Summerof1973 Feast your eyes on that outfit, then thank me when you get to imagine it being stripped off him 🤤

Mature content warning at the end, but for my standards (that you're yet to see) its fairly subtle.

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It was sleeting when they got outside, and walking next to her personal luggage carrier who was trying to mask his shivers and stop his teeth chattering, was somewhat amusing for Leah.

She wasn't warm enough herself, but her coat was a whole extra layer to Steven, now awkwardly zipping the white shirt all the way up to the base of his neck.

"'Don't need one', he said." Leah was lagging about a step or two behind so her mocking was more effective. "'Car is just around the corner', he said."

"Fuck! Why did I park so fucking far away!?"

She fought with a smile, crisp air tinting both of their noses pink.

"What were you thinking?" she chuckled, unable to figure out what was going through his head. "There are spaces at the school."

"I don't fucking no, okay? I was here early and...and I guess I just wasn't thinking."

Excuses unbelievable, they walked mostly shoulder to shoulder, shoes leaving tread marks in the thin layer of snow.

"Your language is atrocious," Leah remarked, looking straight ahead. She was easily mesmerised by the swirling snowflakes that circled in the glow of the street lights.

"Fuck you!" Steven's voice went all squeaky, but he had no free hands to shove her with. "I know I'm an idiot. I don't need to be told that."

Faking deep offence, Leah's mouth fell open for a shocked intake of cold air.

Steven did look absolutely frozen by his rosy cheeks, tough blinking eyes, and jacket sleeves deliberately concealing his hands, but he had insisted on taking her suitcase and slinging her backpack over his shoulder, so there was only so much Leah could feel sorry for.

They walked on further, before a selection of parked cars finally made a shivering Steven perk up.

"You're gonna have to get the keys, because I can't feel my hands."

Leah spotted his car, which invited them one step closer to his home.

"It's the right one," Steven added.

"Oh dear." Sympathetic to annoy, Leah slipped her warmish, gloved fingers into his jacket pocket. She had found the paired winter item in her own now that she had empty hands. "Did the baby forget his gloves?"

"I'm not laughing." Steven just about managed to raise his eyebrows, unimpressed. "Not even close."

Leah, however, might well have been expressing her amusement as she took out his car keys.

"I can put my bags in if you want," she offered. Her smile hurt her cheeks and made her eyes water, but the blank expression she had been met with, was worth the numbness.

"No," Steven said protectively, making his point by pushing the suitcase away. "I've got it."

He assumed for his car to be unlocked, to which Leah provided him with a button press.

"So stubborn," she muttered, just about catching a glimpse of him hauling her luggage in the boot.

When Steven returned, Leah pulled the door handle.

"You driving?"

"Hm?" She snapped her attention to the revealed interior, saw the steering wheel, and groaned. "Ugh, it's the wrong side."

Steven managed a stiff smile, pinching the keys out of her grip, and gently rested a hand low on her back that turned into his favour.

A flirty gesture, and it made her almost nose to nose with a handsome man like no other, in her honest, unforgiving opinion. Just a flick of her eyes to catch the snowflakes dissolving in his hair, and the splodges of pink on his face from the cold that covered up the evidence of cries, had brought about her persistent feelings.

Leah shivered under his touch, but she couldn't tell which extreme temperature had tipped the scales.

"You can drive if you want." Steven leaned closer into her cheek. The cold kiss he placed there as he threw the keys onto his seat was entirely unnecessary, but his smugness had safely returned. "I'd have to...direct you, though."

Leah could've easily pulled him in for a kiss, was disappointed with herself for automatically thinking that way, and even more so because she interpreted it as an innuendo for either sitting on his lap, or sucking him off.

She was trying to keep it friendly, but she was guilty of flirting with him. Their complicated, yet simple circumstances when they both felt the same way for each other, made it difficult not to.

"Don't you have to get back for your daughter?" Leah recalled, refusing to fall for his insinuations.

The provoking, wandering brown eyes drawn to her lips almost had her sold, but she made him move back with a gentle push of his arm.

