What Happens Next (1/1)
Title: What Happens Next
Character/Pairing: Wash/Taylor, Guz
Word Count: ~7800
Genre: Romance, Angst, Humor
Rating: NC-17
Summary: What happens once you figure out who you want, realize they want you, and then have to figure out how handle keeping it a secret because it breaks the rules.
Author’s Note: This did NOT start out as a smut story. I swear. It did, however, end up a smut story. I also had no intention of it being nearly eight thousand words. If I’d known it would end up this long, I’d have made it two chapters. But the length (and the smut) decided to sneak up on me, so here you go.
Basically, this is what happens next, after my story 118 Days Later.
Disclaimer is the same as always - don’t own them, just borrowing, no profit here.
Alicia sighs softly as she zips up her pack, getting ready to leave their little haven. She honestly has no desire to leave, no desire to rejoin the rest of their group back at their camp back near the portal.
The last two days here with Nathaniel have been two of the best days of her life. She imagines that might sound odd to many, considering that the reason they’re here is because they were trapped by a torrential downpour and subsequent flash flood. Since getting trapped here led to them finally professing their feelings for each other and then acting on those feelings, it’s been something of a dream come true to her. But now, she can’t help but wonder what happens next.
“Well, that’s a serious face.” Nathaniel’s voice makes her jump, and he kneels next to where she sits on the cave floor. With a smile, he leans forward and drops a kiss on her neck, exposed to him when she put her hair back into its usual ponytail.
She shakes her head. “This will sound ridiculous, but I don’t…”
“Want to go?” Lifting his head, he gives her a game smile. At her sheepish nod, he presses his forehead to hers. “Doesn’t sound ridiculous at all. I’m not particularly keen on leaving either. Not being allowed to touch you whenever and however I want to is going to be a challenge.”
Keeping their foreheads pressed together, she lifts her hand and runs her fingers through his hair. “I know what you mean.” She trails her fingers down the side of his head and down his neck, her nails scratching lightly at his skin. Then, leaning back a bit, she continues to move her hand, tracing her nails down his arm, the muscles exposed by his short-sleeved t-shirt.
When he flexes and draws in a sharp breath at the contact, she hums in appreciation. “Have I ever mentioned how much I love your arms?” She looks at him through her lashes, giving him a wicked smile.
He flashes her a wolfish grin in return and slides his hands down past her hips, coming to rest on her behind. “No. Have I ever mentioned how much I love your ass?” He squeezes, and she laughs as he drags her closer to him.
She wraps her arms around his neck, and just before he crushes his lips to hers, she murmurs, “So glad we got that information out in the open.”
Still kneeling down and keeping his hands on her rear, he lifts her until she is straddling him. His tongue finds its way into her mouth, and he groans as she grinds her hips into his in response. He squeezes again, using his hands to hold her in place.
A moment later, he nearly drops her when they both hear Guz’s voice over the comms. “Guzman to Taylor and Washington. Are you two there?” As it is, when he automatically reaches up to answer his comm, one hand lets go of her, making one side of her slide backwards off of his lap.
She shoots him a panicked look as she catches herself by bracing herself with one hand on the cave floor and trying to hold onto his shoulder with the other. As he says, “Guz, this is Taylor, go ahead,” he catches her with his other arm, wrapping it around her and pulling her back up. She’s able to reach up and activate her comm to listen in, even as she tries to stifle a grin at how silly they probably just looked.
He clearly notices that she’s having to work hard to be serious, because he gives her a stern look, one barely hiding his own amusement at their positions, as Guz replies, “Just checking in. Are you on your way back?”
“We will be momentarily, Guz.”
Feeling mischievous, Alicia rocks her hips into Nathaniel’s again, and his sharp intake of breath brings a slightly victorious look to her face. He glares at her, and she does her best to look innocent. He rolls his eyes at that.
“OK, sir. How long a walk do you two have?” Guz’s voice sounds in their ears again.
“A little over an hour.” She feels a small flare of disappointment when Nathaniel tells Guz the truth about how far away they are. He notices and gives her a slightly apologetic look.
“Sounds good, sir. We’ll see you both soon. Guzman out.”
He sighs and nuzzles his face into her neck. “I should’ve told him two hours.”
She laughs at that. “Too late now.” With his assistance, she struggles to her feet from her awkward position. She then pulls him to his own feet. “It’s probably for the best, though.”
He looks puzzled. “How so?” He goes to move the boulder covering the cave opening out of the way while she shoulders into her pack.
Once it’s moved, she brings him his pack. He takes it from her, and she replies, “Nathaniel, I’ve had more sex in the last two days than I had in the last five years. If we don’t take a break, I won’t be able to walk.”
He chuckles at that. “Sorry.”
“I’m not.” She grins and goes to leave the cave. As she passes him, he smacks her on the rear, making her turn and shoot him a mock glare. “You’re going to pay for that, you know?”
He leers at her. “I look forward to it.”
She snorts and continues out of the cave, making her way down to the forest floor. He follows close behind her, taking her hand as they both get down. That makes her smile up at him and entwine their fingers briefly. She tries to pull away, and he resists. “Nathaniel, as much as I like this, I’d prefer to have my hand on my gun if and when we get attacked by something trying to eat us.”
He actually pouts for a moment, and she lifts an eyebrow at him. “Really, Commander?”
Shrugging in defeat, he reluctantly releases her hand, but not before he lifts their hands up and drops a kiss on the back of hers. She smiles and teases him, “You’re such a softie, Nathaniel. Who knew?”
His face turns serious. “That’s OK, isn’t it? You don’t mind?”
He sounds so worried that she stops walking and looks up at him, cupping his cheek with her hand. “Of course it’s OK. At least when we’re alone,” she pauses, “But if you do it in front of anyone, if how you treat me changes even one iota, I will kick your ass. Are we clear?” She gently pats his cheek and drops her hand.
He looks like he wants to argue, and she gives him a hard look. “Fine. We’re clear. But I can only promise to do my best, Alicia. I’m going to mess up sometimes.”
She nods. “And you know I will too, Nathaniel, because trust me, I’m just as protective of you as you are of me.” They start to walk again, and she falls silent. Her mind goes to her last meeting with Lucas, back in 2142 when Nathaniel was trapped here alone.
He must notice that she’s lost in thought, because he bumps her shoulder. “You all right?” He smirks. “Second thoughts already?”
She smiles and bumps his shoulder back. “Of course not.”
He chuckles but presses, “What were you thinking about?”
She shakes her head. “It was nothing, Nathaniel.”
“Alicia, I’m going to bug you about this for the next hour if you don’t tell me.”
She sighs. “Nathaniel, this isn’t something you want to hear. Trust me.”
He stops again, putting his hand on her arm to stop her too. “Now I know it’s something I need to hear.”
She looks up at him after a moment. “During the 118 days,” she refers to the time he was trapped here alone, making him wince a little. She reaches up and covers his hand with her own, squeezing it before going on. “During the 118 days, I went to see Lucas.”
Nathaniel furrows his brow, but she continues before he can say anything, “I thought I should tell him what happened. I mean, I know your last visit with him didn’t go well, but I still thought he’d want to know.” She frowns and looks down.
“I take it he wasn’t too concerned?” he asks quietly.
She looks back up at him, and the sadness she sees in his eyes makes her heart ache for him. “You’re right. He wasn’t.”
“What did he say?” She hesitates, and he says, “Tell me, Alicia.”
Her voice drops low, and she’s angry with herself for even letting the conversation get this far. “He thought it was…” She just can’t go on.
He takes a deep breath. “Deserved. He thought it was deserved, didn’t he?”
“I’m sorry, Nathaniel.”
“It’s not entirely surprising,” he notes unhappily.
“I should confess something now, because as far as I know, he’ll be here one day. I kind of got into a shouting match with him.” She looks down, not particularly proud of her behavior.
“How ugly did it get, Alicia?”
“Uglier than I should have let it, Nathaniel. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was protective of you.” He squeezes her arm, and she looks up at him. “What he actually said wasn’t just that you deserved to be trapped here alone, it was that you deserved to die alone. When he said that, before I could stop myself, I told him that Ayani would be ashamed of him.” She drops her head again, wrapping her arms around herself. “I had no right to say that. I’m sorry, Nathaniel.”
She fully expects him to push her away, so she’s surprised when he pulls her tight to him. “It’s OK, Alicia. I wish I thought you were wrong, by the way. But it would break her heart.”
She slides her arms around his waist. “He’s so angry, Nathaniel. There’s just nothing of the boy I remember there.”
He nods, burying his face in her neck. “I miss the boy he was.”
“I know you do. I wish I knew how to help, but I’m certain I’m officially persona non grata. I’ve made it clear whose side I’m on, even though there shouldn’t be sides at all. By the time I left, I’m pretty sure he was almost as angry with me as he is with you. And I’d wager that my being loyal to you is a greater sin in his eyes than even my invoking Ayani’s name.”
He’s silent for a while, and she just holds him tight to her. After a couple of minutes, he just says, “I love you, Alicia.”
