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AvalonReeseFanFics
A/N: Happy Friday my wonderful readers! Are you guys excited? You know for the cute chapter? Like the really cute chapter? And do you know what else I brought back? SEX SCENE! That's right we have some grade-A smut going on. And yes, yes, I do have a warning. It's literally the last part of the chapter so if you don't want to read it, just end things when you see the note. As always don't forget to leave a review and I'll see you guys on Monday!
Chapter 366
It was official. Steve was spending way too much time with his brothers-in-law.
This was made apparent when he came down that morning to find them already in his house and, instead of being mad that his arch nemesis and an assassin had broken into his house, he was just mildly annoyed.
"What the actual fuck?" he hissed as he came towards them. "How the hell did you manage this?"
"Faked an emergency and had her pull us last night," Wo said absently as he went about drinking Steve's coffee and reading his paper. He didn't even glance up at Steven. "I have to pick up Jian from the airport though. Was sort of hoping I could get one of your Five-0s to do it as there is a little bit of heat on me right now. Chinese government isn't too happy with me."
Yeah sure, whatever. He'd call Kono or something. He had bigger issues to deal with right now.
"How did you get into my house?"
"Your primary security system is basic, McGarrett, a trained monkey could get into it," Con said around a mouthful of pancakes or maybe waffle. He wasn't sure there wasn't anything left on the plate. "Your secondary security system was set up by me so I know all the pass codes."
"And Sandy wasn't going to report us coming in. We're not threats," Wo finished and then put down the paper to look at Steven. "Why are you being so obnoxious, you invited us here?"
"Yes, to her party. Later tonight. I didn't invite you to break into our house."
"Oh, so you'll let your Five-0's stay on your couch but not us? Rude!" Sin Nombre snapped and Steve tried not to groan. This wasn't staying on the couch this was breaking and entering. And why the hell did they have to look so at home in his own kitchen, like Steve was the visitor and not him.
"Come on, you guys are supposed to be a surprise!"
"We are a surprise. She thinks I'm working and unavailable for any sort of birthday activities. And she thinks I've taken Con with me, hence when she finds us here…"
"Yes, but you're supposed to be a later in the day surprise, not right now," Steve reminded him and the man sighed heavily. "Could you please? Come on. You can go to Danny's, have breakfast there and annoy him instead."
"Ew why would I want to go there?" Wo asked.
"Because I can't have you here!" Steve near cried and might have if he wasn't worried about waking Rowan up. "Now can you leave please? Please I have to make birthday-pancakes and I still don't…"
"I made em," Con said. "I know her secret ingredient."
WAIT! There was a secret ingredient?
"Whoa, wait a second, hold on, secret ingredient? What… is she really holding back a secret ingredient on me?"
Sin Nombre looked him up and down. "No, you idiot the secret ingredient is love. I just happen to love her more."
Steve scowled at him. See… see this was why he didn't like her brothers, cause they kept her secrets for her. Which, if he thought about it, was a good thing, just annoying for him.
"Fine, whatever. I'm going to call Danny tell him that you two are coming over, could you please wait there until it's time? PLEASE?!"
Both men sighed but got up. Wo Fat slapped the newspaper into Steve's chest a little two aggressively. "I will go, and I will endure Williams and his annoying prattling, but I will do so for my sister. Thank you very much."
The aggression was not appreciated, but the two men left his place as Steve requested and then he could check out what Sin Nombre had made for him.
Sure, enough there were two pancakes. They were clearly funfetti pancakes because they were covered in sprinkles, both in the cooked pancake and on the side. All Steve had to do it put the whipped cream on. And Sin Nombre had been kind enough to leave out the sprinkles so they could put some extra on for later.
Steve went about making her tea, getting a little vase to put the single orchid he had purchased for this moment onto her tray. This was important because it tied into one of the later activities. Then he got the voucher he had purchased for this day and propped it up against the vase.
