In the next instant, Daniel stepped up to her and pulled her into his arms. His mouth came crashing down on hers, sending heat lightning flashing through her body. With a whimpering moan, Sam wrapped her arms around him and surrendered her body and soul to him.
They kissed with wild passion, devouring each other's mouths, tongues seeking deeply. Daniel lost all awareness of their surroundings. There was nothing but the taste of Sam's mouth and the feeling of her nakedness against his. For a brief moment, the thought that they shouldn't be going this fast entered his mind, but the thought died a quick death, immolated in the fire raging through him.
Feeling himself start to lose his footing, Daniel twisted around and pressed Sam up against the boulder, lifting both of them partway out of the water. A moment later, Sam wrapped her legs around Daniel's waist. Their lips parted, and Daniel began a search of her neck with his mouth, gently nibbling the tender flesh, then soothing it with his tongue. At the same time, his hands roamed Sam's body, touching her in all the places he'd gazed upon only minutes ago and in some places he had yet to see.
Yesterday, Sam had wondered what Daniel's hands would feel like caressing her, how it would feel to have his arms holding her to his naked body. Now, she knew, and it was more incredible than she could have imagined. Remembering something else she had wondered about, Sam lowered her mouth to Daniel's chest and began kissing it. Yes, it was as soft and smooth as it appeared.
Daniel let out a choked cry as Sam found a nipple. "God, Sam," he cried hoarsely. "W-we shouldn't be doing this. We're going so fast. But I want you so badly. For so long I've wanted you. Sam, I love you."
Sam stilled, her breath halting in her lungs. She raised her head and gazed into Daniel's eyes, seeking the truth of his words.
Looking without fear into her eyes, Daniel repeated, "I love you."
A brilliant smile lit Sam's face. "I love you, Daniel."
Daniel looked at her in wonder. "You do?"
"Yes, more than anything. And I don't care if we're moving too fast. I need you now."
Smiling joyfully, Daniel took her mouth with his again. This time the kiss was slow, but oh so deep as they lovingly expressed with their lips and tongues their feelings for each other. Then Daniel's mouth moved down Sam's body until he reached her breasts, making Sam shudder in ecstasy.
The sound of Sam uttering his name in a low, husky moan made Daniel's arousal go up yet another notch. He lifted his head and met her gaze. Seeing there what she wanted, he joined his body with hers.
Gasping at the feeling of becoming one, the new lovers held still for a long moment, foreheads pressed together.
"This feels so good, Sam," Daniel whispered. "It feels so right."
"Perfect," Sam murmured.
Losing all track of time, Daniel and Sam made love, glorying in the exquisite rapture, their movements in perfect sync, as if they had been lovers for years. The power of their lovemaking overwhelmed their senses, lifting them to the highest peaks of ecstasy.
When it was finally over, they lay limply, Daniel's body draped forward over Sam's. He was thankful for the buoyancy of the water, for he didn't think he'd have been able to stay on his feet otherwise. As it was, his legs were trembling.
It took a while before either one of them could speak.
"That was. . . ." Daniel finally gasped.
"Yeah," Sam agreed, knowing what he was going to say.
Daniel met her eyes. His hand gently caressed her cheek. "This almost doesn't seem real. I'm half afraid that it's a dream or that we're stuck back in the Gamekeeper's virtual reality machine."
Sam shook her head. "No. This can't be a dream or a trick."
"Why do you say that?"
"Because what I just felt was too incredible to not be real."
Daniel smiled. "Yeah."
Their lips came together in a long, slow kiss. Daniel held Sam tightly, deliriously happy to be with her like this.
A few minutes later, they reluctantly separated their bodies. Daniel sat down on the same spot Sam had been earlier and pulled her onto his lap. He brushed a wet tendril of hair from her face.
"Sam, I have an apology to make to you," he said.
"An apology?"
"Yeah. I've been wanting to say this for a while now, but I couldn't. Back before I ascended, during that last year or so, I . . . pulled away from you. Actually, I pulled away from all of you, but the reason why was a lot more complicated with you. A big part of it was because of how I felt about you. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't. It made me angry and ashamed because of Sha're. I loved her so much, and I didn't think that I should be feeling those kinds of things for you, for anyone, really, but especially for you since we were teammates. So, idiot that I am, I distanced myself from you, thinking that it would go away if I didn't spend time with you outside of missions. When you didn't say anything about it and didn't seem to mind, I figured it was for the best."
"Oh, Daniel," Sam sighed sadly. "There's a reason why I didn't seem to mind. I was doing the same thing."
Daniel's eyebrows rose. "You were?"
