10 pm
a/n: hello!! this idea just popped into my head so I hope you enjoy it! i know i always love me some soft ethan ❤️
words: 2k
warnings: soft smut, nsfw
summary: It was 10 pm when he walked through the door of his apartment, his feet aching and his ears uncomfortable with the silence.
tagging(also i completely lost my tag list when i went mia so i apologize if i forgot to tag you): @anotherbeingsworld @theeccentricbibliophile @mvalentine
#
It was 10 pm when he walked through the door of his apartment, his feet aching and his ears uncomfortable with the silence. Dalia was supposed to be through with her own shift in half an hour, which meant she would be home in forty-five minutes. He ran through the timeline in his head and decided to wait twenty minutes for dinner, giving him twenty minutes to throw his bag down and take a quick shower to wash off the stress of the day. There was so much incompetent sandwhiched into his shift that he really felt the only way to get rid of it was to wash it all down the drain.
He was about 75% of the way through dinner when he heard her key in the door, Dalia’s face appearing for a flash just before shutting the door. Whenever she came home to him cooking, she would always say, “Mm! Smells good.”
“Mm! Smells good.” He smiled. “Hello, Chef Ramsey,” she teased, placing her own bag next to his. He smiled even bigger and looked towards her, grin bright as she started to take off her shoes.
“Hello,” was his simple greeting, more communicated in the single word than most can put in a ten minute speech. She soaked in the underlying layers and walked towards him, finally barefoot.
“How was work?”
“How is it that so much ineptitude can still exist in someone who went to school for eight years?”
She winced and placed a hand on his cheek. “That bad, huh?” He only hummed his response and leaned into her touch. “Well, I’m going to shower, so I’ll be right out, yeah?” He nodded and watched her go before turning back to the pasta.
When she returned, he’d made two bowls with a fork sticking out of each. She grabbed the bowl that said DR. RAMSEY across the front while he grabbed the one that said DR. BLAESE, each a Christmas gift from their coworkers that they had since switched after spending so much time at Ethan’s place. He watched her fondly as she hopped up on the counter to eat hers, playfully straightening her back since it made her just an inch taller than him.
“Haha!” she said, slurping down a forkful of noodles.
“You’re a real giant,” he deadpanned, gracefully eating his own food in stark contrast to her messy approach.
“Meanie.” He only offered a sly smile in response, eyeing her bare legs as she kicked them out childishly. He was always amazed at her optimism and how she hadn’t completely broken down at this point in her career after seeing so many horrible things. She always stood tall (but never taller than him) and rolled with the punches, turning them into opportunities at every turn. He must have been staring, because she cocked her head. “Ethan?”
“Hm?” He was pulled out of his thoughts by her concerned gaze, running over his eyes, his nose, his lips, his stubble before returning back to his eyes.
“Are you alright?”
“No,” he admitted, still feeling weighed down by the day. “But I feel better with you here.” He was trying to be more honest about his feelings lately, unwilling to live through any more misunderstandings or pining that came with him shutting Dalia out; he decided that he would write down every thought that crossed his mind for the rest of his life if he got to see the way her face lit up at his confession, a slight red forming on her cheeks at his unexpected straightforwardness concerning his emotions. She looked away and then back at him almost bashfully, as if she were confronting a boy she had a crush on instead of a man she was dating.
“Thank you.” Finished, they both placed their bowls in the sink and Ethan wrapped his arm around Dalia’s waist to help her down. She didn’t really need it, but the warmth of his skin on hers was something she couldn’t find within herself to reject. Dalia takes her place in front of the sink to wash, comfortable with Ethan’s elbow brushing hers as he dried each dish she handed off to him.
It was a routine that never had a set time with their erratic shift schedules, but the overall domesticity of it all still made Dalia’s heart beat faster in her chest. She was sure that she and Ethan were meant to be together, and she had no doubt that she would scream yes to the heavens if he asked her to marry him right then and there, but even without those thoughts swirling in her mind, she knew she was happy. Even if they didn’t get married or have kids or go through the normal path of life, she knew she was happy with coming home to a very sexy and very secretly sweet man cooking her dinner, and she knew she was happy with washing the dishes and flicking water on him to tease him.
“Hey!” he whined, his deep voice and tone mismatched. She let out a loud laugh and threw her head back, leaving herself vulnerable for his own spritz of water that he showered her with. It evolved into a mini water fight, both lovers giggling like school children on either side of their makeshift war, using washcloths and sponges to increase their damage. Finally, Dalia found a white rag and raised it high, waving it with two fingers.
“I surrender!”
