winter Soldier it had found him ascending the stairs, listening to the water spray muffled by the space and doors between them. He'd opened the door to what he assumed was her room, hyper focused on the open door within where stranded clothes lead the way through.

Mechanically he'd pulled his clothes off article by article leaving them in a similar trail till he'd stood in the bathroom chest heaving as he took a deep breath with the vision of Tala underneath the stream of water falling from above.

Now he stood, a few feet between them, her stance defensive and agitated, and yet he still couldn't pull himself out of the animalistic mind set.

"I'm welcome to anything I'd like."

"Clever. I'd also like to remind you of the last time you made a move towards me I didn't like." Thankfully her bravado held strong as she kept her eyes above his waistline, refusing to be tempted… at least until she could make sense of the situation happening.

"But that was a move you didn't like, which is not the case now." His voice was low and rumbled deep from within his chest, thankfully staying still as he spoke.

Tala stared blankly at Bucky, unsure of her next move. He was correct, she'd already accepted that there was an attraction between them, but this was forcing her hand.

They were both consenting adults, but she felt a sense of foreboding as if taking up the offer before her would lead her to a path she wasn't meant to walk.

She didn't know him, all she knew of him was his past as a soldier, a killer, and her personal savior.

Bucky took the moment Tala offered in silence to appreciate her. Surprisingly, her earlier mention of tattoo's hadn't stuck in his mind, but now that he saw her bare they were vivid against her skin.

Dark lines, thick and dotted lined her chest, across the tops of her breasts, streaking down past the areas hidden now by her arms, reaching to her torso where a row of triangular tattoo's ringed her stomach, another beautiful series of lines and dotted skin framed by another triangular row to create a band that met with the dark lines from her chest.

Both thighs held similar bands, each marked with a succession of dotted skin which seemed to create a primitive portrait of a snarling wolf facing inward towards her inner thighs on each side caged by the same triangular rows.

Her skin gleamed as water continued to rush over her, the golden honey of her skin deep and tanned leaving the dark brown of the ink to melt into her skin lusciously.

The ink still looked fresh, as if it had only been done a few years ago, not centuries, and as he followed each line, he found himself staring at the center of her legs whose Apex made his mouth suddenly dry as the center of his own body stirred to life.

"You're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen."

Tala still stood stoic, as his words dripped with worship, the pupils of his blue eyes dilated and his breath suddenly short.

Calling the kettle black, Tala thought as she also appreciated the fine male specimen in front of her. His entire body was thick, and muscular, hard lines curving his stomach and chest to perfection. Scars littered his body, as well as the massive disconnect between his chest and shoulder to his metal arm. It looked as if his skin had been burned to infuse the flesh with the metal as it healed, the metal platelets that made up his arm adorned with a single red star. The muscles at his hips were prominent giving him a natural line to the center of his legs, an remarkable length nestled in dark curls that left Tala impressed.

Shifting from one foot to the other, Tala kept her arms crossed, still standing in ice cold water which heated the moment it touched her sweltering skin.

"What was the outcome you were looking for here Bucky?" The mention of his name brought his cognizance crashing back, and although he felt appalled with his actions, the static that sparked between them was overwhelming.

Tala could mend everything, he just knew.

"To be honest, when I'm touching you there is no thought of who I am. I'm just a man, a human being in your eyes."

She'd be lying if his words didn't instantly set her at ease, draining her fear from her in mere moments.

Tala had only been with lovers who knew nothing of her heritage and powers, in fact hadn't known her at all. Bucky didn't know that she was older than even him, if she were to share herself with him he'd also be the first lover she had in two hundred years where she would only be experiencing her own emotions.

Uncrossing her arms slowly to place her hands on her hips mirroring his own actions, Tala turned away from him momentarily to turn the water's heat up to warm.

In doing this, Tala felt chills spread throughout her body, a whisper of power akin to her depleted own solidifying her decision. She'd never been one to shirk at her culture or its connection with the very center of all life, and with the fading sensation of power she wasn't about to question fate now.

Moving out of the stream, Tala reached to slide her hands against the skin of Bucky's chest as her left hand traced the joining skin of his metallic arm. Not stopping until she was skin to skin with the built man, her hand tracing the cool metal until it found her arm wrapped around his neck, Tala's skin tingled with the contact.

Bucky held his breath as she slid against his skin, as hot as her skin was, the droplets of water cold forcing his nipples to pucker and his muscles to constrict tighter in anticipation.

Tala let loose a soft chuckle, the smile on her lips dazzling as she captured his lips once again wiping his mind of all pain and loss, spearing their feet to the floor as his arms clasped her to him with passion and hope.

Becoming lost within one another once more, enabling both immortals a moments reprieve from the hollow sentiments of eternity.

Important:

I need your, you the readers, opinion on the next chapter.

Would you like the naughty bits in the next chapter, or leave it to your imagination and return to the story line?

Please send me your opinions and let me know what we are thinking!