By the time he was ready Nahele was down the stairs. His hair was messed up and he was still in his Star Wars pjs but he was ready for that tray.
"Wow looks great dad," he said and Steve tried not to smile.
Not just because he had done a good job and he knew it, but because Rowan had been right. Nahele had not called him Steve once since the adoption had gone through. Steve was now, forever and permanently dad. And he fucking loved it.
"Alright, can you take this up to your mom?" he asked. Nahele nodded and went to take the tray. It wobbled a bit. "You got this?"
"Yeah dad I got this."
"Okay well be careful on the stairs," he said following Nahele. The boy stopped at the stairs and just looked at them for a long while.
He looked down to the tray and then turned a worried look to Steve. "Maybe you should do the stairs."
Steve nodded taking the tray from him, letting the kid go up the stairs first. When he got to the top, Nahele took the tray back and let Steve go first so he could open the door for him.
When they got to the bedroom, Rowan was sitting up in bed, knees to her chest, already in her favourite grey sweater. Steve used to call that his sweater but he didn't anymore. It was Rowan's he was just lucky enough to get to wear it when it smelled like her.
"Happy birthday!" they chimed together and the look of lip biting worry that had been on Rowan's face melted into a relived smile.
Steve was immediately concerned. What did she have to be worried about? Seriously, it was her birthday, what was she worried about?
"We made you pancakes!" Nahele cried as he put the tray in front of her. Which was a lie, but he was going to let the kid tell it.
As soon as the tray was on Rowan's lap Nahele bounced onto the bed and snuggled up to Rowan's side.
"If they don't taste good it's dad's fault," he said and Steve half laughed.
"Right, my fault," he said as he leant in and gave Rowan a soft kiss to the cheek. He wanted to give her more but he knew he couldn't with Nahele right beside her. Enough was never enough and he knew better than to trust himself with that.
"They're going to be great," she said leaning in to hug Nahele. "And what's this?"
She picked up the voucher that Steve had bought and looked them over.
"We schedule you a massage. Hot stone, your favourite," Steve said as he sat himself down on the other side of her, relaxing back into his own pillows.
"I thought we were going to be doing things together!"
"We are, just that one thing is just you. It'll be like last time, I'm going to be sending you with the outfit for the rest of the day. Kono and I picked it out. But don't you worry, once you're done it's gonna be just us for the rest of the day. Well until dinner… we do have a party to go to. Kono's put a lot of planning…"
"Are you picking me up?" Rowan asked sweetly. So sweetly that Steve didn't sense the trap.
"Of course. Me and Nahele are going to pick you up…"
"You don't have a license Steven. You're not driving my son anywhere."
For a moment Steve just stared at her. Yeah he had walked right into that one. Goddamn it.
"He is our son, my son. We have joint custody of our son, Rowan," Steve growled, not happy with where this was going. "I'm perfectly fine driving and you know it."
"Do you have a license?"
"Okay, but that doesn't…"
"Do you have a current or valid driving license, Steven?"
"No."
"Then you're not driving our son anywhere," Rowan said. "I don't care if it's my birthday and you wanna chauffer me around. It's my birthday and I want to drive my own car, how about that?"
"Oh she's got you there dad!" Nahele crowed and Steve shook his head.
"Fine, fine. I can adapt. We can change the op."
"Op? My birthday's an op?" Rowan asked and Steve nodded eagerly.
"Oh hell yeah! Your birthday's been an op four years running," he said proudly.
"Really? Even last year?"
"Course, it was a recon mission," Steve said. "Also we're gonna have to talk about last year's gift. I didn't send those luggage tags by the way. I know they made you cry, and I'm sorry but those weren't from me."
"They had your name on them."
"Yeah, but Wo Fat demanded presents from all of us and they knew they couldn't ask me to get you something cause I wasn't invited at that point. So, Danny picked out something and put my name on it."
Rowan nodded and Steve nodded too. "Yeah, so remember that. This year's going to make up for it."
Rowan rested her head against his shoulder with a soft: "Okay."
