Disclaimer: See chapter 8

Rating: PG-13 – adult situations

Pairing: Nico and Dani

Guest Disclaimer: Rachel Young and Jacob Hood make a small guest appearance. They are from Eleventh Hour. I dearly loved the show but don't own it.

Beta: Olfactory-Ventriloquism – Amanda, you've been wonderful and extremely patient. This chapter is for you.

Thanks: Special thanks to my friend, EHFan. You helped me make Nico sound like he knew about the law and encouraged and abetted my plans to fit Jacob and Rachel into this story.

Note: Fear of Flying is finished but I have plenty of ideas, notes, background information and character timeline in my NR file. I doubt you've seen the last of this universe.

Enjoy!

Ch. 12 – Flight

By

Lattelady

We might be oil and water, this could be a big mistake,

We might burn like gasoline and fire,

It's a chance we'll have to take. – Glass written by Jon Cooperman and Jon Nite

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Marshall had blown into town at Dani Santino's request. Nico knew Juliette was now considered neutral territory in the skirmishes between the Pittmans as they attempted reconciliation. It was all Dani's doing, as the girl's therapist. His old friend had come out of the meeting with Santino more impressed with her work than ever. The story Pittman had told was that Dani had verbally banged both Gabby and him upside the head, told them they were doing their daughter irreparable damage with their bickering and sent them on their way with the name of a good marriage counselor.

In a marathon session, with attorneys from both sides present, the Hawks had been declared neutral, as well. The team was put in trust for Juliette until her parents settled what was between them. Nico was named executor of the trust, effectively making him off limits, too.

"You're not making me GM, are you? That isn't a good fit." Nico protested when Pittman stopped by his place to tell his friend the outcome.

"No, you're still head of security." Marshall sipped his cognac. "Except now you'll be protecting two of the three things I love most: my daughter and my team. I'll have to deal with the third on my own. I've ignored her for far too long." He contemplated his friend carefully. "You're looking like shit."

"Well thanks." Careles grunted. It was a sign of how well Marshall knew him that he'd been able to see behind Nico's carefully constructed mask.

"Here, take these." Pittman dug in his pocket and pulled out a set of keys and tossed them to the other man. "They're for the house on Martha's Vineyard. Take at least a week. I know you've got the staff kicked into shape. That new woman you hired, what's her name? Rachel Young, can handle things for that long."

"She was married recently. It's Rachel Hood." Nico smiled when he thought about the odd contrast that was Dr. and Mrs. Hood. She was a slim, cool, blonde, ex-FBI Agent, and he a slightly older, wild-haired, genius, and ex-Special Science Investigator for the FBI, who was now the new Director for the Center for Biocatalysts and Bioprocessing of Macromolecules at NYU. "I hired her so she could run the day-to-day, but I'm still not comfortable just taking off."

"Nico, that wasn't a suggestion. I need you in top form by the time training camp starts. Take the time off and maybe schedule a few sessions with the head shrinker. She would do you wonders." Pittman was dead serious. He didn't know what had happened between the doctor and his head of security, but he'd never seen two people who needed to be locked in a bedroom together more than those two. It was a conclusion he'd formed after seeing them together once. Not really together, but avoiding one another from across the length of the large auditorium at the Woodlands. She'd watched Nico when he was concentrating on someone or something else and he'd watched her the second she looked away. It was damn pitiful in Pittman's opinion.

"I can't. There is nothing I can tell her." Nico's voice was laced with pain.

"Old nightmares?" The two men were haunted by some of the same memories, so Marshall recognized the symptoms.

"That whole Martello thing, last winter; it brought some things up." Careles could be honest with his friend. They had fought and bled together, and there were no military secrets that needed to be guarded between them.

"Take the time off and go see the doctor lady." Pittman shook his head. It had taken him twenty plus years to get his love life figured out and it was still a mess; he could hardly fault Nico for having the same problems. The games they'd played over the years had done more harm than any of them could imagine. But that was between Gabby and him. "Well, if you can't talk about what's haunting you, you might want to explain to her why you've got her earring on your end table."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He glared, stonewalling his friend.

