| “Tangled” by Sep *** Honor and love to Travis. *** Part 3 He turned away though her arm was still tight in his hand. When he turned back she saw a look in those ice-blue eyes that was almost startling. They shone with unshed tears and once again she was sure she'd gone too far with her question. Perfect, she thought. She was messed up in the head and now she'd gone and upset him. This night was becoming unbearable and she knew it was time to cut her losses and go home where at least she wouldn't bother anyone. When she pushed against him toward the doorway, he pulled her harder. Instinctively she froze. John had never hurt her, but she'd seen what he could do when provoked. He was still a relative stranger to her and what if he was more dangerous than she'd wanted to think? What came from him though was anything but violent. "I can't ever go back. It was my home Jane. My home!" He let her arm go and backed away. He put his hands on his chest as if the words were painful, or he was pleading with her to understand. "They came, and they took me away. They shot at me. Shot me!" He said, disbelieving somehow. Of course she couldn't believe it either when he'd first told her that night in the park. "John, I…" She started to say, but he was lost to his own emotions. He turned away, again looking to her as if his mind and body were reeling from sudden realizations. When he turned back to her all she could do was stand and watch him with pain shining in her own eyes. "Then I came here, this city, big and so loud, so loud and crazy." He approached her ever so slowly in halted steps. "Most times, I hate this place, but I can't go back. There is no Jane where I was. I can't go back because there, in my home there is no you. Here, there is you, and I want you. You make me real here. Jane. Real." As he finished his flow of words, she could see his face in the soft light of the room and the clear liquid marks upon his cheeks. Unthinkably, his eyes were even clearer than usual in the brief moment they looked at her before once again he turned away. She was stunned, not just by what he had said, but that he had said it at all. She knew he had feelings for her, but for him to put them into words as he had was simply too much. She went behind him and laid a hand on the smoothness of his loose shirt, feeling the warmth of his back against her hand. "John, I… I don't know what to say."
Her voice cracked and trembled and slowly he turned around, putting himself
in the curl of her arm. In all the moments they'd been even half this
close, she knew all the unsaid tension would one night come to pass. When
he hesitated and then moved in closer, when he took her chin into the
warmth of his hand, she knew it was the hour when there could be no more
denial . His lips, the lips she had studied in person and in hours long
and alone, pressed to hers in the most delicate way. Their gentle question
wasn't easy to answer. She wanted him worse, deeper than any man she'd
ever known, but it was unexpected even so. She hesitated but didn't move
away and that seemed to be enough to tell him yes. His own hesitation
came, his lips sought hers in tender passes and then some deeper instinct
arose inside of him, and with one strong arm around her back, he brought
her to him fully and kissed her long and deep. The smell of him, the hard
feeling of his back against her hands that now moved without thought,
it was all too much. Sensory overload, but oh how she craved it now that
he'd begun. She brought her hands upward and lost them in his hair. She'd
longed to do that very thing since the first day she laid eyes on him.
A little cry escaped her lips against his and he pulled back. His breathing
was deep and hungered but still he stepped back a little to look at her,
worried maybe that he'd hurt her. He didn't have much experience at this
and couldn't have known that the sound she made was one of relieved passion,
of wanting only more after so many nights of trying to push it away. He gave a little smile, barely a pull on his lips, but
it was a look she'd come to know on him, and in that moment, her heart
was full and open to everything he wanted, even if he didn't know what
that was. He came to her and once again pulled her close. "Yes John, yes. Yes." She said, and when she
felt his lips once more as they pressed against hers, as they became more
insistent, she answered their plea, stretching up and wrapping her arms
around his neck. Oh God, at last. Something inside her rang loud and clear,
truer than anything she'd heard in weeks. At last here they were in this
moment, this time, together. |