Steve turned to Nahele. "Hey why don't you go get her gift, huh?"
Nahele nodded, finally letting go of Rowan and scampering out of the room. As soon as he was gone Steve leant in and whispered: "Are you okay?"
"Yeah why?"
"You looked worried when we came in. Did you have a nightmare?"
Rowan shook her head and then turned a pained look up to him. Oh god, was something really wrong? Did she know her brothers were there and she thought he had kicked them out?
"I heard the door," Rowan said softly. "I was worried you caught a case or something and was leaving."
"What? On your birthday. Of course not. I was just checking the mail, I'm expecting cards for you," he lied and she smiled widely. Well there was her buying that lie just like she had bought Wo Fat's lie about the Uranium. Right so maybe he could still lie to her.
Rowan smiled up to him, pulling him down to her to kiss him deeply. He hungrily kissed her back, by the time Nahele came back they were done kissing and Rowan was ready to accept the gift he had gotten him.
Steve was going to make sure that this birthday was even better than last year, and he was going to do it without spending thousands on throwing a giant party for her.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Rowan had texted Steve the second she had gotten out of the massage and took the dress out of the dress bag.
It wasn't that she didn't like his choice it was that the dress was too fancy. She didn't know why the hell he wanted her in one of her fancier dresses.
It was part of the plan, was all he would say. So, she guessed whatever he had planned next was ritzy.
The dress in question was a hunter green thigh high empire waisted, tulle-skirt poofy-as-all-hell cocktail dress. It was made of a simple woolen fabric, it had a high, almost turtleneck kind of caller. It was the kind of dress that could be easily dressed up or down for the occasion. He had packed the matching pair of red-bottomed pumps and some accessories.
He hadn't packed her golden seashell, but instead the necklace that Yao had gotten her for Christmas and the bracelet that Nahele had bought.
That meant Rowan had to keep his dog tags on, because she never went anywhere without his naval ID around her neck.
Still she got into the outfit, did up her make up, and tried to style her hair best she could. Her hair was almost shoulder length now, that terrible in between where she couldn't quite style it. She had been forced to cut it after New Years, to make the front shorter than the back, as, previously, it was shorter at the back and got longer in the front.
That no longer looked good now that she was growing her hair out.
Now her bangs were chin length, and then it faded into a longer cut. Though she missed her fire hair, she hadn't been able to bring herself to dye it back. She felt more like herself now that she was back to her natural hair color.
When she was ready, she got back into her GTO and swung by the house to pick up her boys and found them both dressed up.
Steve was in a matching hunter green dress shirt, with a black tie and black pants. Nahele had gone with light blue and navy-blue tie and pant set. Steve let Nahele slide into the back and then got into the passenger seat, pressing a kiss to his wife.
"Mmm, what did I tell you babe? Did I pick a good one?"
"Yes, you did," she said. "Right are you going to tell me where we're going or are you just giving me directions to give me the illusion of a surprise."
"Directions," he said with that wolfish grin she loved so much.
Well that was perfectly fine too.
As Rowan drove, they listened to music she had written, for her boys only liked listening to her songs if she was singing them. They had the windows down, and the sea air was whipping through the car. She was reminded, once again, that she was never happier unless she had her boys in her car, the sea air in hair and the Hawaiian sun on her face.
Steve eventually directed her to a hotel, specifically the Halekulani Hotel. Rowan had never been there before and if she had to guess they were going there for lunch.
She was on Steve's arm as they walked through the lobby and she could see women practically tripping over themselves at the sight of him. Yes, her man was fine, and he was just that, her man. As per usual Steve didn't even seem to notice the fawning he was getting.
He led them to the restaurant where Steve told the hostess that they were McGarrett party of three. The poor girl, for just a moment, stared at him slack jawed, clearly mesmerized by the sight of him.