"I've spent twenty years married to Gabrielle and have subsequently been forced to learn far more about jewelry than I ever cared to." He stood and walked over to the table by the couch, and picked up a three-inch triangle mesh, studded with crystals. "Swarovski, nice, not cheap, not terribly expensive. You're lucky she doesn't insist on diamonds." He nodded as he made the earring dance. "I've seen this before, or one exactly like it." He grinned as his friend gave him a blank stare. "Dr. Santino has it hanging in a shadowbox, beside her desk. It must mean a lot to her. It's a damn shame to break up the pair, don't you think?"

"You're reading too much into a piece of jewelry."

"Am I? Well I can always have Juliette return it, they meet twice a week." Pittman shrugged. When Careles' only response was to hold out his hand and glare at him, Marshall handed over the earring. "It's all right to care, Nico."

"It's not what you think." He denied, though they both knew it was. Frustration bubbled to the surface, and he asked the one thing he'd been determined not to: "How is she doing?" He had seen her from a distance at a meeting and they'd exchanged numerous texts and the occasional phone call, but it had been purely business. He knew she'd had a rough winter.

"She looks about as good as you, though can hide it better under all that make-up women wear." Marshall Pittman made the world think he floated through life, as a self-absorbed prick. In some cases they were right, but he wouldn't be the man of power he was, if he didn't have the same abilities Nico Careles had to read people and situations. All it took was for him to turn his formidable attention to something and he came up with the answers. "Ya know, Nico, I gave that order for you to shoot. I gave you lots of those orders. The blood is on my head for the medical missionary, and the men we lost that day. You were doing what you were told to do by your direct commanding officer."

"It doesn't work that way." Nico's dark eyes burned with anger, and he glared at his friend.

"It does work that way. We did some Goddamned shitty things, but someone had to do them. I can smell the blood and sweat in my dreams sometimes, but I'll be damned if I'll let the enemies of my country win by ruining my life. You've been punishing yourself for over twenty years, and it's got to stop. Take the vacation, see the shrink and for God's sake forgive yourself, forgive yourself for all of it, not just the combat. I'm giving you a free pass here and I don't do that often."

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Nico stood beside the wall of windows in his dining room and watched the sky darken. His half-empty cup of espresso was on the table behind him, the fragrant brew left to grow cold, as he concentrated on the end of another interminable day.

"Balance, it's all about balance," he whispered. He was attempting, for the hundredth time in weeks, to realign his thinking. With shoulders and back straight he placed the palms of his hands on the glass that separated him from the outside world. It was what he had to do...what he wanted. When he wasn't vigilant of the wall that allowed him to watch without participating, things and people slipped through. That could not be allowed to happen, not again…

"Shit," he muttered. Who was he trying to fool? Nothing was working, not the vacation, where he'd spent hours and hours at Marshall's baby grand, trying to lose himself in music made famous by Miles Davis, Charlie Byrd, and Count Basie or since he was home, all the extra hours, carefully timed, at Iggy's gym. Nothing was working

He reached for his cell and hit speed dial two.

"Hello," Dani's soft voice answered in his ear.

"Are you in tonight? I need to stop by. I'll wait until the children are asleep, if you like." Nico was surprised she answered so quickly. Lately, she'd been dating. For months, she'd had no social life that hadn't been connected to the few off-season functions sponsored by the Hawks. When she came to those, she arrived and left alone. But lately, in the last month, she'd begun to date. It was different from before. There'd been a dentist with an upper west side practice, a news anchor, and a professor from Sarah Lawrence College. All of these men had one thing in common; they never made it to a second date.

"I'm home all evening. You can come now. My mother took Lindsey and Ray Jay to the Finger Lakes for the week."

"I'll text you when I'm a few minutes out so you can turn off your security camera at your office door." He was already in his car, unsure how much he could tell her but knowing instinctually that she had the answers.

"Sure, Nico, you can't have anyone seeing who you're bringing." It was snide, but she'd missed the man and was hurt that it took one of his situations to bring him to her.

Forty minutes later he was knocking on her outside office door.

"You made good time." She smiled up at him. "Okay, who is it. I know Terrance can't be giving you problems. He and Vivica patched things up over a month ago and are borrowing her folks' place in the Hamptons for a few days before everything gets wild again."

