Page 2 of In the Light of Day

“It's alright, my love. I'm waiting right here.” I call out softly. The gentle patter of her movements slow when she reaches the shadow creeping around the stairwell. Her feet come into sight first, wrapped in soft looking socks. Then her smooth bare legs and one of my old military t-shirts she stole from me years ago. It falls to mid thigh on her and I'm not sure what she has on underneath but I desperately want to find out.

Not yet though.

I’ll let her decide when she's ready to take that step with me. It's taken a lot of work to get to this stage, where she will let me dim the inside lights like this. Holding my hand out to her she grasps it like an anchor, her delicate fingers drowning in mine, securing her to the here and now, not letting her past haunt her any further.

Pulling her to the couch, we settle in and I pick the first action movie that pops up and press play.

“Is this enough man candy for you?” I mumble into the top of her head, smiling. She shh’s me, taking the popcorn from the coffee table and we settle in to watchBruce Willissave the world. It doesn't really matter what we watch, it's just something to have on while we unwind together.

Only happy things, never dark.

Nova’s couch is an extra large, light grey, pillow monstrosity. It's a cross between a bed and a couch and even though it's ugly, it's so incredibly comfortable that I wouldn't care if she lived in a garage, I would still sleep on it. I tried to get her to call it Mr Cuddles but she promptly refused, saying she would prefer something like Edna. The name debate remains one of our ongoing stalemates, occasionally one of us attempting to win the other over with an impromptu naming session.

She grabs a couple of throw blankets and snuggles into me as I lay down. For years this has been our normal. We share all the aspects of a relationship except sex. We spend almost every night together, we hang out, talk and do everything you’d expect of a normal couple. We’re intimate but never have the sex. Any form of sexual intimacy is something we've never explored and something I will only ever take her lead on. If this is as much as she can give me then my hand in the shower will work just fine for the rest of it. She is more to me than a fleeting roll around with a stranger. From the day we first met, I knew she was special. Then those feelings changed and grew and became something more than I could ever hope for.

Her little snores bring me out of my daydream. I didn't even notice the movie credits were playing or that she had fallen asleep, but it's not the first time my focus has waned when we've been like this. Her hands drift up my chest, softly touching me as she moves closer, pulling herself into my body. She rolled over at some point and we're now chest to chest, her leg coming across my thigh, her hips slowly rocking into me and a breathy moan escapes her.

Fuck.

Her movement slows and I can see she's still firmly asleep. Holding her a little tighter against me I drag my hand slowly up and down her spine. Another soft moan escaping her.

“Ace.”

It's almost a whisper in the air the way she says my name.

Fuck, is she having a sex dream aboutme?

“I love you,” she moans into my chest, the sporadic small rocking of her hips continuing against my thigh.

Every part of my body is on fire, knowing what she's dreaming and how her body moves against me. Clenching my jaw, I tenderly move a piece of hair that had fallen across her face. “I love you too, darlin'. More than you could ever know.” I mumble into the top of her head. A soft satiated sigh comes from her before her little snores resume.

The sun creeps over the mountain and shines right in my damn eyes, not that I was sleeping. Nova has the ability to sleep like a tornado, tossing and turning all through the night. She finally stilled when she wedged herself into the small gap between myself and the back cushions at some point in the early morning.

Now, however, the sun is up, I've been successfully blinded, and I'm in desperate need of a coffee. Slowly, I ease myself apart from her, tucking the blanket in tightly before I put the kettle on and make myself an instant cup of joe.

Even though Nova is the queen of coffee in Hidden Valley with her coffee shop Beans, I still prefer a strong cup of instant first thing in the morning. No milk or sugar, just two spoons of instant and some hot water is all I need to start the day. I learned rather quickly from my time in the army that luxuries are nice to have but they slow you down so I trimmed the excess anywhere I could until Nova started showing me that sometimes a little extra is okay every now and then.

Leaning back on the kitchen bench, I take in the stillness of the morning and hear Nova let out a yawn from the couch. Her arms reach up stretching over the top of her head and the blankets get thrown to the floor. I've been alternating between replaying her moans from last night and staring at the gold-foiled invitation stuck to her fridge for the past hour.

Stumbling off the couch, she walks toward me like something out of a zombie film, her feet dragging, hair askew as she pulls the collapsible foot stool out from the pantry and locks it in place. Setting it at my feet, she climbs up the two steps bringing her to eye level and drapes her arms over my shoulders, hugging me lazily.

This is my favourite time of day.

Every morning we're together she does this. She reasoned that because I'm so large I never get to be the little spoon in a hug, so at least once a day she hugs me like this. My arms wrap around her waist and I hold her tightly, her body relaxing into mine. At 6 '5 to her 5 foot even, the footstool brings her up to my height and means I don't have to hunch over to hold her.

“Are you going to let go of me ever?” she questions, and I can feel her grinning as she nuzzles into my neck.

“I was just wondering something is all?”

“Hmm.”

“I never really looked at the invitation on your fridge but the sun was shining on it this morning and the gold foiling caught the light.” Her body remains relaxed against mine as she listens to me.“So I moved it, and I read it.”

“Hmm. Yeah, I told you it's for my sister's wedding but I’ve already talked to her and I don't think I’ll go,” she says, still draped across me.

“I was just wondering if I was going to get to dance with my wife at the wedding is all?”

I try to keep the emotion from my voice but it's not an easy feat when suddenly your wildest fantasies are coming true.

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