A/N: HUGE thank you to all of you beautiful souls who reviewed, fav'ed and followed my first piece of fanfic ever. It seriously means so much. Xo
It was supposed to be a one-shot, but since your reviews kinda blew me away, I decided to continue this story. Gotta say this was probably even harder to publish, because while at first I was anxious about whether you will like it, now I'm scared to disappoint, haha. Fingers crossed you like this just as much as the first chapter.
Rating: This should probably be rated M. No details, but still, they get some. Couldn't help myself.
Minutes felt like hours as they stood in the water, lips locked, eyes closed, hands touching bodies and not a word been spoken. Every now and then, little giggles could be heard in-between kisses, most of them coming out of Letty's mouth.
As another wave passed, Letty finally looked at him again. Dom had his arms wrapped around her hips, his gaze fixed on her and Letty could see his eyes blazing with passion. She knew then how much he had actually been holding back, trying to keep his sexual desire in check.
He did it all for her, because he didn't want her to feel any pressure. They didn't need to rush anything, that's what he had told her. It was sweet. It meant the ball was in her court. She had all the power. Whenever she wanted to make the next move, he would be there waiting.
The fact that Dom was willing to do that, however, didn't mean that his body had to agree. The desire Letty saw in his eyes, she could feel below the surface of the water. And as soon as she lowered her gaze, and then, looking back up, saw the huge smirk on his face, she knew Dom thought the same thing.
"You're cool down there?" she asked, clearly taking a mischievous pleasure in Dom's little misfortune.
"Well, you just saw it, Let. What do you think?" Dom teased.
He wasn't quite sure if he was going too far, but it seemed to him as though she felt much more at ease with the situation compared to earlier. And if she weren't, Letty would probably just let him know.
Dom's sexual innuendo hadn't wiped the smirk off Letty's face, though. She still looked at him with that same amused face. What she didn't let him see were the thoughts giving her mind a good shake.
Maybe she had thought of it all wrong. Maybe being intimate with Dom again didn't start with her, but with him. Maybe she needed to rediscover his body first before she would feel safe enough again to offer him her own for exploration. Maybe she just needed to give herself a little push.
"I think, it looks like you need a hand," Letty stated. "And I might be just the right person for the job," she added, smirking, "since I'm great with my hands, you know."
"I love the way you think," Dom told her with a grin on his face.
Letty could see the happiness surrounding his entire being and it touched her to know that she was the reason for it. She knew that he wasn't that happy, because she would do him a sexual favor, though he would, of course, enjoy it. He was happy that she could do it, simply because she was here, they were together again and everything was back to normal.
Almost.
Because if they were characters in a cartoon, Dom would be able to see her heart literally beating out of her chest right now, as Letty still felt like this was the start of something new and not an old flame waiting to be rekindled. It was, however, a new beginning, thus her heart had every reason to cheer.
Dom looked Letty in the eyes, still wondering if she was really ready for this. She seemed to be, but had been so insecure about intimacy earlier that Dom couldn't just ignore that now. All of this, that girl, meant so much to him, he didn't want to ruin things before they had even begun.
He worried about her. He always had, but it was different this time, because of everything they had been through. Dom didn't want her to take that step into his direction only to find out she wasn't ready yet and then run the other way.
He kind of felt like one of those first-time moms, who were always afraid of doing something wrong and harm their baby or didn't want to leave their newborn out of sight, because of that fear that something might happen to it while they were away.
He didn't know what amnesia did to people, how it changed them, even if their memories eventually came back. Letty remembered everything now, but that didn't necessarily mean that she was still the same person.
Back in London, he had told her, she was still the same girl, and partly this was true, but now that they stood here after everything that had happened, talking and starting to find that long-lost intimacy between them again, Dom realized that he had indeed been a little ignorant back then.
Letty would probably never be the exact same person again that she was before she had lost her memory, and then got it back, but she still was the person he knew best and the one that knew him best. And she would always be the girl he fell for, the woman he loved and the wife he adored and couldn't live without.
His main priority was to make her feel safe and protect her from anything that could cause her to break or not feel comfortable in her own skin.
"You know, you don't have to–" Dom started to address the issue quietly, but Letty's index finger on his lips stopped him from finishing his sentence. She obviously knew what he thought and wanted to say.
