Summer's End - Bucky and Mel Universe 1

Moving Forward

They seemed to be sitting there for an eternity. When she looked up at James, her eyes looked even more green due to the red of her eyes. She had circle under her eyes, and it look like she lost some weight. Had he caused her not to eat? There wasn't much to her to begin with, she was tiny compared to him. She stared up at him in thought chewing on her bottom lip.
"I want to try something," Mel said as she raised her hand and placed it against his chest and closed her eyes. She seemed to be listening for something. Worry crossed her face, sadness, then surrender. James chest felt warm, like it was the most comforting feeling her ever felt in his life. He placed his hand over top of hers, she opened her eyes.
Mel began, "If we do this, we need some ground rules. No silent treatments ever, if you get mad or annoyed, or whatever, tell me. Even is you are those things and need time to process something that is going on, let me know. If I do something wrong.."
He cut her off, "You did nothing wrong, I..."
"If I do something wrong, you need to tell me. I have walls upon walls built around my heart, for me breaking them down is painful, building them up again is even worse. They are there for a reason." This time it was her time to interrupt.
Then her stomach growled, and growled loudly. "We need to get you something to eat, what do you want to have. I'm buying." James said. "Don't try to argue."
He leaned forward and kissed her on the mouth, deeply. It was one of those kisses which you only get once in a lifetime. She leaned forward and arched her back into it, a small hum escaped her, or at least tried to. It was like fire and she wanted it to consume her completely. His arms wrapped around her bringing her in to him. Her hand that was on his chest gathered up the cloth of his Henley in her first. Her other hand came up and ran up his beard to his hair, weaving her fingers in through it. It was amazingly soft. He rocked her towards her to deepen it even more a growl escaping from him she ended up sitting in his lap because of her size. She was amazingly light, too light James thought.
"If you could eat anything in the world right now, what would it be?" He asked.
"Don't laugh, pizza. With lots of meet, no anchovies or onions. Don't care about whether it's thin or thick crust. And a sweet tea. Their comfort food."
"I think I can handle that. I know a place near here," James grabbed her hand kissing it, then he set her on her feet. Yes, she is way too light, she needs to eat something. Pizza and sweet tea would definitely cover that. "However, we are going to order it to go and take it back to your place."
"My place?" She asked, as he put her under his arm as they walked.
"Your place," he repeated as they walked.
Mel didn't know if she was ready to bring him back to her place. Yet anyway. In the grand scheme of things, this would be technically a third date and a third date constituted something she was not ready for at all. "How about I meet you halfway and we go above my place?" She said.
"What do you mean?"
"You'll see."
While waiting for the pizza to be ready, James received a text from Sam.
How is it going? Sam
So far, so good. Getting a pizza and going back to her place. James
WTF Sam.
Above her place she said. So I have no idea. James.
Dude, slow down with her. You might cause her to explode. Sam
Ha ha, very funny. James
Mel noticed James checking his phone, "Hot date?" She teased.
"Darlin, the only hot date I have is you."
"Is this what it is? A date?"
"I would like to think so, why shouldn't it be?"
"Just curious. By the way, I don't make it a habit to randomly cry in front of people and have them take me out for something to eat or to cry after we go out to eat." Mel still felt like she was on egg shells around him. She wanted to do the right thing.
"Oh dear, you found me out, I love making people cry and taking them out to eat. What will be do?"
"Thank you captain sarcasm," Mel joked as she swatted him playfully on the arm.
"I also don't bring many people back to my place, so you know. Especially, people who I don't know's last name. What is it by the way?" It was true, he realized, he never did tell her his last name. He had all the information on her and nothing on him.
"Barnes."
"Hmm, James Barnes,"she pondered, rolling it through her mouth felt like heaven to James' ears. He wanted to hear her say his name and often. Eventually, he wanted her screaming her name in bed, but that would have to wait. Let's do this right, he thought. When he picked her up earlier, she felt light as a bird. Perhaps, that was how he should approach things, like he was dealing with a bird.
"Very American," she added.
"Well, not like Mel Cymraeg," he added. "What is Mel short for?"
