766. Chapter 766

Alex’s hair – normally, now, always swept so neatly to the side of her head, an effect that drove Maggie out of her mind with want – was a sweaty disarray, sticking to her damp forehead.

Maggie reveled in the way Alex’s lips were slightly parted with panting.

Alex had insisted on going up the difficult path.

Of course she had.

And now, at the top of one of the higher, tougher hiking paths just outside National City, the small gleam of peace, of accomplishment that didn’t have to do with locking someone away, glittered in Alex’s eyes.

Maggie saw the clouds reflected in them, and it made her bite her lip and readjust her now messy ponytail.

“You look sexy all post-hike and panting,” she kissed the side of Alex’s neck, stepping back so she could be holding her from behind.

She relished the way Alex’s strong, sweaty body immediately melted into her arms.

Alex used to object, used to apologize, when Maggie went to touch her when she was sweaty. “I’m gross,” she used to say, and she used to believe it.

Maggie had long since shown Alex how very not gross she was when she was sweaty.

Now, Alex trusted that Maggie thought she was sexy. Alex trusted that she was sexy.

“Do I?” Alex tilted her head back so Maggie’s lips could access more of her neck.

“Mmhmm,” Maggie hummed, and Alex shivered at the vibration of her fiancee’s lips against her skin.

“Take me home then,” Alex whispered.

They took the easy path back down.

“Let me draw us a bath,” Maggie breathed into Alex’s lips, because their rush to get back into bed had left them both still more breathless, their limbs even more shaky with an exertion that, blessedly, for once, didn’t involve fighting off enemy soldiers.

Alex nodded, weary from their hike; but that good kind of weariness, the kind that sinks into bones and beats through bloodstreams while, somehow, recharging a person at the same time.

Maggie collapsed to her knees to draw off Alex’s boots. Alex chuckled as ran her fingers through Maggie’s hair.

“Something you want, Danvers?” Maggie asked, looking up at Alex with a suggestive smirk.

“Maybe after our bath,” Alex winked, bending to tilt Maggie’s chin up so their lips could meet.

“Sounds perfect,” Maggie breathed, and they kissed as they stripped each other’s boots off, each other’s clothes. Their dirt-stained gear dotted a path from their front door to their bathroom.

Alex put on an old jazz record and lit incense – without setting off the fire alarm, she was proud to report – while Maggie ran their bath.

Alex showered – having a separate bath and shower was a priority for her in their apartment search – and Maggie had to stop her bath temperature checks a few times, slack-jawed at the image of her girlfriend, mix of water and sweat and dirt and soap running down her naked body.

“Something you want, Sawyer?” Alex opened her eyes through a stream of water, scrunching her face up adorably and making Maggie’s heart flip.

“You,” is all Maggie could manage, but it was more than enough for Alex.

“My turn, then bath,” Maggie cleared her throat after a long minute of deep staring into each other’s eyes, in the way that Winn would definitely comment on.

But their little brother was nowhere near their day off together.

“Come,” Alex commanded gently, and it was both an invitation into the shower and something so much more.

It was Alex, this time, who dropped to her knees, slowly and carefully, because she’d definitely (not) slipped in the shower trying to be smooth with Maggie before.

Maggie never used to let Alex – let anyone – take the soap from her and lather her body up, washing her like it was an honor rather than a chore.

But now, it was second nature to both of them.

This intimacy.

It was both of their favorite kind of intimacy.

A very close second came after the bath.

After Alex washed and rinsed Maggie’s body in the shower, reverent and slow and giggly; after they stepped into their bath together, trying as hard as they could not to slosh the water and bubbles over the sides and utterly failing; after Alex held her arms all the way around Maggie’s body, Maggie leaning down to kiss Alex’s knee, sticking languidly out of the water; after they took turns drying each other off with the fluffiest towels either of them had ever had.

Because when they were with each other, they finally started to believe that they deserved things that were soft on their bodies.

“I love you,” Alex breathed, and Maggie breathed back the same.

“Come to bed with me.”

Alex picked Maggie up off her feet – she chuckled at the way Maggie growled in mock displeasure into their kiss – and carried her, legs wrapped around her waist, to their bed.

“Yeah?” Alex made sure.

“Please,” Maggie confirmed.

So Alex tilted her face to shift her lips from Maggie’s mouth, down her jawline, her throat, her collarbone.

“Damn, Danvers,” Maggie murmured as Alex nipped gently at that spot just to the side of the hollow of Maggie’s throat.

“Want more?” Alex asked, even though she already knew the answer.

As answer, Maggie guided Alex’s hand to her own chest, and whined when Alex’s fingers teased at her nipple.

“Your mouth,” Maggie breathed, and Alex was only too happy to comply.

Her lips found Maggie’s nipple, and so did her tongue, the sounds she made deep in her throat.

“Wait, I was gonna go down on you,” Maggie was panting with need, squirming under Alex’s body.

“No one said we can’t do both,” Alex chuckled as she kissed her way down Maggie’s stomach.

“Too true,” Maggie sighed as she ran her fingers through Alex’s hair, gasping and trying – and failing – not to rock her hips up when Alex’s tongue found her clit.

“Fuck,” was all she could manage, and it was all Alex needed.

“Good?” Alex made sure, and Maggie just arched her hips up, incoherent with words, very coherent with body.

“Aw, baby, do you want more?” Alex teased gently, her lips shifting to Maggie’s inner thigh.

“Do you want me to beg?” Maggie laughed breathlessly, her voice so much lower than normal.

“That’d be nice,” Alex smirked, but for once, had absolutely no follow through; because all she wanted – all either of them wanted – was her tongue slipping into Maggie’s body. So that’s exactly what she did.

The stream of swears that poured from Maggie’s lips, the way she slammed her palms into the sheets beside her, writhing with need under Alex’s mouth, all made Alex shift so she could grind down onto Maggie’s leg. She was desperate for pressure of her own, even as she shifted her tongue to Maggie’s clit and –after a brief, questioning pause to which Maggie gave a hard yes – slipped two fingers inside her.

“Fuck, Alex.”

“Exactly.”

“Wow babe.”

“Problem?”

“Never,” Maggie chuckled right before she screamed, coming into Alex’s mouth and around her fingers, unexpected and hard and perfect.

“Even better than having the black lung,” Alex sighed as Maggie came down from her high.

“The black lung,” Maggie laughed, like she had all those months ago, even more in love now, if, somehow, that was even possible.