Chapter 33 You have no idea.
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"This place is awesome!" Tamar's joyous squeal echoed off the cold stone walls. She hung from the outer edge of an enormous bucket loaders clam almost two hundred feet above the floor of the chamber.
Malachi's heart was in his throat just watching her. She had been jumping around the huge pieces of equipment for over an hour and showed no signs of slowing down anytime soon. He'd already had to bite his tongue several times as he'd seen her make impossible jumps over open air, with nothing to catch her if she'd missed. He knew to warn her, or try to tell her how dangerous her playing was, would have just invited her retaliation. So he'd simply watched every fiber of his being screaming for him to get her and bring her back down to where it was safe. Then he'd remembered that it was his idea to bring her here. What had he thought she'd do, just look? No, he'd known what she'd do and had hoped she would. Tamar needed a way to cut loose and expend so energy, he could tell she'd been ready to explode and she'd needed a way to tire herself out. Either that or in the bedroom, and since that was off the table for now, he'd thought this could work, and so far it had. And seeing how long she could go at something like an oversized jungle gym, her stamina was astounding. If this was what she was like here, he'd better be in top condition once the bedroom wasn't off limits or he might not be able to keep up with her.
A split second later and she was in his arms. He couldn't remember moving. He'd never even seen her fall, yet there they were, her in his arms one hundred and fifteen feet off the floor, slowly settling back down. Her giggling laugh had him thinking she's taken leave of her senses.
"What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!" He tried to scold, yet Tamar just kept on giggling, her arms wrapped around his neck.
"Now that was fun!" she yelled and jumped from his arms to the floor, which was still thirty feet below them.
The instant her feet hit the stone, she was off again, climbing another huge machine. This time, Malachi thought he'd make things more interesting.
So up the other side of the huge piece of metal he crept. Tamar was having the time of her life, scrambling, climbing, sometimes loosing her grip and sliding down sheer faces of iron. She didn't notice him crawling closer until it was too late. With a shriek, he launched himself onto her back. With one hand, he made sure she didn't fall, and with the other, he flipped her onto her back.
"Tag, you're it." With a kiss to her forehead, he was gone, leaping an impossible distance across to another mountain of steel.
"That's not fair!" Tamar shouted after him, watching him fade into the dark.
"At least he waited until I was here," she muttered, noticing she was on a horizontal cross member. "Of course he did." Tamar shook her head, chuckling. "Now where did he go, and what the hell is tag?" A tap on her shoulder had her spinning around, knowing what it came from.
"It's where I tap you, and you're 'it'. Then you try to tag me and make me 'it'." Came his voice without form.
Calming her breathing, Tamar smoothed her thoughts until they were like a still pool. Concentrating on any ripple in her mind, she caught one and held on. Her eyes snapped open, and she knew exactly where Mal was. Throwing caution to the wind, Tamar bounded up the back of a huge crane arm and launched herself into open space. At the apex of her flight, she sensed him above her and to the left. Flipping onto her back, she waved to him and plummeted.
Tamar closed her eyes, loving the feeling of free fall until two strong arms wrapped around her and she kept them closed until they were on the floor.
"Tag, you're it." She tapped him playfully on the nose and lept from his arms.
"Hey, that's not fair."
"Just about as fair as you wearing that thing." She called over her shoulder as she raced into the shadows.
For the next four hours, they played the most dangerous, combative, intimidating game of tag ever played.
"Gotcha!" Tamar screamed, launching herself into the air and landing on Malachi's back.
"You do know we're three hundred and twenty feet from the floor?" He whispered.
"What, you're worried about your balance or something?" She asked.
"No, but if you fall, you go splat, I don't. That's what I worry about."
"Am I the only thing you worry about anymore?" Tamar slipped off his back and around to his front. Where she stood, pushing herself against his chest.
"I've been worried about you from the moment I was born." His words slipped haltingly from his lips.
"What?" What in the world had he meant by that?
"My father told be when I was a young man and old enough to understand such things, that I would one day meet someone that I would feel I had known since I was born. The one that God had made just for me. I would know her more deeply than I would anyone else." He reached down, his hand cupping Tamar's cheek. "I know you more than I have anyone I've ever met, and it makes me just want to know you more. You're the one God made for me. I can feel it, I know it. I know you feel something for me, but I don't want to push. I won't push. So I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't get yourself killed playing tag, okay?"
Tamar was stunned. When Malachi talked it was mostly in mono sentences, rarely putting more than two together at a time. But this, he had just poured his heart out to her. Everything she'd been wanting to hear from him. So why was she tempted to hold back?
"Raaaaooooorrrrr!!!!!" She whirled and screamed her rage at the stone walls.
No! She would not let the General ruin this for her. The cat in her was warring against her. It's need to be alone struggling with her very human need to be loved, and loved by this man!
Tamar spun back around to a very surprised and hurt Malachi. She could see, could feel his heart breaking before her eyes and she launched herself into his chest.
"No, no, no, no no! She cried as she wrapped herself around him. "I will not let her do this to me, to us. I want you Malachi, I want to be yours, and yours alone till the end of time. But she did something to me. I'm so much cat that this is so hard for me. A part of me wants, needs to be alone and it's fighting me right now." She lifted her face to his. "Help me Mal, I need your help. You've always protected me. Now help me, help me fight myself."
And his suit was gone, one second it covered him from head to toe, the next he stood with her wrapped around him, her claws dug deep into his back until she felt the flow of blood over her finger, yet she never loosened her grip, and Malachi never flinched.
She was where she'd always wanted to be, against him, nothing in the way, her skin against his. He had nothing but a thin t-shirt and athletic shorts on, but the shirt didn't last long. A hand full of razor-sharp claws dealt with that quickly and it was falling towards the floor far below in seconds.
"Mal? Your suit, it's gone."
"Whatever you need, my darkness. I will be here for as long as you need." The arms that she'd watched tear Saltek in half wrapped around her, brought her gently to him and held her.
Her, he wanted her and only her. She still was less than positive about why he'd want someone like her, but she was willing to take the time to figure it out.
"Because the heart wants what the heart wants." His whispered words rang through her mind and she smiled and just hugged him tighter.
"How do we get down from here?" Tamar didn't trust herself to make it all the way down with her eyes as wet as they were.
With a slight hop, Malachi brought them both into open air, and free fall. In an eye blink, his suit was back, his wings arresting their decent, bringing them to a soft landing on the hard stone.
"Well, it looks like you two had a great time." Steve was standing in the doorway, his eyes darting between the two of them.
"You have no idea." Tamar told him as she walked past him, dragging Malachi by the hand.
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