He sounds so lost and broken, Alicia wants to go back to 2142 just so she can yell at Lucas again. “I love you too, Nathaniel.” After they stand there for a few minutes, she says quietly, “We should get moving.”
He nods against her neck and lifts his head. He suddenly looks very tired, his eyes tinged with fatigue and sadness, and she can’t stand it. She takes his left hand with her right and heads off towards their camp, pulling him behind her. “I thought this wasn’t OK. Something about your hand on your gun?”
She can hear the slightly teasing note to his voice, so she teases back. “Yes, well, if we get attacked, you damn well better start shooting. I’ll be really pissed at you if you let me get eaten.”
“Copy that, Lieutenant.” He squeezes her hand. “Thank you for my book, by the way.” She smiles at his reference to the copy of Sense and Sensibility she gave him right before he came through the portal. “It was good to actually have something to read.”
She grins. “You’re welcome. You finished it?”
“I did. A couple of times, as a matter of fact.”
“What was your favorite part?” She glances back over her shoulder at him as they walk, a curious look on her face.
He looks thoughtful and then smiles. “The younger woman ending up with the older military man.”
She shakes her head, returning his smile. “Never would have guessed.”
*****
A few days later, Alicia is getting antsy, and she can tell that Nathaniel is too. They’ve barely managed any time alone, and the few stolen, brief kisses they’ve been able to share are not enough for her.
Their last even marginally satisfying encounter was right after their walk back from what she now thinks of as “their” cave. Just before they’d gotten to the camp perimeter, Nathaniel pulled her behind a large tree and, after pushing her pack off of her shoulders, slammed her up against the trunk. They’d stayed there, literally making out like teenagers, until Guz radioed again to check on their progress.
From that point on, when talking to her via plex message or in person, Nathaniel began referring to Guz as “Lieutenant Bad Timing.” As entertaining as Alicia finds Nathaniel’s grousing about Guz’s interruptions, her frustration level is getting high.
They knew, of course, that this would be the situation. Given their positions within the colony and military, they know they can’t have a public relationship. Knowing that, though, doesn’t do much to alleviate the tension she can tell they are both starting to feel.
It’s night now, a night when neither of them have perimeter duty, and she’s sprawled in her tent, just thinking. She can’t help but be amused at how much she finds herself thinking of ways to get even twenty minutes alone with Nathaniel. You can do a lot in twenty minutes. At this point, though, she’d probably settle for five.
She finds it odd to suddenly feel this way about him after being platonic friends for so long. And the truth is that while she wants him physically right now, the greater part of it is the closeness they found during the two days they spent alone in the cave. Unusual for them, they were both completely relaxed, spending a lot of the time sleeping curled up together or just talking. She almost aches to have his arms around her again.
Things are about to get even busier, and she is worried that it means they’ll have even fewer opportunities to find a moment together. Tomorrow, they’re going to move the camp and their large amount of construction supplies closer to the site of the new colony. They have a few vehicles they can use to move the large equipment, and they’re packing everything else.
They think they can make it in a day, and get a new camp and perimeter set. They have sonic pulse generators to ward off many predators, though they don’t fool themselves into thinking that they’ll be enough against the really big ones.
Once they’re moved, construction of the first colony fence can begin. After that, they’ll build some basic housing, then other necessary structures they’ll need prior to the arrival of the second pilgrimage. They also will build the fence large enough to begin some rudimentary attempts at agriculture. She’s excited to start making progress, but at the same time, she despairs that it means it could be a long time before she and Nathaniel can be alone.
She’s still lost in thought when she’s startled by a ping from her plex, the small noise signaling the arrival of a message. They have the plexes networked, so they can basically message or email each other. She picks it up, smiling when she sees that her message is from Nathaniel.
“Want to go fishing after we get the camp moved?”
She lifts an eyebrow and types back, “Fishing? Really?” She hits send.
A moment later, her plex pings again. “Yes, really. Good spot for it a couple hours walk from new campsite. Time alone and we can shore up some food supplies. Of course, it might get too late, so we should probably both bring a pack in case we have to camp.”
She smiles and decides to see if she can manage to flirt via plex. “Are you asking me out on a date, Commander?”
There’s a pause again, and then she grins at the ping. “I might be.”
“In that case, I’d love to go fishing. Too bad I didn’t pack my favorite old bikini.”
“Too bad indeed, Lieutenant. But thanks for the picture I have in my head now.”
She laughs at that. “Happy to be of service, sir. Good night.”
It pings again. “Good night, Alicia. I love you.”
Those last words make her go warm all over. “I love you too, Nathaniel.”
She puts her plex down and settles into her sleeping bag. Curling up on her side, she can’t help but smile in anticipation of their upcoming time together.
*****
The next night, Alicia is grabbing some dinner with Guz and a few of the other soldiers. She rolls her shoulders against the stiffness and fatigue she feels in them. It’s been a hell of a long day. Night has already fallen, but they have their new camp established and the perimeter set. Thus far, it’s been uneventful, but they have multiple patrols out, Nathaniel on one of them.
The other soldiers bid them good night and head off to patrol. Guz looks at her. “How’s Taylor doing, Wash?” She must look confused because he says, “With the 118 days, I mean.”
“He’s OK, Guz. He had trouble being alone when we first got here, but I think he’s getting better.”
Guz smiles at her. “I hear you’re going fishing tomorrow, and that it may end up being an overnight?”
She blinks, forgetting that Nathaniel told her this morning that he’d mention it to Guz today. “So I’ve been told, Guz.”
She and Guz continue eating in silence until Guz clears his throat, making her look up at him. “Wash, is there anything I need to know here?”
She bristles slightly, but she realizes that there is only concern in his eyes. “No, Guz. There isn’t.” She appreciates that he cares, but she won’t be sharing anything with him without Nathaniel’s buy in first.
He observes her for a moment before he nods. “Understood.” She pats him on the arm and then gets up to head to her tent, ready to call it a night. “But Wash?” His voice makes her look back, a questioning look on her face. “You’ll tell me when there is something I need to know, right?”
She has to smile at that. “If I can, I will.”
He returns the smile. “OK. That’s good enough for me. You and the Commander have a good time tomorrow.”
“I’m sure we will, Guz. Thanks for holding down the fort, and you know you can call if something happens.”
He gives her a half-hearted salute, making her snort. “Good night, Wash.”
“’Night, Guz.”
After a relatively restless night, Alicia climbs out of her tent in the morning, dragging her small day pack behind her. It has everything she’ll need if they end up staying out overnight, which she’s honestly pretty sure they will, so long as they can find somewhere safe. She has a feeling that Nathaniel already has a place in mind.
As she closes up her tent, she hears his voice from behind her. “Ready to head out?”
She turns with a smile, shouldering her pack. “I am.” He tosses her a piece of fruit, similar to a pear, one of the native species he discovered while trapped here alone. She catches it easily. “Breakfast?”
He holds up his own half-eaten piece with a grin. “Breakfast. Shall we?”
She takes a bite out of her own piece and nods, letting him lead them out of the camp. The work crews are just getting moving, and they wave at the few folks they pass. As they get further away from the camp, Nathaniel starts looking backwards over his shoulder every few steps.
She’s about to ask him what’s wrong when he grabs her arm and pulls her into the brush. He spins her around, and with one hand moving from her arm to her hair and the other gripping her hip, he pulls her to him and kisses her hard. She gasps a little, and he takes full advantage, sliding his tongue into her mouth.
She responds immediately, her arms winding around his neck and her tongue twining with his. Knowing they need to keep this short both because of possible predators and because someone from the camp might stumble upon them, she pulls back after a few moments, leaning up and bumping his nose with hers.
Opening his eyes, he gives her a sheepish grin. “I’ve been wanting to do that for the last three days.” He refers to the fact that they’ve been all but completely unable to even touch each other for a few days.
She laughs softly, reluctantly stepping away from him. “I know what you mean.”
He reaches up and smooths her hair out of her face, mussed from his hand going into it when he kissed her. “Messed up your perfect ponytail. Sorry about that.”
She pulls out her hair tie and re-does her ponytail. Then, she leans up and presses a kiss to his cheek. “It was worth it.” He grins and heads back out of the brush, leading the way, her following close behind.
Almost two hours later, Alicia hears the sound of waves rolling into shore. The walk should’ve only taken them about ninety minutes, but en route, she got to have her first encounter with nykoraptors. A group of three of them must have picked up their scent, and they were stalked for short while. Luckily, Nathaniel had encountered nykos early in his time here, and he easily spotted them.
They basically stalked the creatures back, eventually killing all three. Once the last one was dead by Alicia’s conventional gun, they had radioed the camp to be on the lookout for more.
Approaching the sound of the water, Alicia realizes that, up ahead, it looks like there is a steep drop off. When he stops at the edge of a bluff, that is confirmed. He’s on one knee, pulling climbing gear from his pack. “Nathaniel?”