"Yeah. I've had feelings for you for a long time, Daniel. I honestly don't know when they started. They snuck up on me gradually, caught me unawares. I just know that, somewhere along the line, I started looking at you differently, thinking and feeling things that you don't experience toward someone who is just a friend. It drove me crazy because I knew that it was a bad idea, you being a teammate, and because I thought that you were still so much in love with Sha're that you could never look at another woman."
"You mean other than my stupidity with Ke'ra?"
Sam smiled. "Yeah, well, that surprised me at the time, but I understood it later. You were hurting, and Ke'ra just happened to come along when you were really weak and vulnerable and desperately needing to find some joy in your life. I bet she was the one who made the first move, wasn't she."
"Yeah, but I was already feeling things for her by then. Afterwards, though, I realized that none of it was real. You're right. I was really vulnerable then, and Ke'ra was beautiful, compassionate and intelligent, the kind of woman I'd always been most attracted to. For a little while, she made me forget about how much I was hurting. But, after we found out that she was Linea, I realized how much of a fool I'd been."
Sam's smile grew. "I was jealous, you know."
Daniel grinned broadly. "You were?"
"Uh huh. At the time, I refused to acknowledge that it was jealousy, but that's what it was." Her smiled faded. "Once I finally woke up to the fact that I was feeling things for you that were beyond friendship, I backed away from you, my reasoning being pretty much the same as yours. It scared me because it wasn't safe to feel those kinds of things for you."
Daniel focused on a spot just below her neck. "I always thought that you were interested in Jack."
"To be honest, there was a time when I was, but it was just a foolish crush. I care about him a lot, and there was more than a little physical attraction. I fooled myself into thinking that there was more to it than that. Actually, I was a real idiot back then. I had all these mixed up feelings for Martouf because of Jolinar, and I also cared a lot about Narim."
Daniel grinned, his eyes twinkling. "Three guys at the same time, Sam? And there was poor little me, out in the cold."
Sam slapped him lightly on the arm. "Well, you didn't stay out in the cold for all that long. It took less than a year for me to come to my senses regarding the colonel. Martouf was dead, and Narim was out of reach on Tollana. It wasn't all that long after I'd gotten all those things straightened out in my head that I started becoming aware of my feelings for you. I never told you this but, when we found out what had happened to the robot Daniel, the first thought that went through my mind was, 'God, what if that had been our Daniel?' That thought absolutely terrified me. And when I saw his head. . . ." She swallowed, closing her eyes for a moment. "I really thought I was going to throw up. It was like it was your head sitting there. When we saw you for the first time after we got back from Juna, it took every bit of will power I had not to hug you till your eyes popped out."
Daniel smiled in remembrance. "The hug you did give me kind of took me by surprise."
"Yeah. I just had to touch you, assure myself that you were real and alive."
Daniel took her hand and entwined his fingers with hers. "We've both been fools for a long time, haven't we, Sam," he said quietly.
"Yes, we have. But no more."
"So, what are we going to do about this?" He looked into her eyes. "I don't want to hide how I feel about you, Sam. I've been hiding it for far too long."
"I feel the same way. I guess we both need to think about the ramifications, though."
"Would one of us have to leave SG-1?"
"I don't know. I guess that would all depend on the colonel and General Hammond. If they thought that we couldn't keep our relationship from affecting our performance on missions, they'd have no choice but to reassign one of us."
"Well, if it does come to that, I'll take the reassignment."
"But—"
"No buts, Sam. Between the two of us, you're needed on SG-1 a lot more than I am."
"Well, I could disagree with you on that, but there's no sense arguing about it unless we have to."
They fell silent. Sam laid her head on Daniel's chest and gave a sigh of contentment.
"We should get back to camp, I suppose," Daniel said with reluctance. "I'm surprised that Jack hasn't come to find out what's going on."
"Yeah, I guess you're right, though I really hate to leave. I'm happy right where I am."
"Me too."
Daniel began kissing the nape of Sam's neck, sending a shiver of pleasure through her. His hands started stroking her body, touching her intimately. Letting out a moan, Sam lifted her head and caught Daniel's eyes.
"I guess a few more minutes won't matter," she said huskily just before pulling Daniel's head down into a heated kiss. She lifted up and then came back down on his lap, straddling him. Daniel crushed her to him, his lips growing demanding.
In a surprisingly short time, they brought each other to full arousal and united their bodies for the second time. Flying high on the feelings of ecstasy, they made love with glorious abandon, bringing each other a sense of joy beyond words.
In the aftermath, they sat in silence, kissing and caressing, utterly content . . . and totally unaware that someone was watching them.
