Marley's heart squeezed in her chest as she gazed down at the beautiful man stretched out below her. Would have even if she'd been unable to read his mind. But she could and what she found there nearly moved her to tears.

Despite what he wanted, despite his own desires, Bucky was giving her control. His flesh fingers traced the scars that ran along the top of her thigh, him saying without words that he accepted them as part of her. He thought her scars were beautiful. He thought she was beautiful.

She wasn't the only one with scars. She'd been so exhausted when he'd tucked her into his bed the night before to notice that it was the first time she'd seen him without his shirt. The scars winding around the prosthetic arm weren't terrible, not as bad as she would've have expected. Still, he flinched as she ran her fingers gently along the seam where flesh met metal.

Bucky hated it. He hated the arm, the scars. But he kept himself still for her. Allowing her to become comfortable with him.

"Not as bad as it used to be," he muttered, not meeting her gaze now. "King T'Challa's people gave me a new arm, removed a lot of the scar tissue from the first one. There's… there's a lot less pain now."

Marley pressed a kiss to his shoulder. Then she moved up to kiss his mouth, softly. He let her, keeping just his one hand on her thigh. The metal arm rested on the bed at his side.

"You're afraid of hurting me," Marley spoke softly, running her fingers through his hair. "You've talked to Natasha and you know… you know about Grant. I only had one other lover before him, and he knew less than I did. But Grant…"

Another soft kiss she pressed to that gorgeous mouth. He coaxed her into continuing it a moment longer. His breath was coming fast. She ground herself down against him, pulling a deep moan from him. Her burnt panties had been left on the floor the night before so the only thing between them was the soft fabric of his sweats and she was soaked.

"Grant taught me only pain," Marley explained. "He'd get so angry and I… was on my own most of the time. I had nothing to compare him to. I… just thought… I thought that was just the way things were. He'd get so mad and most of the time, I didn't know what I did wrong. I just… got through it somehow. He'd be sweet after… gentle. Still, I never…"

Marley's face went up in flames as his eyes searched hers. "Never what?"

Oh, he knew what she was talking about. She could see it in his mind. He wanted that part to be true.

"I never… came… with him," Marley admitted. "Even when he was being nice to me. See, he could change in a split second and I was usually bleeding or hurt…"

"In pain."

Marley nodded, tracing his beautiful face as she gazed into his eyes.

"I'm never gonna hurt you, Marley," he whispered, willing her to believe him.

"I know," she whispered, pressing kisses over his face. "You've taught me so much without realizing it. I didn't know until… I didn't come to understand until after I…. I killed him… that it didn't have to be that way."

His hand tightened on her thigh, his touch firmer. "He had it coming, doll. He should never have laid a hand on you."

"I can't say I'm sorry," Marley admitted. "I wish… I didn't mean to kill him necessarily. That was an accident. I just wish I'd been strong enough to walk away before that happened."

She pressed kisses into his neck, nipping at his earlobe. Marley grinned when his hips bucked up under her. Oh, the images flooding his mind right now. So many things he envisioned doing to her. Having her do to him. One thing in particular had been a real fantasy of his, she'd seen it in his mind before, and she decided if she could just get this out, she'd make that one come true for him.

"I realize that you've got something you're trying to say," Bucky sounded winded as he spoke, his hand moving over her ass beneath her shirt. "But you're killing me here, doll."

Pulling back, she smiled at him. "If I spit it out, would you help a girl out? I don't have a lot of experience or good experiences so..."

His hips rolled beneath hers again, his smile becoming predatory.

"If you'll spit it out already, I promise I'll teach you all the good stuff." His hand caressed her cheek, slowly moving towards her center from the back but holding back. "I'll make you feel so good."

Marley took a deep breath.

"I never told you," Marley placed a hand over his heart, the beat of it was so steady, "I can… I can read minds. Like Wanda."

That made him pause. "You can read my mind?"

Marley nodded, trying not to grin as color darkened his face.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Marley smiled. "I just wanted to tell you that before we…"

"You've gotten quite a mind full lately, haven't you?" He asked, any embarrassment short-lived. He still wanted her.

"I have," Marley told him. "And I'm not familiar with some of the things you've had in mind, to be honest, but I'm willing to learn. I trust you."

Bucky slowly nodded, his expression serious. "You trust me. And broken as my mind is, you're here."

"I'm here, Bucky." Marley wanted him to understand. "I've seen their minds. Most everyone here has been so kind to me, so nice to another enhanced outcast come to help save the world. I'm so grateful. More than any of them will ever know."

"I've seen your mind, Bucky," she went on. "And you never once looked at me with pity because I was a lab experiment no one but HYDRA wanted. You've made me feel like I could be someone worthwhile like I was worth something. You make me want to try."

