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Sara’s setting a ground rule. They’re not going to have sex in the sand. It’s unpleasant enough when the sand is a known quantity, but up until recently, this world was irradiated and Sara has not come this far to get radioactive sand in places where it definitely should not be.
Still. The feeling of Liam’s body beneath her almost wants her to throw caution to the wind. But only almost. When Liam smiles up at her, it takes her one step closer to changing her mind. “I’ve noticed something,” he starts, a hand on her hip as though it belongs there. (It does.)
“Yeah?” Sara asks, doing her best to focus on the conversation.
“I can see why they call you ‘Ryder’,” Liam says with a self-satisfied smirk. Sara lets out a groan and rolls off Liam; no way she’s staying in that position after a joke like that.
“Oh my God,” Sara sighs, “I’m rubbing off on you.”
Liam doesn’t raise any objections to the little distance Sara has created between them; he probably believes that he deserves it. Good. The corner of his mouth curves upwards, and somehow, Sara just knows what he’s going to say next. “Liam,” she warns, “don’t—”
But he can’t resist, and she can’t really blame him. She did, after all, give him the perfect opening. “Been doing a bit of that, lately.” When Sara smacks him on the arse, Liam holds up his hands in mock-defeat. “Hey, not that I’m complaining.”
She sighs, rests her head on Liam’s shoulder. “And here I thought repeating angel was a bad line.” Liam’s arm starts to snake underneath her to hold her properly, and she shimmies slightly to give him room. They’re still not having sex in the sand, but lying here underneath the sky on the outskirts of the first colony they helped create… Sara’s not going to lie. It’s really nice.
The heart in the sky formed by their jump-jet dive is starting to fade; Sara clasps one of Liam’s hand in her own and points up towards it. “Still. This is probably one of the nicest things anyone’s ever done for me. I mean it.”
Lowering their hands back down to the ground once more, but still not letting go, Liam presses a kiss to the top of Sara’s head. “I’m glad you liked it,” he says, voice low and quiet against her ear in a way that sends shivers down her spine. “I meant what I said earlier. When we’re old and people ask us how we got together, I want you to smile.”
The words still make her insides do funny things, and it makes her realise that she wants it, all of it, everything that Liam’s implying. They’re going to grow old together, side-by-side, that this is most definitely a long-term thing in a way Sara’s never known before. She wasn’t with the Alliance for very long, but running around the Attican Traverse looking for Prothean artefacts made maintaining serious relationships difficult. Prior to that, well, she’d always been an army brat; sometimes, she’s still surprised that Dad even had time to have a family.
Dad… wherever he is now, Sara both hopes that he is proud of her but also knows that he’ll be happy so long as she is happy and she is so, so happy. Her face breaks into a grin as she closes her eyes and nestles further into Liam’s embrace. “I’m already smiling.”
Liam chuckles. “Well, I’m glad I made an impact.” Before Sara can groan or complain, Liam has already distracted her by brushing her hair behind her ear. He kisses her on the forehead and then looks down so the tips of their noses are touching. “I love you,” he says, and Sara feels like crying. Might even be tears welling up in her eyes. There definitely are tears welling up in her eyes if the way Liam pulls back slightly in alarm is any indication.
Oh, hell, she’s crying.
“Too soon?” Liam asks, doubt creeping into the corners of his voice, and Sara immediately decides she hates that. She wipes at the tears and her snotty nose with one gloved hand, and bats at Liam’s arm with the other.
“No, you idiot. I mean. I love you, too.” She hadn’t anticipated the way that saying the words would make her heart swell even more than hearing them. She loves him. Despite all the difficulties they’ve faced since coming to Andromeda, this is real. This. Them.
Liam pulls her closer, giving her a tight squeeze in his arms. “Oh, good. I’m glad. Things might be a bit awkward if you didn’t.” Then, he rolls them over so Sara’s pressed beneath him, and his mouth is upon hers in moments, kissing her with fervour as his hand traces the shell of her ear. It tickles.
“Liam!” Sara says with a laugh when they break apart for air. She’s well aware of how jagged their breathing is, not to mention the way they’re pressed flush together once more. She wants him very, very badly, but she’s not letting go of her ground rule. “Kosta,” she scolds, as though using his surname might give her more chance of being taken seriously, “we are not having sex in the sand.”
Liam pauses for several moments, as though considering his rebuttal. Words seem to fail him as he grinds down on her, pushing her into ground. That’s the thing, it’s not even soft sand. It’s hard, gritty ground. “You sure?” he asks, looking at her plaintively. Pleadingly.
“I mean it,” Sara insists with all the sternness she can muster. “No. Sand. Sex.”
Letting out a breath of air through his nose, Liam sighs in resignation. “All right, all right, I get it. Besides, still too much of a chance someone will come across us here.”
The words shouldn’t be giving Sara ideas. “They’d be getting quite the show,” she reluctantly agrees, and now her traitorous mind is running with it, although it comes to an abrupt stop at the thought of being caught by Bradley. That’s not somewhere she really wants to go. “But, alas! I’m a woman who loves my comforts.” She licks her lips. “So. Tempest?”
Sara swears she’s never seen Liam get up faster. “One last thing,” Liam says as he offers Sara a hand to pull her upright.
“Yeah?” she asks, heart thudding in her chest in anticipation.
“I love you,” he says again, all sincerity and earnestness.
Sara beams.