He looks up with a grin. “If it was anyone else, we’d take the long way down to the beach. It’s at least a thirty minute hike. With you?” He points down the face of the bluff. “Express route.”
She lifts an eyebrow at him and steps up to the edge. He stands next to her. “See that outcropping about three quarters or so of the way down?”
She peers down, and she sees it about fifteen feet above the beach, but almost seventy feet below them. “Is it safe from the tides?”
He nods, going back to the climbing equipment. “We can rappel down to the shelf. It’s an easy climb from the ledge to the beach and back, so we’ll be safe tonight. Anything we catch we can pack out by hiking back up.”
“Sounds good.” She grins at him.
Fifteen minutes later, they’re down on the shelf. It’s about fifteen feet wide and ten feet deep, with some shelter provided by an outcropping of rock at one end. Alicia sees a few piles of firewood under the outcropping, and she realizes that, as with the cave they used to shelter from the rain storm, Nathaniel has definitely spent time here. She motions to the wood. “So, come here often?”
He gives her a crooked half smile. “Found this place the third week. Was running out of rations, and I needed to find something to hunt that wasn’t likely to hunt me back. I remembered from the trainings that the fish weren’t all that scary.” He puts his pack down and opens it to pull out a smaller bag of fishing gear. “I’d come here for a couple of days every two or three weeks. I never stayed long for fear of somehow missing you at the portal.”
He goes quiet, a slightly haunted look on his face. He’s crouched next to his bag, so she goes over and kneels behind him, resting her forehead between his shoulder blades and wrapping her arms around his waist. He relaxes into her touch, his hand coming up to grip her arm almost desperately. He sighs. “I’m OK, Alicia.”
“Are you sure? Nathaniel, if there’s anything I can do…”
He turns in her arms and drops into a sitting position facing her. He reaches up and cups her face in his palm. “I won’t pretend that it’s not there in the back of my mind that maybe I’ve gone nuts and am just imagining all of you. That at any moment, I’ll look around and you’ll be gone, leaving me alone again. That thought does still make it hard to sleep some nights, especially on my own. But it’s improving, Alicia.”
She frowns, looking up at him. “I wish I could be there with you every night.” He starts to say something, but she shakes her head, going on, “But I know I can’t. What I can do is promise you that we’re real. I can promise you that I’m not going to disappear on you.”
Getting an idea, she digs into her pocket. She finds what’s she looking for and pulls it out. She holds out her other hand to him. “Give me your tags.”
He gives her a funny look, but he still slips them over his head and hands them to her. She takes them and carefully unhooks the chain. She slides one of her small hair elastics onto the chain with his tags and rehooks it. She then leans up and puts the chain back over his head. He takes the tags in his hand, his fingers brushing over the hair band.
“You keep that until you stop wondering if we’re going to disappear. Keep it until you can sleep. When you need to, when you doubt, touch it to remind yourself that we came, that you’re not alone anymore.”
His hand closes tight around the tags and hair band, and his eyes meet hers. “Thank you.”
She gives him a soft smile. “You’re welcome.” She leans up again, this time pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. After pulling back, she pushes up to her feet and offers him her hand to help him up. “Now get all the fishing stuff out. It’s time for you to show me the dinofish. I can’t wait.”
He snorts, and then he watches with what looks like surprise on his face as she begins to strip off her clothes. “Alicia?”
She looks over her shoulder at him, clad only in her bra and panties as she rummages through her pack. With a deliberately innocent look on her face, she smiles at him. “What? I said I didn’t have my bikini. That didn’t mean that I don’t have anything that’s appropriate for a beach.”
She goes back to changing without waiting for him to answer. After a moment, she grins when she hears him exhale a breath and go back to pulling out the fishing gear. She puts on a simple, skin tight tank top and a slightly fitted pair of shorts that show off her long legs. Peering over the edge of the shelf they’re on, she sees that it will be an easy climb to the beach, so she dumps her boots and puts on a pair of slip on shoes that will do fine on the bluff.
Turning back around, she realizes that he’s just standing there staring at her. She grins at him and grabs a small bag from her pack. The bag has some food and water in it, and she drapes it across her body and tucks her pistol into it. She pulls on her fingerless leather gloves and steps over to the ropes they used earlier, both still hanging next to the ledge. “Are you going to join me, or are you just going to stare at me all day?”
That seems to snap him out of his nearly trance-like state. He blinks, and then, grinning, he grabs the bag of fishing gear and joins her. “Both.”
She grins back before starting down to the beach with him following. It’s easy going, and as she climbs down, she thinks about the look on his face up on the ledge. She knows she’s being a little bit of a tease, but she can’t quite help herself. She laughs softly to herself as she thinks that this is going to be a good day.
A few hours later, she’s sprawled out on the sandy beach, enjoying the sound of the waves on the shore and the feel of the sun on her sunscreen-covered skin. More than anything, though, she’s enjoying watching Nathaniel. She fished with him for an hour and a half or so, but then, she will openly admit, she got a little bored of it.
She started bugging him with questions and commentary about the colony, and then she got overly fidgety, playing with her line and the nets they have. It wasn’t until she started threatening to just shoot the fish - and clearly that would be more efficient - that Nathaniel banished her to the beach where she now sits, watching him closely.
He’s standing in the surf, shirt off and cargo pants rolled up to his knees, and she can’t take her eyes off of him. Every time he casts a line into the rolling sea, all of the muscles of his shoulders and back ripple with the effort, and as far as she is concerned, it’s the best show she’s seen in a long time.
When he catches something, if it’s large enough, he brings it back to shore and cleans it immediately, placing the filets into special sealed bags they brought with them from the future. They’ll keep the fish fresh and cool using a chemical encased in the plastic, the chemical completely contained and never touching what is being stored. In the bags, the fish could keep for weeks. Nathaniel had one of them in his pack when he came through alone, and that’s how he kept his food safe and edible when he would come here on his fishing trips.
Her mind wanders back to earlier. It breaks her heart to think that he’s worried she’ll disappear, that he’s worried that they’ll all disappear, leaving him alone again. When she put her hair band on his tags, she was concerned that he’d think it silly. On the contrary, though, she’s seen him repeatedly reach up and touch her hair band as he fishes.
She leans back on her elbows, dropping her head back and closing her eyes. She lets her mind drift as she’s nearly lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves and the warm sun. Some time later, she’s startled by the feeling of water droplets on her skin and the sense that a presence is looming over her. Her eyes snap open and her hand automatically goes for her gun, which sits next to her on the sand.
He catches her hand before she gets to it, and her eyes focus on his. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He looks truly contrite, knowing that people trained like they are could actually kill another person before even realizing what’s going on.
She sits up, shaking her head. “It’s OK, I shouldn’t have let myself relax so much.”
He steps away and starts to clean a fish. “No, you do get to relax occasionally, Alicia. I was watching once I saw that you might be asleep.”
She nods, sitting cross-legged and watching him. “That’s a big one.” She refers to the fish.
He grins. “It’s huge. Biggest one I’ve landed so far. The folks back at the camp are going to be pretty happy about the menu for tomorrow night.”
“Well, they’ll be happy if you aren’t the one cooking it,” she teases with a smile.
He attempts to look affronted, but he doesn’t quite pull it off. “I can grill stuff OK.”
“Yes, you can.” She leans forward and drops a kiss on his cheek. “If I season it for you first.”
He shoots her a glare but then just shrugs. “Touché.”
She chuckles and grabs the cold bag for the fish, opening it for him to put the filets in. Once he’s done, she closes up the bag as he tosses the fish remains back into the water. He rinses his hands a bit in the seawater and comes back over to her, pulling his t-shirt back on. “Ready to call it a day?”
“Sure. It looks like you got a lot.”
“You helped.” He smirks at her. “A little.”
She laughs, pushing herself up off of the sand and brushing her legs off. “Hey, I have no pride about this. Fishing is boring.” She shoulders her bag, slipping her gun back into it and then putting her shoes back on. She leers at him. “Watching you fish wasn’t bad, though.”
He grins at that and puts the bagged fish into his large pack. “Glad the day wasn’t a total bust.”
She just laughs at that and starts to climb back up to the ledge. She can almost feel his eyes on her ass as she climbs, and she’s suddenly hyper-aware of him, her nerve endings singing. She’s been waiting all day for him to make a move, and she hopes he does it soon. Just watching him fish turned her on even more than she already was when they got here.
As if he can read her mind, he follows her up, close behind her. She barely has enough time to put her bag down on the ground of the ledge before he appears next to her. He drops his pack and is on her in an instant.
Using his superior strength and size, he has her back pressed against the rock face in seconds, his mouth taking hers and his hands holding hers against the rock face above her head. She meets him, thrusting her tongue into his mouth and rocking her hips into his. She gasps when she feels how hard he already is.
He grasps both of her wrists with one of his hands, keeping them held above her head as his other hand moves down her body to capture her breast, kneading it hard and squeezing her nipple through the fabric of her tank and bra. She struggles to pull her hands from his so she can touch him, but he just pulls back from kissing her to meet her eyes and shake his head no.
