"Rose?! Come back to me, Rose! Wake up!"
Ava felt the plush carpet beneath her, but she was lying on warm legs. Careful fingers stroked her hair out of her face as she struggled to comply with the simple request. With what seemed like an extraordinary amount of effort, she opened her eyes and gazed up into Steve's frenzied face. It was as if she lay staring through a long tunnel. She blinked several times, and after a moment, the edges around his face began to sharpen and her vision began to clear.
"That was weird," she croaked. With a bark of nervous laughter, Steve shook his head and tightened his arms around her.
"I tell you I love you...and you black out," he muttered, shaking his head and trying to pull himself together. Her eyebrows stitched together in a confused, impotent sort of rage.
"Well, maybe next time you'd like to wear the corset," she said defensively, pulling weakly on the complicated straps. "It's almost impossible to breathe."
His face softened into a radiant smile. "Here," he said, his hands rested atop hers, "let me help you." He worked in silence for a while, trying to make sense of the intricate design, before he finally shook his head with a slight frown. "It's a labyrinth."
"Just rip it," Ava gasped. She hadn't realized how lightheaded she'd become. She had chalked it all up to the excitement of the evening and her rapid, shallow breathing.
Steve hesitated, his warm fingers hovering near her neck. "Are you sure? Won't Peter be upset?"
Ava waved her hand dismissively. "He can order me another one. One that won't kill me," she added under her breath.
After an almost imperceptible pause, Steve wrapped his fingers around the lace and tore it gently apart. The straps were no match for his strength, and quickly fell in tattered ribbons down her sides.
Without anything to hold it up, the slip also began sliding off her body, but both she and Steve caught it with quick hands. Their eyes met in the middle. "You love me?" Ava whispered. It was too good to be true. Too simple an explanation to make sense.
Steve's breath hitched in his chest, but he laced his fingers gently into hers, their closed hands resting on her pounding heart. "With everything in me," he answered, "I love you."
"You know what Rose...you really know how to leave a guy hanging."
Ava's cheeks flushed crimson as she ducked her head again and pushed stray curls from her face. Steve loved her.
"I love you too, Steve." The answer came easily to Ava, after all, it was true. She just didn't know what kind of weight that carried. "I always have—you know that. But..." He squeezed her hand.
"But what, Ava?" For a moment, it was so simple. Steve loved her. She loved Steve. But then reality sent them both crashing back to earth.
"But you broke up with me." It was impossible to keep all the hurt and bitterness from her voice, and her eyes stung with unwelcome tears she refused to let fall.
"If you love me so much...how could you do that? I would never have left you—not for anything."
"Ava, you don't understand. To have the person you love threatened—I mean, there were people out there set on killing you. I couldn't just...I had to take a step back. I had to let you figure out who you were as a person, and fully come into your power. It seemed, well, prudent."
Ava raised her eyebrows. "Prudent?" She had pulled off his lap by now and was sitting beside him, both of them leaning back against the bed.
"Do you hear yourself right now? You're saying you're in love with me, I'm saying I'm in love with you. But...you want to do what's prudent." His flushed.