One look before she got in the passenger side told her Steven was enjoying being challenged. Something about the hint of his twisted tongue held between his teeth around a mouth that hinted at a smile, was knee-weakening.

It wasn't exactly helping her find a reason to not go back to him when he loved her, and she, though she hadn't verbally admitted, loved him, but they hadn't worked out.

Those doubts raced in her mind, and had her shivering in the car whilst Steven scraped the thin layer of ice off the windows. Until, of course, he pulled a silly face, squashing his cheek right up against the cold glass on her side.

Leah laughed at this idiot, tapped his nose and told him to hurry up. She was smiling though, watching him rush back to the curb, and so was he.

"It's right," Steven said, shutting his door.

"What is?"

"The wheel," he explained simply, fumbling a grip on the keys. "It's right."

So they were back to unintentionally flirting and apparently, Leah was all for it.

"Um no, it's wrong."

"Nope, it's right."

The engine started up, a numb finger setting the heat on full blast, and Leah had a sudden rush of wit.

"No, your wheel is on the left and you drive on the right, whereas our wheel is on the right, and we drive on the left."

Unfortunately, Steven wasn't lost for words like she had hoped. He was scratching whatever invisible mark was on the inside of his left thigh, which was probably just an excuse to spread his knees to silently show her what she was missing out on.

He even moved the flaps of his jacket to reveal more of his-

"So, by that logic, it means we're both fifty per cent right then. Yeah?"

Leah looked up from his lap, knowing she had lost the stupid game.

"N-no," she stuttered, tearing her eyes away from his complacent little smirk. She took off her gloves to distract herself. "We're right. You're wrong."

"Hmm." Steven cupped his hands over a vent. His face needed a slap. "I don't think so, baby. You're talkin', in a word I think you would use, absolute bloody bollocks."

Being imitated should have insulted her, the boundaries of their relationship getting fuzzy again, but Leah found herself blurting out what should have been internal thoughts only.

"You want me to warm them up?"

She was mortified at her suggestion, and couldn't stammer her way out of it when Steven gave her his full attention.

"You weren't meant to say that, were you?"

"I...no." She had already turned her face the other way, embarrassingly gritting her teeth. "No, I wasn't."

With the heat still on high, Steven leaned over and rested his forearms on the console that separated them.

"Is the offer still going?"

Head not quite hidden by her fluffy hood, Leah reluctantly looked left.

Steven wasn't making it awkward with the plea in his eyes, and if anything, incredibly easy to say yes.

"You know I'm trying to make you feel less embarrassed."

"I know."

"So...?"

Her awkward laugh fading, Leah took his hand in a clasp like they were about to arm wrestle, and pushed his elbow straighter to make room for both of them.

Steven's hand really was like a block of ice, and noticeably huge in comparison.

Leah waited until there was the faintest of heat where their palms were slotted, resisting the urge to glance up at him when he squeezed his curled fingers or moved his thumb, and then switched hands.

This time though, she dared to touch all the way to his wrist where a golden chain bracelet resided with exploring fingers, and wasn't really surprised when Steven's warmed hand joined back in.

"What?" Leah asked, noticing the fingers that moved over the back of her knuckles, in a similar way to what she was doing to him.

It wasn't in any way rude. She was enjoying these delicate touches, and maybe, a bit too much.

"Nothing," Steven responded, far too innocently for her liking.

Leah gently twisted the ring that covered his fourth finger, beginning to elicit a shy smile.

"What are you looking at?"

Another question because she could feel his heated gaze with every adjustment that had their fingers touching in a different way.

"You."

Leah stopped sliding his ring knowing he'd said that before, in exactly the same way, when they were together. Back when they were happy on the surface, and she was falling in love with him. She had, foolishly, helplessly, and maybe that was why it hurt so much to keep getting close, remember what happened, and break away.

"Steven, we're not doing this," Leah digressed, finally looking up. The face-the hair- it just made her even more distraught. "I can't do it."