She goes even warmer all over and stops struggling. He gives her a feral grin and takes her mouth again for a moment before moving from her lips down the column of her neck, biting and sucking lightly, careful not to mark her. He looks back up and locks his eyes with hers, a command in them to stay still.
She nods lightly, not sure what he has planned but quite sure that she’ll enjoy it. He releases her wrists, but she keeps her hands above her head. He hums in approval before reaching down to grab the hem of her tank to pull it up, catching her sports bra on the way and pulling both over her head. He then crouches down and pulls her shoes off before reaching up for the edge of her shorts. He pulls her shorts and panties off in one quick motion, leaving her bared to him, her hands still above her head.
He stands up and leans in to kiss her again, making her emit a disapproving sound. He stops with a questioning smile, and she just eyes his t-shirt. He grins and pulls it up and over his head, bringing a much happier look to her face.
His hand then goes back up and recaptures her wrists. His mouth is on hers again, his tongue plunging into her mouth as his free hand explores her body. He caresses and kneads her breasts for a moment, but then his hand moves downward. She gasps and arches into him, her hands straining against his as he slides a finger across her clit before slipping first one and then two fingers inside of her.
Keeping his hand on her wrists, he leaves her mouth, leaning down to capture one of her nipples and sucking hard as his fingers plunge in and out of her, his thumb rubbing her clit in a counterpoint to his thrusts. She finds herself barreling towards an orgasm as he switches breasts, taking her other nipple as he increases the speed and force of his fingers invading her body.
A moment later, she cries out and tenses against him. She arches again as her first orgasm hits her, and she can’t stop herself from screaming his name. He continues to move his fingers until her body stops quivering, and she sags back against the rock face.
Keeping his hand on her wrists, he removes his hand from her body, licking his fingers clean and then pressing his mouth to hers, letting her taste herself on him. She moans at that, closing her eyes, and he grins against her mouth. She feels his free hand moving, and she’s vaguely aware of the sound of his cargos hitting the ground.
Her eyes open again when she feels him nudging at her entrance, and he suddenly releases her wrists. His hands grab her ass and lift her up, and before she knows what’s happening, he lowers her onto him, burying himself to the hilt inside of her body. She cries out at the contact and fullness, wrapping her legs tight around his waist.
He wastes no time, pressing her shoulders into the rock face as he immediately begins to pound in an out of her in a bruising rhythm. He shifts her hips, and suddenly he finds the perfect angle, hitting her clit with every thrust. She is alternately moaning and crying out with his thrusts, her hands coming up and gripping his shoulders hard, nails digging in, hanging on for dear life as he has his way with her.
In a brief moment of coherence, all she can think is that she’s never been quite so pleased to be completely dominated. The rocks behind her are scraping her shoulders, but she couldn’t care less. She tightens her legs even more around his waist, and his thrusts suddenly become more erratic.
She opens her eyes to watch him, and she can tell from the look of concentration on his face that he’s trying to wait for her. Wrapping one arm around his neck, she pulls her upper body flush with his and kisses him hard on the mouth before leaning up to his ear and whispering, “Let go, Nathaniel.” She then nibbles and sucks on his earlobe, making him draw in a sharp breath.
That seems to be all he can take, and his thrusts become even harder. She feels herself getting close again, and she rolls her hips to meet his over and over again until suddenly her body tenses again, her inner walls tightening around him as she moans loudly. Just a few moments later, he tenses too, calling her name as he spills himself into her.
After a few moments, without letting go of her, he turns them so that his back is against the rock face. He leans back into it, and she tightens her arm around his shoulders, nuzzling her face into his neck. They’re both breathing hard, but she’s slowly coming back to herself, enjoying every moment that they stay like this, still joined together.
His hands flex where they hold her ass, and she’s only mildly disappointed when he lifts her slightly to pull out of her body. She makes a sad little noise as he does so, making him chuckle in her ear as she releases her legs from around his waist, and he gently lowers her until her feet are back on the ground.
He leans further into the wall, and she presses herself against him. After a moment, he mutters, “Damn, Alicia, this wall is rough. Did I hurt you?”
Her arms go around his waist and she rests her head on his shoulder. “I think I got scratched a little, but it’s OK.”
He stands up straighter, putting his hands on her waist and moving her away from him. “It’s not OK. Let me see.”
She sighs and turns, and she hears him curse softly. “I’m sorry, Alicia. Come with me.” He takes her hand and grabs his pack with his free hand. Coming to a stop under the outcropping, he lets go of her hand and pulls a soft blanket out of his pack. He spreads it on the ground and points to it.
She knows he’ll argue if she tries to shrug him off, so she just stretches out face down on the blanket, crossing her arms and pillowing her head on them. She won’t admit to him that her shoulders are starting to sting a little. She mumbles, “Med kit in my pack.”
He pulls it out, and, kneeling next to her, he puts the kit down on the blanket. She hears the slosh of liquid, and she tenses slightly before the stinging cleaning solution hits her shoulders. When it does, she hisses a little in spite of herself. He gently cleans the scrapes, and again he says, “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She turns her head to look at him. “Nathaniel, I know you didn’t. I’m really fine, I promise. I could have protested, but I didn’t want to. The rest of me felt too damned good to worry about a few scrapes.”
He finishes with the cleaner, and she feels him dab some antiseptic ointment across her shoulders. He then gets up, and she watches him walk back to the other end of the ledge. She enjoys watching as he gathers their clothes and his pack.
He brings everything back, and he pulls on his boxer shorts before sitting down next to her and handing her his t-shirt and her panties. She tries to raise her arms, but the scrapes and ointment have tightened them up. He leans over and helps her pull his t-shirt over her head. She then wriggles back into her panties.
She smiles at him, leaning up and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He still has a concerned, guilty look on his face, and she sighs, nestling into his side. “I’m fine, Nathaniel. Please stop worrying.”
He pulls her hair free of its ponytail and runs his hand through the strands, combing gently. “I’ll try. Can’t promise more than that.”
She drops a kiss on his shoulder. “Good enough.”
They go silent, both enjoying being close to the other, listening to the waves crashing against the shore as the tide starts to roll in. She curls into him more as the sun begins to set, the temperature dropping a little. She drops her head to his chest. “How high will the water get?”
He perches his chin on her head. “It only rises about five feet, but the beach will be gone for a bit.”
She nods and smiles. “Hope there aren’t any sea monsters.” She feels him chuckle against her, and she’s glad he’s laughing again.
He pulls her closer to him. “If there are, I’ll protect you.”
She pinches him in the side for that, making him squirm just a little. “Fine. I’ll let you protect me.”
“Better.”
“I figured.” He chuckles again.
They go silent again before she says, “I want to keep doing this. How are we going to find ways to do this, Nathaniel? The last three days with no real contact was miserable.”
“I know,” he squeezes her a little, “And I don’t know the answer, but we’ll work on it.”
“Guz knows something is up. Last night, he asked me if there was anything he needed to know.”
“You didn’t tell him, did you?”
He sounds concerned, and she shakes her head against his chest. “No, but I didn’t like lying to him.”
“I know. I don’t like it either, but it’s as much to protect him as it is to protect us.”
She lifts her head to look at him. “I know, but I do want to tell him before the second pilgrimage. He deserves to know, Nathaniel, and you know he won’t say anything to anyone.”
“I agree on both counts. I’m just not ready to share us, Alicia, if you know what I mean.”
“I do. And I’m not ready either. But at some point, we both have to get ready.”
His eyes lock with hers. “Have I mentioned that I love you?”
She smiles, all too happy to change the subject for now. “No, I don’t think you have. Why don’t you make yourself useful - build a fire and then tell me just how much you love me.”
“If I build a fire, will you cook?” He grins at her.
“Yes, because A, I don’t want food poisoning and B, I’d like dinner to actually be edible.”
He laughs and gets up, gathering the wood and building a small fire. She watches him, and the light sting from her shoulders makes her think of something else. “One more assignment, Nathaniel.”
He turns back to her, one eyebrow raised. She gives him a cheeky grin. “You have to come up with a story as to how my shoulders got messed up. Anyone sees me in my tank top, and I’m pretty sure there will be questions.”
He snorts and turns back to light the fire. “That’s easy, Alicia.”
She watches him get the flames going. “Pray tell, Nathaniel.”
He shoots her a grin over his shoulder. “I’ll just tell people you fell while protecting me from the sea monsters, of course.”
He barely has time to duck as a shoe flies by his head, making him laugh out loud.
“You’re pushing your luck, Taylor.”
“I’m not worried.” He gets up and comes back over to her, settling in front of her. “Because you know,” he kisses her, “I have it on good authority that you happen to love me as much as I love you.”
“Cocky bastard.”
He grins and scoops her up, sitting down and settling her in his lap. “I prefer lucky bastard.”
She wraps her arms around his neck. “Fine.” They go quiet again, watching the fire. “For the record, Lucky Bastard, if it rains tonight? I get the place under the outcropping.”
His bark of laughter can probably be heard all the way back at the camp.