Steve's smile faded a bit. "Uh… I did call to make a reservation… you do have it don't you?" he asked. "You better have it cause I called two months in advance for this reservation…"
"No, no, we do. McGarrett, party of three, in the Orchid room," the hostess said quickly adverting her eyes. Steve breathed a sigh of relief but Rowan was certain to put a hand to his arm and pet it lightly so he would properly calm down.
"You can follow me," she said and then they were walking through fancy restaurant. They didn't stop there though. They were led a patio with wide open windows instead of a wall. Where orchids were on each and every table, and sitting in planters that lined the patio.
They were sat their table and as soon as they were sitting Steve said: "Uh, we already know what we want. Two Celebratory Afternoon tea packages and one regular, cause the kid can't drink."
"She's not our server, Steve," Rowan said but Steve just waved it off.
"But we already know what we want, and she could just tell our server right?" he asked and then he flashed the hostess his brightest smile and the girl practically melted.
Rowan shook her head as the hostess scampered away. She knew right away that the hostess was going to do exactly as Steve had asked her.
"So, I did my research," Steve said. "And this place has the best Afternoon tea on the island. And It's your birthday so of course we had to do the fancy version."
Their server came back with a tray with two glasses of champagne and a box.
"Here is the champagne that comes with your Celebratory Afternoon Tea," she said. "And I have brought the different teas for you to pick from. I'll come back when you've picked."
They thanked her and Rowan and Nahele immediately went about picking up each little jar with tea leaves and sniffing each one, deciding which tea they'd want. Steve, however, just sat there. As the non-native tea drinker he looked a little lost.
"Do you want to sniff some?" Rowan asked. "This one's a black tea, it has more caffeine in it then coffee."
He took the offered jar and sniffed it.
"It's called Eden Rose and it has a hit of lavender and vanilla."
"Smells pretty good, which one are you picking?"
Rowan already knew which one she was picking. "The Queen Catherine. Three Chinese teas blended in one with cocoa and spice."
Nahele sniffed the jar she was offering and then picked up a completely different one. "I think I'm just gonna go with Ceylon and India, cause the label says it's just Orange Pekoe, and I know I like that."
"Mm, I know I like that one too," Steve said.
"Well the good thing about each of us getting a pot is that we all get to try something new," Rowan said and Steve blinked his eyes.
"You can do that?" he asked. "There isn't some afternoon tea etiquette that says we can't mix and match?"
"No, I mean I wouldn't recommend pouring my tea right into yours though, but once you're finished your cup you can always try some of mine, or Nahele's."
"Okay good to know," Steve said. "And uh… you and Wo used to do this all the time?"
"Oh yes, though sometimes he left me to do it on my own, very rarely though. Depending."
"On what?" Nahele wondered.
"Well on the cruise he signed me up for the Disney Princess Afternoon tea which is usually reserved for children ages 6 to 12. He had to pay extra to get me my spot, especially one without children. He very understandably did not join me for that one" she said and then she smiled widely. "I got to have tea with Ariel."
"Wow. That's something," Steve said with a shake of his head. "I guess I'm just having a hard time picturing Wo Fat with a tea cup. Did he have the pinky up and everything?"
"Oh, he loves tea. Green tea, mostly. And little finger sandwiches. I unno, I think it was one of the only things that he was actually excited to do with me. Like… not just pandering to me because I was sad."
They were quiet a moment and Rowan added: "And yes, he does do pinky up and I have the pictures to prove it."
Steve half snorted into his champagne just as their server came back. She took their tea orders and then she was gone, taking the box of tea leaves with her as she went.
They filled up the space with talking, they asked how Rowan's hot stone massage was, to which she told them truthfully it was amazing. They asked about her birthday last year and she told them that it too had all been a surprise, she only knew that Wo was planning something and it included her performing a few songs.
The pots of tea were brought out to them first and they took turns sampling each other's from one another's tea cups. Nahele discovered he liked Steve's more than he liked his own and Steve graciously switched though Rowan could tell that it was actually somewhat thankfully. He definitely liked Nahele's choice over his own.