"It's okay. I'm… okay," she whispered, smiling at him in a reassuring way.
Sometimes, it still amazed her how easy they could go from cracking jokes and teasing each other to serious talk. As soon as one of them noticed a change in the other one's behaviour, they responded to it. No words needed to be said. They both could usually feel right away when something was wrong.
"Now, let me take care of your little problem," Letty smiled, as her hand slowly made its way down to his shaft.
She gave Dom a little peck, and then didn't back away but remained close to his face by pressing her forehead against his so she could actually feel Dom breathing against her lips. Both had their eyes closed. Letty's other hand rested behind Dom's head, touching his scalp.
The instant Dom felt Letty's touch, his mind settled into silence and he was able to completely savor the moment. His hands roamed over her body, not sure where to stay. He attempted to tilt his head back, but she pulled him close again. She obviously wanted to be in charge and he had always had a thing for powerful women. It was damn sexy, almost like old times. It only made him want her more.
As her hand moved faster up and down his thick manhood, Letty could feel Dom's breathing getting heavier. He moaned, and it made her grin. She could get used to this again. It felt damn good, and the longer it kept going on the more comfortable she got with this kind of intimacy.
"You like that, bubba? Told ya, I'm good at this," she murmured, stroking the back of his head.
"I know you are," Dom uttered under his breath. "I choose my girls wisely."
Letty's eyes snapped open. She knew exactly what he meant by that and how he had meant it, but he was definitely not in the position to tease her right now. He should've known what to expect after a comment like that and so her hand stopped doing what it was doing – pleasuring Dom – immediately.
Dom sighed deeply, a murmur of disapproval escaping his mouth. It would not have taken him that much longer to get to the point of full relief, but that was the problem with women having all the power; you never knew when they would turn it against you.
"Ugh, Let, please don't–" That kind of teasing was just mean. He didn't deserve that. Or maybe he did, but still, he wished she hadn't stopped.
"What do you mean by girls, Dom? You got more than just me?" Letty asked him eagerly and raised an eyebrow, trying to contain her laughter when she saw the look on Dom's face as he opened his eyes.
Oh, boy, did he suffer.
It seemed like after days in the desert he had finally found water only to realize that he had been fooled and it was just a mirage. He was aching for something only she had the power to give him, and she liked that. The teasing game was hers to play.
"No, I meant… Past. Tense. One. Just you," Dom fumbled with words, not being able to think straight.
And this was all it took to make Letty lose her self-control.
"Ha-ha," she burst out laughing, "I get you, big boy."
Technically, though, he hadn't chosen her, but they had chosen each other.
Tons of girls had been interested in him, something that had pissed Letty off right from the start day in, day out. And when they finally were together, she still had to drive away skanks that wanted her man. It hadn't been easy for her, but she had decided back then that Dominic Toretto was worth all the trouble and she had never regretted that choice.
And it wasn't like there hadn't been any other options for her.
She had had a bunch of guys chasing after her. While to the most of them, it was all about the thrill of the chase, a game, there had actually been some guys, who seemed to have had good intentions. Later, when she realized Dom finally saw in her the woman he wanted to be with, she used those boys to make him jealous with. She had seen how much he hated it, and she had enjoyed it. Up until that point where she decided they had played this game long enough and it was time for the both of them to stop and just be together.
"Now will you–"
"Finish what I started?" Letty assumed his question would be and Dom nodded, eyes closed again.
"Yeah... Our prenup forbids the use of torture."
Of course she knew there was no such thing as a prenup. As if they were even the kind of people that thought of something like that. They were used to dive head first into things even if those things were as important as getting married. No, that was just Dom trying to be funny, messing with her head to see how much she really remembered. But Letty, as usual, decided to play along.
"It does?" she asked, stressing that last word by dragging it out. "But it's so much fun. You should see your face," Letty laughed, tugging at Dom's earlobe a little with her teeth. "You sure, I signed that?"
"Damn sure," he answered, sighing. "And I'm also pretty sure, what you're doing there counts as torturing, too."