"No, nothing that simple." He looked her over carefully. She had a slight tan and freckles dusted her chest and shoulders and there was something else, he wasn't sure what. "You look different."

"It's the hair. I cut Ray out." She giggled. "Well, almost all of him." Her nose crinkled up, and she looked very young and happy, despite the tired shadows under her eyes.

"Pardon?" The second she mentioned her hair, he zeroed in on the change. He wanted to run his fingers through the strands that brushed her shoulders. It was very straight and looked soft and sexy. He had liked it long, but this was beautiful and distinctly Dani and those were things he could never say.

"All except about half-an-inch of my hair was grown after Ray moved out. It is a completely Ray free zone. Another few months and I will have him chopped out completely." She'd been glad she waited to do anything until she was sure it was a change she could live with. Seeing the approval in Nico's eyes reinforced what she already knew about her haircut: she looked good.

"You are one determined woman." He said admiringly. He was sure it was symbolic on some level and a woman would probably understand. All he cared about was that it made her happy.

"Yeah, I am. So what's this all about?"

He pulled a dollar bill out of his pocket, held it between two fingers, and angled his body toward hers.

"Is that really necessary?" She turned and walked into her office. "I thought we were past all that."

He pulled out an audio suppressor and engaged it. "I have need of your professional services."

Dani turned and looked at him across the room. Sorrow replaced the joy of moments ago. "I can't," she whispered.

"You're still angry about what happened last winter." He declared flatly.

"No…no," she shook her head to emphasize her feelings. "I told you that I never believed you had anything to do with what happened to Martello. I meant it then, and I mean it now."

"I was hard on you, and you didn't deserve it." He tried to hand her the money again.

"Stop." She wrapped her arms around herself, afraid that she'd have to tell him the truth and the world would blow up in her face. "You did what you had to do back then, and so did I. Leave it alone. It has noting to do with…with now." She refused to say more.

"Dr. Santino, last January you asked me, 'why' and I'm trying to tell you, but I can't do it unless you take this money."

"I can not be your therapist, Nico." She stepped very close to him, needing to simply be near him, as she tore what was left of their friendship apart. "I'll just say this once, and then, we are both going to pretend it never happened and go back to business as usual, all right?" her voice broke, but she forced her eyes to meet his confused gaze. "All. Right?"

"Yeah…sure." He agreed, not understanding where she was going with this, but realizing whatever was happening had upset her greatly.

"I can't act as your therapist because I no longer have the ability to remain objective where you are concerned." She nodded, comfortable at the way it came out. It was dipping her toe into the sea of racing emotions but never really setting them free.

"You are still angry?" He refused to read anything into her words.

"No, damnit. Where is that famous Careles sixth sense when I need it?" She glared, practically vibrating in distress. He was going to make her say it, and there would be no going back, no matter what they'd said earlier. Their working relationship would never survive this. "I care about you," she whispered and her hand reached out to touch the stubble on his cheek. "I care too much to be objective."

Nico felt the wall that protected him from the world shudder and crack. "Don't," his voice was harsh with feelings, and he pushed her hand away.

"I'm sorry." Her eyes filled. She hated that she was losing control when she needed it the most. "I know you don't do emotions."

"Do you have any idea what you are saying?" He gripped her by the shoulders and pushed her against the door.

"Yeah, I'm…uh…in love with you." She could hardly breathe to get the words out.

"Stop!" he ordered, his voice breaking as his wall broke and pieces of it began to fall all around him. "It's just…after what happened with Danny Martello…it's just that you think you are."

"No…no the feelings were there before." She shook her head, being painfully honest. "And you have no idea how many hours I've spent with my therapist dissecting my emotions to rule out displacement or any other coping mechanism." A tiny embarrassed laugh escaped before Dani could bury it. "I'm sorry, I never meant for you to know. It's like I said that night in the car: there is no right or wrong to feelings; it is what we do with them that counts. It was wrong of me to…to… pass this on to you."

"You're crazy. This isn't right." He shook her slightly. "I'm not a good man." To prove his words, he pressed his body against hers, trapping her between him and door. His lips covered hers, and there was nothing gentle or tentative about the way he kissed her, tipping her head back so he could explore the contours of her mouth as deeply as he desired.

