This is the last part of my first multi-chapter fanfic. Feedback is shiny and let me know if the last paragraph makes sense. I was trying to be clever, so the good lord only knows if it worked. Thanks to all for your great comments!

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Mal couldn’t remember the last time he had been this content. It was the honest truth; he had tried over the past week to wrack his brain for the memory and every time a good one came floating to the surface, he realized it paled in comparison.

Rolling over with a sigh, he came face to face with Inara’s sleeping form. Reaching out a gentle hand he stroked the side of her face gently trying his best not to wake her. Although if she awoke, then they could … but no, Mal would wait for another chance to physically express how much he loved this woman.

Not that they had been at a loss for intimacy since leaving the ship. They had attempted to venture out of the hotel suite he had rented a few times, but each effort failed miserably and within an hour they were back in the room, tearing each other’s clothes off and begging the other not to stop.

But it was more than that, at least it was to Mal. It was being close to another human being. He had never had that, not with a woman. Sure, he was close to Zoe, had shared things with her he had never and could never share with Inara, and while he loved Zoe, he felt a myriad of other emotions for the young woman lying next to him. Love, warmth, safety, comfort, joy, sadness, happiness – it was all there, the entire package and he had finally woken up to see it.

He was still tracing a gentle line along her cheek bone when her eyes fluttered open to meet his gaze. She smiled at him and brought up a hand to grab his, kissing his palm and snuggling closer. Mal wrapped his arms around her and sighed again, more content then the moment before. He knew eventually they would have to emerge from this room and go back to the ship and the real world that awaited them. But they would steer there way through those waters when