Disclaimer: Don't own either of these characters, but it's only in fan fiction that they can truly let lose like this.

A/N: Because I adore Tseng, and because I prefer Cissnei to Elena. Not that I don't like Elena. Cissnei's just got more spunk to her - in my humble opinion anyway - which is what I felt this scene needed. I think the two could have made a nice couple. It's a little bit of character analysis, a dash of fluff and a large portion of smut. I imagine it takes place sometime towards the end of Crisis Core.

CONTROL

by

Mickis

Genre: Romance/General

Language: English

Fan fiction Rated: M (Can only mean one thing, right?)

Summary: Being forced to share a hotel room during a mission, Cissnei realizes why Tseng is so stubborn to remain in control, and what it takes for him to finally let go of it. Cissnei/Tseng one-shot

The gushing sound of tap water abruptly ceased and I rolled my head sideways to look expectantly at the still closed bathroom door, my right cheek burying itself in the slightly rough cotton fabric of the pillow. Hotels never did have comfortable sheets; they always felt too new and unslept in for my taste. It was another moment of silence before the handle finally turned and the door opened outwards, introducing the dark bedroom to some of the fluorescent light the bathroom had to offer. But it didn't last very long, in fact it was probably no more than a second or two before Tseng hit the light switch and shrouded the small hotel room in darkness once again.

There was an outdrawn, creaking sound of the wooden door slowly being guided back before it softly shut, as if he was trying to be really quiet. Maybe he thought I was already asleep and didn't want to make too much noise? I only heard the fabric of his clothes shifting as he walked across the room, meaning he'd finally taken off his shoes. I had gone as far as removing pants and socks, leaving my company issued shirt on, the top four buttons undone to lend a sense of casualness. However it was no surprise to me Tseng wasn't able to get as comfortable as I had, where you would almost think he was born in that suit of his.

I heard him coming closer to the bed and lay quiet watching in the dark, seeing the silhouette of his body as he came in the line of faint moonlight that managed to seep through the window behind me. I couldn't make out his face however – my eyes still straining to adjust in the dark – and wondered if he could see me watching him. He never made any indication to it but simply ducked out of vision, his covers making a shuffling noise on the floor as he got himself underneath them. It was a few more seconds of shifting and turning until he finally seemed to settle down and silence was all that was left between us.

I hated it. I felt like we were two strangers forced to spend the night in the same room, and it really, really bothered me. Granted, we had never spent the night together before, and the issue of the one bed had been briefly awkward, but we were far from strangers. In fact, we were anything but strangers. I wanted to say something, but wasn't sure how to open up the conversation. If I stayed quiet for much longer the window of conversational opportunity would pass.

"Did you find the toothbrush okay?" I finally uttered softly in the dark, looking up at the ceiling as I waited for his reply, which never came. "Underneath the sink," I added as an afterthought, only to be answered with more silence. I turned my face in his direction, seeing nothing beyond the edge of the bed. "Tseng? Not even you can fall asleep that fast."

Nothing. A sense of worry and unsettlement fizzled up in my gut. I sat up, the mattress of the bed creaking in protest at the movement. I allowed the silence to surround the two of us for a good fifteen seconds before I spoke, "You're really not gonna talk to me, 'cause that could get awkward." Another pause followed by more silence. "Sir?"

"You should go to sleep," I finally heard his smooth, deep voice, his tone even and completely devoid of emotion.

"I'm not tired." But he didn't answer, as if that short sentence had filled his entire quota for the whole night. "Are you mad? Because if you are I'd really prefer it if you just told me." I wasn't surprised by the lack of a response, and I wouldn't put it past him to be mad. I knew that the mission always came first – it was something he had taught me – but at the same time I didn't want to apologize for choosing the opposite to save his life, even if it hadn't needed saving in this particular situation. Part of me knew I'd always end up choosing him over the mission, as I would any of them, and I was sure he knew that just as well, which was fine. But I didn't want him to hate me for it.

I abruptly removed the covers and climbed across the soft, creaky bed, sliding my slender legs over the edge of it, away from the protective warmth of the sheets. Bare feet awkwardly felt their way around the floor, making sure I wasn't stepping on him before I pressed the naked soles to the blankets he'd used to make a makeshift mattress. I quickly shrank down to a sitting position, huddled up next to the warm lump that was his body, my knees unavoidably digging into his back, as he was turned on his side, facing away from me.