Dani felt surrounded, feelings hitting her from all sides. Her thin tank and linen pants were no protection against the force of his muscles as he stretched and moved against her, fighting to feel all of her at once. His touch left fires of need behind, but she didn't care. He felt so good, so very good. She kept telling herself that this couldn't be happening, it was only another of her crazy erotic dreams, and she'd wake soon and discover she was hugging her pillow.

What had started out as a lesson in power and fear suddenly turned on Nico, and he lost all sense of what he was doing. All he knew was that he had Dani where he'd wanted her for months. She tasted of coffee and desire, two of his favorite flavors. Instead of pushing him away and screaming in panic, she had wrapped one arm around his waist and the other was around his neck, her finger buried in his hair.

His hands slipped beneath her tank needing to feel the silk of her skin, just once, he promised, just this once. But as he explored, his fingers became more insistent, traveled further, until he cupped her right breast in his hand.

"Yes," she moaned, and he could feel her trembling beneath his lips and his hands.

"No," he gasped and pulled back. Her eyes were dark and glistening, her face filled with need. It took all his self-control to pin her wrists against the door while he caught his breath and kept at least a foot between them. He tried to ignore her exposed breast, wanting desperately to cover her, but he knew if he touched her again, he'd never stop. "This is insane." His body cried out in need, but he refused to listen.

"No it's not," she whispered. "I'm the therapist, remember. I get to make that call." She looked into smoky eyes and deep want curled in her belly.

"You do not understand. I'm not a good man. I'm not…I'm not like Donnelly. I couldn't simply walk away." His hand shook as he carefully pulled her tank into place. "I'd only hurt you more than I already have, and I care too much about you to do that." His fingers danced gently up her neck, one last touch of her skin against his before he pulled away completely.

"You think you're so damn scary." She shook her head as tears slipped down her face. She was going to lose this man. He was going to walk out of her life after giving her a tiny taste of what it could be like, and it was breaking her heart. "You forget I woke up to unimaginable fear one morning last winter. I've seen real things, the scary things, but I've worked hard and gotten past them. I loved a man once," she laughed bitterly. "Oh, not like what I feel for you, but when you're young, you don't understand the difference. Well, that fell apart, but I survived. You say you care, but if you're not willing to give us a chance, I'll survive that too. But life would be so much sweeter together."

"Dani, you have no idea what you'd be getting into." He pulled her close and let her cry against his shoulder. "Look at me and listen." He tilted her chin upward and wiped the tears from her face. "There are things that I can never tell you, things about my past. There are times I wake up from nightmares I can never explain to you."

"Oh, Nico," she sighed at his pain. Dani stood on her tiptoes and kissed her way up his neck to his cheek.

"Stop, you're not being fair."

"Screw fair, I've spent the last six months missing you, trying to get over you. You're a stubborn man, so I get the feeling you're going to walk out of my door and my life and I'll have to start all over again. But this time I'll know what it's like to kiss you, touch you, and feel you touch me. Ya think that's fair?" She glared at him. "You told me a long time ago you were a SEAL. I'm not ignorant. I've got some idea of what that means. Hell, the whole world does after Bin Laden was killed. I don't know your specific demons, but I can guess. You left that man behind you twenty years ago, and no matter how bad he was, he wasn't Jason Bourne or John Clark, and both of them were allowed some happiness."

"You've been reading too much Clancy and Ludlum." He interrupted. He knew it had to be the books, because neither man was given a happy ending in the movies.

"I'm not finished. You owe me that much, for making me bring all this to light and then kissing me silly." She took a deep breath and marshaled her thoughts. This was her last stand, and she knew it, so she went to the heart of the matter. "If you can't talk about your nightmares, I can be there for you and hold you tight until your breathing calms and your heart rate returns to normal. The night isn't quite as dark and dawn not as far away when you've got someone beside you."

"Jesus, how am I supposed to counter that?" He stood on the brink, confused, as he ran the odds in his head. Was it really that easy? Then, he knew he'd lost, or maybe he'd won, he wasn't sure which, but he realized he didn't give a damn about anything except right now. They'd figure out the rest as they went along.

