~<<>>~
Gwendolyn Dawn Morton
snuggled closer to the man by her side as they lay together in the dark of his
bedroom. Wendy smothered a happy sigh as she felt Lee's arms tighten around
her, pulling her closer as he slept. She had thought about this for a long time,
being with him like this. She had loved Lee since she first set eyes on him. Of
course, to hear the story, she wasn't the only one in love with him. It seemed
to her that every women she had run across here at the Institute had a least
some level of a crush on the young commander.
For the moment, he was hers,
and she wasn't relinquishing her claim on him. There was only one other lady
out there for her to compete with and even as she admitted to herself that she
loved Lee, Wendy knew there was no way she could compete with the entity known
as the Seaview.
Being Seaview's
skipper was as much a part of Lee as his hands or fingers. You couldn't take
one away from the other. Wendy knew she'd be a fool to try. She saw her
brother's marriage go down the tubes fast when Vanessa started singing for Chip
to get a shore job. Chip was as bad as Lee. Seaview was in their blood,
and anybody who tried to separate or come between the two was destined for a
devil of a heartache.
Wendy slowly turned to rest
her gaze on the man she had loved for so long. He looked peaceful. His long
dark lashes against his high cheekbones, his dark curly hair tasseled from
tossing in his sleep. She resisted the urge to run her fingers over the strong
curve of his jawline, the slope of his chin, the tight muscles of his neck as
he breathed. His nightshirt had come unbuttoned, exposing a line of smooth lean
chest. In the darkness, Wendy could not see the scars she knew were there.
There was a bullet crease scar high on his left arm, and another bullet scar
lower down on the same arm. Then there was the unexplainable scar low on his
midsection, a scar that no one talked about. When she mentioned it to Lee, his
amber eyes, kissed with that touch of jade, grew dark and he told her it was
nothing and not to worry about it.
Experience had taught Wendy
not to make any sudden moves, just keep her moves slow and natural. Lee was a
light sleeper and could wake at the slightest touch. She was surprised at how
deeply he seemed to sleep now. His last run, while it hadn't lasted long, had
been a rough one from the way Chip had been acting when they got back. He had
kept casting anxious glances at his friend, again leading Wendy to wonder what
Lee tangled with in the depths and far reaches of the oceans he roamed
nomadically. It was only when she promised to see him home that Chip's anxious
gaze faded and he stepped back.
Wendy sighed this time and
rested her head against his chest, feeling the hitch of his breathing as he
registered the movement in his sleep. She settled in closer, bracing one hand
on his chest, feeling Lee's heartbeat pulse through her hand, strong, steady
and true. Just like Lee, strong in the face of adversity, steady and unwavering
in his conviction of what was right and wrong, and true, like her love for him.
End
srh