Gradually their breathing slowed as the breeze drifting in from her open window cooled their skin. They lay facing each other, foreheads almost touching, her leg draped around his waist, his hand on her hip, fingers trailing upwards to stroke the small of her back. Her hand drifted across his back, fingertips dancing lightly over skin, tracing patterns up his spine and across his shoulder blades.

She realized she had never been able to look at his eyes this closely before. Now they were hazy and relaxed as they gazed into her own, but also brighter than she remembered.

Her fingers abandoned their journey across his shoulders to slide up into his hair, stroking it back from his temples, his forehead. He gave a deep sigh of contentment. She watched his eyes blink once, then again more slowly. She wanted to make up for so many things. She wondered if she would be able to.

His new haircut hadn’t been able to stand up to the abuse she had put it through minutes before as she clutched at him desperately and cried his name. She was glad.

Her hand moved downward again, this time to the back of his neck where her fingertips pressed lightly into tense muscle. His eyes dropped closed this time, and he groaned.

“That feels so good,” he mumbled.

The look of utter trust and vulnerability on his face hit her somewhere deep, making it difficult to breathe for a moment.

“Jim?”

“Hmph?”

She paused, and her hand stilled. She swallowed.

“I love you. So much.”

His eyes flew open to stare into hers once again. His hand tightened on her hip. His eyes blinked several times as they searched her face. He swallowed once, then twice. His voice was rough when he spoke.

“I never stopped loving you.” He paused. “Even when I wanted to.”

She nodded and pulled him closer as tears blurred her vision. She wrapped arms and legs around him, burying her face in his neck and holding him as tight as her strength would allow. After a few long moments she pulled back enough to plant rapid kisses on his shoulder, the crook of his neck, behind his ear, his cheek, and the tip of his nose. When she was again looking into his eyes she placed a hand on the side of his face.

She sniffed and steadied her voice. “Well. Here we are now.”

Slowly he smiled.

“Yeah. Here we are.”