Well here y’all go! In honor of Valentines Day here is the first spicy thing I’ve ever written. Please be forgiving with me, lol.
“Let’s get lost in this wonderland. See it all, we don’t need a plan. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen…just a thing of beauty” - Danger Twins
CW- NSFW
Life as a new mom was harder than Aelin expected. Her body ached with new pains and looked unfamiliar to her, the toned athletic form she’d cultivated as a teenager was now pockmarked and softer. Lined with remnants of the battle it took to bring her daughter into the world. Shadows curtained her eyes. Sleeplessness was second nature to her, but even after birth her body was still what sustained Adelia which sapped her energy.
Rowan most days looked equally as tired. With the shift of the command structure he’d taken on a lot of responsibility with little preparation. It astounded Aelin how quickly he’d shifted into so many new roles. Husband. Father. Chief. He took it in stride and excelled, but at night, he would still fall into bed beside her like the weight of the world was holding him there. But, a couple months later, she noticed a stark change in his behavior.
Aelin first became suspicious when she saw her husband scrolling on his phone. Rowan hardly ever touched the device if it wasn’t for work or a member of their surrogate family reaching out. From the way his eyes drifted across the screen, she knew he was reading and Aelin could make out the tell-tale reflection of a search engine in his blue light glasses. It was strange. He didn’t have any pressing cases to fret over and a passing glance at his calendar confirmed that he wasn’t due for a performance review.
She plopped down on the couch beside him and leaned her head against his shoulder. Rowan stiffened and quickly changed the screen before she could see what he’d been looking at.
“What were you reading?” she gently prodded.
“Fenrys still hasn’t quite got the hang of the new paperwork and I was reviewing it for him.”
If Aelin wasn’t so familiar with Rowan, she wouldn’t have been able to sense the lie. It was ironic she fell in love with someone so opposite of herself but so alike. He was a stickler for the rules but there was a showman inside of him that could rival Celaena.
But they hadn’t gotten this far by not trusting each other. So, Aelin let the conversation drop. If it was important, she knew he wouldn’t keep it a secret from her.
The second clue that he was up to something was when she noticed a rather large withdrawal from their shared bank account.
Rowan simply did not make impulse purchases. Not without telling her. He would fret over buying boxers from the supermarket or sparing a few extra dollars to buy the fancier sets from an actual clothing retailer- let alone the several hundred dollars that were now missing. Aelin was the one prone to splurges, especially when it came to Dell. It pricked her curiosity, but she figured he would fess up sooner rather than later.
It wasn’t like she was mad. That was their shared funds to do with as they pleased, and they were by no means strapped for the money.
Still, it bothered Aelin that he hadn’t at least approached her before making that kind of purchase. She resigned herself to the fact that they would have to talk when he got home. Which wasn’t something she was looking forward to.
Her day had been rough. Adelia had a cold and was in a rather unagreeable mood. She’d fussed through the night, and was fighting her nap. Neither of them were rested, and no one had prepared Aelin for how miserable it was to see your baby unwell.
Despite the looming coveratuon, she was eager for Rowan to come home. Maybe his magic touch would settle Dell long enough for her to get some rest. She’d just gotten Dell reasonably calm and content when Rowan blew through the front door like a hurricane.
Aelin straightened to kindly ask why the hell he thought he could enter their home like that, but he didn’t even stop to acknowledge her. Rowan hung his blazer on the hook by the door, and ignored Dell’s crooned greeting from the baby jail entirely. Aelin’s temper spiked when he brushed past her and grew when stamped down the hall without taking his boots off.
The damn phone pressed to his ear.
She was prepared to charge after him and demand to know what was going on, but froze when she realized where he was going. Aelin opened her mouth to warn him against slamming their bedroom door, but it was too late. It jarred against the frame, the loud noise topped with her daddy’s lack of attention tipped her formerly happy baby over the edge.
Aelin stared at her daughter with a pleading expression, her head ached and she’d been enjoying her brief moment of silence.
It was to no avail.
Dell’s glossy doe-eyes welled and she shook the mesh sides of her playpen with fury. A splitting scream pierced through Aelin’s brain as Adelia fell back on her bottom and dissolved into a weepy, trembling ball of crocodile tears. Her poor child had inherited her mother’s flare for dramatics. Sometimes Aelin wondered if it was payback for her childhood temper or if Sam had a hidden diva streak she hadn’t been aware of.
Aelin swept a crying Dell into her arms and shushed her. “Baby, it’s all okay. You were happy just five seconds ago, and I’m sure Daddy is sorry for spooking you.”
Dell melted into her mother’s grip with tiny hiccups, a bubble of spit already wetting her shoulder. Aelin could feel frustrated tears welling in her own eyes. “If you keep crying, Mommy is going to have to make Daddy cry too. You hear that? I’ll dump out his coffee and buy a lower shower head.”
