So wrapped up was I in this waking dream that I didn't, at first, notice that fantasy had become reality as if my thoughts had willed it so. I stiffened at first, at the belated awareness of a body pressed close behind me, but the feel of that body and the tender strength in the hands which captured the soap from my own turned my muscles from cement into jelly within a beat of my heart.

Strong, tanned hands worked the bar into a full, foaming lather, then replaced it on the ledge. Those same hands then traced a silken path over my body, teasing my breasts in maddening circles until I thought I would go insane with need.

Unable to take the sensual teasing any longer, I grasped her hands and drew them up my body until they cupped my breasts. Long fingers glided effortlessly over my nipples, lightly pinching, lightly pulling. My breathing kept time with soft sighs and whispered moans.

Soft lips and sharp teeth nipped at the skin of my neck and shoulder, her tongue darting and teasing and tasting as I squirmed beneath her hands.

Then she turned me to face her. Cupping my face in her large, gentle hands, she lowered her head and melded our mouths together as the water cascaded down over both of us. I tasted the sharp tang of minerals and the sweet hunger of her lips as she opened them and drew in my tongue for a tender duel.

Her breasts, full and firm, brushed against my sensitized skin, sending prickles of sensation through my body and pooling the moisture building between my legs. Her hands left my face and trailed over my spine, reaching lower to curve over my hips and pull our bodies tight together along their lengths. Soap and water provided a delightful slickness, and we slid together as if dancing to a sound only our hearts could hear.

God, I ached for her. An ache as strong and as needing as anything I'd ever felt before. It consumed me. It robbed my breath from me. It made my heart thunder in my chest, my body throbbing with every forceful contraction.

Our mouths still entangled in a passionate kiss, she lifted me slightly off my feet, and as my legs spread of their own accord, she placed her long, strong thigh between them, and rested me back down on top of it. I groaned in pleasure as she steadied me, then moved against me, my back pressed flat against the warm, slick tiles of the stall.

Sure, tender hands glided me along the length of her thigh and I gasped at the sensations which raced through my body, turning it to a searing flame which knew no bounds. Slowly at first, then gaining delightful speed, she pressed into me, her warm, supple flesh and iron hard muscles relentless in pursuit of my pleasure, and hers as well.

Moaning softly, she broke the lock of our lips and rested her forehead against the tile next to mine, turning her head and tracing her tongue along the shell of my ear. "Come for me, sweet Angel," she growled low in my ear, searing my nerve endings as she suckled on my lobe. "Let me feel you."

Gasping for badly needed breath, I tipped my head back, well past any semblance of rational thought, baring my neck to the assault of her lips and tongue and teeth, my hips gliding in a timeless, primal rhythm of hunger and aching desire.

Her tongue lapped at the hollow of my throat, and then at the pulsepoint bounding strongly, rapidly in my neck. And when her teeth gently bit down on the flesh she'd so lovingly captured, it was the trigger which released me as the darkness behind my eyelids burst into a brilliant pattern of light and shadow.

My soul was free, floating on a sea of bliss and sensation. Ice was my anchor, her warm hands and softly murmured words of love keeping me tethered to the real world as my spirit soared to the heavens and beyond.

Slowly, so slowly, I came back to earth to find myself tight in Ice's fiercely tender embrace. The water had since turned cold and the icy spray sent uncontrollable shivers through me. A quick hand cut off the water, and before I knew what was happening, I was borne up in strong arms and carried out of the stall.

I was placed gently on the floor, and steadied as she reached for a large, fluffy towel. She dried me carefully, tenderly, making me feel like the most cherished person on earth, then wrapped me in the towel and lifted me into her arms again, the look of absolute adoration on her face almost painful in its intensity.

We walked down the short, dark hallway, Ice uncaring in her nakedness. She shut the bedroom door behind us with her foot, and placed me gently on the bed, her expression sweet and loving. "How ya doing?" she asked, brushing the bangs from my eyes.

"Oh, I'm...I'm...wonderful."

Her smile was slow and sweet. "I'm glad."

"So am I," I replied with fervor.

Tousling my hair, she straightened and stepped away slightly, stretching her shoulders back and rolling her neck. to loosen the bunched muscles there. I looked on silently, drawn, as always, by the sheer magnificence of her naked body. The cold water and her undeniable arousal had done wonderful things to it, as I'm sure you can imagine, and as I watched, spellbound, a single bead of water, fat with moisture, rolled slowly between her breasts, down the muscled ridges of her abdomen, and nestled in the well of her navel.