Then the little three-tiered plates came out with their scones, sandwiches and little desserts came out next.
Before she tucked into hers, she took a picture. To show Wo, she had said, because he was going to be so jealous.
With Rowan and Steve's came their strawberries and crème that they both shared with Nahele. She even let Nahele have a taste of her champagne, because it was a special occasion. And he only got the barest of sips.
When everything was done, they came out with a piece of chocolate mousse cake with a sparkler for Rowan and her two boys sang her a happy birthday and took covert pictures of her with the cake when they thought she was distracted.
And she took a picture to send Wo Fat of that too. And she was right. He was totally jealous.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
After the high tea they got to go back to their house where, for a long while they all just sat on the lanai and listened to the water hit the surf. Rowan and Steve played their guitars together, and separately. She taught him chords of songs she was still writing so she could practice the lyrics without also having to concentrate on what her fingers were doing. Or sometimes she taught him lyrics so she could listen to a male voice sing the part they way they were supposed to sound against the correct melody.
Nahele had picked all his favourite seashells out of the sand and lined them up on the window sill by Rowan so she'd have something pretty to look at while they were singing and then it was time for dinner.
She had texted Wo and asked if he was done with business but he wasn't which meant she wouldn't be seeing him or Conejo for her actual birthday. Which sucked cause she got them last year.
The actual birthday dinner was at La Marinara where she found all of her friends. The whole Grover family, Danny with Grace and Charlie, Chin with Abby and Sara. Kono and Adam were standing apart from the others because Kono was in charge of the party and she was clearly still micromanaging it. Kamekona and Flipper were there. Both the current Governor and the Past Governor were there, both standing with Duke, both of them staring wide eyed at two people Rowan thought were busy.
Her brothers were there, and very clearly the two Governors were more than surprised to see him even though that made no sense, they knew she was related to them.
"Wo! Con!" she cried and then she was running forward to hug her brothers.
"And you thought I was busy," Wo said as he hugged her tightly. "Like I'd be busy for your birthday."
She smiled up to Wo a little weepy, but she let Con pull her away and give him a hug. "We spent the whole day at Danny's and let me tell you, there were a few times he almost died."
"Oh, did he make a frittata?" Rowan asked and Danny intoned with a dry haha from across the bar.
With Wo was Jian who also moved to give Rowan a stiff hug. The kind of hug Wo used to give her. Well she had worked with Wo on his hugs she could work on Jian's too.
"Okay birthday girl, table of honor right here," Kono said pulling her away from them and sitting her down at the table in the middle by the stage. Front row and center, which was not right because they all knew she didn't like to listen to live music in bars like this. She felt like she couldn't relish in it the right way, always felt awkward making eye contact with them when she was too close.
Which made her more then willingness to do focus groups in this very bar very ironic or hypocritical.
Already she could see Tommy on the stage with a guitar and she was confused because he should have been part of the party not working it, but he just smiled at waved. There were two chairs at the table she had, which she assumed were for her two boys, but her brothers sat in them instead.
She glanced back to find Steve at the bar behind her, standing with Danny and ordering drinks. She had just spent half the day with him, maybe he needed a bit of a break.
Nahele, however, jumped up onto the stage.
He had his own guitar in his hands and she was confused. Nahele wasn't getting real proper lessons, he learned whatever she taught him and she hadn't been teaching him any new songs.
"Hi everyone," he said into the microphone and everyone in the bar chirruped back their hellos to him.
"Uhm, so I wrote my mom a song. Well Tommy helped me write my mom a song, and I've had to practice it in secret, but mom's like around… all the time, so uh… it might not be good," he said.
"That's okay," Rowan cried right away because she didn't care about that.
"Okay, okay, here it goes."
He played a few bars quite expertly and then he was singing this cute, upbeat little song.
You might have a mom, she might be the bomb, but ain't nobody got a mom like mine. Her love's 'til the end, she's my best friend. Ain't nobody got a mom like mine.