She shrugged and took a step back, giving him the space he needed.

Instead of walking away, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her, but this time it was gentle, caring, and filled with love. She was his future. He couldn't understand why he'd been fighting it so hard. It was a loosing battle. She'd already infiltrated his defenses and captured his heart long ago. "I love you," he whispered in her ear and kissed his way over her cheek and down her neck. "I want to make love to you Dani Santino. I want to learn what excites you and just how to touch you. I want to learn everything there is to know about you: the side of the bed you like to sleep on…the…just everything."

Dani smiled gently and wiped her tears against his shirt. "I sleep in the middle now, since Jeanette convinced me to get a new bed. Don't you have a whole file of information on me somewhere?"

"Yes. But there is the occasional blank spot. I was thinking a more in-depth study was called for." He brushed his knuckle across her tank-covered nipple and was rewarded with a moan of pleasure. "That's one of the missing areas I'd like to personally examine. Which do you like better? This?" He brushed her nipple with his knuckle again. "Or do you prefer this?" He supported her back with an arm around her as he leaned forward and gently sucked on the other nipple, through the tank."

She gasped his name, and her knees gave out. She had to hold onto his shoulders to keep from falling.

"I think I have my answer to that one." He plucked at the wet material where his mouth had been moments earlier, making Dani tremble as her sensitive flesh felt the pressure of his touch intensified by the damp tank. "Since your family is out of town, come home with me tonight. The first time I make love to you, I don't want any lingering ghosts."

"What about your…uh…ghosts?" her voice was husky. She understood his doubts. She was possessive enough to not want to share the same bed with him that Gabrielle Pittman had.

"There are none. I don't…entertain…at my loft. Juliette Pittman used to come by for dinner when her parents were traveling, during her early high school years, but that isn't what you were asking about."

"No, it's not," she looked at him from under her lashes, unable to say anything more because she was the girl's therapist.

"That's one of the first things I loved about you." He dragged his fingers through her hair pulling it back from her face and lifting her chin so he could see her eyes. "You're absolute loyalty to your patients." He kissed her brow, knowing full well she wouldn't acknowledge, one way or the other, that she was seeing Juliette. "Marshall mentioned that you were helping her. Thank you."

"I can't…" she laid her head on his chest and listened to the steady beat of his heart.

"I know, and that's all right." He leaned down and whispered in her ear. "There's another reason we should go to my place: no neighbors to hear you scream. You should go pack a bag."

A shock of desire almost knocked Dani off her feet. "You're going to make me scream?" she asked, equal parts teasing and nervous. She'd lived with children in the house so long that she couldn't imagine the freedom he was offering, or was it demanding?

"I told you I wasn't a nice man." He smiled wolfishly.

"Do I get to make you scream, too?" she questioned him, her anxiety quickly melting under the heat of his gaze. She ran her finger between the buttons of his shirt and was rewarded with the feel of skin.

"You can try." He lifted her off the floor and covered her lips with his. She was going to be the death of him, but he couldn't imagine a better way to die.

Late Saturday night July 21 and early morning Sunday, July 22, 2012

Later they lay in the middle of Nico's bed, relaxed and sated. Dani's head was on his chest and he had his arms wrapped around her. There was a line of clothes strewn from the entrance of his loft to the side of his bed. Dani squinted and could just make out the misshapen outline of her panties a few feet away. Mr. Calm, Cool, and Collected had run out of patience about twenty seconds after the front door closed behind them.

"You owe me a new pair of panties." Dani's voice was laced with joy.

"I didn't hear any complaints when they were coming off."

She laughed and rubbed her nose against his breastbone. It had surprised her how erotic it was to hear material ripping, especially when it had been her panties and tank top that had been under attack. "I think I like sharing a bed with a bad man."

"Oh you do?" He wrapped his arms around her and rolled over so she was pinned beneath him. "Then lets see how you like this," he whispered over his skin.

