A/N:
Yeah, hi, just a little note saying there's smut- I'll always give a warning, cos I'd feel bad otherwise. You should find with each one, at least I personally think so when I write them, there's a deeper meaning/something different about each time so it's not repetitive.

That's for you to decide of course, but that's my take on writing as a whole. I want to be different, and so far I've produced this...story.

So, I guess thanks for sticking around cos it's not over yet. Far, far from it. 🙏❤️

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The rest of the day was tiresome, even if there were enough scrumptious slices of fresh bread for lunch and dinner to keep stomachs happy and awake.

Leah was introduced to Steven's father, Victor Tallarico, who had exactly the same passion for music as his son, and it was quite an easy topic to listen to and ask questions about.

A few things were unpacked, showers taken, and when the evening rolled around, Steven got Liv ready for bed and read her a story. Dinner for four adults followed, but exhaustion understandably had the two travellers turning in for the night a lot earlier than normal.

Leah was tired. Steven was tired. But they still had a few things to talk about in the privacy of a bedroom, and one of them was a lot more enthusiastic about that prospect than the other.

"Steeevenn," Leah drawled happily, watching him strip from her comfortable position in his bed. "Did you get nervous when you tried introducing me to your mummy?"

A t-shirt hit the floor.

"Pshh, no."

"Are you suurree?"

Steven made no response, face down, avoiding the amused eyes that had waited the rest of the day to confront him.

He peeled off his socks, so he was left in a clean pair of boxers, took off the final pieces of his jewellery to place on his bedside table, and fluffed up his hair away from his eyes.

The duvet was lifted on the empty side, but Steven decided against climbing in at the last second, and unexpectedly flopped across her.

"Maybe," he mumbled, hugging her tight. "But I don't know why."

Leah touched the soft curls of his hair, squeezing her eyes shut from the butterflies that fluttered in her tummy. Her knees twitched too with the giddy feeling, and Steven curled more and more into her torso, burying his face from her view.

It was the reason why it took more than a moment to compose herself.

"It was very cute," she said, aware of the squished breathing that fanned up her neck. "Very cute."

Steven whined in protest, but he finally took a peek from his safety.

Showing his face revealed a delicious pout of his lips, sleepy features to look down into, and Leah found it funny how she was holding his awkwardly twisted body like a big baby across her lap. A position that must have been uncomfortable considering the majority of his legs dangled off the edge of the bed.

"Hi." Steven rubbed his eye with the back of his hand, smiling lazily.

She copied the low energy smile and stroked his hair again, because she adored how it felt between her fingers.

"Hi, oaf."

Sliding her palm down to his cheek, Leah swore his eyes were twinkling up at her, and in the soft lighting, she could see his face perfectly, particularly the darker shade around his mouth.

Steven took it upon himself to sit up slowly then, adjusting how with a bend of his knee to shuffle closer, and Leah, although her fingers had slipped from his face, felt his touching her neck and sliding behind into the depths of her hair.

A crunch of his tummy to close the gap between their faces, Steven had her locked in a daze as his lips grazed her own, and she was fully addicted again when he declared a slow kiss to test the waters.

Leah caught the new angle, pushing against him for intensity, and was delighted with the strong mint in his mouth that mixed with her own when the minor gaps of rushed air appeared. But neither of them for one second pulled away properly, which meant it just became hotter and heavier, and hearts became needy pumps beating hard in chests to keep up with the pace.

Leah was dragging her knees up, kicking down the sheets with her feet, feeling up his body to his shoulders, and somehow ended up sitting in Steven's lap so it was his back against the pillows and headboard, not hers.

That carved frame now had her fingers wrapped around to position herself comfortably on Steven's crotch, and it was an action that had the subtlest splay of his hands to hold her waist in place, a stream of air from his nose, and a silent moan lost in the kiss.

Leah didn't want to stop counting his teeth with her tongue and then forgetting and starting again, but she was bursting for an escape from his warm body that was hooking her under a spell.

