Recipe for Romance: A Bucky Barnes Story

22: I love you.

A/N: Little warning! Sort of smut! It ends before anything REALLY happens. Some fluff at the end of the chapter. 

-Winnie

Bucky's Turn

"How was the mission?"

I shrug lamely in response to Sadie's sweet intentioned questioning. I don't want to tell her that the two day endeavor involved me killing five men and attacking another ten. She doesn't deserve the burden of knowing what I've done. Honestly, I don't even deserve her. But I've tried so hard these past two weeks since her dad reappeared to be all that she needs. She doesn't know that I was the one to tell Tony about it all. She doesn't know that I told him to get the best lawyers involved, and she doesn't know that I made myself a promise to go to whatever lengths necessary to keep that man away from her. She doesn't know any of this, but she doesn't have to. I want her to live a worry-free life. I want her to be happy.

"That's it? Nothing else?"

"Nah, it was fine."

Sadie's pink lips let out a little puff of air. We're sitting on her bed with her head in my lap and our soaking wet clothes in a pile on the floor. We'd gone on a walk to the café across the street, but on the way back it started to pour. Our hair is still dripping onto her pillowcases. Her curls are just now springing back up from their soggy state. She's stripped down to a cute little grey bra and matching panties. I'm in my semi-dry jeans with a blanket wrapped around me. I'm not complaining that she's laying there bare. My warm hand cups her perky little ass. She rolls her eyes while I smirk.

"Weirdo," she huffs with nothing else to say. She closes her eyes as I continue to play with her soft hair. It gives me chills to touch it. It's so silky.

My eyes scan over the gentle slopes of her face—the button nose with freckles that houses the red glasses, the long ebony eyelashes dotted with dew, the loose pink lips and deep Cupid's bow, and the rosy apples of her cheeks where I want to stroke my thumb against the soft skin. "I got you something though."

Sadie's eyes pop open quickly. I nearly laugh at the child-like enthusiasm within the river water swirls. "Really?"

I nod. I pull up on the mattress slightly to reach into my back pocket. Her eyebrows eagerly lift when I place the small cinched velvet bag into her palm. She shuffles a bit upwards, body still layered on top of mine, and then eyeballs me as if to ask for permission.

Laughing, I say, "Open it."

Sadie gingerly shakes the contents of the bag into her hand. When the bracelet is revealed she smiles broader and brings it closer to her face. I feel my heart skip a beat, in a good way, when she gasps. "You were in Egypt?!"

I chuckle. It seems as though she's spotted the little Egyptian symbol on the darkest blue bead. It's a turquoise bracelet with golden gemstones strung between. I'd nearly killed myself getting it for her—seriously. I'd been picking it out in the shop when one of our targets spotted me. I had to make a quick transaction, needless to say.

"Yeah," I reply. "You like it?"

"I love it," she hums happily. She reaches up to grab my face and brings me in for a kiss. I melt into her. She tastes like bubblegum because she's always chewing on it. "Thank you, Bucky."

I smile dazedly at her while she lies back down on my lap. Her head falls onto my thigh and I resume playing with her hair. She knots the bracelet onto her left wrist then holds it up to the light. "It's beautiful." She looks up at me with those gorgeous green eyes. "I wish I could've been there. I want to go to Egypt."