"I know," he acknowledged quietly, and his lips almost brushed against her knuckles. "I know, but my mind isn't going to change about you."

Neither would hers, but she couldn't say that.

"We should get going."

Their hands no longer locked together, Steven couldn't quite mask his disappointment.

"Right, yeah," he muttered, retreating back to his side.

He got comfortable, set the wipers to bat intermittently to keep the screen clear from light specs of snow, and drove off.

<>

Leah took a long hard look at herself in the mirror.

She was not going to sleep with him. However tempting it was, however ridiculously attractive he still was, she wasn't. It would be a mistake, and the day had been too exhausting and stressful to even consider that sex was the answer.

She couldn't be playing with his feelings, or her own, so her best bet would be to go to bed alone, and see what the first of January brought her.

She kept that plan in mind, brushing her teeth, taking off her makeup so she wouldn't ruin Steven's pillows, but when her mind kept giving her flashbacks of the feeling of his bare skin under her hands, or his mouth so passionate between her legs, or even the hot kiss and lingering touches at the party, she was fighting against something she wanted.

But want or not, the right thing to do was say goodnight, and leave it like that. No kiss. No sex. No nothing.

Steven must've been waiting for her to appear because he lunged for the square box on the kitchen table, temporarily pausing whatever snack he'd been scoffing.

"You wanna play battleship?"

It had gone half past eleven at night, an automatic reason for Leah to frown, but it was partly in amusement from the doughnut frosting she saw on the corner of his mouth.

"Why?" she asked.

Steven shrugged, placing the game back on the table.

"Something to do? Unless you want to go to bed."

Leah should have been going to bed- that was the plan after all, despite the inbound fireworks that would wake her up. It was just a shame how she decided on using the latter as an excuse to stay up, and prolong whatever was happening between them.

"Sure," she agreed, pulling out the chair. "Why not?"

It was only when she was sitting opposite him that she noticed the zip on his shirt was pulled down a lot further than before. To his torso low, and she could see his nipples when he passed over a game unit and sealed plastic bags of ships and point markers.

"What's up?" he asked, picking up the final chunk of his doughnut that had been left on the table.

The trouble with Steven's flirting, intentional or not, was that it was swaying Leah into a strong consideration where she ditched the game, threw herself on him, and hoped to end up in bed with him.

"Are you doing this on purpose?"

"Dooiinngg...what?"

She had to squeeze her knees together under the table because of what this man was doing to her with a simple, cocky smile.

Battleship fleets were set up in a concentrated silence, questions left unanswered, but there was far too much unresolved sexual tension between them to last the whole night like this.

"Just so you know, I'm a pro," Steven bragged, slouching, and clasping his hands behind his head to draw attention to his chest. "So, to give you a chance, you can go first."

Not only was he extremely confident, he was also sitting completely inappropriately for a friendly game.

With the man whore of an ex-boyfriend doing his best to distract her, Leah scanned the empty grid in front of her.

"Fine...D1."

"What!?" Steven bolt upright, legs of his chair jumping on the floor.

"What?" Leah asked back, quieter because of the late hour, and the fact his daughter was sleeping.

"That's a hit and it's the fucking Cruiser!"

With the probability of the smallest boat the lowest and the reaction she got combined, Leah felt a substantial ego boost placing a red hit pointer on the target grid.

"Lucky guess?" she said, in offer of her humbleness.

She didn't really give a shit, and seeing her grumbling opponent mark his own board was karma for being a dick.

"Lucky my ass..."

Leah found she could sit more comfortably, daring to stretch her legs out under the table since Steven's feet were firmly flat and out of knocking range.

"A5," he stated, after much pointless consideration.

"Miss," she replied with a quick glance down at her fleet. "Um...E1."

Steven was quiet.

"Did I get it?"

"Hit," he muttered, dropping his right wrist dramatically to fish for a red marker. "And sunk."

Leah proudly placed a red peg at the top of her unit.

"One down," she declared, with her chin held high. "Four to go."