Character/Pairing: Wash/Taylor, Guz
Word Count: ~7800
Genre: Romance, Angst, Humor
Rating: NC-17
Summary: What happens once you figure out who you want, realize they want you, and then have to figure out how handle keeping it a secret because it breaks the rules.
Author’s Note: This did NOT start out as a smut story. I swear. It did, however, end up a smut story. I also had no intention of it being nearly eight thousand words. If I’d known it would end up this long, I’d have made it two chapters. But the length (and the smut) decided to sneak up on me, so here you go.
Basically, this is what happens next, after my story 118 Days Later.
Disclaimer is the same as always - don’t own them, just borrowing, no profit here.
Alicia sighs softly as she zips up her pack, getting ready to leave their little haven. She honestly has no desire to leave, no desire to rejoin the rest of their group back at their camp back near the portal.
The last two days here with Nathaniel have been two of the best days of her life. She imagines that might sound odd to many, considering that the reason they’re here is because they were trapped by a torrential downpour and subsequent flash flood. Since getting trapped here led to them finally professing their feelings for each other and then acting on those feelings, it’s been something of a dream come true to her. But now, she can’t help but wonder what happens next.
“Well, that’s a serious face.” Nathaniel’s voice makes her jump, and he kneels next to where she sits on the cave floor. With a smile, he leans forward and drops a kiss on her neck, exposed to him when she put her hair back into its usual ponytail.
She shakes her head. “This will sound ridiculous, but I don’t…”
“Want to go?” Lifting his head, he gives her a game smile. At her sheepish nod, he presses his forehead to hers. “Doesn’t sound ridiculous at all. I’m not particularly keen on leaving either. Not being allowed to touch you whenever and however I want to is going to be a challenge.”
Keeping their foreheads pressed together, she lifts her hand and runs her fingers through his hair. “I know what you mean.” She trails her fingers down the side of his head and down his neck, her nails scratching lightly at his skin. Then, leaning back a bit, she continues to move her hand, tracing her nails down his arm, the muscles exposed by his short-sleeved t-shirt.
When he flexes and draws in a sharp breath at the contact, she hums in appreciation. “Have I ever mentioned how much I love your arms?” She looks at him through her lashes, giving him a wicked smile.
He flashes her a wolfish grin in return and slides his hands down past her hips, coming to rest on her behind. “No. Have I ever mentioned how much I love your ass?” He squeezes, and she laughs as he drags her closer to him.
She wraps her arms around his neck, and just before he crushes his lips to hers, she murmurs, “So glad we got that information out in the open.”
Still kneeling down and keeping his hands on her rear, he lifts her until she is straddling him. His tongue finds its way into her mouth, and he groans as she grinds her hips into his in response. He squeezes again, using his hands to hold her in place.
A moment later, he nearly drops her when they both hear Guz’s voice over the comms. “Guzman to Taylor and Washington. Are you two there?” As it is, when he automatically reaches up to answer his comm, one hand lets go of her, making one side of her slide backwards off of his lap.
She shoots him a panicked look as she catches herself by bracing herself with one hand on the cave floor and trying to hold onto his shoulder with the other. As he says, “Guz, this is Taylor, go ahead,” he catches her with his other arm, wrapping it around her and pulling her back up. She’s able to reach up and activate her comm to listen in, even as she tries to stifle a grin at how silly they probably just looked.
He clearly notices that she’s having to work hard to be serious, because he gives her a stern look, one barely hiding his own amusement at their positions, as Guz replies, “Just checking in. Are you on your way back?”
“We will be momentarily, Guz.”
Feeling mischievous, Alicia rocks her hips into Nathaniel’s again, and his sharp intake of breath brings a slightly victorious look to her face. He glares at her, and she does her best to look innocent. He rolls his eyes at that.
“OK, sir. How long a walk do you two have?” Guz’s voice sounds in their ears again.
“A little over an hour.” She feels a small flare of disappointment when Nathaniel tells Guz the truth about how far away they are. He notices and gives her a slightly apologetic look.
“Sounds good, sir. We’ll see you both soon. Guzman out.”
He sighs and nuzzles his face into her neck. “I should’ve told him two hours.”
She laughs at that. “Too late now.” With his assistance, she struggles to her feet from her awkward position. She then pulls him to his own feet. “It’s probably for the best, though.”
He looks puzzled. “How so?” He goes to move the boulder covering the cave opening out of the way while she shoulders into her pack.
Once it’s moved, she brings him his pack. He takes it from her, and she replies, “Nathaniel, I’ve had more sex in the last two days than I had in the last five years. If we don’t take a break, I won’t be able to walk.”
He chuckles at that. “Sorry.”
“I’m not.” She grins and goes to leave the cave. As she passes him, he smacks her on the rear, making her turn and shoot him a mock glare. “You’re going to pay for that, you know?”
He leers at her. “I look forward to it.”
She snorts and continues out of the cave, making her way down to the forest floor. He follows close behind her, taking her hand as they both get down. That makes her smile up at him and entwine their fingers briefly. She tries to pull away, and he resists. “Nathaniel, as much as I like this, I’d prefer to have my hand on my gun if and when we get attacked by something trying to eat us.”
He actually pouts for a moment, and she lifts an eyebrow at him. “Really, Commander?”
Shrugging in defeat, he reluctantly releases her hand, but not before he lifts their hands up and drops a kiss on the back of hers. She smiles and teases him, “You’re such a softie, Nathaniel. Who knew?”
His face turns serious. “That’s OK, isn’t it? You don’t mind?”
He sounds so worried that she stops walking and looks up at him, cupping his cheek with her hand. “Of course it’s OK. At least when we’re alone,” she pauses, “But if you do it in front of anyone, if how you treat me changes even one iota, I will kick your ass. Are we clear?” She gently pats his cheek and drops her hand.
He looks like he wants to argue, and she gives him a hard look. “Fine. We’re clear. But I can only promise to do my best, Alicia. I’m going to mess up sometimes.”
She nods. “And you know I will too, Nathaniel, because trust me, I’m just as protective of you as you are of me.” They start to walk again, and she falls silent. Her mind goes to her last meeting with Lucas, back in 2142 when Nathaniel was trapped here alone.
He must notice that she’s lost in thought, because he bumps her shoulder. “You all right?” He smirks. “Second thoughts already?”
She smiles and bumps his shoulder back. “Of course not.”
He chuckles but presses, “What were you thinking about?”
She shakes her head. “It was nothing, Nathaniel.”
“Alicia, I’m going to bug you about this for the next hour if you don’t tell me.”
She sighs. “Nathaniel, this isn’t something you want to hear. Trust me.”
He stops again, putting his hand on her arm to stop her too. “Now I know it’s something I need to hear.”
She looks up at him after a moment. “During the 118 days,” she refers to the time he was trapped here alone, making him wince a little. She reaches up and covers his hand with her own, squeezing it before going on. “During the 118 days, I went to see Lucas.”
Nathaniel furrows his brow, but she continues before he can say anything, “I thought I should tell him what happened. I mean, I know your last visit with him didn’t go well, but I still thought he’d want to know.” She frowns and looks down.
“I take it he wasn’t too concerned?” he asks quietly.
She looks back up at him, and the sadness she sees in his eyes makes her heart ache for him. “You’re right. He wasn’t.”
“What did he say?” She hesitates, and he says, “Tell me, Alicia.”
Her voice drops low, and she’s angry with herself for even letting the conversation get this far. “He thought it was…” She just can’t go on.
He takes a deep breath. “Deserved. He thought it was deserved, didn’t he?”
“I’m sorry, Nathaniel.”
“It’s not entirely surprising,” he notes unhappily.
“I should confess something now, because as far as I know, he’ll be here one day. I kind of got into a shouting match with him.” She looks down, not particularly proud of her behavior.
“How ugly did it get, Alicia?”
“Uglier than I should have let it, Nathaniel. I wasn’t kidding when I said I was protective of you.” He squeezes her arm, and she looks up at him. “What he actually said wasn’t just that you deserved to be trapped here alone, it was that you deserved to die alone. When he said that, before I could stop myself, I told him that Ayani would be ashamed of him.” She drops her head again, wrapping her arms around herself. “I had no right to say that. I’m sorry, Nathaniel.”
She fully expects him to push her away, so she’s surprised when he pulls her tight to him. “It’s OK, Alicia. I wish I thought you were wrong, by the way. But it would break her heart.”
She slides her arms around his waist. “He’s so angry, Nathaniel. There’s just nothing of the boy I remember there.”
He nods, burying his face in her neck. “I miss the boy he was.”
“I know you do. I wish I knew how to help, but I’m certain I’m officially persona non grata. I’ve made it clear whose side I’m on, even though there shouldn’t be sides at all. By the time I left, I’m pretty sure he was almost as angry with me as he is with you. And I’d wager that my being loyal to you is a greater sin in his eyes than even my invoking Ayani’s name.”
He’s silent for a while, and she just holds him tight to her. After a couple of minutes, he just says, “I love you, Alicia.”