"Listen... If you're pissed about the mission..." I trailed off, not quite sure how to form the apology. He hadn't moved an inch and I felt terribly ignored so I carefully placed a hesitant hand on his upper left arm, feeling the bicep momentarily tense beneath the delicate fabric of his shirt. I would have to say something, I realized, or the situation would cross over into weird real fast.

"Look, I'm sorry you're disappointed, but I'm not sorry I did it. My loyalties lie first and foremost with the Turks, not ShinRa," I paused for a moment, knowing I was treading a dangerous path, but nonetheless it was true. The ShinRa Company issued my paychecks; the Turks provided me a home, a place to belong. There was just no way to compete with that. A small sigh escaped my lips. "I just... I wish you could understand that, even if you don't approve of it."

"That's just it," he spoke tiredly, and I almost thought I heard a trace of defeat in his voice.

"What?" I asked, as he simply left the words hanging.

Then to my great surprise he turned over on his back, his arm pulling away from my touch as he used it to push himself up into a sitting position, turned to face me. His face finally came within the grasp of the moonlight, revealing calm features with a few shoulder length strands of silky black hair framing them. They must have escaped his ponytail as he'd been lying down, but the small change in appearance gave him a tousled look that felt very uncharacteristic on him. In addition he'd taken off his company blazer and even his tie but the white shirt was buttoned up almost all the way, leaving only the very top two undone, just enough to leave the small triangular shaped bone between his collarbones visible. It wasn't much, but on a person who insisted on wearing both shirt and suit jacket in even the warmest of climates it was like seeing him topless, causing my stare to linger longer than it would have on someone else. Realizing I was staring, I smothered the blush that threatened to break out and looked up to meet his eyes, his dark brown irises appearing pitch black in the lack of light as they held me with a sense of intensity I rarely saw expressed in them.

"You're..." he suddenly stopped as if to correct himself, and I heard him sigh softly before continuing with a calmer voice. "I do understand."

Glancing down, I felt his words hitting some kind of reality switch in my head and I released a tiny breath of inaudible chuckle, a small smile tugging at the corners of my lips. They were simple words, but coming from a man like him, they held so much more meaning than they spelled out.

I looked back up to meet his eyes, staring at me with a zeroed in kind of focus that was almost staggering for me to look at. I felt like I should say something – anything – just to have the moment pass. But I was unable to because before I could think of any words, his lips were suddenly on mine, warm and crushing and – more than anything – unexpected. It caught me completely off guard but it seemed the reaction to return the kiss came instinctively, even if my body was still frozen in place on the floor. The taste of toothpaste still clung to his lips, as I was sure it did to mine, but the freshness of it only made the kiss taste better; it tasted... clean, with an underlying trace of menthol.

He pulled away then and I opened my eyes to look at him, so close in front of me I could still smell the menthol on his breath. His eyes seemed to whisper words of regret in the dark, something that seemed much more in character with him than that kiss had been, but I realized I didn't have any regrets of my own. True, he was my boss and it was completely inappropriate, but... He was Tseng.

He was loyal and handsome and kind, even if he did try to hide it. The kindness would still sometimes slip past his control and flicker warmly in his brown eyes, and it saddened me that it was a part of himself he so desperately wanted to smother. It was because of that kindness that I was able to put so much trust in him. I trusted him more than any other person, and lately I had been thinking of him in ways I knew I shouldn't. The realization that he had wanted kiss me filled me with more joy than I was able to contain and so I took the initiative to carefully lean closer to him, holding his dark gaze as if to make sure it was okay. He didn't do anything that suggested any objection so I gently closed my lips over his, hearing him inhale deeply through his nose as I did. My kisses were brief but exceedingly demanding as I more or less ended up sucking on his bottom lip.

He responded by framing my face with the warm palms of his hands and held it in place, his warm tongue sliding across my upper lip with an unspoken request. I quickly opened up to give him access, his luscious tongue filling up my mouth and senses, urging me to move closer to him and lean my entire weight onto his body. Impatient hands grabbed him by the waist, fingers inching underneath the ironed fabric of his shirt until I finally felt his soft skin against the tips of my fingers and proceeded to travel up his back and torso, feeling the muscles on his lean body flex and unflex at my touch.

He parted from me then to grab an unexpected hold of my upper arms, turning me sideways and guiding me down to the floor, my back hitting the soft covers he'd bundled up to sleep on. It wasn't even a second before he was down there with me, forearms resting on either side of my face as he lowered himself down to rest part of his weight on top of me, his lips hungrily closing over mine. His passion completely overwhelmed me; he had been hiding it so well.