Despite his first defeat, Steven didn't stay mad for long.

"E10," he said, with a hint of something suggestive.

"Miss."

"No, E-10."

Leah didn't follow.

"Yeah...miss."

"No...ee ten these nuts!"

Steven burst out laughing at his own joke, a sound so contagious, it might have spread a smile across her face. Definitely not because of the childish humour referencing his balls.

"That's not funny."

"Really? Why're you laughing then?"

"I'm-m not."

Leah scratched the side of her nose, conveniently making sure her palm hid her mouth.

Unsurprisingly, the rest of the game followed in a similar joking manner until one of them won, and the other was not best pleased.

"Bullshit! You cheated!"

"What!?" Leah was outraged, adding the final red marker to her target grid. "Oh my god, you're such a sore loser! 'Ooooh I'm a pro!'"

"I am a pro," Steven defended passionately. He gestured furiously to his game, "You must've been able to see my ships!"

Appalled at the accusation, Leah picked off the carrier ship from the spokes and threw it at him. It bounced off his cheek which made him flinch, and it skidded somewhere on the floor.

"Did you just throw an extremely hazardous piece of plastic at my face?"

"Yeah, because you won't shut up and admit you got beaten by a girl. It's no big deal, loser."

Leah didn't, however, expect Steven to retaliate and throw a ship from his game back at her.

She kept her eyes closed for longer during her reflex flinch.

"Did you just throw an extremely hazardous piece of plastic at my face?"

"Yeah, and what're you gonna do about it?" Steven provoked, smugly sitting back. His foot brushed her ankle with how he stretched out, something that had happened more than once as the game progressed.

"Nothing," she diffused calmly, leaning forwards to drag her feet away from the footsie under the table. "Because I'm not a child and your child is sleeping."

Leah stood up, sent him a fake smile, and walked away to enjoy her victory.

The living room still had a Christmas tree in its stand that had served its purpose for the year, and Leah flopped down on the couch to admire this small but cosy, two bed apartment.

It was less than ten minutes from midnight when she pulled out her phone, and just reading the time made her yawn, but she was not giving in before the fireworks and whatever was going on between her and Steven.

Scrolling through random news couldn't keep her awake though, and Leah was guilty of multiple ten second dozes, which in reality were probably longer, so when someone leaped beside her during another, she yelped quite loudly.

"Shhh, shhh shhhhh!"

Steven pressed a palm over her mouth, kneeling either side of her lap, because he had cornered her right into the arm of the couch.

"Okay, I think we're in the clear." He removed his hand, but he continued to loom over her.

"Don't sneak up on me!" Leah hissed, bashing his calf with the heel of her foot. She refused to look down past the dangling necklaces.

"How was I sneaking up on you, when you can see me?" Steven looked over his shoulder as if to justify his completely valid point.

"I was...on my phone," she explained, remembering the weight in her hand.

"Texting your boyfriend? Oh wait, that's me."

Leah had been given a reason to shove him away. It was an awkward palm that hit his chest, and her fingers caught the beads and chains, but Steven kindly positioned his body to sit like a normal person.

Normally, as in twisting towards her with his elbow on top of the sofa, and resting the side of his head in his hand.

But turning her phone nervously in her hand couldn't save Leah from looking at his gently moving mouth in thought, or the curly texture of his hair that she wanted to twirl in her fingers, or touch his cute nose that crinkled when he smiled or laughed a particular way.

"Can I kiss you at midnight?"

"What? No."

Leah couldn't stop her response, and it contradicted the butterflies in her stomach at a suggestion that would possibly seal the deal.

"Why?" Steven asked, scratching his fingers into his scalp to bunch up the side of his hair. "That's a normal thing to do."

"Because...no."

Again, she just couldn't speak, not when his face was so close not to have her full attention.

"But we already kissed earlier," he continued. "I've decided I want to do it again...and I think you do too."

Looking up from the pink of his lips, Leah had to consciously control her breathing, freezing up, when Steven leaned forward. But, he did not kiss her; he tapped the home button of her phone that had come to rest on her thigh, and angled his head to read the time.