The moment she pulled back though, she found she couldn't speak because she was breathing so hard, and because there was also hard poking the inside of her thigh.

Hands moved to press and rest over a new patch of skin, and a tease of kisses that did not quite have the strength to hold, practically certified sex was going to happen.

"Do you..." Steven began to brush his lips up the side of her neck, "...want to?"

His voice gave her goosebumps. His voice was the music in her ears. His voice was slowly strumming a rhythm in more places than just her heart. But it was also his wet mouth that had her head tipping for his access, his fingers that moved from their restless state on her thighs to tuck her hair away or hold it back, and it was his desire that probably gave her a hickey when he sucked her skin tight.

"You'll have to be quiet if you do," Steven went on, just as softly, just as innocently, and the nip of his teeth was soon soothed with his flattened tongue.

Leah was tired, but she was now unthinkably horny and there was no way she could sleep if she didn't deal with the ache between her legs or the shivers that tensed and pooled from the pit of her stomach with every kiss he gave her.

"I can...be quiet."

She reclaimed control of her neck, padding her fingers up to the base of his jaw bone to lift his face into her view. To stop the marks he was making before they were too dark to conceal.

She saw how deeply Steven looked into her eyes, blown pupils that had her lost in the black centre. She could look into his eyes forever, be astounded by how warm and complimenting they were to his face, but there was sex on their minds, heat rushing below the waistline, and a need to finish what they never did an ocean away.

Steven let go of her hip that he had warmed with his palm, and pulled out the top drawer. Felt for the plastic edges underneath miscellaneous shit that was in there, found what he was searching for, and took a fancy packet out.

He did not look away from her once.

Leah kissed him next, those swollen, pink lips that secured her want for him too easily, and because her shorts were no longer straight, she could grind against the hardening lump of his cock with a seam just rubbing her clit.

She sighed into his mouth when she felt the spark of pleasure from it, and the desperation was sinking in to take off their remaining clothes.

Steven was reading her mind, circling the wrists that were responsible for the hold on his face, and guided them down. Parted the heavy kiss that had their lips glossed, and they both experienced the first loss of connection when Leah took the initiative to slide off his lap.

It gave her the first glimpse of his erection, the significant bulge of his dick that that had been growing in strength to press against her. Covered tightly, but begging for attention that was preferably achieved inside of her.

"This is what you do to me, Leah," Steven said, over the rise of his chest, drowning her eyes in the lustful ocean that was his own. "You make me hard."

He looked amazing. So amazing that her own hand that had come to rest on her shorts, squeezed and bunched up the fabric because he was just talking and it was turning her on more.

Steven made a gentle tear in the condom packet he picked up from the pillow.

"Can I do it?" Leah asked suddenly.

"You want...to put it on?"

She hesitated, trying to decipher the direction of the tone, but nodded all the same.

"Fuck. Take off your shorts."

Leah did, and her nerves vanished. Steven had thrown his final item of clothing to the floor, and she felt his hands reoccupy themselves with a grab of her hips to guide her closer. She was already moving to kneel either side of his thighs anyway, condom packet in hand, but his impatience was creeping through.

She fumbled the thin, clear rubber circle out of the packet with success, but knowing that it was as if a trail of wet was pathing down the inside of her thigh, her fingers became uselessly numb. So, when Steven's hands made gentle pressure on her wrists- helping her, guiding her, and eventually rolling the condom on his stiff cock with her, it was just another reminder that he wasn't judging her for anything.

He wanted her, just as much as she wanted him.

"Are you sure you can be quiet?" Steven practically whispered, palms disappearing all the way up her ribs to deepen her next inhale.

Leah looked down at him, and let her lightly spaced fingers that pressed the thin protection run up and down his fully erect cock. But that boastful, lazy smile in the soft light was an expression she was not about to delight with an answer, even if the v-shape between his thumb and index finger rested underneath her breasts like he thought it would get a reaction out of her.

