"Have I told you lately how beautiful you look?"

Michael turned in the bed, aligning his body against hers. Nikita could feel his warm, muscular length all along her back.

His breath stirred the fine blond hairs near her ear as he moved his face close to hers, intent on kissing her.

Nikita turned her head to look at him, keeping her arms crossed across her body. His green eyes, always so expressive, roamed her face, holding not only desire but a plea for co-operation in the pretence.

Nikita was acutely aware of the cameras, both Section's and their target's. She was supposed to play the role of a dutiful married woman.

Very well, she thought. She would play it.

She smiled what seemed to Michael to be an insolent smile. She gave him not the deep, sensual kiss he expected but a quick peck on the cheek.

She smiled further at his confused expression.

"Oh, aren't you sweet," she said, snuggling deeper into her pillow. "Good night, Honey."

She pulled the covers over her and determinedly closed her eyes, her back firmly to him.

"Uh... Good night..." Michael replied. He flopped down on his side of the bed on his back, a sigh escaping him. He was a little surprised at the relief he felt.

Making love to Nikita again was something he had dreamed of doing. Performing for the cameras was another thing.

Michael closed his eyes, remembering. Their passion on the one night they had had together had been so intense, unabated despite the number of times they had attempted to quench it.

They had made love six times that night, and each time the intensity of their desire had not diminished, but increased.

At the first kiss, no, the first look, Michael knew he had been completely lost, his control gone.

And since that night, he had done everything he could to rigourously regain that lost control. He had rebuffed her repeatedly. Pushed her away as far as he could. He realized it was useless. He was lost.

She was his weakness.

He settled into the pillow on his side of the bed, pretending to sleep. Yes, perhaps it was better that tonight SHE had rebuffed HIM.

He wasn't sure they could have given a performance of a dutiful, comfortable married couple. At least, he was sure he couldn't. His defenses were gone when he was with her.

Even though she didn't seem to realize it, Niktia could get under his cold exterior and lift off his mask, revealing the man underneath.

It was a dangerous game they were playing here. Madeleine already saw too much of his real feelings as it was.

Yes, maybe it was for the best that they weren't making love tonight.

Michael shifted restlessly in the bed, uncomfortably aware of his aroused state beneath the blankets. Yes, he was relieved. But his dissapointment was greater.

Sighing again, he turned his face to the wall and attempted vainly to sleep.

************

"Good morning, Darling.."

Michael opened his eyes. Niktia was stretched out beside him, an inviting smile on her lips. She shifted over in the bed until she was nestled in the crook of his arm, one hand reaching out to stroke the rough stubble on his cheek.

"Good morning..." he answered back. As he came more fully awake, he realized that Nikita was initiating the love-making this time. Michael was excited and apprehensive at the same time.

At their last briefing at Section One, Madeleine had asked for their report, then given them a piercing look.

"Are you sure you're doing everything you can to complete this mission?" Madeleine asked. It was typical of her that she did not ask directly, but both Michael and Nikita knew she wanted to know why they had not made love.

Nikita was silent, staring at the floor. Then Michael had answered for both of them.

"I think we are very convincing as a married couple in love," he said, meeting Madeleine's steely gaze.

She stared at them for a moment longer. "You can do more, can't you?"

A muscle in Michael's jaw twitched. Niktia tried to keep her lower lip from trembling. She glanced at Michael standing stiffly beside her, his back rigid.

Before he could answer again, Nikita spoke. "Yes, of course."

She looked at Michael again. "We ..... understand, Madeleine."

"Good," said the older woman. She dismissed them. "That's all."

They had left Section and returned to the house together, both silent and tense all the way back.

That had been yesterday afternoon. Last night Niktia had been unresponsive to his half-hearted overtures to be intimate. She did not turn toward him when they were lying next to each other in the bed and he began a light caress of her shoulders.

Michael decided not to push. He settled on his side of the bed again and spent another long night chasing sleep.

But now, here she was, warm and willing in his arms. Before he could sit up or move, Nikita bent her head and pressed her soft mouth to his.

Michael's lips parted in a moan and the kiss deepened.

Closing his eyes and forgetting the cameras, Michael brought his arms up around her and pulled her closer to him. His lips explored hers hungrily, the passion he thought he had buried igniting within him.

As before, when they were together this way, Michael's control slipped from him and he surrendered to the powerful feelings he had for Nikita.

Again, he was lost.

************

Michael held her close, pulling her down on top of him, his mind submerged in the feeling of her mouth on his. He loved the taste of her.