He sounds so lost and broken, Alicia wants to go back to 2142 just so she can yell at Lucas again. “I love you too, Nathaniel.” After they stand there for a few minutes, she says quietly, “We should get moving.”
He nods against her neck and lifts his head. He suddenly looks very tired, his eyes tinged with fatigue and sadness, and she can’t stand it. She takes his left hand with her right and heads off towards their camp, pulling him behind her. “I thought this wasn’t OK. Something about your hand on your gun?”
She can hear the slightly teasing note to his voice, so she teases back. “Yes, well, if we get attacked, you damn well better start shooting. I’ll be really pissed at you if you let me get eaten.”
“Copy that, Lieutenant.” He squeezes her hand. “Thank you for my book, by the way.” She smiles at his reference to the copy of Sense and Sensibility she gave him right before he came through the portal. “It was good to actually have something to read.”
She grins. “You’re welcome. You finished it?”
“I did. A couple of times, as a matter of fact.”
“What was your favorite part?” She glances back over her shoulder at him as they walk, a curious look on her face.
He looks thoughtful and then smiles. “The younger woman ending up with the older military man.”
She shakes her head, returning his smile. “Never would have guessed.”
*****
A few days later, Alicia is getting antsy, and she can tell that Nathaniel is too. They’ve barely managed any time alone, and the few stolen, brief kisses they’ve been able to share are not enough for her.
Their last even marginally satisfying encounter was right after their walk back from what she now thinks of as “their” cave. Just before they’d gotten to the camp perimeter, Nathaniel pulled her behind a large tree and, after pushing her pack off of her shoulders, slammed her up against the trunk. They’d stayed there, literally making out like teenagers, until Guz radioed again to check on their progress.
From that point on, when talking to her via plex message or in person, Nathaniel began referring to Guz as “Lieutenant Bad Timing.” As entertaining as Alicia finds Nathaniel’s grousing about Guz’s interruptions, her frustration level is getting high.
They knew, of course, that this would be the situation. Given their positions within the colony and military, they know they can’t have a public relationship. Knowing that, though, doesn’t do much to alleviate the tension she can tell they are both starting to feel.
It’s night now, a night when neither of them have perimeter duty, and she’s sprawled in her tent, just thinking. She can’t help but be amused at how much she finds herself thinking of ways to get even twenty minutes alone with Nathaniel. You can do a lot in twenty minutes. At this point, though, she’d probably settle for five.
She finds it odd to suddenly feel this way about him after being platonic friends for so long. And the truth is that while she wants him physically right now, the greater part of it is the closeness they found during the two days they spent alone in the cave. Unusual for them, they were both completely relaxed, spending a lot of the time sleeping curled up together or just talking. She almost aches to have his arms around her again.
Things are about to get even busier, and she is worried that it means they’ll have even fewer opportunities to find a moment together. Tomorrow, they’re going to move the camp and their large amount of construction supplies closer to the site of the new colony. They have a few vehicles they can use to move the large equipment, and they’re packing everything else.
They think they can make it in a day, and get a new camp and perimeter set. They have sonic pulse generators to ward off many predators, though they don’t fool themselves into thinking that they’ll be enough against the really big ones.
Once they’re moved, construction of the first colony fence can begin. After that, they’ll build some basic housing, then other necessary structures they’ll need prior to the arrival of the second pilgrimage. They also will build the fence large enough to begin some rudimentary attempts at agriculture. She’s excited to start making progress, but at the same time, she despairs that it means it could be a long time before she and Nathaniel can be alone.
She’s still lost in thought when she’s startled by a ping from her plex, the small noise signaling the arrival of a message. They have the plexes networked, so they can basically message or email each other. She picks it up, smiling when she sees that her message is from Nathaniel.
“Want to go fishing after we get the camp moved?”
She lifts an eyebrow and types back, “Fishing? Really?” She hits send.
A moment later, her plex pings again. “Yes, really. Good spot for it a couple hours walk from new campsite. Time alone and we can shore up some food supplies. Of course, it might get too late, so we should probably both bring a pack in case we have to camp.”
She smiles and decides to see if she can manage to flirt via plex. “Are you asking me out on a date, Commander?”
There’s a pause again, and then she grins at the ping. “I might be.”
“In that case, I’d love to go fishing. Too bad I didn’t pack my favorite old bikini.”
“Too bad indeed, Lieutenant. But thanks for the picture I have in my head now.”
She laughs at that. “Happy to be of service, sir. Good night.”
It pings again. “Good night, Alicia. I love you.”
Those last words make her go warm all over. “I love you too, Nathaniel.”
She puts her plex down and settles into her sleeping bag. Curling up on her side, she can’t help but smile in anticipation of their upcoming time together.
*****
The next night, Alicia is grabbing some dinner with Guz and a few of the other soldiers. She rolls her shoulders against the stiffness and fatigue she feels in them. It’s been a hell of a long day. Night has already fallen, but they have their new camp established and the perimeter set. Thus far, it’s been uneventful, but they have multiple patrols out, Nathaniel on one of them.
The other soldiers bid them good night and head off to patrol. Guz looks at her. “How’s Taylor doing, Wash?” She must look confused because he says, “With the 118 days, I mean.”
“He’s OK, Guz. He had trouble being alone when we first got here, but I think he’s getting better.”
Guz smiles at her. “I hear you’re going fishing tomorrow, and that it may end up being an overnight?”
She blinks, forgetting that Nathaniel told her this morning that he’d mention it to Guz today. “So I’ve been told, Guz.”
She and Guz continue eating in silence until Guz clears his throat, making her look up at him. “Wash, is there anything I need to know here?”
She bristles slightly, but she realizes that there is only concern in his eyes. “No, Guz. There isn’t.” She appreciates that he cares, but she won’t be sharing anything with him without Nathaniel’s buy in first.
He observes her for a moment before he nods. “Understood.” She pats him on the arm and then gets up to head to her tent, ready to call it a night. “But Wash?” His voice makes her look back, a questioning look on her face. “You’ll tell me when there is something I need to know, right?”
She has to smile at that. “If I can, I will.”
He returns the smile. “OK. That’s good enough for me. You and the Commander have a good time tomorrow.”
“I’m sure we will, Guz. Thanks for holding down the fort, and you know you can call if something happens.”
He gives her a half-hearted salute, making her snort. “Good night, Wash.”
“’Night, Guz.”
After a relatively restless night, Alicia climbs out of her tent in the morning, dragging her small day pack behind her. It has everything she’ll need if they end up staying out overnight, which she’s honestly pretty sure they will, so long as they can find somewhere safe. She has a feeling that Nathaniel already has a place in mind.
As she closes up her tent, she hears his voice from behind her. “Ready to head out?”
She turns with a smile, shouldering her pack. “I am.” He tosses her a piece of fruit, similar to a pear, one of the native species he discovered while trapped here alone. She catches it easily. “Breakfast?”
He holds up his own half-eaten piece with a grin. “Breakfast. Shall we?”
She takes a bite out of her own piece and nods, letting him lead them out of the camp. The work crews are just getting moving, and they wave at the few folks they pass. As they get further away from the camp, Nathaniel starts looking backwards over his shoulder every few steps.
She’s about to ask him what’s wrong when he grabs her arm and pulls her into the brush. He spins her around, and with one hand moving from her arm to her hair and the other gripping her hip, he pulls her to him and kisses her hard. She gasps a little, and he takes full advantage, sliding his tongue into her mouth.
She responds immediately, her arms winding around his neck and her tongue twining with his. Knowing they need to keep this short both because of possible predators and because someone from the camp might stumble upon them, she pulls back after a few moments, leaning up and bumping his nose with hers.
Opening his eyes, he gives her a sheepish grin. “I’ve been wanting to do that for the last three days.” He refers to the fact that they’ve been all but completely unable to even touch each other for a few days.
She laughs softly, reluctantly stepping away from him. “I know what you mean.”
He reaches up and smooths her hair out of her face, mussed from his hand going into it when he kissed her. “Messed up your perfect ponytail. Sorry about that.”
She pulls out her hair tie and re-does her ponytail. Then, she leans up and presses a kiss to his cheek. “It was worth it.” He grins and heads back out of the brush, leading the way, her following close behind.
Almost two hours later, Alicia hears the sound of waves rolling into shore. The walk should’ve only taken them about ninety minutes, but en route, she got to have her first encounter with nykoraptors. A group of three of them must have picked up their scent, and they were stalked for short while. Luckily, Nathaniel had encountered nykos early in his time here, and he easily spotted them.
They basically stalked the creatures back, eventually killing all three. Once the last one was dead by Alicia’s conventional gun, they had radioed the camp to be on the lookout for more.
Approaching the sound of the water, Alicia realizes that, up ahead, it looks like there is a steep drop off. When he stops at the edge of a bluff, that is confirmed. He’s on one knee, pulling climbing gear from his pack. “Nathaniel?”
He looks up with a grin. “If it was anyone else, we’d take the long way down to the beach. It’s at least a thirty minute hike. With you?” He points down the face of the bluff. “Express route.”