He swallowed hard, his metal hand sliding up the outside of her other thigh. Marley grabbed that hand, sliding it higher up her thigh.

"And I need to tell you that… I love you, too, Bucky," Marley whispered, her heart slamming in her chest when he caged her in his arms and rolled her under him. "I know that seems early to admit that but…"

"You mean that?" The wonder in his expression had tears stinging the backs of her eyes.

"I wouldn't dare say that to you if I didn't mean it," she promised. "I've never felt like this before."

He took her breath away when his mouth claimed hers for a scorching kiss. Marley didn't, couldn't, deny him anything. When his tongue teased the seam of her lips, she let him in. The deep sound of his moan as his mouth explored hers was a sinful vibration that ran through her veins like lightning. Her hands found their way into his hair and settled there. She gasped as he pressed himself between her thighs, his hands grabbing and ripping the t-shirt from her body, leaving every inch of her exposed beneath him.

Bucky's mouth scorched a path down over her jaw, down the sensitive column of her throat. His teeth nipped at the flesh where neck and shoulder met, and she shuddered beneath him as he marked her possessively.

"If you don't want this," Bucky warned, his mouth moving down her chest toward her left breast, "you'd better stop me now."

Marley gasped as she felt his hands gliding up over her ribs, his metal hand gently curling around the breast he wasn't consuming with his mouth and tongue in a way that had her writhing helplessly beneath him.

"I'm yours," Marley whispered, fighting for breath.

Bucky moaned again, a deep rumble with her nipple in his mouth and it had her squeezing her thighs around his slender hips in desperation.

When his flesh hand slid down between them, slid into her folds, Marley cried out above him. He pulled back to gaze down at her, his beautiful blue eyes clouded with worry even as his fingers didn't stop moving, so gentle as they slid from her clit to her weeping entrance and back up.

Seeing she was okay, that the tears in her eyes weren't from pain, Bucky's expression softened.

"You're so wet, doll," he whispered. "So soft and wet. Is this for me?"

Marley fought to breathe, managing to nod but that was it.

Nipping kisses at her chin, jaw. His breath was hot against her skin and his fingers stayed busy between her thighs, teasing her mercilessly.

"So, no one has ever made you come?" Bucky whispered in her ear before teasing the shell of it with his tongue.

Marley shook her head. "Just… just by myself."

Again, he pulled up to gaze down into her eyes, a single finger sliding into her entrance as he did. That touch was so careful, searching.

"My poor baby," Bucky whispered, sliding in a second finger. "No one's ever taken care of you, have they?"

He continued to work his fingers into her, stretching her and searching until he rubbed against a space inside her that drew a sharp cry, threatening to white out her vision.

"Right there?" Bucky whispered, pressing into the same spot gently while she gasped. If not for his weight on her, she would have shot off the bed.

He smiled, it was beautiful, as he continued to take her apart with his fingers. Marley held on for dear life, fighting for air. The third pass he made over the space inside her, Marley lost the world for a moment, caught up in a wave of pleasure and intensity that she hadn't before experienced even when using her powers. It left her gasping and wrecked.

When she came back to herself, Bucky was still above her, still watching.

"I love the sounds you make, doll," Bucky whispered, sucking the fingers that had just been teasing her into his mouth and moaning as if it were some delicacy he was tasting.

"I knew you'd be delicious," he told her with a wink.

Chuckling as her face went up in flames, he pulled her hands from his hair and pressed her hands over her head until she could feel the bars of the headboard.

"Grab onto the bars," he said sternly, "and don't let go until I say."

Marley's hands shook as they found the cool, slender bars. He watched to make sure she did as he requested.

"You gonna be a good girl for me?" Bucky asked, his expression serious.

She didn't want to make him unhappy. Especially if he could make her feel like that again. "Yes," she promised.

"Good girl." Bucky claimed her mouth in a deep kiss that left her breathless, wanting more.

But then that sinful mouth was moving down over her throat, her chest. He stopped to lave each nipple with that talented tongue, making each one diamond hard and achy. When his mouth was moving down to her stomach, it took everything she had to hang onto those bars. She wanted to sink her hands back into his hair, hang onto him, something.

When he reached her mound, he gazed up at her with smoldering blue eyes. "You still holding on for me?"

Marley nodded, her grip tightening as if to prove her point.

His rough hands slid up the inside of her thighs, his touch whisper soft, spreading her open. Bucky breathed her in, his eyes closing.

"I'm going to taste you now," he whispered. "Been wanting to do this so bad."

Her thighs trembled beneath his hands. His fingers stroked her, soothed her.

"Shhhh. I'm going to make this so good for you, Marley. You said you trusted me. Did you mean it?"

"Yes," she managed.

