Forever After

Her long blonde hair swayed around her shoulders as she stood by the open window. Exotic scents, unfamiliar to her nose, drifted in on the warm evening breeze that came into the room. Kallie had travelled many places for her work, seen many things, but this beat them all.

This was perfect.

Fixing the sash on the soft silk robe that covered her slender, almost dainty - though no one ever called her that - body. Her dark eyes skimmed over the slowly rippling water of and bright green trees of the Villa they were staying at. On the Italian coast, the building was as old as any she had scene, ivy grew on the faded white walls. To be perfectly honest, Kallie had been enchanted the first time she had laid her eyes upon it.

The fading light glinted off the gold band on her finger and she remembered that this wasn't the only thing that she was enchanted with. Spinning the band around her finger, her fond smile turned downward instead. She was married now, and that thought made her entire being feel giddy. Kallie felt like an irrational child, full of emotions that were pointless, not rational, and possibly dangerous.

But she didn't care.

Even in the exquisite majesty she was surrounded by Kallie had only one thought.

And its name was Eli.

Eli stepped out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his waist, and beads of water dripping down his skin. He saw Kallie framed by the sunset, every inch of her illuminated to a point that it seemed almost unreal. At this point, every cell in his body belonged to her, and by some miraculous trick of fate, she felt at least somewhat similar.

With every step the man took to approach her, the water quickly evaporated in the warm but crisp Italian air. So by the time he reached her, he was just dry enough to reach around her back and take both her hands in his, the metal of their rings giving a pleasant 'click' as they made contact. He lightly rested his head on her shoulder, his bare chest brushing against the unbearably smooth silk which covered her.

He stared out at the same scene, and an intense feeling of rightness took hold of him, and Eli started to sway slowly to an undefined tune playing in his head. As it formed into a low hum, he realized that the song he was thinking of was one he hadn't heard since he was a child. It was a very old song, and many of the words were very vague in his memory, but the tune stood out because it was sung by a man with this really rich, smooth voice. His mother used to sing it around the house all the time. Somehow, the tune stuck, and he tentatively sang the last couple lines, which still remained preserved in his mind.


He tilted his head to give her a gentle kiss on her cheek, and returned to rest it on her shoulder, watching the colors change, and the sky gradually begin to become dotted with the occasional star.

Although calm, and relaxing Kallie's ears had long been trained to listen for shifts and changes in a room without her ever registering that she was doing it. A soft smile crossed her features as the door slid open and she was far from surprised when a set of arms wrapped around her. Smile growing even further, she leaned back against the man slightly, lean back against her husband, as she softly played with the fingers that were now intertwined with her own.

Letting him rock them both slowly, a relinquish of control which although so minuscule at one time in her life would have been completely impossible for her, and listed to his humming with a curious turn of her head. It was a song that she was unfamiliar with, and for a brief moment she had believed that the man was just making up a tune of his own. The words however both ended that assumption and made her insides warm ever so slightly.

"I don't spend enough time just... watching the sunset, or the flowers grow," her tone was just slightly wistful. Kallie loved her job, she felt a purpose there, but there were moments she couldn't help be feel like she had forced herself to miss out on so many important things in life. Wiggling around in his grasp, the stars pretty to be sure, but not as demanding to watch as the dying sun, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and grinned slightly, "I'm glad I didn't miss out on you."

The words may not have made sense when not connected verbally to the thoughts she had just made, but to Kallie, for that moment she didn't care. The sentiment was just the same whether all the information had been given or not, and was the sentiment not what they were going for in this case?

Eli grinned at her, not minding the slight confusion that came with her disconnected phrases. That was the thing about Kallie. Despite all the precision and the almost-obsessive organization, she remained full of surprises. "I'm not sure what I would do if that happened."

He leaned over to kiss her, his arms falling slightly to pull her just a bit closer to him. He could almost feel the light turn a fiery orange on his skin, and he brought his hand up to touch Kallie's hair, just to make sure that it wasn't really made out of sunbeams.

Kallie knew that the warmth that was spreading through her hand nothing to do with the dying light that was seeping through the window, lighting her up like a picture. A more vain woman might have thought about what she would look like, in the dying light - Kallie did in fact, look almost angelic, at the very least other worldly, as she absorbed the warm oranges and reds but she had never been one to think about herself. At least not what she looked like, or even what she needed. Removing herself from her emotions at a young age had left Kallie's practical nature with a constant habit of thinking what was best for everyone as a whole.

Never what was best for herself.

Still, as she stood there, responding to her husband - husband would that word ever lose its wonder? - lips, kissing back with a tender urgency that seemed to envelope her feelings for him - the love and desire she had always felt - she couldn't help but think of herself in just this one thing.

Eli was what was best for herself. Even if it helped no one else, not a single person in the world but her, but Kallie, she wouldn't be able to give him up. She wondered if she had ever been able to give him up. If this moment was what she was always moving towards, even before she had met him.

Pulling away slightly, she ran a delicate finger down his bare chest, the little grin she gave him almost - of course anyone that knew the professional Kallie, the everyday Kallie wouldn't believe it - almost impish. When she spoke her schooled English was wavering ever so slightly. Her accent was coming through just a bit, "You would have found some less adequate woman and forever pined away for the dazzling stick-in-the-mud you lost."

Eli sucked in a soft breath as Kallie's finger trailed over his skin, the gentleness of her movements making him shiver. He chuckled, his breath brushing against his wife's ear, "But now I get to spend all that time with you." Forever still probably wasn't enough, but for now he'd take it.

The man's own fingers began to tentatively trace the edges of Kallie's robe as he continued to kiss her. One of his hands slipped between the folds of the cloth and wound it's way around the bare, cool skin of her back. Once again, he pulled her even closer, so that their bodies were pressed up against one another.

His touch was warm, gentle and intoxicating; the impractical emotions that came with this sort of thing, were not foreign to her - not in the least. The first time - the first time, years ago, it had only been by sheer stint of shutting off her brain that she had been able to move past the confusion of everything - later, older, different, Kallie had, had a different reaction, a different outlook. Confusing as it may have been, illogical, and strange, she couldn't deny the longing for it. Natural, necessary even.

Yes, Kallie would even go as far to say that she needed this touch.

Her lips moved against his with a delicate urgency. Soft, and loving, there was still that desire there, that lust, and longing that could not be denied. Eli was everything to her mind, heart, body and soul - and she wouldn't have it any other way.

Sucking in a soft breath, moving to wrap one arm around his shoulders and the other one began to softly smooth out his hair, her eyes were managing to be dark and light at the same time, her lips smirked just slightly, "Well now that you have all that time with me, Mr. Patterson, what are you going to do with it?"