Rowan was legit about to cry.
A drink was put down in front of her, a hand clasped to her shoulder and when she looked up Steve was standing behind her, a beer in his hand and a proud smile pointed at their son.
Nahele shot him some kind of look, a brief panicked look and Steve was moving immediately. Like the over protective Papa Bear he was. He put his drink down beside Rowan's to join their kid up on the stage.
There was a brief pause as they switched over, only in the guitar playing as Nahele kept singing. And she didn't even care.
She my world, she's my heart and there's no denying. I'm her boy no matter what even when I'm lying. She loving me, loving me, loving me, loving me, love, she love me like nobody else. I'm telling you, telling you, telling you, telling you all, she taught me how to love myself
The song finished to a round of applause for Nahele who jumped right off that stage and then forced Con out of his chair. Nahele took the seat beside Rowan, while Con grabbed another chair and put himself beside Wo Fat.
But Steve hadn't come off the stage, in fact in looked like he might have been gearing up to sing another song.
What was going on right now?
"I hope you guys are ready for another homemade song that Tommy basically wrote himself?"
"I really hope you paid him," Rowan asked but Tommy just shook his head.
"I gave him one of your melodies, a lyricless one. He gave me words and made them poetic, that's all."
"Ah so we should be paying me too?" Rowan asked and around them everyone laughed as Danny came out of the crowd and hopped up on the stage beside Steve. He too had a microphone and she was immediately curious as to why anyone had thought it was okay to give that man a microphone.
"Right, so I have a song here, that I wrote for my wife, and I uh… I have Danny here to do a translation because I know her brothers are not going to understand. Scratch that, one brother won't understand."
Beside her Wo Fat grumbled to himself: "I swear to god Rowan I might slap him." Rowan just nudged him with her shoulder
"So uh… this is for my wife. And Wo, Danny's going to translate for you," Steve summed up. God he really liked calling her his wife. He literally sued it all the time. Half the people in that bar were his friends and family, they all knew he married her, they were there at the wedding.
Steve turned his attention to the guitar in his hands and then started playing. Once he was playing, Tommy too began to play but he was playing a ukulele.
Just because I wander 'round the places we would go, hoping that I'd run into you one last time. Just because I never took your picture off my phone, doesn't mean that you're still on my mind.
Danny immediately said: "Uh that's a lie. She was."
Just because I accidentally slipped and said your name. Well, I heard your song, it makes me insecure. Just because I know I'll never ever feel the same, doesn't mean I love you anymore.
"Uh… yes it does."
Am I lying to myself again, "Yes, he is." When I say you're not the best I've ever had? "She was. Literally could not do better." Am I lying to myself again, "Yeah, probably." When I say that I'm not missing you so bad? "Oh hell yeah. It was pathetic how much he missed her."
Danny must have been having fun because he was smiling widely, as wide as Steve was. In fact a few dry chuckles had escaped him while he was trying to sing.
Just because I'm on my knees and swearing I would change, and I'd do anything to hear you say "I'm yours." Just because I know I'll never ever feel the same, doesn't mean I love you anymore.
"Yes, it does, seriously, Ro, you don't know how bad it was. This man is a fucking liar."
Doesn't mean I love you anymore, more. Doesn't mean I love you anymore. Doesn't mean I love you anymore.
This went on for a while. Steve telling his lies and Danny shooting them out of the air and Rowan just sat there basking in how amazing her husband could sing and how it felt having him sing to her.
He finished with a flourish and a wave of applause which included Rowan jumping to her feet to giving him a standing ovation. Danny just stood there beside them taking it all in and bowing like he had done all the work.
Wo on the other hand stayed in his seat. "That was the worst song ever! He literally just sung to you that he didn't love you or miss you while you were gone!"
"It was lies, Wo," Con said. "That was the point of the song. That was the point of the translation. How… how did you miss that?"
"Because!" He cried. "That's not what Steve was singing. Why couldn't he sing about how much he missed her huh?"