"Melinda. Kind of hard to pick your own name. I didn't pick either. The nuns at the orphanage did when they found me." She continued, their order was ready and they started walking their way back to her apartment. "Melinda coming from a goddess of bees, intuition, and honey. Lucky for me it wasn't Mary or Margret, or something biblical, no offense, it just isn't me. Cymraeg means Welsh, they were naming the orphans that came in under different nationalities that year, English, German, French, etc. Everyone gets my first name wrong thinking it is Melissa, so I shortened it. Very, very few people know why first name is Melinda and even fewer use it."
"I like it, it's unusual, I think it suits you better than Mel."
"I use Mel because most people thing I'm a guy when they see it on forms and things. Less likely to be harassed or have someone break into my apartment if they think a guy lives there."
Already knowing the answer, "Have that happen before?"
"Yes, a few times when I worked for the government as a contractor and advisor. Not much I could do about it when you were being stalked by those who can just look up your records anything they felt like it." Oooh, this one stung. He would definitely have to tell Sam not to say anything about reconning her just to be safe. Wow, he was already thinking about when to introduce him to those he worked with. He never really thought of a woman like this in his life before.
When they got to Mel's apartment, they took the elevator instead of the stairs. "Don't laugh, I have the unit across the hall as a studio. Trust me when deadlines hit, it is certainly helpful."
He noticed she didn't use a key or a code to open her door but had a fob. More secure than the usual apartment, James thought, he liked that his girl was taking care of herself. His girl, hopefully, she thought of him as his guy he thought. "I'm going to grab some plates, glasses, and things and we can head up."
"Head up?"
"Yeah, I have access to the roof, it's a nice night, trust me." Even in heels she had to tippy toe to reach the cabinets above the counter to get some paper plates and glasses. She also was quick about grabbing a bag of something else that he didn't get a chance to look into. She had left her backpack on the couch.
"Wow, it is really nice, did you decorate it?"
"I wish I could take credit for it, however, my adoptive parents left me everything and a trust. For the two years I had with them, they tried to give a lifetime of love. Then they were gone."
He looked around, noticed electronics but not tv, she had a well stocked library, work area, a thing that looked like curtains that hung from the ceiling of this large area, and of course, the piano.
"You play?" He asked, he noticed there was no sheet music there.
"Yes, mom was a pianist. I'll play something for you next time." So there will be a next time he thought, yes! "Come on, it's a nice night."
They walked down the hall to the stairs and she opened the door leading up. She flipped a switch so the twinkle lights on the arbor came on above the patio furniture. The vines from this year's flowers were drying. But still had a great deal of green in them. They gave off a glowy effect. She sat items down on the table in front of the chez lounge and couch, lit the candles, and set up the outdoor heater.
"Wow, this took a lot of work, built most of it myself with my dad, here look at this." James put the pizza down, they walked a little further and came to a pigeon coop. Inside were pigeons and also doves. "One of my dad's hobbies was pigeon racing. He kept the doves for my mom who thought they were prettier. I just like the way they sound."
"Thank you." James said.
"For what?"
"For showing me all this, sharing things with me, and ....," he began.
"Luring you into my evil liar?" Mel joked, raising an eyebrow.
"Huh?"
"Nothing, just joking around."
"I was going to say allowing me to kill you but...,"
"Oh god in heaven," Mel answered acting like she was clutching her pearls.
"I love that you are smart and sassy. And can take as good as you get." James responded. His phone pinged but he ignored it.
They sat down to eat the pizza, while Mel had had pizza from different places, this was one of the best she had. She sat cross legged on the cushion.
"So, you got a lot about me, what about you?"
"Well, what would you like to know?"
"You said you worked for the government, mergers and acquisitions and travel a lot. Favorite place you have gone?"
"I would say Bucharest."
"What made Bucharest special?" Here it goes, what to say without giving too much away.
"There seems always something exciting to do there, lots of activity."
She took a drink of her tea, she had a straw in it but she held it to the side with her finger as she drank.
"Why do you do that?" James asked.
"What?"
"Hold your drink like that?"
"I don't know, I have always have done it." She took a bite of her pizza to keep from saying more. She didn't like straws, it looked like someone was smoking when they used them and she hated smokers. Some sauce got on her cheek and she didn't notice.
