Patches of Ice

"I wish you didn't have to go to practice," she murmured, speaking his own thoughts so precisely that he laughed out loud.

She lifted her bleary eyes to him and smiled. "Are you laughing at me?"

"No," he assured her, leaning down and kissing her. "I wish I didn't have practice either."

"Well, you don't have a game tonight, right? I could wait here for you and then we can just start over when you get home."

He grinned, loving the idea of her waiting naked in his bed. For the first time in his life, he might just beg the coach for a short practice.

"You'd wait here for me?" he asked, feeling shy. Natasha had never offered to wait for him anywhere, at anytime. He couldn't stop the comparison but found he wanted to know, no matter what.

"Of course," she replied and lifted herself up to kiss him this time. "Why would I want to be anywhere else?"

His heart skipped a beat and he smiled.

"I mean, isn't that what girlfriends do?" she asked, a pretty blush staining her cheeks as she spoke.

"Are you my girlfriend? I thought you were my woman?"

"Am I? Do you want me to be your woman?"

He chuckled, recalling their conversation from mere days ago. "I want any part of you that you'll let me have."

"Hmm," she replied, lifting a finger and tapping her chin as she pretended to consider. She considered for so long that he groaned and rolled her onto her back as she shrieked with indignant laughter. He pressed his face into the crook of her neck and blew a noisy breath against her skin. She laughed and struggled to push him off but he was having none of it. Shifting, he added a tickle to her sides as he held her down.

"All right, all right!" she yelped and he lifted his head to look into her eyes. "You can have any part of me that you want, for as long as you want it."

"I want all of you, all the time," he growled and kissed her fiercely.

There she was underneath him, softening and yielding to him again. He breathed her in, stroked her body, and decided that being late to practice today might not be such a big deal. By the way Lena was rising to his touch, he thought she might agree.