Dani lost all track of time as she discovered what it was like to be the focal point of Nico Careles' considerable attention. The first time they'd been rushed and frantic, but now he employed all his senses to leisurely examine every inch of her skin. As he touch, tasted, and explored, he demanded that she stay with him and not give into the vicious need that made her cry out in frustration from denied pleasure, so deep it was almost painful. Nico played out his fantasy from that cold winter morning in her kitchen and discovered his 'Uptown' girl was far more responsive than he'd ever dreamed.

"I can't," she screamed when he strummed his fingers along her ribcage under her left arm, discovering a new delicious spot he'd missed on his earlier inspection.

"Yes, you can," he demanded as he covered her damp body with his. "Just one more minute."

Moments later they took flight together, and the world exploded around them.

Later, after they'd both come back to earth, Dani lay tucked against his side. Her head was on his shoulder, her body pressed against his when he began to talk. Silent, introspective Nico, the man who lived in a world of secrets and half-truths, began to talk.

"When you asked me why I was divorced and I told you that some birds flew better solo, it was a lie of omission. My ex-wife was the one I was talking about, though I deliberately led you to think it was me. I needed you to think it was me, because I already cared more for you than I should have."

"I'm glad you changed your mind," she whispered against his skin.

"You didn't give me much choice." He lay quietly for a few moments, running his hand up and down her arm, enjoying the intimate feel of a woman who meant everything to him and the simple pleasure of having her curled up next to him, her legs entwined with his. "That's the hard part, caring about you the way I do, it makes me vulnerable. You're going to have to be patient with me."

"Nico," Dani repositioned herself so she was leaning both arms on his chest, looking down into his face, and running her fingers against the stubble on his checks. "Think about this: did you care any less this time yesterday, than you do right now."

"No, but I'm certainly more satisfied," he voice was husky and his eyes smoky. He was beginning to understand what she meant.

"Being together doesn't make you more vulnerable. If you had disappeared yesterday or would tomorrow, I'd feel the sorrow just as deeply. I can't see wasting my life being miserable and trying to pretend I don't love you, when it brings me so much happiness. It's a source of strength, not weakness."

"I shouldn't have taken so long to admit how I feel," Nico acknowledged. They both knew it was his way of saying he was sorry.

"No, I think your timing was what it was, because it was necessary for both of us. You were coming off a twenty-year involvement. Until you worked that through, you weren't ready, any more than I was. If this had happened earlier, it would have been an explosion of heat that we both may have run from the next day. I wanted it, sometimes so badly it hurt, but I still had to figure out who I was. I used to be Dani Romano who lived in her mom's house, and then I was Dani Santino who lived with her husband and children. I became Dr. Dani when I went back to school, but still had to have dinner on the table and care for my children. When I accepted that my marriage was over, I had to find out who this new person was. Until very recently, I didn't have much to bring to a relationship. Spinning my wheels with Matt and J.D. are perfect examples of the mistakes that I made, trying to be with someone before I understood who would make me happy."

"And I make you happy?" It was a gift that still confused him. She was perfect in so many ways and he had made too many mistakes in his life. It didn't seem right.

"You still have doubts?" She leaned over and sucked gently on his collarbone as her hands swept over his ribcage and downward.

"Don't start anything you aren't fully prepared to finish," he warned as his fingers circled her wrists and he brought them back up to his chest.

"You think I couldn't?" Her brows rose in challenge.

"I know you could. But before you let your inner bad girl out to play, there's more I need to tell you. You have to know…well…as much as I'm at liberty to discuss, before you get in any deeper."

She nodded, realizing that this was one other proof that he loved her. He'd said it a few times, but now, he was showing her by letting her into his life, as completely as his honor allowed. She had no doubt that the secrets that the Navy implored him to keep would go to the grave with him.

"I joined the Navy directly out of college. Two years later, I was accepted into SEAL training. I met Carolyn not long after that. We were both career officers and it was a good fit. Three years later, I…well…the diagnosis was PTSD. I was spending lots of time with a therapist and the marriage was no longer a convenient one for a woman who had her eye on a spot in Pentagon."

"I love you," Dani whispered, reinforcing the emotional bond that was so newly admitted. It brought tears to her eyes that he'd been through so much and was still whole and sane. She knew enough about PTSD to realize it wasn't a diagnosis easily given. It also explained the nightmares he would never be able to tell her about.