Letty chuckled. It was easy to feel comfortable with being intimate with him again when Dom acted this way. He made her laugh, primarily because he was unintentionally funny and not because he intended to, and it helped make her nervousness disappear.
"You can be so needy, Dominic Toretto," she whispered in his ear, "Anyone ever told you that?" as her hand finally started to do its job again.
Letty's lips touched the skin of his neck while she could feel Dom's hands moving up her back. For a second she wondered if he actually wanted to yank off her bikini top, but abandoned that thought when he buried his hands in her hair instead.
Dom was pleased to know that after all this time, Letty still knew exactly what she was doing. While she worked her magic on him, he felt the need to do the same to her. Did she even know how hard it was for him right now not to be doing it?
He wanted to rip her clothes off so bad, but he knew it just wasn't the right time. It was her decision to say when, and he would and wanted to wait until she was ready for more. Unfortunately, patience wasn't his strong suit. But could he really be blamed for wanting her so much when he hadn't had her in so long?
"There you go," Letty grinned when Dom just couldn't hold it in anymore.
She felt a certain satisfaction in knowing that she still had it in her to make him come like that.
"Feel better?" she asked, kissing his temple.
As she looked at him again, Letty's grin changed into a smile.
"Relieved," Dom replied, opening his eyes and smiling right back at her.
He grabbed her hands, planting a sweet kiss on the back of each of them. "God bless these."
Letty leaned forward to touch his lips with hers.
"These, too," she whispered, looking him deep in the eyes.
Then she kissed him once more, but with her eyes closed this time. She was grateful she got to kiss these lips again, and forever.
When she finally broke the kiss, Dom immediately put his arms around her and pulled her close. Just being able to hold her still meant so much to him. He had missed the simplest things like the smell of her hair and hearing the soothing sound of her breath right next to his ear. It was easy to get lost in this moment. For him as much as it was for her.
Letty felt truly blessed to have her old life back, or at least the memories of that life she once had. Being with Dom now in a way that she couldn't before, because she didn't even understand the feelings she had, was everything to her. She loved him more than she ever had, and that was the thing about having her memories back that scared her the most, because it meant she had so much to lose.
"We really should get going," Letty whispered into his ear.
"What if I'm not ready to let you go yet?" Dom replied quietly, stroking her back.
Letty smiled.
"You have all night to hold me, Dom. I won't leave. I'm not like–"
"Me?" he intervened, slightly backing away from her, and Letty could see the hurt in his eyes.
"What? No, I–" She took his face in her hands and smiled apologetically. "That's not what I meant, I'm– I'm sorry."
"Don't be. You're right. You should be the one worrying about having to wake up to an empty bedside, Letty, not me. You didn't–"
Dom sighed deeply, and then continued, "I was the one who put you through that."
Letty realized, it wasn't hurt she saw in his eyes, but regret. Despite the fact she hadn't even gotten to finish her sentence, it seemed like Dom now fully comprehended the true scale of his actions, and how much she had suffered from it. And if she were completely honest with herself, she did fear that he could leave her like that again, even if he had promised her earlier not to.
She took a step away from him and slowly made her way back to the beach.
"How about we work on trusting each other again?" Letty then said, turning around to Dom, and stretched out her hand. "You won't leave me in the middle of the night and I won't run away, but talk to you when it all gets too much." That seemed like a great deal to her. All he had to do was to shake hands on it. "I mean, you don't ever get to leave me," she added quickly, "just to be clear."
Dom couldn't help but smile and was glad to see her smile back.
"So, what do you say? We got ourselves a deal or nah?" Letty asked, moving her fingers in a way to draw his attention to her hand, which Dom understood right away.
"We do," Dom answered, grinning now, as he took her hand and shook it lightly, but then didn't let go. He kept her hand in his, dragged Letty with him towards shore.
It would probably be a lot easier for him to trust her than the other way round, but he wanted to work on regaining her trust every day. He had already done that in the last couple of months when Letty felt like she needed to figure things out on her own. And also when she literally asked him to let her go.
He had stood there, and watch Letty leave him to find herself, because he had known it was the right thing to do and probably the only way for her to ever be happy with herself again. There was a reason someone had once said that if you loved something you needed to let it go to see if it came back to you, and if it did, you knew that it was yours forever; real love, meant to be. And their love was the truest kind.
