Twenty Years
Twenty years. Has it really been nearly twenty years since an arrogant self-assured lieutenant walked up to me and introduced himself? He looks at me and I smile at him. He had no idea I was awake, so I decide to tease him about the way he occupies his time.
“How long have you been watching me?”
“Not long.” He lies.
I push him onto his back and straddle his torso. “It’s been a long time; hasn’t it?” I ask as I caress his cheek.
“Yes it has. And if you don’t mind, I’m going to grow the beard back.”
I can’t help but laugh when he thinks I’m talking about his beard. “I mean since you’ve watched a woman sleep in your bed.” When I look back into his eyes I know it really has been a long time since he’s taken a woman to bed.
“Yes.” He concedes. “Even longer since you weren’t really sleeping.”
Gods, have I really kept him at bay with that ridiculous excuse? How could I have been so blind not to have noticed Will Riker hasn’t had a consensual relationship in? But if we got involved with one another, we wouldn’t be able to do our jobs properly. Not while we’re serving on the same ship seemed best before…before we entered the Briar Patch, and then I remembered why it was I lost my senses around him. The adorable way he contorted his face and let out a soft guttural noise when I massaged his neck.
I’m not going to get any sleep now; so I decide to pass the time in the only way I know how to assuage the desires building within. I lean down and blow in his ear and then whisper. “I was until someone’s thoughts intruded on my beauty rest.”
I tell him there are other ways to stay off gray hairs and move my hand down to his growing erection. Mmmm…there are other ways to elicit that groan as well. He doesn’t believe my proclamation that a healthy sex life has proven to reduce wrinkles, making it hard for me to resist. “Why Commander, I thought that was why you were so…” however, before I can say prolific, he pulls me into a passionate kiss. He always did know how to kiss!
When he kissed me in my office a few days ago, he nearly knocked my socks off. But there was no way in hell I was going to admit to him how good it was to feel his desires surface after all this time. I pushed him away, instead, saying the first thing that popped into my head. How could I know he would actually let me shave his beard off? Once it was gone, I wanted him even more. He looked so much more like the man I fell in love with all those…
I pull away and ask; “Do you think we waited too long?”
He gives me a smile. “I have it on very good authority that ‘too long’ isn’t possible on this ship.”
“Whoever told you that is a fool, Will.” I laugh at his recollection of my earlier advice.
He places his hand on my cheek and his eyes fill with love. “I don’t think so.” He says in a husky voice before pulling me into another kiss.
When he moves down to my neck, I bite my lower lip, savoring in the taste of him. Before that euphoria wears off, he rolls me beneath him and starts to adorn the rest of my body. An unbelievable surge builds within me and I cry out in my mind: Imzadi, please!
In reply, Will enters my welcoming depths and our bodies begin to move in counterpoint until our combined desires reach release. Afterwards, he brushes my hair behind my ear and whispers “Do you still think it’s too late?”
“No.” I answer simply and close my eyes secure in the knowledge he will still be there when I open them again - even when I’m old and gray.