I watched that journey through blazing eyes, licking lips suddenly desperate for moisture. Catching me in my fantasies, a secret smile spread over her face, and she crossed to the nightstand. My eyes were glued to her; glued to every sensual shift of muscle over silken skin, glued to the light sway of her hips and to the inky trail of wet hair as it spilled down her tapered back. My hands closed in fists, fighting desperately against the need to just reach out and pull her to me and ravish her senseless.

Opening a small drawer set in the nightstand, she reached in and pulled out an object which made my whole body implode with renewed, raging desire. Holding it in the dim light of the small bedside lamp, she shook the straps free, then looked at me, eyebrow raised and a tiny smile playing over her lips.

"Yes," I gulped, suddenly wondering where all the air had gone in the room, "please."

I spared a brief second to wonder just how she'd come by such a prize, but that thought was quickly lost in the blaze of her eyes as she closed the drawer and crossed back over to my side of the bed. She handed the phallus to me, and I took it with faintly trembling hands. It was of medium size, medium length, and double-ended, with the slightly shorter end to be inserted into the wearer.

I ran my fingers lightly over the warm, pliant skin, then looked up at her, smiling with anticipation. Eyes dark and glittering, nostrils flaring just slightly, she slowly lifted one long leg and planted her foot on the bed, opening herself to me.

She was glistening with moisture, so open and ready for my touch. I spread her fully to my heated gaze, drawing a finger through the lush wetness and watching as a shudder ran through her body. Unable to help myself, I leaned forward and drank deeply of her, moaning with the taste of her readiness on my lips and tongue. Strong fingers threaded themselves through my hair, holding me to her as her hips rocked against my feasting mouth.

I couldn't get enough of her, this woman who was hot, and wet, and oh so very sweet. The more she offered, the more I took, like a greedy beggar at the feast of a king.

And as I felt her reach that place of no return, I reached up and eased the phallus into her, filling her full as I tasted the musky beginnings of her climax on my tongue. Her body shuddered, her inner walls clenching down hard on the toy in my hand and her hips thrusting uncontrollably against me. Her growl of release was sweet music to my ears.

When her shudders slowed, then halted completely, I pulled away after pressing a tender kiss into her flesh. Then I looked up at her, grinning cheekily. She stared down at me, her gaze half-lidded and searing as her fingers worked the harness over her hips and buckled it into place.

I found myself on my back, not quite sure how I'd gotten there, with Ice looming over me on all fours, like some great hungry predator with prey in her grasp. Her lips covered mine in a kiss of boundless passion as her fingers worked to unwrap me from my towel.

That task finally completed to her satisfaction, she lowered herself, lapping up each and every bead of moisture which had escaped the towel's absorption, attending to her duties with great relish. Her tongue and lips seemed to be everywhere at once, and I shivered, my body taut and aching with desire. She blazed a heated trail down my body, pausing at each breast to suckle and nip, before moving lower, ever lower. When her tongue delved, thrusting, into the recess of my navel, I thought I would release then and there from the sheer erotic power of it.

Lower she moved, her tongue grazing the insides of my thighs, over my knees and calves and down to my toes. As she took the first one into the heat of her mouth, the release denied before came blazing full force and I cried out as the contractions flared through me like a windswept fire on a grassy plain.

She was relentless, though, this woman who was my lover, moving back up my body with the same slow, sure deliberation, until she reached the place where I was all fire and pulsing need. She took me into her mouth, growling as she tasted me, her tongue darting and teasing and stroking and dancing, pushing me higher than I'd ever thought I'd go, and then, still higher, responding to my cries with deep moans of her own.

My body finally reached its straining limit and stiffened forcefully as another climax seared its way through me on tendrils of hungry fire. She held me tenderly in her mouth as my climax ended, then moved back up my body quickly, nestling against me and looking down into my eyes, her own ablaze with love. My spent muscles trembling, I relaxed beneath the secure, warm weight of her body, my eyes closing as I felt her tenderly stroke my hair and face, gentling me and bringing me back home.

"God, I love you."