"How old are you," James asked.
"I honestly don't know. They said I was 13 when I was found on the steps of the orphanage, but the could be wrong. Just like my name, it's really not my name, just something someone decided to give me instead of saying hey you all the time. What I would put on an official form if I had to fill out on today would be 40. It's just a number though. Why how old are you?"
"Sometimes I feel like I'm over 100."
"I hear you. What is your favorite sport?"
"Soccer."
"To watch, lacrosse. To do, swimming."
"Favorite book?"
"Pick a genre, you might as well asked me who my favorite student was."
"Epic."
"That is easy Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, that sort of thing."
"I loved The Hobbit. Which school do you work for?"
"It's down the street, the Haven International School for the Gifted. Tomorrow, I'm helping with decorating after school. "
"Decorating for what?"
"We have this annual costume party/dance thing for the kids. They design their own costumes, nothing can be store bought. I'm chaperoning Friday night."
"Mind if I stop by tomorrow to help?"
"Not at all, you'll have to swing by the office to fill out some forms to be on campus though. I get off at 3, you can get there anytime after that to help. A word of warning, the forms take like a hour to fill out. It's for the kids safety. It would be nice to have a positive male role model around for them."
"Positive male role model?"
"Yes, most of the staff are women. And a lot of the families are there are on scholarships with single parents, raised by family members, a lot of new comers to the country."
"Oh, ok. No problem, come here a sec." She got up and crawled over to him, god that was hot, he thought. He almost forgot what he wanted to do. "You got something right here." He pointed to his own face. "No, no, the other side."
"Oh, did I get it?"
"No, right here," James raised his hand wrapping his fingers around her jaw and swiped the sauce off her cheek and across her lips. He started to swipe his thumb back the other way, when she closed her eyes and allowed his thumb to enter her mouth. She gently took it in and sucked the sauce off of it making a mmmmm sound. Then slowly she allowed him to remove his thumb. God she was so hot for him. If only he knew she wanted him as badly as he wanted her. She was on her knees on the chez lounge in front of him. He stood over her, cupped her other cheek with his other hand, bent down and deeply kissed her. She arched and tried to stand up to make herself reach him better, but couldn't. He wouldn't let her. He gently pushed her back, not letting her lips go and straddled her, pushing her down ever so slowly
The kissed, they fondled, but it never got past that. It was hot, it was heavy. It left her breathless, wanting more, and oh so dizzy.
"Did you like that," he whispered.
She nuzzled his beard along his jaw. God he smelled so good. Her core burned, it had been so long since she had felt tenderness and love. She squirmed underneath of him. His cock was straining his jeans and pressed against her stomach.
"Where do you think you are going," he said coyly.
"No where, I'm right where I want to be right now." She looked up through her lashes. He brushed the hair from her face as she closed her eyes and arched her back. Clearly, wanting more. He would deny her this, much to her frustration. He wanted to do things slowly, he didn't know she did as well but he was so damn tempting. He rolled so she was now beside him, and they were both looking at the fire.
James began by stroking her arm so slowly, gently, barely touching her. He as kissing her neck and behind her ear. Mmmm escaped her lips.
"That feels amazing," she said sleepily. It was getting late.
He grabbed the blanket that they brought up with them and flung it overtop of the both of them. His hand going under the blanked, then underneath her sweater to her stomach. His thumb doing little circles just below her naval. Both hands caressing her slowly. The music on the speakers was slow, quiet and so relaxing. In a few minutes she was out like a light. It was the safest Mel had felt in years. It would also be the best sleep she had in decades. Or at least since Eric.
"It's getting late." She whispered. "You should go."
"Do you want me to go?"
"No. Stay." And with that she was out.
James loved being there with her. She was so tiny compared to him. A real treasure, something to be protected. He inhaled deeply, ginger. She stirred, turning over to snuggle deeper into his chest, resting a hand on his beard. With that he slowly fell asleep with her on the roof.
Hours passed before Matt landed. He walked over and was surprised to see Mel had fallen asleep on the roof. Not that it hadn't happened before, he didn't want her to get hurt. When he came over to the lounge, he sensed someone else was there as well. There was no sign of alcohol, but the two were out. His jaw ticked, and he left.