*****

It's begun to rain lightly by the time Ethan dumps me to the floor in the back room; letting me slide slowly down his back. The drops are far and few between, but fat enough that they still make noise as they hit the windows. He turns to me and kisses me and I let him, opening my mouth to him. To all the flavors of him, wrapping my arms around him and leaning into this kiss. Rising up and into it. Ethan has so many flavors when he kisses me. So very many. I never know what I'll taste when I kiss him.

Love. Hope. Hate. Friendship. And best of all? *Ethan*. Just plain Ethan.

All the things that make it different and special each time. All the things that make me crave another kiss. Just one more kiss and I *swear* I'll stop. But I never stop. I never have. One of these days. Really, I think, just before sinking even further into the hot depths of his talented mouth.

I. Will. Stop. I promise myself somewhere in the back of my mind. Deep down where I never bother to listen to myself. Where I know I promise too much and I talk too much.

Ethan pulls away from me and I bite back a whimper. I never let him see me whimper. He takes my cupped hand and opens it. He smiles and takes the bracelet from my open hand. He pulls my hand up to his mouth and kisses it, his eyes never leaving mine.

And damn his eyes.

He takes a step back and fastens the heavy silver bracelet around my wrist, bending to kiss the clasp.

The mood is heavy with romance. I break it with a snigger. "Have you charmed it, then, luv? Something evil?"

He only smiles at me before bending down once again over my hand, and kissing my palm. He looks up at me with his most practiced smile, the lines barley creasing his face. And then he grins at me, all creases and cracks, mirth shinning in his eyes.

"But of course, my love! You're *bound* to me now, and for*ever* and even after *that*."

As if that weren't already true.

I open my mouth to say something entirely too witty and important for the likes of *him* but the lights go out.

"Rupert! And I wanted to love you beneath the bright lights of your shop!"

"I had nothing to do with it!" I snap at him, pulling away. "Let me check the-" There's a loud hum and the lights are back. Mostly. Dim yellow ones. "Ah. The rolling black outs. California is running out of electricity."

Ethan raises his brows at me. "And you have electricity, *why*, Rupert? Are you being a naughty wizard without me?"

I snigger. "*I* have electricity because *I* have Anya working for me. Once she read about the possibility of blackouts, she *insisted* on a generator. We have climate controlled plants and flowers, you know."

"Seems a smart girl, this Anya of yours. I should think I'd like to meet her."

"And I'm *certain* she'd like to meet *you*."

Ethan moves his body close to mine, pressing against me. He nuzzles my neck and I keep my knees locked and in the upright position. He laughs in my ear. "Why is it, Rupert, that I don't think, *you* think she'd *really* like me, luv? Humm?"

"Donno. . .karma? Yours being *bad*?"

"Maybe." Ethan says. His eyes are bright in the dim light and I *know* that look. I am not the least bit surprised when he grabs my shoulders and pushes me down onto a table, coming over me and kissing me with a barley restrained brutality. His knee spreads my legs open and he settles between them, thrusting his tongue into my mouth, sweeping about and claiming it as his own. I kiss him back, of course. I taste and duel with his tongue. I sink my hands into his hair and clutch at it, pulling his head down over mine, trying to reach an impossible closer. My legs wrap around the back of his knees as he pulls back from the kiss and rips my shirt open. I give a passing thought to sewing buttons back on before his hot mouth is licking and biting at my chest and them I'm thinking nothing but Ethan and his mouth. Ethan and Ethan.

And always Ethan.

He raises up and it's my trousers' button that is next on his destruction list. And my zipper is yanked down and my hard cock is free and clutched in his hot damp hand. But Ethan is evil and so he lets me go and rolls off of me and I'm left gasping and panting like a bitch in heat and I don't care for the imagery, but his grin catches me and I watch, still panting, as he removes his clothes. Soon he's bare, he's naked, and he's still hard and toned, still wanting *me* and I lick my lips and I open my legs a bit wider, and he grins at me. At his slut. And I am, at this moment, his slut, and I don't care. I am. I will be. I don't mind and I give a sigh of *pleasure* as he comes over me once again, kissing me, licking me, tasting me. I am his. He thrusts his fingers into my mouth and I lick and suck at them, without him having to ask, wetting them. He pulls his fingers away and captures my mouth with his, thrusting his tongue inside my mouth at the same time as his saliva slicked fingers thrust into my ass. I raise my head up to the kiss and my ass to the invasion of his fingers. I don't care. I want him. And I'm delighted with his moan and the way he *sinks* into me before pulling back to move my legs over his shoulders and his cock to my opening. He pushes in slowly. Closes his eyes and whispers the sweetest things to me. I'm so special. I mean so much to him. Nothing. . .No one. . .Ever. . .Not *ever*. . . And I close my legs around him, pulling him close, wrapping my arms around him and thrusting my ass up, drawing him deep into me. And it's all true. No one. Not ever. It's never been like this. He buries his head against my shoulder and holds me tight. And he fucks me. He loves me. He thrusts in and out of me, working up a fast and pounding rhythm that I want, that I crave. I open my eyes to stare into his. In the dim yellow glow of Anya's emergency light I look into the face of Ethan.

My Ethan.

Always my Ethan.

end.