Aelin swayed and Dell’s whimpers softened ever so slightly as if she was keen to hear more. Go figure.
“We can cut the bottom three inches off all of his work pants or break the windshield of his car and make Uncle Fen drive him to work. How about it? Let’s make his week as difficult as ours has been.” Aelin listed her empty threats knowing it probably did more to make her feel better than Dell, but the sound of her voice was soothing her anyways. Her eyes were starting to droop, and Aelin used the sleeve of her shirt to wipe her nose when a shadow fell over them.
“Are you trying to get our infant daughter to conspire against me?” A pair of lean arms wrap around her midsection and a peck is pressed to her cheek. Rowan’s voice is tired and he grips her as if trying to ground himself.
Aelin snorts making it clear he’s not out of the woods, “One is never too young to learn about payback.”
Rowan grunts his agreement, peering over her shoulder look at Dell. He sways with them , and damn it to hell if it wasn’t relaxing. Aelin lets herself sink against him as he whispers in her ear. “An apology is in order.”
“Yes it is,” Aelin says without hesitation. “I haven’t had a moment of peace all day.”
“No-” he interrupts. “I mean, I am sorry I disturbed Dell, but I meant about Valentine's Day. I tried to arrange something for the two of us, but Fen got stuck with someone else's shift and can’t babysit.”
“Valentine’s Day?” The words felt strange coming out of her mouth, Dell’s babbles fading softly as her head lolls with her mother’s swaying. “That’s this month?”
Rowan looked at her with surprise, “It’s today.”
“Today?” she repeated shocked. A memory of checking Rowan’s work calendar and noticing a circled date hangs on the fringes of her memory. Time flew fast as a mother. Days blurred and she really lived for the weekends when Rowan would be home. Trips to take care of the The Stag aside, Aelin didn’t get out of the house much with Dell still being so little. Not to mention, Rowan didn’t strike her as someone who would celebrate Valentine’s Day at all.
Aelin wasn’t even sure she was that kind of person,
“Yes,” Rowan spins her around to look her in the eye. “I thought we’d go out tonight, do something fun. I bought tickets to the Symphony but without anyone to watch Dell-“ he trailed off apologetically. “It was going to be a surprise.”
“Oh,” Aelin suddenly felt stupid. The thought to do something for him hadn’t even crossed her mind, and he’d been quietly planning a special outing just for her. It explained the missing money and his sudden interest in his phone. All of effort he must have expended sent a rush of warmth through Aelin’s chest.
Rowan sighed and lifted a half dozing Adelia into his arms. Dell melted willingly, and Aelin pursed her lips from the unfairness. She was such a daddy’s girl.
“I was going to come home tonight, and tell you to get dressed up. We’d go out for dinner and then the symphony to listen to the Stygian Suite. When we came home, we’d have the house to ourselves.” He carded calloused fingers through Dell’s soft tufts of brown hair.
“We never really got the chance to date before she came along. Not in the normal sense of the word, anyway. I thought that I could make tonight special and take you out in the way you deserved, but I blew it.” He looks at Aelin and the disappointment on his face breaks her heart. “I’m sorry.”
Aelin grabs his face and pulls it down to her’s so she can kiss him. “Don’t be sorry. It sounded like the perfect evening. You are so considerate, sometimes I don’t understand what I did to wind up with a man like you.”
He snorts and stands back to his full height, “Well it didn’t quite pan out, but maybe we can order dinner in and have a family night instead.”
A soft snore puffs from their sleeping daughter, her hands unclenches and laying flat against the plains of Rowan’s chest. An idea sparks in Aelin, and a thrill of mischief wells up inside her. “You said we’d have the house to ourselves when we came back?”
“Yeah, Fen was going to keep her for the night.” Rowan grimaces at the shift back towards his failed plan. “Why?”
A smirk curls her mouth, “What exactly were you planning to do with me when we got home?”
“Aelin,” Rowan lowered his voice and nodded downwards at the baby, “as much as I would love too, we can’t.”
“She’s been feeling poorly and unable to rest.” Aelin carefully lifts Dell from his arms. “You’ve put her right to sleep, she’ll probably stay this way for several hours. You’ve planned such a thoughtful evening, maybe we can salvage the end?”
Rowan stiffens, but she can feel the anticipation radiating between them. The tilt of his chin and the way his fingers curl, Aelin can tell he wants this as much as she does.
“Go get comfortable. I’ll put Dell down then me and you are due for an evening to ourselves.”
~~~
It doesn’t take long to bundle Adelia up in her sleep sack and flip on the baby monitor. Her daughter is dead to the world, but still, Aelin is extra careful to tiptoe away quietly.
Her feet are barely across the threshold to her and Rowan’s bedroom when a pair of arms snatch her around the waist.
“There you are,” Rowan whispers in her ear and Aelin gasps. He holds her tightly, and she can feel a stiffness against her lower back betraying his excitement.