"You have...three minutes to decide, otherwise I'm going to pin you down and kiss you anyway."

"No you're not."

"Ee-yes I will. My apartment. My rules."

Leah was quiet, finding she couldn't really argue when she was being given a place to stay free of charge, and had had her trip paid for.

"So, I take that as a yes?"

"No!" Leah denied, refusing his presumptuous attitude. She fumbled her precariously placed phone back into her hand. "We can't."

A glimpse of the time, one minute closer to midnight, was all she got before Steven plucked it between his fingers and held it out of reach.

"Wow," she marvelled sarcastically, slugging her shoulders. "What if that was going to be a really important message?"

"Was it?" he challenged, but the silence was already giving him his answer. "Thought so. My apartment. My rules."

Leah tried to grab her phone by reaching over him, but he tugged his hand further out of reach. She, regrettably, just ended up holding one side of his jacket for balance, half sitting on her knees that were jammed to his left thigh.

"Give it back," she demanded, glaring at his lazy smirk.

"No."

Leah slapped his arm.

"Steven."

"Say please."

"No! Just give-"

"Then you're not getting it back. Also, please be mindful of your volume."

The countdown to the new year had begun all around the area, somewhere in the apartment block, outside, and it just pissed her off even more.

Leah groaned.

"Why are you being like this!?"

"Like what?"

"So annoying!"

Steven contradicted her frustration with a smile that pronounced his chin and made a few wavy lines appear around his mouth. His eyes were shiny from winding her up, and his outstretched arm had retreated inwards, so Leah, without thinking, saw the opportunity and took advantage of the situation.

She lunged to grab her phone, gasped in horror when he remained a step ahead and dropped it behind the sofa, and muffled the rest of her protests into his mouth when two firm hands found her waist and pulled her onto his lap.

Leah kissed him really hard in her pathetic burst of rage, and she shouldn't have loved it so much when Steven held her hair out of the way.

It started a few seconds before the explosions, lasted a long time after them, and she kissed every inch of his lips like her life depended on it.

Bright colours sparkled behind her eyelids, but it was the taste of his mouth, his skin under her fingertips when she felt up his neck, and placing her thumbs either side of his chin to catch his lips at a more intense angle, that were the fireworks to her.

Kissing Steven was a chance to take out her anger on him, how he had lied to her, the countless tears she had cried from a broken heart, but now she felt like she was right back where she started, and falling in love with him again.

Leah slowed, pulled away from the kiss that was all her, but her eyes remained closed with internal conflict.

"Worked, didn't it?"

Steven's comment had a smile in his voice, and one Leah had to give herself the privilege of seeing when he held her so comfortably on his lap.

She was right, his bastard New Year's kiss came true giving them both more than they bargained for, and her frown finally relaxed.

She didn't reply- she didn't find it necessary- but she was melting her own smile as she kissed him again, and this time, because she really wanted to.

Knowing Steven reciprocated instantly by snaking his arm around her back to pull her closer, gave her the boost to slip both of her hands underneath his shirt and jacket and slide them down behind his shoulders. And that massaged pull of his skin around his shoulder blades was something he seemed to like from the low noise that rumbled in his throat.

Sex was clouding Leah's mind too, heat building all too quickly in her pussy, and somehow, she'd been in this exact situation before where the only thing keeping her awake was the desperation for an orgasm.

"If I..."

Steven shifted his hips up as she trailed off, and if that wasn't enough for her to feel his cock, then his hands settling on her hips to pull her back down firmly in his lap, made it impossible not to notice his strained hard-on.

"...sleep with you...tonight," Leah continued intermittently, scratching her nails up into his hair.

The action tilted his head back so her pleasantly hung mouth could catch his lip. A piece of her hair fell past her ear, and whilst Steven made a slow hum of acknowledgement, he tucked it out of the way, thumbing her cheek on his sensual path down.

