The Ghost [Marvel | Steve Rogers]

Chapter 59

Somewhere over the Atlantic

Spring 2016

"We're approaching coordinates," Nadine said briskly, glancing from her screen at the navigator's station to Steve where he sat in the pilot's seat.

"Copy," Steve acknowledged, leaning forward to adjust the controls and prepare the Quinjet to switch over from its regular flight to vertical flight modes before deactivating the jet's stealth mode.

Nadine inhaled deeply, centering herself for what was coming.

Their assault on the Raft.

All in all, the basic framework for the rough plan she and Steve had come up with on the way to Vienna had proven sound. And with that framework to build on, her preparations had gone smoothly—a few of the backdoors she'd snuck into Stark's own systems in the Quinjet more than proving their worth—as had their final refinement of their strategy once they'd both gotten some rest. It mercifully hadn't taken quite so much work as Nadine had feared to finalize their plan of attack to their mutual satisfaction.

All that, of course, once they'd reluctantly extricated themselves from each other's arms following a different sort of satisfaction altogether.

It had been far harder than Nadine had expected to pull herself from the refuge she'd found in Steve's embrace after the passion they'd shared. She hadn't planned on falling asleep beside him any more than she had planned for what they'd done to happen in the first place. But planned or not, even with the knowledge that she probably should've been focusing on other things, she couldn't regret giving in and letting it happen for even a moment. Not when it left her feeling...

She didn't have words.

Their time together had been important too.

She'd needed it. And he'd needed it.

It had been precious and incredible and theirs.

It had still certainly been about physical fulfilment too, that was for sure. Her body was still humming with contentment even hours later, so there was no question there. But it hadn't just been about the way he'd made her body sing as they moved together, or how she'd brought him undone, her name on his lips. It had been...more than that.

No, astonishing as it seemed for Nadine to realize, being with Steve had been so much more than just a means to placate her base desires as so many of her past experiences had been. They'd just fit together, and not just in the physical sense that their bodies seemed made for each other. It had been...healing, for both of them. Reassuring. An...affirmation, even. It had been a manifestation her growing feelings for him and his for her, expressed in every touch...every look, every gasp, every kiss—in everything they had shared together in a way she had never anticipated.

Shared in a way that she rather doubted she'd ever be able to express with something so mundane as words.

She'd never known it could be like that.

It had been...

Promise.

The promise that with him she had found something...real.

The promise that he had no intention of letting her go.

The promise of a...future. Together.

The promise that she was no longer alone.

That neither of them was alone, anymore.

And that was everything.

And because of that, it had been hard—so hard—to accept that the moment had to end.