Nikita broke the magical kiss to bury her face in his neck and gently bite on the pulse point just below his jawline. He felt her tremble as she tasted his warm skin, her body remembering. Michael heard the small gasp of pleasure she made in his ear.

Michael gave an answering moan in return as his hands traveled down her back to her waist and then lower. He found the hem of her short night-shirt and tugged on it.

Nikita sat up on top of him and assisted him, pulling the soft cotton garment over her head and tossing it aside. She was wearing only panties underneath.

Michael took in the beautiful sight of her, her hair in wild disarray, spilling down on her shoulders and caressing the tops of her perfectly formed breasts.

He raised up from the pillow to kiss her mouth, then her throat, then the hollow between her breasts, exploring the treasures she offered to him.

With his arms encircling her, he pulled her forward and eagerly took one pale pink nipple in his mouth. He licked and teased it, then suckled hard, grazing the erect tip ever so lightly with his teeth.

Shivers of pleasure shot through Nikita. She felt a warmth radiating out from where Michael was kissing her, traveling down her body to a place deep inside her, which gave an answering tug to Michael's caresses.

She moaned and pulled him closer, tangling her fingers in his thick, silky hair. "Oh, Michael, yes...." She began unconsciously rocking on top of him.

Michael responded to her urgency by turning and flipping her underneath him, laying her down on her side of the bed. The bedclothes were twisted between them, and he shoved them impatiently aside as he rolled on top of her. He trembled in his eagerness.

Nikita was eager as well. This time she was the one pulling on his clothing. She tugged at his thin t-shirt, trying to pull it off and pull him closer at the same time.

He moved to help her and the offending garment soon joined her night-shirt on the floor by the bed.

With both hands, she explored the hard muscles of his chest, her fingers caressing in firm strokes downward across his midriff to the top of his pajama bottoms. She again rocked beneath him, thrusting her hips up to meet his.

Michael, already gasping, found his breath stopping in his throat.

"Nikita....." he cried out, losing all that was left of his control.

Michael didn't know which one of them pushed aside the rest of their clothing. All he knew was that suddenly he was inside her, the pleasure greater than any he had ever known.

It was like he had been a prisoner of war, lonely and homesick, deprived of all comforts, and now found himself joyously back in his native land, immersed again in cherished delights, this time not as memories or daydreams, but thrillingly real.

Michael moved his body rhytmically over hers, gasping out with each thrust, his cries of passion in a rhythm with hers. It was a homecoming.

It was the same for Nikita. Her senses were overloaded by the incredible flood of feelings he was creating in her, not just where their bodies were joined, but in her heart as well. She wanted to both laugh in delight and cry for the beauty of it all at the same time. She was simultaneously lost in total joy and exquisite agony.

Almost sobbing, she felt she would die if Michael stopped, the pleasure was so great. But she also felt the pleasure was almost too much to endure.

Their hoarse cries intermingled in the room. Time seemed suspended for both of them, the moment of sweet torment before explosive release stretching to infinity, their passion building to ever greater heights.

"I love you, Michael," Nikita suddenly gasped out.

She clutched him tightly to her, her arms around his shoulders grasping hard, as if she needed him to come impossibly closer, as if she wanted his soul as well as his body to be intermingled in hers.

Michael did not answer her in words, but his pace quickened, his cries becoming louder as he neared the point of climax. Her words had pushed him up and over the edge.

She felt the tears of astonished joy on his cheek as he began to involuntarily shudder in her arms.

"Nikita... Nikita..." He groaned her name as he came just seconds before she did, their bodies convulsing together in completion of an ancient dance.

He lay quietly on top of her, their bodies still entwined. Both of them were reluctant to pull apart from each other, neither anxious to return from paradise to reality.

Finally, Nikita spoke. "Honey, it's eight-fifteen. You need to get ready for work."

Michael raised up on his elbows and gazed down at Nikita. She was fully back in her role as his "wife". But he could see in her eyes that her declaration of love and their love-making had not been role-playing but the truth.

Suddenly aware of the cameras again, Michael felt the words he wanted so much to echo back to her catch in his throat.

He had to be careful. Madeleine must not see that the performance was real. The words Nikita needed to hear he couldn't tell her... yet.

Nikita smiled, able to read the emotions on his face clearly for once. She hardly needed words when his love for her was there so plainly in front of her. She knew now all she needed to know.

"O.K., I'll get up." Michael was back in his role as well. He bent his head and stole another kiss from her before he left the bed. His love for her was still there in his eyes.

Still smiling at each other, they began another day of playing house.

Send suggestions and comments to ranma.
OR
If you would like to send a comment to Lorraine, click HERE!!