I squirmed slightly beneath him, my legs parting to leave enough room for him to fit, my knees instantly pulling themselves up to pinch him in place by his hips. There was a distinctive bulge in his groin, causing warmth to flare up inside me and spread throughout my body like a drug. I lifted my hands to reach behind his neck, fingers digging into the hair on the back of his head, managing to loosen some of it from the stubborn ponytail.

I felt his chest pressing onto me every time his lungs filled up with air, and his hands reached closer until they were finally entangling themselves in the locks of my hair that was spilled across the blankets and covers I was lying on top of. I moved my hands to massage his neck as we practically ate each other up with our fervent kisses, as though we were starved for each other. Eventually I slid my hands down the front of his body and onto his chest where I started working on the tiny buttons of his shirt, tearing at the expensive fabric as it proved to be quite difficult to do it with his chest almost pressed against mine. He seemed to notice and pulled away enough for me to get better access to them, my fingers hurriedly fumbling with the top button. He finally pushed his weight off of me with his hands and sat up on top of me to unbutton it himself, me assisting him with the lower ones. Once it was finally open I slid my hands inside, across the lean abs of his abdomen and around the sides of his waist, parting the shirt further as he proceeded to pull his arms free of it. It stubbornly got stuck by one of his wrists, his wrist watch being the likely cause of the problem, forcing him to shake it quite humorously until it finally let go and fell to the floor a feet or so away from us.

He quickly leaned over me and slid his hands underneath my shirt, his soft palms gliding across the curves of my waist as he pulled the thin garment upwards until it simply refused to go any further. His hands resurfaced to work on my buttons, slowly yet effortlessly undoing them one by one, to finally pull the fabric apart and reveal a simple white bra. He grabbed a hold of my wrists and raised them to lie outstretched above my head, pulling at the sleeves of my shirt. I arched my back to help remove it, the shirt protesting a bit under the weight of my shoulders before he was able to pull it out from underneath me, leaving a tousled mess of chestnut-red hair in its wake, the static causing it to levitate around me.

Tossing the crumpled piece of clothing aside, he smiled almost affectionately in the pale moonlight that showered his handsome features and delicately sculpted chest before leaning back down with his weight on top of me, our bare skin finally touching. His skin was surprisingly soft for that of a man and I ran my exploring hands all over him, up his strained arms and shoulders, down his hairless chest and around his sides to finally grab a hold of his lean waist and pull him closer. I felt his swollen member pressing hard against me, causing our kiss to hungrily deepen. The cold buckle of his belt sharply dug into my stomach, threatening to break the skin, something I had not foreseen in removing the shirt.

Luckily it was a problem I could fix.

I slid my hands back to the front of his body – him parting just enough for my hands to fit – following the smooth, even line of his leather belt until the cold steel of the buckle brushed against my fingers. Grabbing a firm hold of the belt, I forcefully pulled it out of the buckle, revealing yet another button in my way. It was made out of plastic and much larger in size then his other ones so it was very simple to undo. I felt his warm erection brush against my hand through his slightly damp boxers as I zipped down his fly, causing him to moan jaggedly into my mouth. I ravenously sucked on his tongue in response, my hands simultaneously working to pull down his pants.

He pushed himself off of me then, cold, harsh air slipping between us at the cruel absence of his warm body. He crookedly rested his weight on one of his forearms, using his other hand to impatiently tug at the fabric of his black suit pants, his legs struggling between mine to climb out of the stubborn piece of clothing. I used my feet to force the fabric down his body until they came off with a final shake of his leg. He grinned briefly before coming back down to claim my lips in a long, deep kiss, the back of my head rubbing against the blankets beneath me, no doubt doing a number on my hair my hairbrush would come to detest.

Reaching down to grab him by his hips, my fingers followed the elasticity of his boxers, sliding around his back to grab and rub at his lower back, my legs pulling themselves up higher, keeping his warm body locked between them in an uncompromising hold.

I felt his fingers against the sides of my head, his thumb rubbing affectionately against my left temple until his hands traveled further up to bury themselves in the mess of hair on top of my head, leaving my face pinched between the insides of his forearms, brushing against my temples each time he pushed his body against mine, causing me to let out a stifled breath inside the damp warmth of his mouth.

