This is for you Therese :) ages for reference:
Scott - 30
Mackenzie - 25
Scott wasn't used to sleeping on trains. Logically, he should have found it soothing; the hum of the engines powering the hovers on each car, the thrum of electricity, and the smooth ride that hurtled them through the countryside. But it was night now, and not much sightseeing to be done. So he laid there in bed beside Mackenzie and occasionally he heard her mumble something or move in her sleep, but she seemed to be slumbering quite peacefully.
Not that he could blame her. Mackenzie had been working overtime the last three months in the emergency room back home and up until recently hadn't requested more than a week off in over a year. He had convinced her to use up most of her vacation time to go away with her for a week before it expired.
They had needed it and had spent the last two days watching the scenery fly by while they chatted and made use of the restaurant service and bar. Perhaps a little too much use of the bar, which he had hoped would lull him to lovely dreams that night in their bed.
It wasn't meant to be.
Scott tried to count the shadows passing by on the wall, but they were highly elusive, lingering for only the shortest of milliseconds before they were long gone. Mackenzie stirred in her sleep next to him and he knew what's coming. It happened most nights. Often more than once.
A choked sob escaped her mouth. Then another. Her hand searched blindly, unconsciously, for him. His heart leaped when her fingers twisted into the front of his undershirt. Even in the throes of a nightmare, some part of her subconscious knows that he was there, ready to pull her out of it. That it was all just a dream and he would never let Preston lay another hand on her.
On instinct, he pulled her into his chest, wrapping his strong arms around her quaking body. "No. No please…" she began to whimper. "Please… stop."
"Mackenzie, wake up. It's okay, it's just a dream," he whispered into her ear, but it was fruitless, and he knew it. She was in too deep. By this point, the nightmare would have her firmly in its clutches, and experience told him there was little to do but hold her and wait it out. Sure enough, her whimpers escalated into screams as he comforted her tiny trembling form, begging her to wake. "Baby, please. I'm here… I'm here, baby." He wiped the stray hairs from her sweaty forehead creased in terror.
It was several, agonizing moments before her eyes blink open, wide and searching in the darkness, her frantic gaze settling on him at last. "Scott," she panted heavily, trying to catch her breath. Her hand was still clinging to the front of his shirt in a vice grip, but he didn't care.
Her nightmare was over. She was back with him. He could feel the residual tremors in her shoulders and hear her teeth chattering, and ran a comforting hand up and down her arm to chase away the goosebumps. He doesn't ask what the nightmare was about; he never had to, but as she held him trapped in her mesmerizing gaze he could tell that something was different this time.
He was still trying to decipher the blazing look on her face when the unthinkable happened. Mackenzie pulled him forward by his shirt and crushed her lips to his. The kiss itself wasn't unthinkable, but it was a hard, unforgiving kiss. Her lips were unyielding and his own were frozen in shock.
A beat passed, and Scott opened his eyes to find that hers, too, were open. She released him, chest heaving with shallow breaths. The moon shining through the train window gave him just enough light to see the lingering traces of guilt in the depths of her sparkling blue eyes, and something else as well. Something like… desire? Perhaps the same pang of longing he felt in his stomach every time she said his name or kissed him, or in those rare unguarded moments when she was feeling free of any pain.
Her lips moved then, but almost no sound came out. He leaned in closer and she tried again. "I can't control the nightmares," she whispered to him. "But I can control what happens after."
The words made little sense to his foggy brain. It was so much bolder and confident that she usually was with him, but her intentions could not be clearer. Her defiant chin was tilted up toward him and the pure desire was evident in her eyes.
He traced her cheekbone delicately with his thumb, giving her time to reconsider, time to pull away from him. She didn't. So, heart pounding furiously against his ribcage, he pressed his lips to hers again.
It was the opposite of their last kiss; soft and gentle as the brush of a butterfly wing against the skin, but it still flooded his entire body with warmth. She seemed to melt against him, releasing her grip on his t-shirt at last to favor the back of his neck.
Her fingers twisted into the fine hairs at his nape, securing his face to hers. Scott's tongue darted out to taste the flesh of her full lips and she obliged eagerly, opening her mouth to him. Her own tongue slid against his in a languid dance. It coaxed a groan to rumble up from the back of his throat, and she clung to him more tightly still.
When at last their lips part for air, "Touch me," she whispered into the space between them again.
He didn't hesitate this time as he slid his hand over her, clothed only by a thin shirt and even thinner pair of panties. He could feel her nipple under his fingers as he squeezed her breast gently, in awe of how perfectly she fits into his hand. Almost like it was meant to be.
Then her fingers close over his and she guides his hand down her body to the hem of her shirt. Together, they slid it up to expose her pale skin inch-by-inch to the palm of his hand. His mouth closed over her nipple this time and she let out a low, searching moan while he delicately pinched the other with his free hand.
His mouth and hand traded spots before he moved to kiss her neck. Her body was precious, a revelation to him, and he intended to always treat her the way she deserved. Her fingers found purchase in his hair as his mouth explored her newly exposed skin before trailing down his back.
She teased the hem of his t-shirt, sliding it up the plane of his back. The smooth tips of her fingers brushing against his spine and the gentle scratch of her nails made him shiver, raising goosebumps on his pale skin.