Instead, she just positioned herself whilst holding his cock, and did the work he wasn't, herself.

She almost stopped breathing as his size stretched her, memorising the sudden tense of his hands or how his mouth fell open in the most pleasing of ways, but most of all, how she had switched the roles with immediate effect.

"Are you sure you can?" Leah challenged, gripping onto his shoulders to take as much of him as she could, and there was a lot of him to adjust to.

"O-oh shhii-"

"Shh," she hushed, muting his moans with a kiss that filled her with more of him.

Steven held her back for one moment, then marvelled her front the next, and ran his hands everywhere like he couldn't decide where to put them, and it made Leah smile. Partly because it was tickling her, but mostly because she was making him squirm beneath her.

Pussy fluttering around him in anticipation, she retreated to brush her lips against the corner of his mouth, teased a trail of kisses to the roughness under his chin, and all while she supported his jaw up with her thumbs for her own pleasure.

"Leah...please."

She felt him trying to move his hips up to get the movement started, and as much as she could kiss his face all day, enjoy the feeling of his touch, and how he begged for her, the only thing keeping her awake was the need to orgasm.

With her apparent control, Leah sat up straight on her knees, stripped her pyjama top with a cross of her wrists at the hem, and shook her head when her hair fell across her face.

Exposed herself fully for him, on her own accord, because she wanted to.

She watched Steven's eyes dip to her chest, lift back up to her face, and then how he leaned forwards to kiss her breasts in turn, take them with his pleasantly warm hands, and in between every little movement, he found her eyes again like he was permanently asking for her consent to keep going.

It made her feel something she hadn't in a very long time.

Leah enjoyed the confidence that bloomed from his sweet attention, and it allowed her to push him back by his shoulders, grip them, and finally deal with the cock currently unmoving inside her.

She'd ridden a guy before, but never like this. Not with the constant fleeting touches to her body, a drift of knuckles up her sides, a single finger up and down her spine, or the thumbs that grazed her nipples. An occasional kiss to her collarbone, or a brush of his lips when he sat up with her for a bit.

Leah didn't mind the lack of talking, or the brief thought that it felt as good for him as it did for her, because when Steven eventually slumped back, passed a hand through his own hair with desperation, it only made her proud.

Proud, of being responsible for him coming undone beneath her, to which she had the best view in the world, and a confirmation that it really was good for him too.

It wasn't fast- far from it in fact. They were both too tired for that, both beaten with exhaustion from their travels, but it made room for precious exploration, and a lethal test to be quiet.

"Are you...close?" Steven asked, pushing a hand up her thigh like it was on a mission.

Leah nodded, hair tumbling past her face.

"Just...need-"

"I got you, baby."

Not a moment wasted, his right thumb was rubbing tight little circles on her clit that drove her wild, and he happened to remember what she had shown him to switch things up.

Leah had a lazy smile as she flipped her hair back. That hand was soon replanted on the warm skin of his stomach for her balance, the pressure making his muscles tense.

"You're so good at that," she breathed out, torn between scrunching her eyes shut and keeping them open to see him. "So...good."

The bed squeaked again. It had been occasionally, more so with the sluggish increase of pace, and it was the only major sound over their heavy breathing and stifled moans that were swallowed down. Until now, because Steven was struggling to stay quiet.

His fingers pressed into her skin, head thrown back.

"Fuuck! Leah, I lo-"

Without thinking, Leah put her hand over his mouth. Muffled his mismatched speech that made no sense other than being too loud with a serious clamp of her palm. It was followed by Steven's chest stiffening, a releasing sigh into her hand, and a flutter of his eyes that were very much glued to her own.

If watching him cum wasn't enough to join him, then the thumb that hadn't stopped religiously massaging her clit definitely was.

Leah fell into his body, slowly sliding her hand from his panting mouth to drape over his shoulder that became somewhere around his neck. She was further encouraged with the feeling of his knees sliding up on the mattress around her, and his free arm looping around her middle, just to hold her close.