I was afraid he would suddenly realize what we were doing and as a result pull away – a man of duty as he was – but his eagerness gave no indication he was going to, causing my fear to die down and allowing me to bit by bit lose myself in the moment.

Shortly I felt one of his hands slowly trailing down the left side of my body, leaving an invisible trail of what felt like electricity in its wake before it stopped by my hips to play with the stretch-band of my panties – stalling – as if unsure if he could go any further. I kissed him deeper, pressing my hips against his, and in response he began to pull down my underwear. I climbed out of them to speed up the process and he pulled away from our kiss then, his breath mingling with mine as he stared at me. He looked as though he was about to say something, lips just barely parted, but he never did. He just... looked at me, his dark-brown eyes wavering back and forth to hold my gaze at our short distance.

I ran my hands up the back of his body, my palms pressing against the firm muscles of his back, pulling him down closer to once again capture him in a hungry kiss. I felt his hand inch between our bodies to wander down my stomach and finally come to rest between my thighs, no doubt discovering the extent of my excitement. He ran his thumb experimentally up and down my clit, quickening the movement until I couldn't help but arch my back in response. Only then did he use his other fingers to part the sensitive, no doubt swollen lips, slipping a finger inside the wetness, curling it as if feeling his way around. I pressed harder against him, practically devouring his tongue, and he added another finger, slowly pulling in and out until he finally shoved them both deep inside me, angling and twisting skillfully, causing my vaginal muscles to contract in response to his movement.

He quickened his pace, his touch growing more and more rough by the second, resulting in me helplessly digging my fingernails into his back, unable to stifle the moan that slipped inside his warm mouth. I felt his hips attempting to press against mine, but unable to because of the hand he kept between our bodies, and I pinched him tighter between my raised legs, his sharp hips digging into the inside of my thighs, brushing against my kneecaps every time his body pushed harder against me.

I greedily encircled his shoulders with my arms, burying my face at the base of his neck, causing his entire body to stiffen briefly, only to almost completely relax that following second. I heard his heavy breathing, brushing almost right against my ear and I lifted my face to be able to look over his shoulder, seeing nothing but the mundane naked ceiling above me. I rested the side of my face against his neck, closing my eyes in contentment. He lay still on top of me, his fingers still inside me but unmoving. The only movement I felt was the pulse in his neck, beating steadily against my temple. I held him closer, my embrace loosing its previously demanding touch and turning into something more affectionate. The only thing heard was our breaths, still very quiet yet so loud in the deafening silence of the hotel room.

"You wouldn't happen to have a condom, would you?" I quietly asked, his hand making a small movement at my question, as if he couldn't control it. "Or, you know, you could always pull out." I hated bringing up the issue of protection. It made the sex so much less impulsive. You tangibly felt the atmosphere change the second the condom question was thrown out there. It went from something excitingly passionate and spur of the moment thing to 'okay, are we gonna do this, or what?'

He pulled away from my embrace then and I loosened my hold to let him go. Ebony strands framed his dark features, and I noticed some of my hair had gotten stuck between his lips; I couldn't help but smile. I let my hand drop from behind his neck down to his face to pull the hair loose, causing him to flash an honest smile, embarrassment flickering in his eyes for the briefest of seconds.

"To be honest," I said, "I really don't think I can get pregnant, what with all the beatings I've taken over the years, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

I had meant it as a joke but he didn't appear to be very amused, instead his previously happy expression instantly faded, transforming him into the serious man I knew so well. "Are you sure about this?" he finally asked, boring his brown eyes into mine.

"Can't you tell?" I countered, shifting my body slightly, pressing my hips against the hand that was still buried inside me.

A small smile returned to soften his features and he leaned back down plant a thorough kiss on me, slipping his tongue inside as his hand picked up its movements once again, gently pulling in and out until his fingers exited entirely. I circled my arms around his neck once more, even as he pulled away to attempt to remove his boxers, stubbornly making sure his lips stayed locked with mine; I could feel him grin against my lips, knowing I was making it difficult for him. After a while he seemed to reach the limit of his patience as I felt his hand coming up to grab my wrist, pulling my arm away from him.

I pulled apart to smile at him, my hand sliding down his chest, thumb rubbing the pale, smooth skin. "What's the matter?" I asked, teasingly. "Can't you multitask?"

"Funny," he spoke dryly as he reached down to pull down his boxers, although I could still detect the smile beneath his comment.

"You're gonna have to get rid of those socks, too," I added, a finger angled between our bodies to point south. "'Cause there's just no way..."