Delighted, Ethan yelled victoriously, “The Ramsey Army prevails!” before sweeping her up in his arms, pressing his wet body to her own as he lifted her small frame. Used to the strength he loved to exhibit for her, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist, locking her ankles to keep her steady despite knowing he would never let her fall. “What’s my reward?”
She knew what he wanted, but she still leaned back and tapped her chin. “Hmm…” Her long hum faltered when he pressed an open-mouthed kiss to her neck. “Seems you’re already taking it.”
“So you’re my reward?”
“Is it suitable?” She took his face in her hands and squeezed his cheeks once before letting him speak.
“Is it suitable? I believe this is the best reward I’ve ever received in my life.”
“Well, you’ve lived a long time; I wouldn’t go around saying hyperbolic things like that,” she teased, her joke prompting his fingers to dig into her sides. She squirmed and giggled, laughs reverberating in his ears and stored in his mind for later.
“Keep in mind that this old man is currently carrying you. Effortlessly, I might add.”
“You’re the one who brought up the ‘o’ word,” Dalia reminded, raising her palms and eyebrows. He quieted her with a soft kiss to her lips, easily moving against her as if he’d been doing it since the beginning of time. Honestly, that’s how he felt with Dalia; with her, time seemed to stretch and fly by at the same time, brought on by her quick wit and his praying for each moment with her to last forever. The kiss melted the tension in his shoulders and cleared his mind, and it quickly turned more and more passionate with each movement of her body against his.
“I want you, Dalia.”
“I’m yours to take, Ethan.” Each word wasn’t hurried or whispered; they knew they had all the time in the world that night. He hugged her closer without the urgency of a time constraint or the panic of being caught by a coworker. Tonight, it was just Ethan and Dalia together in an apartment, living for each other and stretching each moment ‘til it was a lifetime. He walked them both to the couch and sat heavily on it, relaxing immediately with her in his arms and pressed to him. He briefly pulled away from her and placed two thumbs on her cheeks, rubbing the hill of the bone there.
“I love you, Dalia.”
She offered a dopey smile that was all teeth, her mind hazy and drunk off his kisses. “I love you, too, Ethan.”
#
At 11:30 pm, he thrust up into her for the first time of the night but surely not the last. She was tight around him and he moaned at the feeling of how easily she swallowed his cock, her nails digging into his bare shoulders and her breasts perky in front of his face. He took advantage of his position and wrapped his mouth around the pretty bud, holding her bare back when she gasped.
He had always loved her back; the way her muscles would flex under her warm skin was so hypnotizing. He also was reminded of the many mornings he would wake up to her naked back facing him as she slept next to him, a firm reminder that even though she was turned away, it wasn’t because she was leaving.
Despite his fascination with the back of her body, he had to say that his favorite side was her front. Her features distort with the pleasure he was giving her; the firm flesh of her breasts in his hands and mouth; the way his cock slid in and out of her like they were made for each other. All of it was a testament to how she was real in his arms and around him and in front of him and everywhere, which is exactly where he wanted her to be.
He bit a trail of hickeys up the swell of her breast to her throat, biting the places he knew would make her yelp and wail. The moment he placed a thumb wet with his spit onto her clit, she was pushed over the edge with a moan of his name, sounding every bit divine as it reached his ears.
He looked up at her when she did cum, her eyes rolling back and her mouth wide to let the sounds fall unobstructed. She’d been good about that recently; she never used to be loud until he seemed to make it his personal mission to draw out the most sinful noises with just his fingers or mouth. He enjoyed being the one to collapse her to that state of complete and utter uncaringness of her din, instead being only focused on drawing out her pleasure because it, in turn, prolonged his.
“Dalia!” he groaned, fingers tightening on her hips as he drove his own up into her. She sat on his cock and ground down when he released into her, keeping him sheathed as he painted her walls white. She was shuddering and trembling with the feeling of being so full of him, resting her head on his shoulder to somehow be even closer than she already was. Her breath was hot on his neck and he clasped his hands behind her, just holding her as they both calmed down from their highs.
A hand came up to rub at his stubble, nails gently running over the coarse hair that covered the lower half of his face and gave him the rugged look she loved so much. She had teased him endlessly when he cut it after coming back from the Amazon since it had only taken a simple comment from her to get him to shave it down. Despite him swearing up and down that he wasn’t ‘whipped’ for her, they both knew it couldn’t be farther from the truth.
“Want to go to bed?”
“You’re so warm, though.” She shifted on him and he hummed, leaning his head on hers.
“I can stay inside.”
“We’ll be gross in the morning.” He grabbed her face in his hand and gently turned it to face him.
“All the more reason to shower together.”
She smiled, the picture slightly deformed because of her cheeks being held. “Dr. Ramsey, you are a genius.”
