Passion's Instinct

Thirty Eight

Hayden

About a week later, I felt much better and I was back on my feet, being active like my normal self.

One night I came back inside, in through the back slider door from our tennis court. I was tired and sweaty, and I had worked myself hard. When I walked into the kitchen, I immediately saw a tray of cookies laying out on the counter. Natalie never made cookies, so I thought it would be a good idea to take advantage of it for once.

I tiptoed into the kitchen, since it was late at night, and carefully slid one of the cookies off the sheet. This looks good, I thought, and it's perfect after a long, hard workout.

Just as I was about to shove it in my mouth, I felt a pair of hands rub my neck, and as they trailed around it and down my shoulders, Natalie came around to the front of me and ran a hand through my hair, smiling.

Her hair was shiny, and it fell around her shoulders in curls. She had a medium, black dress on with black heels on, and the dress definitely showed her curves. Her legs were showing for the first time this winter, revealing her shapely calves. Even though she didn't have much makeup on, that didn't matter to me. She was beautiful naturally.

I dropped my cookie.

"Were you about to eat that, or..."

"Uh... yeah, I... wait, why are you dressed like that?"

"You don't like it?"

"No, no, I... I love it."

"Well, I just thought it would be nice to dress up for tonight. We did say we were going to do something tonight, didn't we?"

We did. Suddenly I felt guilty. I forgot. I promised Natalie earlier we would do something.

"Natalie, I'm sorry..."

"It's okay. I actually just wanted to, um... hang out at home," Natalie said, smiling.

"Cool. By the way, you look beautiful tonight. Mrs. Christensen." I smiled and brought her close to me, burying my face in her hair.

She laughed and kissed my cheek, then pulled me outside by the pool. "You're sweaty," she commented playfully. She laughed.

I took both of her hands in mine as she rested her forehead against mine. I danced with her beside the pool. She looked into my eyes and laughed.

"What?" I asked suspiciously.

She curled her fists around the front of my t-shirt and leaned in, about to kiss me. I leaned in too, parting my lips slightly, but she turned around, facing the pool so that my back was against it. "What are you doing, Natalie, stop," I said, laughing. I leaned in again to kiss her, but she stepped forward and pushed me towards the pool. Instead of her pushing me in the pool, I spun her around and pushed her in.

"Hayden!" she exclaimed once she came back up to the surface. She was soaking, but she was still beautiful.

I chuckled and stood by the pool, watching her try to swim in her dress. I finally kneeled down and lifted her out of the pool.

"Ah, the perks of being married to a petite woman," I joked.

"Are you calling me tiny? Just because you're strong and I'm small doesn't mean --"

"The lamb and the lion," I mumbled, kissing her softly.

She smiled. "Stop it."

"What? I'm just being romantic."

"Well stop. It's not you. I like your romantic. The kind where you push me into the pool just to annoy me."

I laughed, lifting her chin. "I'm good at that."

I pushed her into the pool again, and I jumped in beside her. I took my shirt off and threw it to the side, dunking my head under water. The freezing water felt so good on my skin after that workout, especially since the weather today was weird, at sixty degrees in winter time.

Beside me, Natalie's teeth chattered. I touched her skin and she was freezing cold and shivering.

"Alright, let's get out," I said, climbing out of the pool. I helped her out up onto the side.

"You really are quite romantic, aren't you?" Natalie said, laughing.

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After we'd gotten our showers and were drying and warming up, Natalie sat in bed with tea, wrapped up in a blanket.

"You know you're going to have to get up to pee five times tonight, right?" I asked her.

"Yup," she answered matter-of-factly. She smiled, looking at me over her mug.

I smiled too and leaned over, kissing her. "I love you."

"I love you too," she whispered back.

I pulled away and laid back on my pillow, looking at her. "Your lips are purple."

Natalie sat there, sipping more of her tea. Once she had swallowed it, she set her mug on her bedside table. "Warm me up."

I pulled her into an embrace and kissed her, rubbing her back.

"Wait," she said. "I forgot something."

She ran out of the room, and when she came back up from downstairs, she had honey in her hand and a spoon.

I looked at her questioningly, furrowing my eyebrows.

"I need more honey in my tea," Natalie stated simply.

She poured some honey into her tea and stirred it with her spoon.

I opened my mouth as she turned to me, and she smiled. "Okay, okay..."

She poured honey into the spoon and shoveled it into my mouth, laughing softly as she did it.

I smiled as I swallowed the honey, sweet as it trickled down my throat.

"Your turn," I said, taking the spoon and pouring honey into it. I put it in her mouth and fed it to her, and she smiled. She swallowed it and sighed, leaning against me. "I'm warmer now."

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The last part with the honey was inspired by a really adorable Anidala oneshot in the book "Anakin's Undoing" by @Xx_Mimic_xX. I didn't want to include it without mentioning her work which inspired me to write that part. P.S. I know this chapter was cheesy-ish, but I was literally watching a Hallmark movie while writing this and it was giving me ideas, so, yeah XD. Anyway, hoped you enjoyed! Haydalie FTW! <3