"I was going to," he replied in a tone of voice that was a perfect mixture of amusement and annoyance, pulling up one leg at a time to awkwardly remove the socks.

"No, you weren't," I smiled, pulling him back down once he repositioned himself on top of me, resting his forearms against the blankets on either side of my head. I felt his naked erection hard against my abdomen, sliding up and down across the skin at his small movements as he adjusted his weight.

"To be fair, you're still wearing your bra," he said with an impish look in his eyes, the loose strands of his hair dancing lazily in the air as he breathed.

I only grinned in response and removed my hands from behind his back, sliding them underneath my own body at an awkward angle while arching my back to have better access to the clip of the bra. There were two of them that had to be unhitched, and the last one was giving me attitude. I looked up to find an amused expression looking down on me, the playfulness of it instantly made him appear years younger, or rather his actual age. I had always felt that his otherwise stoic behavior unfairly added numbers to his age.

"Need some help with that?" he teased, unable to hold back his smirk.

"It's not that easy in this position, you know," I defended myself, still trying to maneuver that stubborn piece of clothing into letting go.

"...Was that a yes?" he asked, his expression twisted in uncertainty.

"No," I quickly replied, shooting him a determined look. "I can do it myself."

"Alright," he said, tilting his head to the side. "Just being polite."

"No, you're not," I argued with a grin. "You just wanna see me naked."

His eyebrows shot up and painted the perfect picture of someone who was indeed guilty – quite possibly the funniest expression I'd ever seen on his face – but he quickly pulled it together once he realized there wasn't any accusation behind my words. It was at this moment that the clip of the bra chose to surrender to my obstinate fingers and I quickly proceeded to pull my arms out of the straps, discarding the white piece of underwear to the side.

He smiled at me and leaned back down on top of me, trailing brief but gentle kisses along my shoulder blades and down to brush his soft, warm lips across the bared skin of my breasts. I embraced him, sliding my palm across the neat hair on top of his head and down to his ponytail, running my fingers through the silky strands, marveling at how thick it actually was. I allowed my lids to shut at the sensation of him closing his mouth over my left nipple, teasing it with his tongue and just barely grazing it with his teeth. My breathing grew heavier as I felt my impatience growing stronger, causing me to slowly run my nails across the sensitive skin at the back of his neck, just along the flimsy path of his hairline.

He pulled back then and I opened my eyes to look at him, meeting his dark gaze as he lifted his head to look at me. I grabbed a hold of the back of his head with both hands and pulled him towards me, our lips locking like opposite magnets, sending all kinds of sensations throughout my body. He positioned his body further up and deepened the kiss, and as he did I felt the pressure of his erection brush right past between my legs to once again lay naked on my stomach, pinched in place underneath his weight. I released my hold on his neck to caress his torso and then proceeded to slide my hands down the sides of his body, my fingers digging into his hips and guiding him back down a few inches, feeling the hardness of him rub against me once more.

It was more than I could take and I grinded hard against him, causing him to inhale sharply through his nose. I felt his hips pushing back against me – his member pressing down on my clit – and I pinched him harder in between my legs, urging him to do it again. He repeated the movement but it proved to be inadequate, something I quickly realized we were both in agreement of as I felt his right arm slide in between our bodies to grab a hold of his rigid shaft.

The warmth of his mouth vanished then and I opened my eyes as I felt the weight of his body disappear. He looked at me with an expression of complete seriousness, an expression that looked very familiar in his dark eyes, and the question hung silent between us. I simply met his gaze, my fingers rubbing at his hips and coming down to cup the firm cheeks of his backside, silently encouraging him with my caressing hands. He leaned back down to plant a deep kiss before pulling back once more, gently maneuvering his swollen member inside me. I relaxed and took in the sensation of my tight walls closing around the erected organ as the width of it slowly filled the inside of me, carefully pushing deeper and deeper inside until I couldn't help but clench my muscles in response to the sensation.

He held eye contact as he once again placed both forearms on either side of my head, gently letting down his weight on top of me. His lips came down for another kiss, soft and slow, and I felt him slowly pull out of me in time with his lips leaving mine, a soft moan escaping me as he did. He moved his arms closer to my face and pushed himself back inside, ever so slowly. He kept the pace slow but he made sure to bury himself deep each time he went in, causing my vaginal muscles to contract in response. I grabbed a firmer hold of his tight cheeks, willing him to go faster, my hips rising from the blankets to meet his, but he simply smiled and kept the pace slow, no doubt teasing me.