She lifts an eyebrow at him and steps up to the edge. He stands next to her. “See that outcropping about three quarters or so of the way down?”
She peers down, and she sees it about fifteen feet above the beach, but almost seventy feet below them. “Is it safe from the tides?”
He nods, going back to the climbing equipment. “We can rappel down to the shelf. It’s an easy climb from the ledge to the beach and back, so we’ll be safe tonight. Anything we catch we can pack out by hiking back up.”
“Sounds good.” She grins at him.
Fifteen minutes later, they’re down on the shelf. It’s about fifteen feet wide and ten feet deep, with some shelter provided by an outcropping of rock at one end. Alicia sees a few piles of firewood under the outcropping, and she realizes that, as with the cave they used to shelter from the rain storm, Nathaniel has definitely spent time here. She motions to the wood. “So, come here often?”
He gives her a crooked half smile. “Found this place the third week. Was running out of rations, and I needed to find something to hunt that wasn’t likely to hunt me back. I remembered from the trainings that the fish weren’t all that scary.” He puts his pack down and opens it to pull out a smaller bag of fishing gear. “I’d come here for a couple of days every two or three weeks. I never stayed long for fear of somehow missing you at the portal.”
He goes quiet, a slightly haunted look on his face. He’s crouched next to his bag, so she goes over and kneels behind him, resting her forehead between his shoulder blades and wrapping her arms around his waist. He relaxes into her touch, his hand coming up to grip her arm almost desperately. He sighs. “I’m OK, Alicia.”
“Are you sure? Nathaniel, if there’s anything I can do…”
He turns in her arms and drops into a sitting position facing her. He reaches up and cups her face in his palm. “I won’t pretend that it’s not there in the back of my mind that maybe I’ve gone nuts and am just imagining all of you. That at any moment, I’ll look around and you’ll be gone, leaving me alone again. That thought does still make it hard to sleep some nights, especially on my own. But it’s improving, Alicia.”
She frowns, looking up at him. “I wish I could be there with you every night.” He starts to say something, but she shakes her head, going on, “But I know I can’t. What I can do is promise you that we’re real. I can promise you that I’m not going to disappear on you.”
Getting an idea, she digs into her pocket. She finds what’s she looking for and pulls it out. She holds out her other hand to him. “Give me your tags.”
He gives her a funny look, but he still slips them over his head and hands them to her. She takes them and carefully unhooks the chain. She slides one of her small hair elastics onto the chain with his tags and rehooks it. She then leans up and puts the chain back over his head. He takes the tags in his hand, his fingers brushing over the hair band.
“You keep that until you stop wondering if we’re going to disappear. Keep it until you can sleep. When you need to, when you doubt, touch it to remind yourself that we came, that you’re not alone anymore.”
His hand closes tight around the tags and hair band, and his eyes meet hers. “Thank you.”
She gives him a soft smile. “You’re welcome.” She leans up again, this time pressing a gentle kiss to his lips. After pulling back, she pushes up to her feet and offers him her hand to help him up. “Now get all the fishing stuff out. It’s time for you to show me the dinofish. I can’t wait.”
He snorts, and then he watches with what looks like surprise on his face as she begins to strip off her clothes. “Alicia?”
She looks over her shoulder at him, clad only in her bra and panties as she rummages through her pack. With a deliberately innocent look on her face, she smiles at him. “What? I said I didn’t have my bikini. That didn’t mean that I don’t have anything that’s appropriate for a beach.”
She goes back to changing without waiting for him to answer. After a moment, she grins when she hears him exhale a breath and go back to pulling out the fishing gear. She puts on a simple, skin tight tank top and a slightly fitted pair of shorts that show off her long legs. Peering over the edge of the shelf they’re on, she sees that it will be an easy climb to the beach, so she dumps her boots and puts on a pair of slip on shoes that will do fine on the bluff.
Turning back around, she realizes that he’s just standing there staring at her. She grins at him and grabs a small bag from her pack. The bag has some food and water in it, and she drapes it across her body and tucks her pistol into it. She pulls on her fingerless leather gloves and steps over to the ropes they used earlier, both still hanging next to the ledge. “Are you going to join me, or are you just going to stare at me all day?”
That seems to snap him out of his nearly trance-like state. He blinks, and then, grinning, he grabs the bag of fishing gear and joins her. “Both.”
She grins back before starting down to the beach with him following. It’s easy going, and as she climbs down, she thinks about the look on his face up on the ledge. She knows she’s being a little bit of a tease, but she can’t quite help herself. She laughs softly to herself as she thinks that this is going to be a good day.
A few hours later, she’s sprawled out on the sandy beach, enjoying the sound of the waves on the shore and the feel of the sun on her sunscreen-covered skin. More than anything, though, she’s enjoying watching Nathaniel. She fished with him for an hour and a half or so, but then, she will openly admit, she got a little bored of it.
She started bugging him with questions and commentary about the colony, and then she got overly fidgety, playing with her line and the nets they have. It wasn’t until she started threatening to just shoot the fish - and clearly that would be more efficient - that Nathaniel banished her to the beach where she now sits, watching him closely.
He’s standing in the surf, shirt off and cargo pants rolled up to his knees, and she can’t take her eyes off of him. Every time he casts a line into the rolling sea, all of the muscles of his shoulders and back ripple with the effort, and as far as she is concerned, it’s the best show she’s seen in a long time.
When he catches something, if it’s large enough, he brings it back to shore and cleans it immediately, placing the filets into special sealed bags they brought with them from the future. They’ll keep the fish fresh and cool using a chemical encased in the plastic, the chemical completely contained and never touching what is being stored. In the bags, the fish could keep for weeks. Nathaniel had one of them in his pack when he came through alone, and that’s how he kept his food safe and edible when he would come here on his fishing trips.
Her mind wanders back to earlier. It breaks her heart to think that he’s worried she’ll disappear, that he’s worried that they’ll all disappear, leaving him alone again. When she put her hair band on his tags, she was concerned that he’d think it silly. On the contrary, though, she’s seen him repeatedly reach up and touch her hair band as he fishes.
She leans back on her elbows, dropping her head back and closing her eyes. She lets her mind drift as she’s nearly lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves and the warm sun. Some time later, she’s startled by the feeling of water droplets on her skin and the sense that a presence is looming over her. Her eyes snap open and her hand automatically goes for her gun, which sits next to her on the sand.
He catches her hand before she gets to it, and her eyes focus on his. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” He looks truly contrite, knowing that people trained like they are could actually kill another person before even realizing what’s going on.
She sits up, shaking her head. “It’s OK, I shouldn’t have let myself relax so much.”
He steps away and starts to clean a fish. “No, you do get to relax occasionally, Alicia. I was watching once I saw that you might be asleep.”
She nods, sitting cross-legged and watching him. “That’s a big one.” She refers to the fish.
He grins. “It’s huge. Biggest one I’ve landed so far. The folks back at the camp are going to be pretty happy about the menu for tomorrow night.”
“Well, they’ll be happy if you aren’t the one cooking it,” she teases with a smile.
He attempts to look affronted, but he doesn’t quite pull it off. “I can grill stuff OK.”
“Yes, you can.” She leans forward and drops a kiss on his cheek. “If I season it for you first.”
He shoots her a glare but then just shrugs. “Touché.”
She chuckles and grabs the cold bag for the fish, opening it for him to put the filets in. Once he’s done, she closes up the bag as he tosses the fish remains back into the water. He rinses his hands a bit in the seawater and comes back over to her, pulling his t-shirt back on. “Ready to call it a day?”
“Sure. It looks like you got a lot.”
“You helped.” He smirks at her. “A little.”
She laughs, pushing herself up off of the sand and brushing her legs off. “Hey, I have no pride about this. Fishing is boring.” She shoulders her bag, slipping her gun back into it and then putting her shoes back on. She leers at him. “Watching you fish wasn’t bad, though.”
He grins at that and puts the bagged fish into his large pack. “Glad the day wasn’t a total bust.”
She just laughs at that and starts to climb back up to the ledge. She can almost feel his eyes on her ass as she climbs, and she’s suddenly hyper-aware of him, her nerve endings singing. She’s been waiting all day for him to make a move, and she hopes he does it soon. Just watching him fish turned her on even more than she already was when they got here.
As if he can read her mind, he follows her up, close behind her. She barely has enough time to put her bag down on the ground of the ledge before he appears next to her. He drops his pack and is on her in an instant.
Using his superior strength and size, he has her back pressed against the rock face in seconds, his mouth taking hers and his hands holding hers against the rock face above her head. She meets him, thrusting her tongue into his mouth and rocking her hips into his. She gasps when she feels how hard he already is.
He grasps both of her wrists with one of his hands, keeping them held above her head as his other hand moves down her body to capture her breast, kneading it hard and squeezing her nipple through the fabric of her tank and bra. She struggles to pull her hands from his so she can touch him, but he just pulls back from kissing her to meet her eyes and shake his head no.
