Page 80 of Resilience

“You’re a butt, but I love you anyway,” she told him. Then she turned to Sam and signed, “Please come with me.”

He came, and she led him toward the stairs. The confederation of dunces behind them had more to say about that, apparently, because Sam whipped around and sent up an emphatic double bird, but Athena had the luxury of ignoring them completely.

Sam stopped her as she put her foot on the first step.

“Hey. Is that what you want? You don’t want to wait until after ...” He gestured subtly at her midsection, and she figured out the rest of his sentence—he’d signed with his back to the room, so nobody else could see.

She did the same. “I don’t want to wait, no. The thing inside me is microscopic, and it doesn’t hurt. But we don’t have to use anything, and as far as I can see that’s the one good thing about the whole shitty affair. Yeah, unless you’re too drunk, I want to go upstairs and find a bed. Now.”

Sam grinned. “I am absolutely not too drunk. Let’s go.”

He set his hand on her back, and they hurried up the stairs and to the first crash pad with an open door. As Sam closed and locked the door behind them, he turned, cast a glance at the basic double bed, and asked, “Are you sure you want to do it here? These beds have seen some shit.”

Athena laughed and stepped up to stand right in front of him. She smiled up at his handsome face, his beautiful eyes. “I know. I also know that the bedding gets washed after. This is fine. Besides, it is your patch party. You can’t leave early, and I don’t want to wait any longer.”

Her eyes slid to the side of his neck and the white strip of gauze and tape there. He got shot! her brain yelled suddenly, and she almost shuddered. Only a few days after they’d figured out what they wanted to be together, he’d almost died.

She pushed that awful thought away, but it left a faint trail of doubt behind, so she asked, “Unless ... do you need to wait, because you still have stitches?”

Her question made him raise his hand and brush his fingers over the bandage. “It’s okay. It’s basically healed. The stitches come out in a couple days. If you want, I’ll run down and ask Aunt Willa to take them out now.”

“No, don’t do that. Leave them in until the doctor says. But if you don’t think it’ll hurt you ...”

“At this point, Frosie, the real pain would be waiting any longer.”

She grinned and grabbed the plackets of his kutte. Rising onto her toes, she tipped her face up and offered her mouth. It was the only way she could initiate a kiss when they were both standing; Sam was more than a foot taller than she was, so he had to meet her halfway.

He did, wearing a sweet, gentle smile as he bent toward her and covered her mouth with his own.

Still they’d shared only a few kisses, and still she marveled at the power of their rightness. Each one made her whole body relax, even as desire flamed and flowed through her. Lifting her arms to loop over his neck, she tried to get even closer.

He chuckled against her mouth and backed off half an inch, just enough that when she opened her eyes, she saw him watching. Unwilling to release him, she couldn’t sign to ask why he’d stopped, so she simply tilted her head and frowned a little, asking that way.

His smile widened, and he brought a hand up between them and signed, “You make the sexiest little noise when we kiss. It’s like a purr, and it makes me crazy.”

Normally being told she’d made a noise freaked her out; she did not like the idea of her body doing something she wasn’t aware of. But some sounds were truly out of her control—apparently like this one. Athena understood the idea of purr fairly well, she thought. She could feel Minnie purring when they were curled up together. It was a good feeling, for Minnie and for her, so it was probably a good sound, too.

Besides, the look in Sam’s eyes, and the way he’d described the sound she made, conveyed clearly that it wasn’t something gross or otherwise embarrassing. So she smiled and eliminated the sliver of distance between them, kissing him again.

This time, Sam lifted her up as they kissed and walked her to the bed. He laid her down and followed to lie on his hip at her side.

For a moment, they lay together, gazing into each other’s eyes. Sam’s hand rested on her belly, over her top. Her hands had slipped from around his neck and now rested on his chest.

This was where they would cross into new territory. She knew he was thinking the same thing.

He lifted his hand from her belly and asked, “Is it weird for you?”

She considered her answer for a second and told him the truth. “A little, maybe. Scary, though, not weird. It feels like the point of no return. I never want anything to happen that pulls us apart.”

“Me either. But to me, we already crossed the point of no return. Maybe because I was the first to figure out how I feel? I never want anything to pull us apart, either, and if you change your mind, or your feelings change down the road, I will work out how to be buds again, but I don’t see my feelings ever changing. I am in love with you, Athena.”

“I’m in love with you, too.”

He smiled and brushed some stray hairs from her face. “Then it’s not weird.”

“Nope. Not scary, either.”

His fingers traced over the faint remnants of the bruise on her neck. “I will never hurt you.”

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