The first flick of his tongue hit her clit and her hips shot up. He chuckled again, his metal hand sliding up to her tummy. The next lick, she realized he was holding her down.

And then he devoured her, there was just no other way to explain it. No one had ever used their mouth on her before and he drove her insane, using his tongue on her in ways that couldn't be legal. He brought her off again, a third time, and she was well on her way to another when she started begging him to stop.

"I… can't," she pleaded, realizing that more she fought to hang on to the bars, the more she fought him with the rest of her body, the more he seemed to like it. A low growl halted her from trying to use her legs to push away from him, and she was afraid to let go of the headboard.

"One more, baby," he whispered. "Yes, you can." And it was upon in her in the next second and she screamed his name, feeling as if her entire being had been torn asunder.

Marley wasn't completely aware of the first few moments following that orgasm. At some point, Bucky had climbed back up her body, holding himself above her with his metal arm. His flesh hand was lining him up with her entrance and she gasped as he began to push into her.

Bucky was thick, stretching her as he pushed in slightly deeper with each strong thrust of his hips. Thick and long, leaving Marley with a feeling of fullness she'd never experienced before. When he finally bottomed out, he stopped to gaze into her eyes.

His flesh hand gently traced the curve of her cheek. "You alright, doll?"

Marley nodded, but honestly, she was so beyond any experience she'd had to this point in her life that saying words was pretty much impossible.

A gentle thrust had her inner walls gripping him, trying to hold him inside.

"That feel good?" he whispered, repeating the motion.

"Yeah." It was more of a gasp than a word.

"Yeah?" Bucky seemed in no particular hurry now as he moved gently in her, his eyes sliding closed. "So tight. You feel so fucking good… So good."

When his flesh hand slid between them, his fingers gently teasing her clit, Marley almost let go of the bars to try and swat his hand away. She was so sensitive now.

He must have sensed her distress because he moved his hand, sliding up her body, up her left arm.

"Let go. Put your hands in my hair, baby," Bucky whispered into her ear, the seductive purr of his voice almost causing her to come again. "Hold onto me."

Hold onto him she did with her arms, her legs. When she had a solid grip on him, he began pounding her into the mattress. Slowly he was losing control as her core began to tighten again, his thrusts hard and erratic. The rough groans pulled from his throat? That was a sound she loved as she held on, letting him lose himself in her body.

"Marley," for him, it was a desperate cry and he tightened around her, almost painfully before thrusting his way through it, pulsing inside her.

He collapsed but kept his weight off her, holding himself with his arms and he dropped his forehead to her chest and took several ragged breaths. Marley fought to breathe with him, feeling tired but in a happy, voluntary way instead of the exhaustion using her powers forced on her.

"Shit," he muttered. "Now's a shit time to think about protection, huh?"

Marley ran a hand through his soft hair, happy that he let her.

"I'm on the pill," she told him. "Have been since I was young because my periods were so bad. And I had just about every known test run on me when I came here so you should be safe."

"Same," Bucky pressed a kiss to the curve of one breast, resting his head there. "I haven't been with anyone since… Are you okay?"

Marley hummed something that sounded like a positive answer, but he moved up and over her, waiting for her to meet his gaze.

"Are you okay?" he asked again, searching her expression.

"I'm okay," Marley managed. "Better than okay. It's like the best sex I've ever had and getting hit by a truck, all at the same time."

Bucky laughed at that.

"I guess I can understand that." His flesh had smoothed a loose wisp of blonde hair off her face. "But being serious, I need you to let me know when things… are too much? The stamina they gave me to be a relentless assassin? I still have it. I could be ready to go again in about five minutes but you…"

"I'm sorry," Marley blushed under his gaze, not wanting him to find her lacking.

"No. No, doll. You have nothing to apologize for. There's nothing wrong with that. It's the way it's supposed to be. We just need to work out a way for you to let me know when you need to stop. A safe word or something."

A safe word?

"I'm a demanding bastard and I can get pretty carried away," Bucky admitted, still inside her and not completely soft. "You feel amazing and I don't ever want to hurt you. You understand?"

Marley nodded, trying not to yawn.

Bucky rolled off to her side and on to his back, pulling her with him carefully. Marley had to smile. Tired as she was, she was still catching a random thought of his here and there. Bucky wouldn't admit as much, but he liked to cuddle. Patting his chest with his flesh hand, she curled up against him, her head pillowed on his chest.

Bucky was happy, hoping for another good night's sleep. She had to giggle because he was already looking forward to next time and her using her mouth on him.

Not thinking and nodding off, Marley hiked her thigh up higher against him and smiled.

"Next time, I'll return the favor. Promise."

His chest rumbled under her as he laughed. His arms tightening around her was the last thing she remembered.