As Dom put on his clothes again, he caught a glimpse of Letty doing the same. Would he ever be able to put into words the love he felt for her?
On some days, he still had a hard time believing that this was really him, that though guy with the incredibly soft spot, but although he had never thought he would or even could love anyone that much, he wasn't afraid of it anymore. In fact, Dom was even a little proud of himself, because he had really grown up; something Mia had always doubted he ever would when they were still young. And today, this love was out there for the whole world to see – and along with it, a side of him he could barely hide when he was with Letty.
"Thanks for coming along," Dom said, throwing sand on the little bonfire that still tried to light the night to make it go out. "And for, um, that other thing you did," he smirked.
"You're welcome," Letty giggled. "I'm glad I could help. You can–"
She wanted to add that he could repay her later, some other time, but those words never left her mouth. She bit her lip instead. It was odd. She felt like her body really wanted him to explore it, yet her mind was constantly sending out signals that it was still too soon for her to be with him that way, given that she had only recently gotten her memories back. Knowing he would wait for her, however, made her feel like she had all the time in the world to reconcile body and mind.
"I mean, I'm always here to help you out, if you need me. You can trust in that," Letty found other words to say and smiled.
"A wife in need is a wife indeed," Dom replied, as he opened the passenger door of his car.
"God, can you be serious for once?" Letty laughed, filling the gap between them.
When she tried to get in, Dom held her back. Closing his arms around her body so she couldn't get away, he looked at her in silence.
"What?" Letty asked, shifting in his arms a little, feeling slightly uncomfortable now.
Dom liked that he had this affect on her just by looking at her like that. He loved the shy Letty as much as he loved the feisty one. Only a few people even knew that Letty could be sweet like that, with her big mouth shut. The mistake to call her cute was never to be made, though. Such comment was usually followed by a small amount of pain caused by her fist.
"Thank you for coming back to me," Dom breathed with a smile on his lips that finally made that weird feeling, Letty had inside, go away.
"Thank you for letting me go and not trying to convince me to stay," she told him, cupping his cheeks. "You helped me find myself. I'm me, because of you."
It hadn't been easy for sure, Dom thought, but he had never questioned her choice to leave. And he had never told her they were married, because then she might've felt like she was being forced into loving him, and there was no way she could've been happy with that. He kept it from Letty, because he simply couldn't make her love him. And that had hurt him the most.
The fact that she had shot him and hadn't even known who he was had done more damage to Dom than he'd been willing to let people see. It had been like walking around with a heart that had forgotten how to beat. But still, he had stood by her, because in every moment they had shared, it felt like his heart finally remembered. 'You never turn your back on family even when they do' had been his way of saying that he truly believed she would eventually realize where she really belonged.
Some things you just have to take on faith, he had told Letty, and that's what he had always done right from the moment he knew she had lost herself. He had continued to love her, have faith and hope in her, making sure that she knew, he'd always be looking out for her. As a friend, if she needed him to be just that, as family, if she chose to consider him that, and, more importantly, as her husband, if she ever recalled.
The latter was the reason why Dom had never thought twice about launching himself off a bridge to grab her, saving Letty from falling to her death. If that had been the last thing he'd ever done in his life, he had done everything right, because it meant that he had fulfilled their wedding vows to each other – 'You die, I die.'
'I'm me, because of you,' Letty's words still lingered in Dom's mind.
Wasn't that true for the both of them?
He'd never had any memory loss other than a mental blackout from drinking too much alcohol, but he certainly wouldn't be who he was if it weren't for her and the fact that she loved him – and allowed him to love her back.
Dom could tell by the way she was looking at him that there was in fact more to her words; that she probably referred to the same thing, he was thinking of right now. They had both helped each other to figure out who they were, starting over 15 years ago.
"I just love you, you know that?" Dom's deep voice finally broke the silence between them. "Everything about you."
"Everything? Even when I drive you mad?" Letty asked, smirking, while her heart was smiling at the adorable husband she had. She caressed his cheeks with her thumbs and put her hands to rest on his hips, grabbing the hem of his shirt.
"Especially when you drive me mad," Dom replied, laughing. "You think I want a woman who's meek and mild about everything I do, agrees to just anything and actually listens to me?"