"Don't cry, Sweetheart. It was a long time ago." He kissed her damp cheek and went on talking. "I went to law school at The University of Michigan, after my discharge. The GI Bill covered most of the expenses, but I supplemented my income working at the Law School dining hall. That's where I met Jason Coogan's father. Tom was in my class, but we really got to know each other at work. I also met Gabrielle Pittman there, though her name was Stevens then. She was a junior. Michigan is a huge university, and I probably would never have run across her if she hadn't chosen to eat dinner most nights in the dining hall where I worked." He felt Dani stiffen at his side when he mentioned Gabby's name.

"You loved her," Dani's voice cracked. It was a statement not a question, because she already knew the answer. "Marshall told me that you earned her, but he bought her." Her distaste for the man was clear in her voice.

"I loved the idea of her and that's different. Don't be too hard on Marshall. It was a sick game all three of us played, back then. Gabby and I were the star-crossed lovers." He laughed at the description. "But I wasn't willing to do what was necessary to keep her in my life. She was easily enticed by the status and wealth that went with being Mrs. Pittman. Marshall thought he was so smart, getting into a relationship based on money, but twenty years later, when she walked out on him, he realized that he loved his wife. He's making a real effort to change. He wants his family back."

"He manipulated you." She insisted.

"We all manipulated each other. The only good thing to come out of it was Juliette."

"You and Marshall are going to have to be very careful. She loves you both dearly, and it confuses her."

"Should you be telling me that?" Nico looked at her, his chin tilted to the left in wonder.

"I didn't tell you anything that you didn't already know. Now, if I can only pound it into her father's thick head." She frowned.

"You really don't like him." Nico laughed. "Give yourself time. He is more of an acquired taste."

"I don't plan on being around him often enough to acquire anything, thank you very much. He hurt you."

"Oh, so fierce." He pressed her against him, as emotions he'd only sampled bloomed fully in his chest. "I'm the one who is supposed to do the protecting."

"Get used to it, Careles. I can't sit by and see someone cause you pain, anymore than you could me."

"I'll accept it in our personal lives. At work, it can't be like that, or even with people from work whom we run into on the outside." It was the one thing that could cause him to pull away. He needed to be free to do his job without her trying to run interference for him. It would hamper his abilities and could put her directly into a path of danger.

"I understand that," she sniffed. "You let the world think you are far more dangerous, than you really are, while you're protecting everyone. You wear those sunglasses, dark suits, and a scowl, and people buckle. It's your disguise that allows you to keep the Nico who could be violent locked tightly away and only bring him out when it is very necessary."

"Jesus, Dani," he gasped and held her tightly against him. "How can you see me so clearly and still love me?"

"How can I not?"

This time when he made love to her, he was gentle and kind, sending lightening bolts of pleasure through her three times before he pulled her to her knees and slid her over his lap. With her back pressed against his chest his hands explored her slender body. She dropped her head onto his shoulder and his mouth covered hers. Joy ripped through her body and exploded in his, each feeding off the other until they collapsed on the bed in a tangle of limbs.

"I'd carry you to the shower before you pass out, but I'm not sure I wouldn't drop you on the way." Nico nuzzled her neck. They were both damp from sweat and exhausted. "You know how to drain a man's energy reserves, Dr. Santino."

"That's one of the nicest compliments I've had in years, Mr. Careles."

Ten minutes later, Dani stood at the bathroom sink, staring at her reflection in the mirror. She'd taken a quick shower while Nico changed the sheets. He had just turned off the water from his rinse off and was combing his almost dry hair beside her.

"Is it really this easy?" She asked.

Nico thought for a moment, recognizing the question he'd asked himself, seconds before he'd stepped through the shattered remains of his self-imposed wall, into the section of the world that contained Dani Santino. He moved behind her and pulled her slim, sleek back against his damp body. "It can be if we want it to be."

"And you never lie," she whispered, knowing full well he didn't but distracted by his hands as they roamed the smooth silk and flat planes of her abdomen.

"Nope, I never do," he confirmed. The green in his eyes flashed out and turned smoky when she stretched against him and reached behind her to catch her fingers in his hair.

