As much as I wanted to just take Marcus back to the hotel, strip him down and touch him in every way possible, I hadn't been sleeping much, and it was like my body recognized that it could relax now that he was here. Mama had been... not good. I couldn't say if she was deteriorating, since she hadn't told anyone anything was wrong beforehand, but she'd had four more seizures and occasionally seemed as if she didn't know where she was, why she was in the hospital, or a million other things that should have stuck in her mind. I lived in fear of the moment she didn't recognize me. The doctors said it probably wasn't Alzheimer’s, but they still hadn't been able to rule much out, let alone reach a conclusive diagnosis.

I pulled Marcus's back to my front as we rode the elevator to my floor in the hotel, just draped over him, taking as much comfort as I could from his presence. In the hotel room, we wrapped around each other like starfish, clinging, arms everywhere, and when I pulled him down to the bed, it was just to cuddle, too tired and too relaxed to do much else than lay there enjoying the sandalwood aroma that was Marcus enveloping me, his body nestled against mine, warming me. We'd built so much anticipation, waiting for this moment... and phone sex, even video sex, just didn't cut it... but now... I couldn't keep my eyes open.

"I really want to have sex..." I mumbled, my brain already drifting off to sleep easily, in a way it hadn't since I had left Marcus back home.

"Of course you do. I'm irresistible," Marcus teased. "But we have plenty of time. Get some rest now. I'll be here when you wake up."

* * *

I woke a while later in a dark room, the knowledge that my mate was asleep in my arms permeating my consciousness. The hotel clock said it was only just past midnight. I'd been out. I slipped from the bed to use the restroom and left the light on and the door open after I finished. Marcus must have gotten up at some point, because his carry on was open and empty. I slid open the drawer I had kept for him, and it was full now. I crawled back in bed to wrap around my mate, and he snuggled back against me.

"You up?" I whispered.

Marcus reached back for my hand in answer and pulled it forward to press against his satin-clad cock. "Getting there," he mumbled.

I laughed. "That's not what I meant, but I can make use of it."

"Mmm. Please do."

Marcus rolled on his back and I pulled down the covers. I'd fallen asleep in my clothes, but Marcus had stripped down to just his underwear. I let my hand drift over his pale chest, his nipple rings the only interruption on his smooth skin, remembering how his body felt under my own. I didn't narrow in on any one body part, focused on claiming every inch of him with my touch, from the tips of his ears down to the skin between his toes. He panted under my touch, his body and mind wakening slowly.

He finally reached for me, grabbing a handful of my shirt to pull me down. Before his lips claimed mine, he protested, "You're wearing too much clothing." But he didn't give me a chance to respond. 

The night before I had left, the night we had mated, had been the most intensely intimate night of my life, until now. Neither of us were in a hurry, as if afraid that if we moved too fast, the night would be gone, disappeared in a blaze of passion. We took it slowly, teasing each other. Marcus stripped me piece by piece. I worshiped every line of his body. And this time, when I entered him, it was face to face. My thrusts were long and deep, slowly taking us both to a place where worries didn't exist. And when I finally did speed up, my hand working Marcus's length in time with my thrusts, we came as one, my knot locking us together, a bliss that seemed endless, out of time and space, a place where only the two of us existed.

When I came back to earth, I lay on top of Marcus, who was idly playing with the hair on my arms.

"Sorry," I grumbled, rolling to my back and pulling him with me. My knot was still fairly firm. "That was..." I couldn't find the words.

"The best sex ever?"

I sighed, an echo of pleasure still rumbling through me. "To say the least. Worth waiting for?"

Marcus stretched with a groan. "Definitely. But can we nix the waiting part?"

"If I have anything to say about it, absolutely."

"So… ready to go again?" Marcus waggled his eyebrows outrageously.

I groaned. "The spirit is willing but the body is weak."

Marcus snuggled in to my chest. "I suppose I can wait a little bit, then."

I drifted, half-awake as I felt Marcus's body loosen in sleep. When my knot finally calmed down enough to slip from his body, I gently rolled him to the side and got us a washcloth to clean up, then hurriedly snuggled in bed again. I was already dreading him leaving me, but that was a problem for tomorrow. Right now, he was in my arms, and that was what mattered.