She turned her face into his thick remedies of clean hair, lips close to his ear, maybe making a noise, maybe not, because she was finally being treated with a shuddering release that she so desperately needed.

Steven kissed her shoulder in the recovery, and gently passed his hand up through the back of her hair. She lifted her head with the movement, but she did not open her eyes or unfurrow her brow.

"Open your eyes," Steven whispered, kissing the corner of her chin.

Leah could hear the smile in his voice.

"Mm'no."

The streams of air from his nose registered against her skin for a little while longer, his lips chasing kisses down her throat, and then it all disappeared when he sat back.

"You gonna sleep on my dick then? It's not going to stay hard for much longer."

Annoyingly, the moment of her serenity was interrupted with a smile, and Leah opened her eyes to find the same expression, perhaps a tad more smugly, staring back at her.

She groaned, because she was too tired to say words.

With Steven's help, she flopped down onto her back, devastatingly spent, but unaccountably pleasured by the man that was moving next to her to tuck her feet under the abandoned covers.

There was not a care in her world that she didn't have her pyjamas back on.

Leah watched him through low batting eyelashes, the angle of her head just about on a pillow, smiling when Steven covered both their bodies with a layer of warmth, and continued to do so as he settled on his side to face her, close and personal.

She may have been in a daze with the idea of cloud nine somewhere in reach, but she was more than happy to let it go to memorise all the details of this equally tired, but handsome face next to her.

"You know, this will be the second time we've shared a bed," Steven said quietly, index finger pushing the strands of intruding hair that had fallen across her nose.

Leah blinked slowly at the concentration she saw in his brown eyes, acknowledging the dark rings underneath them, and then mustered a bit of strength to ease the angle of her neck and roll over to face him properly.

"I know," she answered, pressing her cheek into the pillow. "It was your birthday."

Steven froze like he was surprised she remembered, and then traced two fingers over her cheek up to the coarser, yet soft hairs of her eyebrow.

"When's yours?" he asked after a while, looking intensely at his work.

"Seventeenth of November," Leah yawned, blinking away the feeling of tears.

"Ooh, that's not that long away."

"Ugh, don't remind me," she mumbled, closing her eyes to black out his excitement. "I'm almost thirty."

"Hey, what about me? I'm thirty two!"

"Shh, I already know you're old." Even with her eyes closed, Leah smiled lethargically. "Officially on your way to forty."

Steven moved his face closer, brushed her shin with his toes, and started to gently lift up the hairs of her eyebrow with his thumb nail. He did it twice towards the middle, messing with the natural direction, and only then, did he decide to answer.

"That's just rude."

Making a hum of approval, Leah snuggled her head down into the pillow to stop him from fiddling with her face, and gradually became at peace with the heat of the close body breathing quietly next to her.

But, just as she thought their conversation over, that she could finally go to sleep, she felt her hair being tucked back and tentative fingers padding across the top of her ear. The same ear that now had a tiny gap missing from a bullet, and that she tried to keep covered most of the time so she didn't get asked the same old question by the people she knew.

"Steven," Leah murmured, refusing to open her eyes. "I'm trying to sleep."

"Mhm, I know."

The fingers kept brushing along the dip as if they were fascinated by what they felt.

"You're a veterinary surgeon? Your job- you work with animals, yeah?"

"Yes, I said that at dinner. Steven, seriously, I have no more energy."

"Stop talkin' then."

"Well, stop asking questions you already know."

"Stop," he whispered, leaning forward to kiss her temple. "Talking."

So Leah did. With a hint of a smile, she fell asleep with Steven beside her, breathing in his scent mixed with the kind remains of sex, and wondering what possessed him to remember her battle scar.

She fell asleep with the hopes that at some point she would be pulled into his chest, wrapped in the safety of his arms, whilst dreaming of a future together with him.

Because now that it was real, now that she was finally with him, she didn't think she could live her life without him.

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