Her Song

34 - Father Figure

**Kim**

"I have nowhere to be other than with you. We have all the time in the world." Van's words were a low, rumbling wave of comfort.

How wonderful it would be if that were true. But I appreciated the sentiment and I understood what Van was telling me. Right now we were working on my time frame. We were curled up together in the centre of the bed in yet another nondescript hotel room, not that it wasn't a nice one but after spending two weeks in the understated luxury that was Bas's place it felt disconcerting to be back in a hotel. Still for all its home comforts Bas's house was missing one important thing. Van.

It felt so damn good to be back with him and the way he'd grabbed me in the airport sure as hell hadn't felt like something just for the cameras. I allowed myself to feel hopeful that van's greeting meant there was more to us than the shitty situation I'd gotten myself into. I'd felt more bereft at the idea that Van was only with me because of some misguided sense of duty than I ever had at Bradley's very real deception and abandonment.

"I missed you so much," I murmured and buried my face in the curve of his throat. He hadn't shaved and the stubble along his jaw scratched against my cheek. The slight sting was a welcome sensation. It reminded me he was real. Using the arm he had wrapped around my waist he shuffled us down the bed until we were horizontal. I found myself tucked in the nook between his arm and his body with my head tucked up under his chin. His hand stroked rhythmically up and down my side a couple of times before it found its way beneath my t-shirt and splayed out in a warm spread of fingers across the small of my back.

"I missed you too Duchess. Every song in every show that we were apart was for you."

"Even 'Bender'?" I teased. If I didn't tease him about it there was a good chance that I'd cry for him. My hormones were still all over the place and the unfairness of the rumours he'd been hit with made me want to shoot laser beams out my eyeballs. As I was not Godzilla I usually just wound up emitting tears of rage.

He gave a rumbled growl of frustration. "Duchess...."

I lifted my head a fraction in order to peer up at him, "What? Too soon?" I couldn't help the way the edges of my lips curved up in a smile. Even frustrated and anxious he was one of the most beautiful men I'd ever seen.

"It's always going to be too soon," he grumbled and the arms that were wrapped around me squeezed me tight against his chest. For his or my benefit it was impossible to say but I welcomed the breathless closeness after our time apart. Contrarily, struggling for breath whilst wrapped in his too tight embrace felt like the first time I was able to breathe in weeks. The gentle, softly shifting motion of his fingers against my skin soothed me into sleep.

When I stirred awake the first thing I saw were the colourfully shifting lines of the tattoos across Van's chest and down his arms. Mmmmm, when had he taken off his shirt? I was draped across a mountain of warm, solid man like a blanket. Even though our physical activities were restricted under doctor's orders I couldn't resist the urge to touch him. He was glorious and he was mine. My finger drifted in lazy spirals down his torso. He shivered beneath my touch and my lips curled up with sleepy delight that I could elicit that reaction from him.

A warm, strong hand, rough with calluses, closed over mine. "Stop," his voice was rough with sleep, "My willpower is already hanging on by a thread. It's not nice to tease."

"Who says I'm teasing? Just because I'm on the injured list doesn't mean that you don't get to play." I leaned across and brushed my lips across one flat nipple and down toward the waistband of his jeans.

A groan was ripped from Van's chest as I found myself on my back with Van looming over me as he wrapped his hands around my wrists and pinned them over my head. "Play nice Duchess. I only have so much strength. It's fun for all or fun for none."