"I want it...to just be-" Leah plucked his top lip into her mouth, savouring its texture. "-tonight."

Rolling her hips forward to try and shunt the hard jammed beneath her, just made the aching more intense.

"Is that sleep sleep?" Steven asked, relieving a steady breath from his nose. "Or sex sleep?"

"What do you think?" Leah challenged, but she was more frustrated with her own impatience rather than his delay to shove his cock inside her.

Being horny and tired meant everything felt like a tease, and a clear head that didn't desire sex had been left behind last year.

"I don't know," he replied calmly. "That's why I'm asking."

Knees wedged into the sofa cushions as well as his hips, Leah kissed him again with the same urgent inhale against his skin that he had done back at the party.

"Sex, Steven," she clarified against his lips, thumbs brushing along his smooth jaw. "I want to have sex."

"And then you're kicking me to the couch?"

She hated that she was already smiling in response.

"Shut-" She closed her eyes, kissing him quickly. "-your mouth."

"Okay, okay," he chuckled softly, sitting up. "We can have sex."

How Steven then stood up with her, and guided her legs around his waist without falling over, Leah didn't know, but she was ticking off every moment that took her closer to getting into bed with him.

Being held up by his strong arms made her easily a head taller than him, and a cross of her ankles on his lower back prevented her slipping no further past the waist line of his suit trousers.

Steven did ask her to turn off the lights in the living room, after walking her over to them, which left them giggling in the dark and not-so-quietly manoeuvring to the bedroom.

However, seeing the slither of a child's night light through the gap of the second bedroom on the way past gave Leah a sudden realisation about the loud explosions that occasionally crackled in the sky.

"Is Liv-"

"She won't have heard any of it," Steven interrupted, voice hushed in a whisper like hers.

"Really?"

"Yep." He controlled a groan, gently closing his bedroom door behind them. "She's zonked at the moment, but I don't know how long it will last. Nice, though."

Leah was set down on the end of bed, unlooping her arms from his neck, and tried not to laugh when Steven tripped over her suitcase on the way to turn his bedside light on.

"That actually really hurt," Steven said, on his return. "I think I stubbed my toe."

With a wobble to lift up his foot and massage his big toe, Leah simply leaned back on her hands and admired the man in front of her.

She was roaming her eyes over his outfit, something she couldn't wait to undress him out of, and was pleasantly surprised that even with his sudden stumble backwards, widened eyes in shock and slam of his palm on the chest of drawers to regain his balance, that he hadn't been turned off.

A well timed glance meant Leah saw the poke of his dick around the shadows of the black material, and although it successfully kept her in the mood, she was oddly amused by it all.

Steven's eyes lifted, slowly dropping his foot he had massaged the pain out of, and he probably thought she was laughing at him.

Mouth pressed together, tugging on the left side and streams of air from her nose gave it away, but it was because of the interruption to the initial rush for sex.

"Sorry." Steven must've realised, but Leah didn't allow him to kneel in front of her.

She sat up and stood in one fluid motion, and waited for his confusion to pass.

"Don't be." She pinched the zip of his shirt and tugged it down the remaining distance. "A stubbed toe stings like a bitch."

"Right?" Steven agreed passionately. "It would of course help if the tripping hazard wasn't in the walking path."

Smiling into his chest, Leah placed her hands on his ribs, sliding them around to explore up his back. She held him like that, the scent of his skin being drawn through her nose with every inhale, and she pressed light kisses in the gaps between his necklaces.

She'd missed him, no doubt about it.

"How do you want to do this?" Steven asked delicately, lifting up her face in his hands.

His voice dissolved melodically in her ears. His touch made her feel safe. And the kiss he dropped onto her mouth so his lips were moving so gently against hers, was something she recognised as an act of love.

"You'll see."

Electing to go slow was going to torture her exhaustion, but Leah knew it would be worth it, and it started off in the best way possible when she found out the black jacket and white hooded shirt really was an all in one piece.

"Very convenient to slip out of," she remarked, pushing the layers over his shoulders.