"I don't know, Dom, do you?" Letty pressed her lips together to keep herself from bursting into laughter.
"Oh please, Letty, do I look like Brian to you?" Dom answered.
"Ha-ha! That was–," Letty couldn't help but crack up, leaning forward to bury her head in his chest. "Does your sister know, you think she's that kinda girl?"
"Would I still be alive, if she did?" Dom remarked, running his hands through her hair and stroking the back of her head, as Letty continued to laugh against his chest.
"You do know that sisterhood demands standing up for each other, though, right?" she murmured. "So as her sister-in-law, I have to make sure, you get what you deserve."
Letty calmed herself and looked up to him, trying to keep a straight face, as she told him, "Have you seen what I did to those chicks in Abu Dhabi? I could do the same to you, Toretto."
Dom grinned at her. Although, he hadn't gotten to take a look at the bruises she had left on those guards, he knew of the hard punches Letty could throw. Back in the days, he had experienced them first-hand and had actually been surprised at the pain her small fists were able to cause. Slowly, he put his hands in the air, holding them above his head.
"I surrender," he said with a chuckle, a little groan escaping his mouth when Letty pinched him in the side.
"You better," she retorted, pulling his arms down to grasp Dom's hands.
"We're nothing like Brian and Mia," she thought aloud. "They got that whole settle-down thing all figured out. I don't know, if I could do this, like, for good. Could you?"
While his mind was trying to find an answer to her question, Dom moved his thumbs in circles over her knuckles to keep himself busy.
Could he?
He had done it before, with Elena. He had gotten a taste of what it meant to live a quiet life away from the crazy heists and missions they always did. Before then, he had always thought of it as being boring and a complete waste of his lifetime; thought that he needed to have that kind of adrenaline rush to feel alive. It turned out, he didn't. He had been happy without it.
But maybe, mentioning that time when he was with Elena wasn't such a good thing. He was glad, Letty hadn't brought that one up yet, now that she knew they were married, and had been married when he was with another woman not long after Letty's alleged death. And this probably wasn't the time to talk about their future, anyway. They were still busy trying to find peace in the present.
"I guess, everything is different when you have kids," Dom told her, not knowing of the impact his words would have on her.
In trying to avoid mentioning that other woman, he opened a whole new can of worms, and it seemed like every muscle in Letty's body immediately tensed up. Dom did notice that right away. What he couldn't see was that it made Letty feel like she couldn't breathe. She needed some room, needed this feeling to stop paralyzing her.
"You know, maybe," she pulled away from him, "we shouldn't talk about this right now."
She smiled at him, yet Dom could see that she was faking it. She had been smiling so much the last couple of hours that he could instantly tell that this smile right there wasn't like all the other ones before. It was supposed to cover the sadness that her eyes couldn't hide as much as she wanted them to.
Dom didn't know what had suddenly made her mood swung. Maybe it was the mere thought of having children that scared the shit out of her.
Having lost touch with her felt so wrong in this moment that he wanted to get it back, wanted to comfort her for whatever reason she needed to be comforted, but when he reached out his hand, saying her name, Letty slipped into the passenger seat of the car as quickly as possible.
Closing the door, Dom sighed deeply. This was not how he had wanted this night to end. Why did he ruin it? He should've just told her that he had no idea if he could ever really picture himself doing what his sister and Brian planned to do, devoting himself to a quiet life, then things wouldn't be this messed up right now.
When he got into the car, he noticed Letty staring blankly at the wide ocean in front of her. Dom closed the door, twisted the ignition key to start the car and grabbed the shift knob. Then, he turned his head to the side to address the Latina one more time.
"You okay?" he asked, seriously concerned about her emotional well-being.
Letty nodded, but didn't dare to look at him. Still, Dom could spot that single tear on her face that made its way down her cheek, falling from her chin onto her lap. In what world did that mean she was okay?
It bothered him that there was absolutely nothing he could do. If she didn't want to talk about it, that was it. No one could make her do anything she didn't want to, not even Dominic Toretto himself. Leticia Ortiz had a mind of her own and there was no way breaking it.
Unfortunately, he just had to live with the fact that she was not okay.