A low moan escapes from her throat and he shushes her. “You’ve got to be quiet Fireheart, we don’t want to wake the baby. Can you do that for me?”
“Maybe?” Aelin answers coyly.
Hot kisses leave their impression on the side of her neck as one hand skims beneath her shirt and the other grips the hair at the base of her skull. Cold. Rowan's hands were was always so cold. They chilled her flushed skin in an almost addictive way- like drinking lemonade on a summer's afternoon.
Aelin busies herself with undoing his belt and freeing Rowan from his denim constraints. His jeans and boxers collapsed into their growing pile of clothes. Rowan guides her away from the mess and towards the bed without releasing her. The grip he has in her hair tightening, and Aelin's eyes widen with surprise.
“I believe you were planning on causing me some mischief?” Rowan croons in a way that makes a pleasant shiver run down her spine. “What are we going to do about that?”
“Whatever you want,” she whispers back.
A fire builds in Aelin's blood, and her heart is a metronome in her chest. Guns, battle, and running along rooftops were less exhilarating than the sight of the man whose body was creeping up to cover hers. The low light cast his hair like a white flame, and his eyes gleamed with something primal and almost adoring when they peered into her's.
Aelin hummed as his weight settled gently over her lax form. Rowan traced the arch of a cheek down her throat across the twin scars along her collar bone. Lower. When they met their mark and tweaked, Aelin gasped, her chest arching into Rowan's.
He chuckles lowly and kisses her lips softly, nipping at her pout as his hands trace the soft undersides of her breasts, then over the top, memorizing the feel of them in his hands.
Not to be outdone, Aelin hands search his body eagerly. He was like iron and silk. Plains of muscle and rough skin, ragged scars tell the stories of a man who was used to discomfort. Just as her own skin was the tapestry of a life she'd fought hard to keep, who Rowan had fought to preserve. Her fingers felt the ridges where shrapnel from the car bomb had torn, and her tongue traced the marks on his neck. When his hands shifted, and Aelin felt something sink into her, crook inside of her, she bit down.
Rowan shuddered, but it wasn't enough. Her hands wandered lower, delved between them, and when she released the skin between her teeth, she quickly sought a new spot to leave her mark. They both gasp when Aelin's hand wraps around his length. A choked noise escaped from Rowan that painted a feral grin on Aelin's face, her hands moving in time with his.
A sharp jolt of heat has her closing her legs over his hand, but he stops her with a growl. Sitting back on his thighs, she moans as he removes his fingers and squeezes her thigh, and Aelin could feel her face heat with urgent desperation.
"Please," she rasped. A rattling breath trickled from her as Rowan wiped a tear from her face with a damp finger. She hadn't even noticed her eyes watering or the building emotion welling up inside her.
His eyes roamed her face, searching for any true discomfort. They soften as he leans back down to kiss her forehead. "Please what, Fireheart?"
More tears escape from frustration or overwhelming joy? She doesn't know. Aelin never wore her heart on her sleeve, but Rowan saw through her like he always had.
He saw everything she was and wasn't afraid.
"Please," Aelin whispers again, feeling every one of his caresses and whispered nothings down to the soul. They broke her open. Fanned the flames of this thing ever growing between them, the thing they'd tried so hard to ignore. Her heart didn't know what to do with the messy emotions, so her eyes welled up and overflowed.
Rowan was so gentle with her as he settled into position. "Please, what?"
Aelin laces her hands around the back of his neck, "I need you. Rowan. I need you now."
He sinks into her with a single, languid thrust. Aelin's heart stumbles in her chest, and she twines her ankles around him to steady herself. When he reaches a stop, his chest is heaving he looks her directly in the eye. "I need you too, Fireheart."
Rowan thrusts, and Aelin's grip tightens at the sudden change of pace. It's intense. Rowan is passionate, and she wouldn't have him any other way. He gives a part of himself to her that no one else gets to see when they are joined like this and vice versa. It's a union of body and soul.
Aelin's body rocks hard against the mattress, mumbling encouragements incoherently as Rowan finds the spot between her legs that send stars to her eyes. She tenses around him, and he hisses.
He gives her his full weight then. Hands creep back up her body to press down on her shoulders, and his delve harder into hers. "I love you, Aelin."
"I love you, too."
Aelin closes her eyes at the ragged pace as they crest their peaks one after the other. Rowan hovers for a moment before falling beside her, an arm gathering her to his side.
They soak in the moment. Rowan kisses her lips, her cheek, then nuzzles his face into the crown of her hair. Aelin grasps his hand and brings it to rest over her heart. She squeezed it, trying to convey so much through a single touch.
Aelin tilts her chin to look at Rowan, finding him already watching her with a fond, sleepy expression. She kisses the top of their joined hands, "I love you."
He pulls her, so she's half on top of him, head under his chin where he knows she likes to sleep. Safe. Protected. Loved. "To whatever end, Fireheart."
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL
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