#andybooker

He misses it. He didn't think he would. After his wife passed, he didn't think his heart would crave the nearness of another, or that there'd be room for anyone else within it besides her. But he looks at Joe and Nicky, sees what they have, how they have it (and hears them as they have it all too clearly) and he aches. He can't have that with anyone else. He couldn't cope with losing another while he lives on. Andy has made that abundantly clear. But Andy also seems to pick up a new bedfellow with every town they arrive in. Perhaps it doesn't trouble her…

His only options are his immortal family, though they aren't really options. Joe, Nicky, they're spoken for. (They're also far too in denial about how they feel about Booker to be any use to him).

And Andy? Andy's as ephemeral as she is eternal. She'd never stick with someone. She'd never want Booker and his battered heart or grant him any kind of real, emotional, needed connection. Quick, fast, easily forgotten. Everything Booker has tired of and found unfulfilling. But is Andy really that flighty? She's seen the longing looks Booker's given to Joe and Nicky. She's heard him at night, pleasing himself rather than finding someone to do the work for him.

Just once, she decides. He needs to get his fix from somewhere. It's an oddly sincere suggestion that Booker doesn't believe at first. He brushes Andy off, adamant she's toying with him somehow. But when she takes him by the hands and tells him it's okay, the nerves take over and Booker forgets that he knows his way around women so well, he managed to make three children with one.

He follows Andy to her room. She's lit candles, an unexpectedly thoughtful addition, and stands in the centre, waiting for Booker.

She's beautiful. Booker's always thought so. Unobtainable, out of his reach so he's never considered it as thoroughly as he's considering it now that she's handing herself over to him. She is power and fragility and beauty. He can't stop staring. And Booker is… Different. He's tall, overwhelming, a powerhouse in a fight but there's a tenderness to him now in the flickering flames that leaves Andy confused.

Don't fall for it.

He kisses her gently, fingers running through her hair. Don't fall for it. He whispers that she's stunning and helps her out of her clothes. Don't fall for it…

He lies her down and she opens her legs and they move together so perfectly, so passionately, every rock of his hips full of feeling. He's full of love. Fuelled by it. Made of it. It feels so good. He feels so good...

Don't fall for it… Don't fall…

By the time it's over and Booker is wrapped inside Andy's arms, breathing deeply as sleep shrouds him, she feels a tiny glimmer in the ashes of her heart that she never thought she'd feel after Quynh.