Title: A Midnight Clear, part three of five

Authors: gilliebeans and charlie_bz

Description: Mal and Inara make a date.

Rating: This one is approaching R territory.

Disclaimer: Characters aren’t ours.

Authors’ Note: Sorry for the delay! Holiday festivities impeded with our holiday story.

__________________________________________________________

"Because I wanted you to kiss me." The words hung in the cold air. Inara gazed at Mal, clear eyed, allowing her eyes to show more of her than she had ever shown another person. Everything was different. She couldn’t keep herself from touching him so she contented herself with rearranging his scarf, wanting to prolong their physical contact in whatever manner available.

“You did, did you?” Mal’s head dipped down closer to hers. His voice was soft, intimate. Devastatingly sexy. Oh, Gods, the man could kiss. She was dizzy from it, dizzy and overheated even out here in the snow, and she desperately wanted another. She tried to remember that Serenity was close, the crew even closer, but she was irresistibly drawn to him.

"I did." Watching him smile, this new smile over their secret, wasn't something she was getting tired of anytime soon. She would tarry over the scarf, she decided. She needed an excuse to linger, didn’t want to leave the cold winter night for the comfort of Serenity. It was some consolation to her that he seemed just as reluctant to move as her but the sounds of the crew grew closer.

She shrugged, smiling at him. She patted the front of his scarf. "Shall we?"

It hit her, cold and merciless, forcing her eyes closed with the shock. The sting traveled harshly down her neck, across her scalp and into her ear. Inara gasped, heard Mal's roar of outrage. And another voice, familiar even through the snow that had filled her ear.

"Oh, God, Inara! I'm so sorry!" Simon had sprinted up to her, following the trajectory of his fatally misthrown snowball.

She nodded, scooping wet snow out of her collar. Mal stepped closer, wrapping his arm around