Steven let the material fall down his arms.

"Never know who might show up."

With his help, it was guided out from each of his wrists and Leah, gathering the top half of his suit in her right hand, had to marvel at the beauty in front of her.

The sight made her all hot and bothered, and she wasn't even touching him, or him touching her.

The clothes in her hand probably shouldn't have been subjected to the floor, but she didn't really have the strength to move away, so that's exactly where they ended.

A chuck to the side, a soft thump, and Steven watching her the whole time.

Leah's fingers began to buzz with excitement, but she composed them to undo the hooked clasp and button on his trousers.

They were probably the least tight fit she had ever seen him wear, and so once they were undone at the top, and the zip pulled down over his bulge, they dropped easily to his ankles.

Steven stepped out of them in turn, kicking them off his feet, and he was left in black socks with pink toes and heels pulled unevenly up to his ankles, very snug, black underwear with a pink branded waistband, and a lot of jewellery.

He was absolutely beautiful with his cute matching undergarments, and he had just the right amount of muscle definition on his body that she deemed not creepily rock solid.

"Your turn," Leah said, pushing a confident palm to rub against his cock, because she figured he deserved a bit of attention.

Steven's response, apart from the heavier exhale from his nose, was to bunch up her sweater and long sleeve in one go and lift them up her ribs.

Leah had to stop tracing and teasing the hard outline to lift up her arms, but she didn't really mind being rid of her clothes, especially when it was double the pace she had set.

Steven fell to his knees, and just like when they had sex the first time, silently asked for her permission to go further. He was waiting for her, and that meant a whole damn lot.

"Take them off, Steven."

That exact same instruction was all he required for his fingers to work their magic.

Leah didn't prepare with the matching memo, though black was the common theme, but the man between her legs didn't care. He was kissing the apex of her thighs, feeling up behind her knees, before standing up and surpassing her in height.

"You're so beautiful, Leah," Steven whispered in awe, bringing her in for a kiss. His hands were comfortably moving down waist, fingers exploring her bare, lower back with ease. "You know that?"

Instead of stuttering, she took the compliment, and tucked pieces of hair behind his ear. It revealed the three hooped earrings which were her next mission.

"So are you." Her smile was shy, and she could focus on taking out his earrings instead of getting lost in the brown of his eyes.

Steven was watching her, she knew that, hands surprisingly warm exploring her back and sides considering the wintery chill outside, and when the golden hoops were detached from his ear lobe and resting in her closed palm, it was the first time she stepped out of his heat bubble.

Leah placed them on the chest of drawers, but was quickly shadowed by a figure behind her with strong arms looping around her middle and lips kissing down her neck.

She just leaned back into Steven's chest, feeling his cock make a statement between them.

"You shouldn't have worn so much jewellery."

She voiced her thoughts aloud, picking up the dangerous hand that was pathing down her stomach and sending tingles through her body. It was his right one, and she was able to roll off his bracelet from his wrist and place that double golden beaded chain with his earrings on the side.

"Don't you think it looks good?" Steven murmured just shy of her ear, keeping his arms secured around her.

"It does," Leah agreed, turning in his embrace to face him. "That's my problem."

She gestured for him to turn around, which he did, and he dramatically leaned his head back so his hair completely blinded her face. She smiled, pushing his shoulders straight, at this idiot she had all to herself.

It wasn't a necessity to take off his jewellery, but Leah felt inclined to appreciate his natural self, and with each of the necklaces, including his precious locket, unclasped, she kissed his shoulder blades in turn and noticed how they subtly moved against her lips.

The final dog tag and beads on a black string were looped right over his head, and Leah made sure she was careful not to catch any of his hair, or his mouth and nose in the motion. It had her standing on her tiptoes and poking her head over his shoulder just in case, and she even kissed his cheek, which he tried to turn into, to express her thanks for being patient with her.

Patience, that disappeared when he swivelled around, took her face in his hands and kissed her.