She goes even warmer all over and stops struggling. He gives her a feral grin and takes her mouth again for a moment before moving from her lips down the column of her neck, biting and sucking lightly, careful not to mark her. He looks back up and locks his eyes with hers, a command in them to stay still.
She nods lightly, not sure what he has planned but quite sure that she’ll enjoy it. He releases her wrists, but she keeps her hands above her head. He hums in approval before reaching down to grab the hem of her tank to pull it up, catching her sports bra on the way and pulling both over her head. He then crouches down and pulls her shoes off before reaching up for the edge of her shorts. He pulls her shorts and panties off in one quick motion, leaving her bared to him, her hands still above her head.
He stands up and leans in to kiss her again, making her emit a disapproving sound. He stops with a questioning smile, and she just eyes his t-shirt. He grins and pulls it up and over his head, bringing a much happier look to her face.
His hand then goes back up and recaptures her wrists. His mouth is on hers again, his tongue plunging into her mouth as his free hand explores her body. He caresses and kneads her breasts for a moment, but then his hand moves downward. She gasps and arches into him, her hands straining against his as he slides a finger across her clit before slipping first one and then two fingers inside of her.
Keeping his hand on her wrists, he leaves her mouth, leaning down to capture one of her nipples and sucking hard as his fingers plunge in and out of her, his thumb rubbing her clit in a counterpoint to his thrusts. She finds herself barreling towards an orgasm as he switches breasts, taking her other nipple as he increases the speed and force of his fingers invading her body.
A moment later, she cries out and tenses against him. She arches again as her first orgasm hits her, and she can’t stop herself from screaming his name. He continues to move his fingers until her body stops quivering, and she sags back against the rock face.
Keeping his hand on her wrists, he removes his hand from her body, licking his fingers clean and then pressing his mouth to hers, letting her taste herself on him. She moans at that, closing her eyes, and he grins against her mouth. She feels his free hand moving, and she’s vaguely aware of the sound of his cargos hitting the ground.
Her eyes open again when she feels him nudging at her entrance, and he suddenly releases her wrists. His hands grab her ass and lift her up, and before she knows what’s happening, he lowers her onto him, burying himself to the hilt inside of her body. She cries out at the contact and fullness, wrapping her legs tight around his waist.
He wastes no time, pressing her shoulders into the rock face as he immediately begins to pound in an out of her in a bruising rhythm. He shifts her hips, and suddenly he finds the perfect angle, hitting her clit with every thrust. She is alternately moaning and crying out with his thrusts, her hands coming up and gripping his shoulders hard, nails digging in, hanging on for dear life as he has his way with her.
In a brief moment of coherence, all she can think is that she’s never been quite so pleased to be completely dominated. The rocks behind her are scraping her shoulders, but she couldn’t care less. She tightens her legs even more around his waist, and his thrusts suddenly become more erratic.
She opens her eyes to watch him, and she can tell from the look of concentration on his face that he’s trying to wait for her. Wrapping one arm around his neck, she pulls her upper body flush with his and kisses him hard on the mouth before leaning up to his ear and whispering, “Let go, Nathaniel.” She then nibbles and sucks on his earlobe, making him draw in a sharp breath.
That seems to be all he can take, and his thrusts become even harder. She feels herself getting close again, and she rolls her hips to meet his over and over again until suddenly her body tenses again, her inner walls tightening around him as she moans loudly. Just a few moments later, he tenses too, calling her name as he spills himself into her.
After a few moments, without letting go of her, he turns them so that his back is against the rock face. He leans back into it, and she tightens her arm around his shoulders, nuzzling her face into his neck. They’re both breathing hard, but she’s slowly coming back to herself, enjoying every moment that they stay like this, still joined together.
His hands flex where they hold her ass, and she’s only mildly disappointed when he lifts her slightly to pull out of her body. She makes a sad little noise as he does so, making him chuckle in her ear as she releases her legs from around his waist, and he gently lowers her until her feet are back on the ground.
He leans further into the wall, and she presses herself against him. After a moment, he mutters, “Damn, Alicia, this wall is rough. Did I hurt you?”
Her arms go around his waist and she rests her head on his shoulder. “I think I got scratched a little, but it’s OK.”
He stands up straighter, putting his hands on her waist and moving her away from him. “It’s not OK. Let me see.”
She sighs and turns, and she hears him curse softly. “I’m sorry, Alicia. Come with me.” He takes her hand and grabs his pack with his free hand. Coming to a stop under the outcropping, he lets go of her hand and pulls a soft blanket out of his pack. He spreads it on the ground and points to it.
She knows he’ll argue if she tries to shrug him off, so she just stretches out face down on the blanket, crossing her arms and pillowing her head on them. She won’t admit to him that her shoulders are starting to sting a little. She mumbles, “Med kit in my pack.”
He pulls it out, and, kneeling next to her, he puts the kit down on the blanket. She hears the slosh of liquid, and she tenses slightly before the stinging cleaning solution hits her shoulders. When it does, she hisses a little in spite of herself. He gently cleans the scrapes, and again he says, “I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She turns her head to look at him. “Nathaniel, I know you didn’t. I’m really fine, I promise. I could have protested, but I didn’t want to. The rest of me felt too damned good to worry about a few scrapes.”
He finishes with the cleaner, and she feels him dab some antiseptic ointment across her shoulders. He then gets up, and she watches him walk back to the other end of the ledge. She enjoys watching as he gathers their clothes and his pack.
He brings everything back, and he pulls on his boxer shorts before sitting down next to her and handing her his t-shirt and her panties. She tries to raise her arms, but the scrapes and ointment have tightened them up. He leans over and helps her pull his t-shirt over her head. She then wriggles back into her panties.
She smiles at him, leaning up and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. He still has a concerned, guilty look on his face, and she sighs, nestling into his side. “I’m fine, Nathaniel. Please stop worrying.”
He pulls her hair free of its ponytail and runs his hand through the strands, combing gently. “I’ll try. Can’t promise more than that.”
She drops a kiss on his shoulder. “Good enough.”
They go silent, both enjoying being close to the other, listening to the waves crashing against the shore as the tide starts to roll in. She curls into him more as the sun begins to set, the temperature dropping a little. She drops her head to his chest. “How high will the water get?”
He perches his chin on her head. “It only rises about five feet, but the beach will be gone for a bit.”
She nods and smiles. “Hope there aren’t any sea monsters.” She feels him chuckle against her, and she’s glad he’s laughing again.
He pulls her closer to him. “If there are, I’ll protect you.”
She pinches him in the side for that, making him squirm just a little. “Fine. I’ll let you protect me.”
“Better.”
“I figured.” He chuckles again.
They go silent again before she says, “I want to keep doing this. How are we going to find ways to do this, Nathaniel? The last three days with no real contact was miserable.”
“I know,” he squeezes her a little, “And I don’t know the answer, but we’ll work on it.”
“Guz knows something is up. Last night, he asked me if there was anything he needed to know.”
“You didn’t tell him, did you?”
He sounds concerned, and she shakes her head against his chest. “No, but I didn’t like lying to him.”
“I know. I don’t like it either, but it’s as much to protect him as it is to protect us.”
She lifts her head to look at him. “I know, but I do want to tell him before the second pilgrimage. He deserves to know, Nathaniel, and you know he won’t say anything to anyone.”
“I agree on both counts. I’m just not ready to share us, Alicia, if you know what I mean.”
“I do. And I’m not ready either. But at some point, we both have to get ready.”
His eyes lock with hers. “Have I mentioned that I love you?”
She smiles, all too happy to change the subject for now. “No, I don’t think you have. Why don’t you make yourself useful - build a fire and then tell me just how much you love me.”
“If I build a fire, will you cook?” He grins at her.
“Yes, because A, I don’t want food poisoning and B, I’d like dinner to actually be edible.”
He laughs and gets up, gathering the wood and building a small fire. She watches him, and the light sting from her shoulders makes her think of something else. “One more assignment, Nathaniel.”
He turns back to her, one eyebrow raised. She gives him a cheeky grin. “You have to come up with a story as to how my shoulders got messed up. Anyone sees me in my tank top, and I’m pretty sure there will be questions.”
He snorts and turns back to light the fire. “That’s easy, Alicia.”
She watches him get the flames going. “Pray tell, Nathaniel.”
He shoots her a grin over his shoulder. “I’ll just tell people you fell while protecting me from the sea monsters, of course.”
He barely has time to duck as a shoe flies by his head, making him laugh out loud.
“You’re pushing your luck, Taylor.”
“I’m not worried.” He gets up and comes back over to her, settling in front of her. “Because you know,” he kisses her, “I have it on good authority that you happen to love me as much as I love you.”
“Cocky bastard.”
He grins and scoops her up, sitting down and settling her in his lap. “I prefer lucky bastard.”
She wraps her arms around his neck. “Fine.” They go quiet again, watching the fire. “For the record, Lucky Bastard, if it rains tonight? I get the place under the outcropping.”
His bark of laughter can probably be heard all the way back at the camp.