He never took his eyes off the couple in the huge mirror over the double sink, while he nuzzled his way down her throat and over her shoulder. When she couldn't take it any longer, Dani groaned and wiggled against him in response. Nico stood to his full height and studied the provocative woman before him. She was beautiful with her rosy body stretched taught like a bowstring against his; sexy hair that teased his skin, and lips puffy from more kisses than he could count. There was a touch of whisker burn along her neck and under her left breast, but it only added to her beauty. He had a suspicion that by the time they woke up, she'd have a lot more and made a mental note to shave more often.

"What are you thinking?" She smiled at the familiar contemplative expression on his face. His hands moved up her body until they curled around her forearms, locking them in place.

She shivered, wanting to turn around and cuddle against him, but the second she tried to bring her arms down he warned, "I'm thinking that you started this, bad girl, now you get to watch. But you can't let go, not until I tell you." He wasn't simply talking about her fingers locked together behind his neck and they both knew it.

Nico's hands played over her, pressing, teasing, stroking, and learning her in the bright light of the bathroom, like he had in the dim one of the bedroom. He watched her buck and tremble and bite her lip to keep from crying out. "Now, Dani," his voice snapped against her ear and rumbled from deep in his chest as he touched her deeply with one hand and tweaked his fingers against her left nipple. "Now!"

Her moan echoed off the walls as her body shook and a flash of resounding pleasure caused her knees to buckle. He caught her and sat her on the marble counter between the two sinks. She was still shaking when he stepped between her thighs.

After the storm had passed for both of them, Dani slumped against Nico, her head resting on his shoulder as they caught their breath.

"So much for good intentions," he sighed as he ran his fingers through her hair and looked into her tired eyes.

"Good intentions?" She knew her mind was still clouded from sensory overload, but he wasn't making sense.

"Yeah, there was a reason I suggested we take separate showers." He reached for the washcloth she'd used on her face and ran it under hot water, while never letting her go.

"We would have drowned," she giggled and then gasped when he ran the warm terrycloth over her back and shoulders.

"Oh, so sensitive," he purred. "Is it too cold?"

"No, everything is perfect." She let him support her so she wouldn't fall off the counter.

"You can't fall asleep, yet." He finished with the washcloth, enjoying each quiver or sigh when he touched her.

"I'm not." She rubbed her nose against his neck. "I'm just enjoying the way you smell."

"You are one insane woman." He cupped her cheeks and smiled, his eyes warm and filled with something she'd never seen before. "But I love you anyway."

"Good, because I love you, too. Now, help me down, my butt is getting cold." Dani's grin turned into a laugh when he picked her up and carried her into the bedroom. Seconds later, he dropped her unceremoniously in the middle of the mattress.

Before he joined her, he opened the small drawer in his bedside table and pulled out her flashy earring that he'd had for over six months.

"Where did you find it?" She knelt where she'd landed enjoying the feel of crisp, cool sheets.

"Under my pillow."

"Oh, Nico, please tell me this isn't the first time in six months you've changed your sheets." She teased, giggling because she knew that he was as neat as a pin.

"Move over, you." He slid in beside her, laughing. It was something new she'd brought to him: gentle conversation, and laughter mixed in with passion. He wondered how he'd ever been willing to settle for less.

"Seriously, when did you find it?" She hung the Swarovski crystal earring in her right ear and enjoyed the weight and dangle, as it bounced as she moved her head.

"That first night, after I left your place. I always meant to give it back, but for some reason, I never could remember to." He reached over and took it out of her ear, placing it back in the drawer for safekeeping before turning off the light.

"I love you," was all she could get out, as the significance of the gesture filled her heart. He'd kept a tiny piece of her with him all those months. "That's… that's…beautiful."

"You're beautiful, Love. Come here." He pulled her into his arms and wrapped his body around hers.

Nico couldn't imagine how he'd gotten so lucky, but he knew he was going to do everything in his power to keep her happy and by his side. He lay in the dark listening to her breathe, until he was sure she was asleep, and only then, did he allow himself to close his eyes and drift off, content in the knowledge that there was nothing to fear. His days of solo flight were over.

The End