254. Chapter 254

She draws her a bath and she kisses all her fresh injuries, and she thought she was overcome before, but then Alex turns the tables on her.

“You didn’t have such an easy day, either. Smuggling all those refugees out of the city. You have any injuries I should see?”

And Maggie never answers her girlfriends like this – is never this open, is never this vulnerable, but Alex is different, Alex is the one woman who is, in a word, everything – so she lets her lip tremble instead of forcing her jaw to clench, and she lets her eyes water instead of forcing her tears back down her throat.

“Only this one means anything,” she chokes, tapping trembling fingers to her heart. “I almost lost you, Ally. I almost lost you.”

Her tears reflect in Alex’s soft eyes – eyes that were forged in fire and carved into lethal steel just hours ago – and Alex takes Maggie’s face into her hands and kisses every single part.

“I’m here,” she reminds her with each kiss she presses to her nose, to her eyes, to her eyebrows, to her dimples, to her forehead, to her chin, to her jawline, to her temples. “I’m here, I’m here, I’m here.”

She hesitates before kissing her lips, unsure if that’s what Maggie wants, what she needs, right now. Their eyes lock and their breath freezes and they decide what they want, what they need, in the same moment.

Maggie sighs into Alex’s mouth and Alex shifts to cover Maggie’s body with her own, holding her weight up on one elbow, her other hand cupping Maggie’s face.

“I’m here,” she whispers again before Maggie opens her lips and Alex slips in her tongue, slow and soft and needy and intense.

She gasps slightly when Maggie flips her over, when Maggie’s heart threatens to break at the way Alex’s strong arm is shaking now with the task of holding herself up so all her weight doesn’t fall on Maggie’s body; when Maggie rolls them over so she’s on top, so her hand is pillowing Alex’s head and her lips have free reign on her throat, her collarbone, her lips, her forehead, her chest.

“Maggie,” Alex whispers, and Maggie freezes immediately. Alex smiles faintly, dazedly, at her attentiveness. “No, I didn’t… please don’t stop.”

Maggie nods and complies, kissing every surface of Alex’s trembling skin, always with her eyes on Alex’s face, always waiting for Alex’s nod before moving lower on her body, always waiting for Alex’s hands buried in her hair to direct her where to go next before assuming what she wants.

“My gorgeous solider, gone rogue to save the world,” she murmurs as she kisses the swollen bruise on Alex’s torso, not sure if she even means Alex to hear it.

But she does, and hot tears sting her eyes, and she pulls Maggie back up her body to meet her lips.

“You could have died helping me,” Alex breathes between kisses, and Maggie shakes her head.

“Small price to pay.”

Alex freezes. “Don’t talk like that.”

“I’m not, I didn’t mean… I just meant…”

“Ride or die.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re safe.”

“So are you.”

“Make love to me, Maggie.”

“Your wish is my command, Danvers.”

They smile soft and they smile broken and they smile hope into each other’s lips, and Alex exhales loudly as she arches her hips up, and Maggie moans slightly, because she knows what her soldier wants.

She shifts so her thigh is between Alex’s legs, so her fingers are caressing Alex’s nipple, and sure enough, Alex tosses her head back into the pillows and grinds her hips up onto Maggie’s thigh and grabs Maggie’s ass and pulls her down with one hand, using the other to reinforce Maggie’s hold on her chest with another.

“Maggie.” Her breath is ragged and her breath is wrecked, and the sound washes over Maggie like coming home.

“I’m here. I’ve got you, Ally. I’ve got you. You need to stop?”

“No, no, Maggie, please. Please.”

Maggie nods into Alex’s neck and grinds down into her until her thigh is slick with how wet Alex is, with how desperately Alex wants her.

“I wanna be inside you, Mags,” Alex moans, and shocked heat courses through Maggie’s body as she nods, as she lets Alex flip her over, as she bends her own knee and plants her heel on the mattress so Alex can ride her thigh, her knee, while she fucks her with her fingers deep, slow, thorough, complete.

“Al,” is all Maggie can choke out as Alex grinds down on her leg, as Alex pushes so deep inside her with fingers that took lives today, but now are only about pleasure, about passion, about need, about love.

“I’m here. I got you, Maggie. I got you. You can let go, babe. I got you.”

So she does let go, and she arches her hips up and tosses her head back as Alex worships her neck with her lips, as Alex curves her fingers inside her, beckoning forth an orgasm that tears through Maggie’s body hard and intense and quiet.

Alex feels her pulsing around her, feels her thigh shaking between her own, watches the ecstasy, the passion, the love, flashing across her face, and she lets herself cum, too.

“I’m not going anywhere,” they whisper to each other at the same time, when the waves have crashed through them both and they’re sated and shaking in each other’s arms.

They laugh softly at the simultaneity.

“Thank you,” Alex croaks, and Maggie pulls back and tilts her head.

“I can’t say I’ve ever been thanked for sex before, Danvers.”

Alex pffts and blushes and warmth courses through Maggie’s heart because if Alex can still be this soft, this nerdy, maybe they’ll both be able to heal from this Cadmus-induced string of agonies after all.

“No, I meant… for having my back. For supporting me, unconditionally, for… for you.”

Tears mist over Maggie’s eyes. “I mean, you let me borrow your gun, Danvers, it’s not like there wasn’t anything in it for me.”

“Maggie.”

“Always, Alex. Always.”

“Same in reverse, Mags. Same.”

“I know.”

“Good. But you’re still not getting that grenade.”