I don't know if those whispered words were meant to reach my ears or not, but reach them they did and caused a smile to break over my face. I opened my eyes to see hers, brilliant with unshed tears. Reaching up, I cupped her face and ran a tender thumb across her cheek, catching a single tear as it escaped beyond her lashes. "And I love you. More than the air I breathe."

Smiling through her tears, she lowered her head and kissed me. It was a kiss of promise and of unbounded love, delivered from her heart to mine in the sweetest of ways.

Though there was nothing passionate in this sharing of breath, incredibly, my body began to respond again just from her nearness and warmth. "Please," I whispered with the last of my breath. "I need to feel you inside me." It was a need which had become all-encompassing, a last act of completion to put my heart and soul fully at rest.

Still kissing me tenderly, almost reverently, she shifted most of her weight off of me and ran her hands slowly down my body, the tips of her fingers caressing peaks and valleys and everywhere in between with a grace that was, to me, beauty incarnate.

Her hand finally nestled between my legs, preparing me for her entrance into me. I was well past ready, and she smiled when she felt the evidence presented her. Gentle hands spread my legs as she continued to press kisses deep into my mouth, our tongues dancing a slow, sensual ballet.

Then she was covering me with her body once more, resting her weight on her arms as she looked down at me, an unasked question clear in the smoky depths of her eyes.

"Yes," I whispered, wanting nothing more than what she so silently, so lovingly offered. "Please, yes."

One hand disappeared from my sight, and I soon felt the smooth, rounded tip of the phallus being drawn through my heated wetness. A brief moment later, it was poised at the entrance to my body. Leaning down, her hair forming a curtain around our faces, she kissed me deeply and slid smoothly within, filling me more completely, more wonderfully, than I'd ever before felt.

Fully sheathed, she hovered there, waiting for my body to adjust, her deep and passionate kisses taking my mind from muscles strained to their limit and onto something infinitely more pleasurable.

She fit into me perfectly, like a puzzle piece, and my body adjusted quickly to this new sensation, quickly demanding more. I trailed my fingers down her muscled back until I had her hips in my hands. Grasping those hips, I pulled her to me. "Now," I growled into her ear.

Groaning, she did as I asked, pulling smoothly out before thrusting in once again. The pleasure was indescribable, and I nearly cried with the joy of feeling it.

Together, we set up a perfect rhythm. We kissed passionately until neither of us had the breath for it and were forced to pull away. Ice's head rested next to mine as she thrust into my willing body, her sweat-soaked hair gliding wetly over my cheeks and lips, its fragrance as intoxicating as the scent of our loving which hovered in the air surrounding us.

I pulled her to me, quick and forcefully, needing everything she could give to me, and more besides. She responded as if born to do this very thing, surging into me with unbridled desire, unleashing the darkness and lightness inside of her, the passion and the tenderness, the power and the strength. All of this she delivered to me as her soft grunts and low moans filled my hearing like a symphony.

She crested first, her back arching, her neck thrown back to expose her throat to me, her hips thrusting blindly, forcefully, without thought or intent. Sweat poured down from her and dripped onto me, a baptism of fire and passion.

A bare second later, I too was drawn into the whirling vortex where life as I'd come to know it ceased to exist, and only pleasure resided.

I think I must have passed out for a moment, because when I came back into my body again, it was to find her full weight atop me, her chest heaving in time to her exhausted gasps for air. When she felt me move, she attempted to roll from me, but I was having none of it, and wrapped my arms around her, my body still throbbing around the phallus as it rested, still, deep within me.

"No. Stay. Please," I gasped, badly out of breath myself. "Need this. Need you."

She settled back over me, a living blanket of love, warmth and safety, and from that moment on, I knew no more until the sun rose once again.

The next morning, I woke up to something unexpected and very, very much welcomed. As my fuzzy thoughts came to sharper awareness, I realized that the gentle thumping beneath my ear was the sound of Ice's heart beating. The tickle on my back was the feel of her hand as she gently rubbed aimless circles across my flesh. Though we'd been together for nearly eight years by that time, I could count on one hand the number of times I'd woken up in her arms, and probably still have a finger or two left over.

Her fingers hesitated briefly as she became aware of my awakened state, then resumed their gentle caress of my skin. "Morning, sweet Angel." The deep tenor of her voice rumbled up from her chest, filling me with a most comfortable warmth.

