The Touch (PG13)
by Carol Sandford

I feel her fingers reach out and find mine and I smile in the darkness. Even deep in sleep Deanna's need for me is there. I feel it in her touch and I feel it in her mind; It reaches across and touches me, caresses me, loves me, just like her fingers do.

Gently I settle my much larger hand upon hers and my body and soul grows warm with need. It is all that it takes to set me aflame. It is all that I need to know that she wants me at any time of the day, at any hour - even at the crack of dawn, like it is now.

Turning on my side, I lace my fingers with hers and move them back to her own body. Instantly she rolls onto her back and the hand still within mine, settles upon her taut and rounded tummy, the same tummy that holds our son safe and warm within her.

I know I'm smiling as I watch her sleep and I trace her beautiful features with my eyes as though it is the very first time that I have seen her. It always seems that way each and every time that I look at her. It's love, I know that and I thank God each and every day that love found us again.

Slowly I watch her eyes flutter open. She turns her head and smiles back at me. "Morning, daddy," she murmurs sleepily, lifting our still entwined fingers to her lips and placing a drowsy kiss upon my fingers.

Huskily chuckling at the enchanting endearment, I pull those same fingers across to my own mouth and kiss the heated palm, the sting of desire and yearning punching me low, forcing my leg to ride up and caress her silky limbs.

"What is it you do to me, Deanna? How is it you can make me feel like this with nothing more than a touch?" I moan wanting nothing more than to bury myself deep within her body and knowing that I couldn't, not now, not so near to our son's birth.

Smiling, she tugs on my fingers pulling me near. Then she pulls me nearer still, forcing me to lay within her knees, her other hand reaching for mine, linking it, sealing us together, as one.

I'm glad that I'm tall so that I can reach across the high mound of her stomach and kiss her waiting lips. "Have you forgotten, Imzadi?" She asks. "Have you forgotten that we have more than our bodies?"

I pull away from her a little and look deep into her ebony eyes, but only for a moment as I'm unable to keep away from the pull of her very essence. "Show me again," I whisper against her mouth. "I keep forgetting."

"Just touch me, Will," She moans, catching my bottom lip between her teeth and tightening her fingers within mine. "Touch us."

"Only if you touch me, too, Imzadi." I gasp back as she begins to work her Betazoid magic on my mind, invisibly pushing me down her body, silently begging me to remember.

I remembered.

And later, so did she.

End