And then his shirt was gone, her hands snaking around to the front of his body to continue their exploration. He'd begun to grow uncomfortably hard now and tried to disguise it by shifting his bottom half away from her, but she was too quick for him.
Makenzie hooked a leg around his waist before he could move, drawing him impossibly closer. Her breasts pressed flush against his naked chest, and it was enough to make Scott forget about everything else as he reveled in the feeling of her lustrous skin against his.
His body, already thrumming with anticipation, did not want him to stop. Only the thin layers of her panties and his sweatpants separated them now. His mind was telling him other things. Did she want this? Did she even want him?
And as if reading his mind, she kissed his face and brought him back. "Scott, baby," she told him breathlessly. "I want you." She ground into him again before capturing his lips between hers in a fevered kiss.
He gave in to his desire and her legs opened wider to accommodate him as they ground against each other still clothed. He could feel the heat pulsing from her and she was soft and pliable in this condition, the desire and want pooling from her.
She bit at his neck and kissed him while his hand pulled her panties down. He curled one finger and sent it slithering up inside her. Tight, wet warmth hugged him on all sides, the muscles of her soft inner thighs twitching against his knuckles. Just as he thought, it completely disarmed her, gasping against his throat as he set his finger into motion.
"Oh, she likes that," he purred and his finger was strung with moisture as he pulled it free, smearing it onto the tender little button of nerves as he worked her most sensitive spot. "Heh. Know what else she likes?"
"Mm…?" She played naive, smiling at him as he slid two fingers inside her while the third worked delicate circles over her.
His whole arm shook with the movement while she writhed against his chest. Other fingers, so much smaller and daintier than his, groped blindly in the dark, finding her target easily. Not that it was hard to miss, straining against his gray sweatpants in a vain bid to escape, with the leaking head already making a stain she could see in the moonlight.
That's what her fingers found through the fabric, then she pushed his pants down just enough to wrap around his cock and begin stroking him in return. Their heavy breathing and the shuffling smack of wet flesh were the only sounds above the hum of the train and the occasional far-away snoring.
The rest happened in a hazy blur of lust and pure desire. He pushed her hand away and brought her to a shattering orgasm with his fingers and his mouth. When he buried himself inside her, he couldn't stop the stream of words that came from him—a new expression of love with every stroke. It felt right.
Mackenzie arched into him, her blonde hair fanned out across the pillow, her breasts heaving into his chest, and the long column of her beautiful neck exposed. His lips latched onto the skin under the line of her jaw. He could feel the rapid bounding of her pulse beneath his tongue. He kissed a trail down her neck to her clavicle, punctuating each kiss with a thrust of his hips.
"Scott, oh… Scott," she moaned, twisting her hips slightly against him while the words curled up from the back of her throat, intoxicating him like a flute of the finest champagne.
Her legs wrapped firmly around his back to hold him in place: he thought it was unlikely she would ever let go. He moved his hand between her legs, following the nonverbal cues she gave him. Her hips ground into him with each of his subsequent thrusts and Scott was all too aware that he wouldn't be able to hold off much longer.
But Mackenzie had to come first. She deserved that, and he was determined to make it happen. He brought his mouth back to hers, wasting no time. His thumb was moving furiously in small, tight circles, and just when he thought he couldn't hold onto his sanity any longer it was her unintelligible cry of ecstasy into the black of the train compartment that was his final undoing.
He pulled out of her just in time to spill his seed onto her stomach. She had never looked more relaxed than she did now, sprawled beneath him with her hair all about and still moaning with the aftershocks of her orgasm.
The pair locked gazes as their bliss fades to be replaced by a sated relaxation. He was quick to wipe the sticky mess off her stomach as her eyes began to drift closed. He couldn't blame her for falling asleep. It was very late, and they could talk tomorrow.
Scott tucked her into his chest with waning strength, wanting nothing more than to stay in this moment forever. Right now, it seemed almost possible. His leaden eyelids slid closed, and he slept peacefully.
But morning dawns swift and sure, the sun streaming in brilliantly through the open window. They were moving more slowly now, he could tell. They'd be stopping somewhere within the hour.
As he stared out the window of the speeding train at the unfamiliar foliage of this new place, possibly Tennessee today he thought as Mackenzie stirred next to him. A dewy smile crossed her lips when she saw that Scott, too, was awake.
A familiar pang of longing shoots through his stomach and he knew that for whatever reason, it was most assuredly connected to her. "Last night…" she started to stay.
At her words, the events came to him in a hazy rush of sweat and skin and pleasure. But there were only bits and pieces. There was a flash of his girlfriend's dusky nipples, her tongue clenched between her teeth, a misplaced moan or whimper. His fingers and mouth ran over her until she came before her own hands touched him. Then her blonde hair sprawled across the pillow and her face contorted in pleasure as he moved above her.
But it all seemed so far away like he was trying to see something clearly through a mass of fog or catch an elusive wisp of smoke in his fingers.
"You don't have to say anything about that," he said, pressing a kiss to her neck as he curled into her and pulled her closer. "I will always be there for you when you need me."
Her arms wrapped around him and her hands ran up his back. "I love you," she whispered.
He smiled into the warmth of her and basked in the feel of her against him. "I love you too," he confessed as though it were the first time. Thought it wasn't. Not even close.