Simon looked good without a shirt on. Real good.

No, Kaylee decided quickly. Good didn't even begin to describe how he looked. Watching him reach up over his head to tighten a bolt, watching the muscles in his back ripple under his sweat-dampened skin, she found her mind wandering far away from the engine.

Which, she had to admit, was really saying something about just how fine he really looked.

'Hell with this.' She thought, dropping the wrench she'd been holding. Crossing the room, she stood behind him for a moment, then slowly slid her arms around him from behind. He didn't seem at all surprised, which led Kaylee to suspect that he had been expecting her to make the first move. And that was just fine with her.

It wasn't their first kiss. In the past two weeks, there had been probably a hundred kisses, at least. But they hadn't let it get much further than just kissing, not while he was still healing. But the Alliance doctors who had patched him up had done a hell of a good job, and already all that remained of the gunshot wound that had left her believing, for a few terrifying minutes, that she was going to lose him, was a fresh red scar.

Simon wrapped one arm around Kaylee, pulled her tighter against him, as his other hand moved from her shoulder to the ladder next to him. Carefully, if not entirely gracefully, he guided both of them down to the floor, covering her body with his and sliding one hand under the back of her head.

This wasn't how he'd wanted their first time to be. He'd imagined it so many times. Imagined laying her out on his bunk, removing her clothing one piece at a time, kissing and stroking every new inch of skin that was revealed, then letting her do the same for him. He'd imagined exploring and worshipping her body with his hands and mouth until she was shaking and pleading, before finally making love to her.

But in that moment, he was having a surprisingly easy time letting go of that fantasy. Maybe he had just been holding back for too long. Or maybe it was just the