"Mmm. Morning yourself, my love."

"Sleep well?"

"Like a baby. You?"

"Very well, thanks."

Her touch tickled slightly, and I shivered, then stretched, wincing slightly at the twinge of soreness I felt.

She stiffened beneath me, as always, zoning in on my emotions with uncanny accuracy. "Are you alright?"

Cocking my head, I smiled up at her reassuringly. "I'm great. Just a little sore."

Her face immediately froze as her eyes darted away from mine. "I'm... ."

"Don't," I warned, laying two fingers across her full lips. "Don't say it. Don't even think it." Shifting a bit so I could see her more easily, I slid my fingers beneath her chin to direct her gaze back to me. "Ice, last night was one of the most wonderful in my life. Please don't say you're sorry for making it that way."

She finally met my gaze, but the look of shadowed guilt still haunted the pristine blue depths of her eyes.

Smiling, I gently squeezed her jaw between my fingers. "C'mon, Ice. Wasn't it you who said that there are two kinds of sore? The good kind and the bad kind?"

The guilt in her eyes faded a little. I stretched again, my grin broadening at the telltale signs of a body well loved. "This is most definitely," I added, yawning, "the good kind."

That got the smile I was looking for, and I reached up to capture it with my lips, savoring the warm contact for a long, wonderful moment, before pulling away and resting my head on her chest once again. "So," I began, trying hard to sound nonchalant, "what are our plans for today?"

She laughed softly. "Your plans, Angel, are to get some more sleep. We've got a long drive ahead of us."

I lifted my head to stare at her, sure that my fear could be easily read, and not caring. "Not back to the border... ."

Her eyes were gentle, her hand tender as it stroked my hair. "No. Not back to the border."

"Thank God," I replied on a sigh of relief as I rested my head back down on her warm skin.

I held up a hand. "And before you say anything, I know that it's dangerous. And I know I'd probably be safer with Montana on the other side of the border. But that doesn't matter. None of it matters. Not as long as I don't become a distraction or a danger to you by remaining here." I looked up at her again, meeting her eyes dead on. "Will I?"

She returned my look measure for measure, her eyes showing no deceit or guile. "I'll always worry, Angel. As I have from the first day you set foot outside of the Bog and decided to make your life with me. I'll always bear the guilt of having you live through the mistakes of my past."

"You never forced me into this, Ice," I replied with some heat. "It was my own decision from the word 'go'."

"I know." Her words were barely above a whisper. "And part of me will always damn myself for not taking that decision out of your hands when I could have. But now... ." Her hand lifted, then dropped back to rest on my shoulder. "...now...I wouldn't trade one second with you, in danger or out, for anything in the world."

I knew I was beaming, but I couldn't stop myself. For a woman of so few words, she had the ability to make my heart overflow with love and joy with the simplest of phrases. "So, we're in this together, then?"

After a moment, she nodded. "Together."

Lifting my head, I sealed the vow with a kiss, which led quickly into another kiss, and then another, and still another, until my twinges of soreness were replaced with twinges of a far more pleasurable kind. We made long, slow love by the increasing light of the rising sun, and afterwards, Ice's plans for me were realized.

I slept.

"I'll get you, my pretty! And your little dog too!! Ahahahahaha!"

I shot a scathing look to my left, then glanced back into the mirror held before me, realizing that Critter was correct in her assessment. In fact, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the Wicked Witch of the West was the goddess Aphrodite compared to how I looked with that particular wig on my head.

"At least I don't look like a family of rats set up condos in my hair," I replied, just to lob my own truth back at her.

She didn't even try to volley, knowing I was right. Instead, she grinned sheepishly, and shrugged. "They looked better on the mannequins we stole them from."

I turned to her, eyes wide. "You stole these?" I wasn't sure which shocked me more. That she stole, or what she stole.

"Well...not in the traditional sense, no."

"I think you're gonna have to explain that one to me... ."

Before she could answer, the door to the bathroom burst open and Pony strode in. "What the hell are you two...oh Jesus, give me that!" Snatching the wig from Critter's head with one hand, she grabbed a brush with the other and began combing out the tangled mess that might once have borne a faint resemblance to actual hair.

In mere moments, she transformed it from rat's nest to work of art.

Critter and I stared on, dumbfounded.