299. Chapter 299

Maggie watches her while she works and she squints and she tilts her head and she bites the inside of her cheek, a habit she’s recently picked up from her girlfriend.

“You’re tense, Danvers,” she observes softly, wanting Alex to ask for it, not wanting to suggest it, because she knows Alex is still struggling with not trying to be overly accommodating, still struggling with not trying to be the ‘perfect girlfriend.’ Especially since she’s come out as ace.

Alex looks up at Maggie over her glasses and kneads her hand into her own shoulder. “Yeah, well, you know. Long day at the lab bench, long night with med journals. Sometimes I think the days getting beaten around in the field are easier on my body.”

Maggie grins and nods, relieved to finally be with someone who not only gets it, gets her, but feels it, too. Because no one Maggie’s ever been with has understood what Alex just said; but Maggie feels it, too, every single day her life isn’t on the line.

She thinks vaguely that they both might want to bring that up in therapy, but she pushes the thought to the side for now, because Alex is shifting, and Alex is stewing in nervous thought.

“Maggie, would you… would you want to give me a massage?”

Maggie gulps and licks her lips and nods and beams, because god is she proud of Alex for asking for what she wants, asking for what she needs.

“I would love absolutely nothing more. Roll over, Danvers.”

Alex flushes and tosses the journals she has scattered across the bed to the floor and lays on her stomach eagerly. Maggie takes a long, slow, deep breath staring at her girlfriend, at her perfect body, at her perfect openness, at her perfect… god, everything.

“Tie me up?” Alex asks, her voice small but full and low and so, so, so damn hot.

“Tie you up to… to give you a massage?” Maggie gulps, and Alex buries her face in the pillow.

“I’m sorry, it’s weird, forget it, I – ”

“No no no no no, Alex, no. I… it’s not weird at all, it’s just… hell, Alex, it’s really hot, I was just clarifying, I promise, just clarifying.”

“So you want to, then?”

“Want to tie the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen up so I can give her the deepest, most amazing massage she’s ever had? What do you think, Danvers?”

Alex blushes and pokes her face put from where she’s buried it in the pillow.“I think you’re saying you like me.”

Maggie grins and kisses her temple, kisses her cheek, and Alex turns so she can kiss her lips, and they both sigh deeply into the kiss, Alex opening her lips and Maggie trying not to moan and failing in a strangled way that makes Alex smile, that makes Alex giggle, that makes Alex want more.

Maggie complies, bringing her lips down the side of Alex’s jawline, her neck, her shoulder blades.

“You’re so beautiful, Alex.”

Alex preens and Maggie grins, slipping away fron Alex’s body. Alex whines and reaches behind her in protest. Maggie catches her hand and kisses each knuckle.

“Shhh, sweetie, I’m just getting some things I need to give you a proper massage, okay? I’ll be right back. I promise.”

Alex sighs in mock disapproval and Maggie can’t help but lean down to kiss her lips again. Alex goes to deepen it and Maggie pulls back, dimples on full display.

“You want this massage or not, Danvers?”

Alex concedes and Maggie smooths her hair away from the nape of her neck and kisses her gently.

“Just close your eyes and rest, babygirl. I’ll be right back.”

She fiddles with her phone for a moment until she finds her playlist of the most calming music from FFX, and Yuna’s Theme starts up on her speakers. Alex hums in contentment and Maggie can’t help but lean down and kiss her again until she pads into the bathroom to collect what she needs.

True to her word, she comes right back, armed with lavender scented massage candles and sticks of incense scented the same. Alex keeps her eyes closed as she listens to Maggie padding around the bedroom, the sound of a lighter striking up and the scent of woody, sweet spice starting to fill her senses.

“Do you wanna take your clothes off, Ally?” Maggie asks, and Alex smiles, because she knows it’s a genuine question, not a hint or subtle command.

And she does, taking her time shirking out of her sweatshirt and pajama pants, knowing exactly what that kind of thing does to Maggie and relishing every second of it.

Maggie’s breath goes ragged at the sight of Alex wearing nothing but her glasses, laying on her stomach, trusting and waiting and open for her.

“You still want…?” she confirms, and Alex grins, lifting her hands above her head and raising her wrists for Maggie to tie them with the bondage rope they’ve invested in.

“Too tight?” she asks, and Alex hums and shakes her head. Maggie straddles her and leans down to kiss her bound hands before shifting back down her body, settling around her ass, and she runs her fingertips up and down Alex’s back lightly while she waits for the massage candle to melt enough wax to use.

Alex hisses when Maggie drips the wax onto her shoulders, and Maggie pulls back, wipes it up with her hands rapidly.

“I’m sorry, was it too hot? I should’ve waited – “

“No no, don’t stop, it just… your touch, the… the heat… it feels amazing.”

Maggie takes a deep breath and settles herself, starting by digging the pads of her thumbs into Alex’s knotted shoulders, working the waxy lotion into Alex’s skin, the heat into her muscles, and Alex moans loudly, tugging at her rope.

She answers Maggie’s unspoken question, obvious hesitation.

“Please don’t stop.”

So she doesn’t.

She digs her thumbs, her palms, her knuckles, into every one of Alex’s tightest muscles, letting the wax and the music and the incense surround them both as Alex moans with the slight pain of the release, moans and whispers for Maggie – always scared of hurting her – to please keep going, right there, just like that.

Her shoulders, her lower back, that spot in her midback that she’d strained when she’d gone rogue the other week. Maggie traces her muscles with nothing short of reverence, with nothing short of intimate knowledge of how Alex holds her body, of how Alex keeps her tension. She digs into exactly the right spots, circles around exactly the right places, making Alex moan and arch her body and beg for more of Maggie’s touch, more of Maggie’s hands, more of Maggie’s love.

And when Maggie shifts lower, Alex moans louder, because Maggie is working the tension out of her ass, out of her hamstrings, her calves, her feet, leaving a trail of soft kisses all along the path hands trace, the path her hands carve, the path her hands memorize.

“That feel good, Danvers?” she asks, and she smiles when Alex’s affirmative response is less comprised of actual words than of sighs and moans and arching of her body to get more of Maggie’s touch.

“Your hands must be tired, babe,” Alex murmurs after a long while, after the incense has burned itself out and Maggie’s crawled her way back up Alex’s body to work on her bound arms, her ragged breath in Alex’s ear as she kisses her neck, licks at her earlobe.

“They’re not nearly as tired as you are beautiful, so…”

Alex chuckles, her voice full of relaxed ecstasy that she’s never really understood before.

“Come hold me?” she asks, and Maggie immediately goes to untie her hands, kissing the spots Alex had made a bit pink with her writhing under Maggie’s touch.

“I’ll always hold you, Alex. Okay?”

“I can get used to that.”