I had always been an impatient person, and Tseng was my complete opposite. I was quite certain he took great pleasure in his torture of me, though I couldn't possibly think of a better form of torture. He leaned back down to bury his face in the crook of my neck, placing wet kisses on my burning skin, his tongue slipping out to tickle my left earlobe before gently sucking on it, pushing himself deep inside me as I grinded against him, the weight of his body being the only thing keeping my hips from leaving the floor. He froze like that, unmoving deep inside of me while his mouth focused on my earlobe, his warm breath panting in my ear. I clenched my muscles around his member then, causing his breath to suddenly hitch. It seemed to break his admirable patience for he pulled back out only to push harder inside me, his pace quickening in time with the breathing that echoed in my head. I dropped my feet to the floor then, my legs still pinching his body between them while I used the pressure of my feet to help add resisting force to his thrusting. I knew I should savor the moment but it felt so good, the euphoric state of my mind couldn't think of a valid reason to slow down.

He was thrusting hard at a steady pace, the blinding sensation of his width moving inside of me causing me to moan in response, something that seemed to only encourage him as he lifted his head from my neck and removed one of his arms to brush it against my leg, his hand coming around it to lift it up at a higher angle, his fingers digging into my thigh as he increased the force of his thrusting. His breathing was loud but whenever he moaned it came out quiet and restrained, as if he feared there were people in the next room that could hear us. Yet another thing he thinks he has to keep under control, I mused dazedly as I felt myself inching closer to climax. I encircled his neck with both arms, powerlessly holding on to him, feeling his chest coming up to rub against my chin every time he pushed himself inside me, my toes curling at the overpowering sensation.

"Don't stop," I managed to utter, the words barely anything more than an audible breath. "Don't stop."

It seemed he was a good listener for he grabbed a firmer hold of my thigh, causing me to pull up my other leg and pinch him in place. His face came back down to once again snuggle in the crook of my neck, and his moaning came loader, the sound slipping between his clenched teeth. In this new position he was able to thrust faster and harder into me than he'd done before and I arched my back in response, squeezing his ever moving form in between my knees, feeling the familiar sensation of ecstasy bubble up in my abdomen until I thought I couldn't possibly handle it anymore, yet he thrust as hard as ever, deep, audible grunts slipping past his control. I felt I was going blind with pleasure and my legs helplessly began to spasm at the intoxication of it, but it wasn't until he slowed his pace and drove himself deeper inside, more thorough, that release finally came.

My whole body relaxed in relief but he kept going, not as vigorously as before but still at an even pace that had me wondering if he would be able to keep his promise and pull out. I almost didn't mind because I was in a state of such bliss thanks to him, but the thought did nag in the back of my mind, screaming: Pull out. Pull out!

Thankfully, he did, leaning to the side of me as he came on what must have been the blankets we were lying on. I rubbed my hand slowly up and down his back, as if silently praising him for following through with his promise and he turned to look at me, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath. I smiled and reached up to kiss him, my hand cupping the back of his neck to pull him closer and thus meet me halfway. The kiss wasn't as long as I would have preferred, where he still needed to breathe, but the very taste of his lips had me smiling against them.

He rolled over to the opposite side of the wet blanket and settled on his side, folding one leg over mine. I was still lying on my back, naked on top of the blankets and suddenly cold without his body on top of me, something he seemed to notice as he reached over with his right arm to encircle my small waist. I turned my head to look at him, finding contentment swimming in his dark irises. The smile I had pulled stubbornly on my lips, and I couldn't keep myself from teasing him, "I almost didn't think you'd be able to pull out there."

He smiled knowingly in return, snuggling his head against the blankets as if trying to get comfortable even without a pillow. "I'm a man of my word," he spoke simply, the low, smooth baritone of his voice being so close to my ear causing butterflies to flutter in my stomach. I almost had to stifle a giggle; at this point it was quite frankly becoming embarrassing.

"That's good to know," I said, still not able to rid my face of that everlasting grin. "You know, there's a bed right there," I added, inching my head in the direction of it.

"Good to know," he whispered, his embrace tightening possessively around my waist as his lips curved into a handsome smile. I found myself silently wondering where this attentive, smiling man had been hiding this whole time, and just as the thought brushed past my consciousness, fear whispered darkly in my ear:

And how long till he goes back into hiding?