"Cause songs like that are over done and he was being creative. I mean fuck, Wo, you so upset why don't you write a song then?"
Wo Fat glared at Con for a moment before he just sat back in his seat, clearly sulking. "Rowan writes better."
That may have been true but this song, this was better than anything else she had ever written before because it came from Steven's heart.
"For anyone that wants to know those are all lies he told us and the rest of his teammates during the year of Deceit," Danny said and everyone laughed while the five-0's merely lifted their glances and gave them all difference versions of it's true.
Rowan just smiled at her man. This had meant so much to her, because he had told her he loved her in her own love language.
And when she got a chance, she was going to show Steve just how much she loved him in his own love language.
H5O-H5O-H5O-H5O
Once upon a time.
A really long time ago.
Rowan had been at one of her focus groups with Alex and Steve had been in the audience with Catherine. It was when he was dating the two of them casually and upset that Alex was dating her casually too, even though he really wasn't.
Rowan had sung to him from the stage, all these horrible terrible lyrics about how stupid he was, and Steve had hated it because it was true, but loved it because her voice did something to his brain. Just turned it off or something so all he thought about was her.
That and she got off that stage and put herself in his lap to sing to him.
When the set was done, Steve had left his date's side to accost Rowan. And that had ended in sex in the washroom.
And there he was again, coming off the stage this time, not the other way around, heading to the bar for a drink and getting pulled aside.
By his wife thankfully.
He hadn't even seen her leave the table.
But there she was, grabbing his hand and dragging him into the closest washroom where she then locked the door and threw him up against the sink. Followed closely by her throwing herself at him.
They made out, for a long while, only because Steve was trying to get to foreplay. He still stung from that lack of foreplay comment she had made when Danny's sister had been visiting, but he knew, she was in quickie mode there would be no foreplay.
She better not fucking complain.
He was trying to angle his fingers into the right area but she was being stubborn. "Steve, Steve, stop," she said and he came apart from her.
"You're the one who complained about the foreplay…"
"Oh my god now is not the time," she hissed but he shook his head, he really wanted to show her that he listened to her. He could compromise and change if he had to.
She put something into the little pocket of his shirt and when he pulled it out it was her panties.
"What the… when did you…did you slide these off in the bar. In front of all our friends, your brother and my coworkers?"
"I did."
That should not have turned him on, but it did. It really fucking did.
"And you can keep them. For the rest of the night."
Her tongue was between her teeth in that teasing way, his mind had gone hazy. He captured his mouth with hers with a sudden ferocity but she smiled into it. He had her up in his arms, and then pinned against that sink so fast both of them were a little dizzy. But that didn't stop them for long. He worked on pushing her skirt up, she worked on getting him free of his pants.
No sooner was he free of them was his hard, pulsing body seeking her out. His mouth was in her neck by then, struggling to keep from leaving marks against her skin, at least where people could see them.
But when the head of him met her he let her go, simply so he could look her in the eye as he plunged in. Because he loved nothing more than watching that perfect o in sheer delight, as her head tipped back and her eyes rolled.
Deep and snug inside her, he relished in the warmth of her and how it always spread through him. Starting in his stomach and then up to his heart.
They slipped into a familiar tempo with easy. Her nails bit into his neck, then his lower back. His own fingers squeezed into her hips to pull her closer to him. Her legs wrapped around his back to keep him close, as one of his own hands slipped to her lower back as she leant back against the sink.
A short while later when they found their climaxes within each other, they collapsed both into breathless laughter and themselves. Rowan leaning against the mirror, Steve leaning against her chest.
If someone had told him, back during that once upon time, that one day he'd be married to her having birthday sex in this very washroom, he wouldn't have believed them.
He wished he could go back and tell past Steve that she was worth it, and he was being stupid. That he had nothing to be afraid of. But he couldn't.
The only thing he could do is cherish his wife for as long as he had her, and do everything he could in his power to make sure he had her for the rest of his life.