Steven was beginning to walk backwards, so Leah was practically on his toes to keep up with him, and there was a lot of new desperation being pressed up against each other.

When Steven reached the bed, his hands moved hungrily down her ass, he pushed harder into the kiss, and eventually squeezed under her thighs.

It was his choice to lift her up, but Leah was happy to loop her arms around his neck, fingers playing lazily in his hair, and gently fluttered her eyelashes to catch a glimpse of the passion he was giving her.

God, did Steven look like he was enjoying it. His tongue was overwhelmingly wet in her mouth, and when he took an air break to see where he was going, he was right back at it with an effortless grace in his movements to lie her on his bed.

"Steven..." Leah whispered, thumb glossing over his lips when they were detached from her own.

"Leah..." he whispered back, and he was quick to suck a heated kiss on her throat to force her head onto the pillow.

This build-up, as much as it humiliatingly teased her to be slow, was Leah's favourite part, and the man she was currently half naked with, had knowledge of her body she didn't know existed.

"Can I?" Steven asked, tapping his thumbs that had slipped behind her back.

Leah nodded, her bra loosened, and guided free from her arms.

There was desire in his eyes, an instinct to bury his face in her tits, but he didn't, and with a rushed kiss that he placed on her mouth, carried on undressing them both.

Leah sat up after her socks were peeled off, thumb hooked around her own waistband to pull down, and was helped before she kicked out her feet in frustration to get the fabric off her ankles.

Stripped naked, Steven lay down on his side as close as he could.

"You don't understand how much I've missed you." A single kiss to her lips partnered the hook of his arm around her head. "I swear, you mean everything to me."

There was something about the way he touched her face, the pad of his thumb making a delicate arc over her cheekbone, and the brimming honesty in the furthest depths of his eyes that were trained solely to hers. Something strong enough, and real enough to take her shaking breath away.

"Because I love you, Leah. I love you with all my heart."

Steven dipped his lips down, pressing the softest of kisses on hers, then another, and if she let him capture a third, she might have been fighting with tears.

"Show me." Leah held his face, her entire body shivering for his touch. "Show me you love me."

Getting a condom and moving underneath the covers was a bit of a blur, but that moment she felt him inside her, so wet and warm in anticipation, could never be reciprocated in such a way again.

Every adjustment Steven made, like firmly interlocking fingers of one hand, or a prolonged groan when he found the angle to push his cock deeper, was worth every moment Leah had spent crying for him, and more.

He was proving he could make the purest of love, and it would be morning, if he didn't let her cum soon.

"Leah," Steven breathed out, bedsheets low on his back. "I-I love you. I need you to-" He made a strained noise that made his neck taut. "-know that."

"I know," Leah replied just as breathlessly, but this time, she found the three words testing shallow waters on her tongue. "I know you do."

"If I have to spend...my whole life making it up to you-" Steven didn't break his rhythm, his pace no longer deliberately slow to edge them both closer. "-then that's the price...I'm willing to pay."

Neither of them had a chance to hold back, especially when the most stunning moan was drawn out into the crook of her neck, and Leah, arguably, had the best orgasm of her life up until now at an intensity she didn't think was possible.

Shattered, and basking in the surge of warmth radiating between them, there was no rush for anything. Reflecting, recovering, and fingertips tracing patches of skin, offered a comfortable intimacy post sex.

Steven rested the side of his face on her chest.

"What do you want to do this year?"

"Sleep," Leah responded, her eyes already closed.

"With me? I was hoping that was a given."

She hated that she was beginning to smile.

"Just go to sleep."

A lone firework went off, the New Year's way of agreement, and Steven retreated to his pillow.

He tangled their limbs together, a tight cuddle inbound with how he snuggled into her like he never wanted to let her go.

As exhausted as she was, Leah kept one ear open expecting him to say something else, but all he did was bury his nose into the back of her hair and breathe there.

That alone was as powerful as him telling her he loved her. Being with Steven was everything she had ever wanted, and when the time was right, she would tell him she loved him too.

After all, it was never going to be just one night. 

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