Kaylee whimpered and moaned softly, arching up to meet Simon's movements inside her. His thrusts were slow, but still incredibly deep and hard, taking her higher at a steady pace. "God, that's so good." She mewled, digging her nails into his shoulders. "So good, Simon." "Come on, Kaylee." Simon whispered, reaching between their bodies to twist her clit. His voice was failing him as he tried to delay the inevitable. "Can't hold on...come for me." He tugged at the tiny bundle of nerves, bit down lightly on her throat, and gave a sigh of relief when she shrieked and spasmed around him. As she shook under him, sobbing his name, he let go, collapsing onto her and emptying himself deep inside her body. Still trembling with the lingering waves of her climax, Kaylee clung to Simon as he rolled onto his side, keeping their bodies pressed together and his softening cock buried within her. She sighed happily when he kissed the top of her head, cradling her against his solid chest. "Love you." She whispered, kissing the spot where she could feel his heart beating. "I love you, too." Simon replied. As she shifted against him, the dim light caught the ring on her left hand, and he smiled as it again occurred to him that in just over a week's time, she was going to be his wife. "When did you first fall in love with me?" Kaylee asked, her eyes bright and shining. "Hmm." Simon kissed her forehead lightly. "You first." Kaylee gave him a mock pout. "I asked you first, why should I?" She gasped as Simon reached between their bodies to where they were still joined and slid two fingers inside her. "Ooh, that's cheating." "Should I stop, then?" Simon teased. "First day I met ya." Kaylee answered quickly, squirming against him. "You were so swai, but you looked so lost and outta place. I just wanted to help you. And then later, when I was in the infirmary, the Shepard came in and explained to me about River, about everything you did for her and everything you gave up. Then you brought her in, and I watched you tending to her, and you were so sweet and concerned. I just thought you had to have such a brave, wonderful heart." She smiled and kissed him lightly. "And I was right." Simon kissed her back, deeply, passionately. Then he pulled back and ran his free hand through her hair. "I fell in love with you the moment I saw you. You were right, I was lost. I was facing complete uncertainty, and I was terrified. And there you were, so beautiful and so cheerful, smiling at everyone you saw. But I felt like you were smiling just for me, almost like you were an angel sent to guide me. Looks like I was right, too." Kaylee's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, Simon..." He silenced her with another soft kiss. "Of course, boob that I am, even though I fell in love with you right away, it took me a while to realize it. After the ball on Persephone, I was patching Mal up, and he was so doped up on morphine, he was babbling like a moonbrain. He kept talking about you, wondering how you could wear such a ridiculous dress and still look so adorable." He paused and smiled at her. "I thought your dress was beautiful, of course. But I could be biased." "You think I'm sexy when I wake up in the morning, with my breath smellin' nasty and my hair sticking up all over." Kaylee reminded him. "Not that I'm complain', mind you." Simon chuckled lightly and kissed her again before continuing. "Well, Mal just kept talking. He told me that you were the belle of the ball, charming all those men just by being you, chatting with them about engines. And I realized I wasn't all that surprised. That's just who you are, Kaylee. You're sweet, and honest, and you have this amazing warmth and energy. And I almost sewed Mal's shirt to his body because I was thinking about you, and realizing how much I love that warmth. How much I love you." "That's the nicest thing anyone ever said to me." Kaylee whispered, wiping away a tear. "No one's ever told me that before." "I'm very sorry to hear that." Simon replied. "Because it's the truth. It's one of the most remarkable things about you, Kaylee. You're just who you are. You don't hide behind anything, you don't even seem to be capable of deceit. That's a rare quality." "You say that like you never met an honest woman before." Kaylee teased. "Did some wicked Core girl break your poor heart?" She saw his face change and gasped. "Oh, honey..." "She wasn't from the Core." Simon admitted. He carefully slid his fingers out of Kaylee and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Don't worry about it. It's in the past. You're my present, and my future. Anyway, it's a long and rather painful story." "Well then I gotta hear it." Kaylee insisted. "If I'm gonna be a good wife to you, Simon, I gotta know how you've been hurt before, so I can make sure I don't do it all over again." "You couldn't." Simon told her. "You're nothing like her, Kaylee." "You still gotta tell me." Kaylee pressed. "I want to know everything that happened to you before me." Simon took a deep breath. "I loved her. Or thought I did, at least." "What was her name?" Kaylee asked. "Penelope. She was from Bayou." Simon began. "We met on the infamous night of too much sake. When the Feds showed up, all of my friends took off, and so did the crowd that had gathered. She stuck around, helped me find my clothes, helped me get back to my apartment. I don't really remember much after that, but when I woke up so was gone, and I thought she had just been a dream. Then a week later, she showed up at the hospital. She was one of the students assigned to the ER, and I was so sure I'd seen her before." Kaylee lay her head on his chest, getting comfortable. "Did she clue you in?" "I figured it out, eventually." Simon replied. "I was embarassed. I didn't bring home random women I'd just met for sex. But there was something about her, something that was hard to resist. Two days after we met again, she started spending almost every night at my apartment. I usually lived at my parents' house, I just kept the apartment for when I worked late shifts at the hospital. So I let her live there, and I started staying there more. For a while, it was amazing." "But it went bad?" Kaylee asked. "Spectacularly." Simon groaned softly. "She wasn't a med student. She was a whore. Her parents had died in the war, fighting for the Independents. When she was fourteen, her grandmother sent her to live in a whorehouse. When she was seventeen, an underground resistance movement picked her and trained her as a spy. A honey trap." Kaylee gasped. "I thought they weren't real." Simon nodded. "So did I, until I found out I'd been sleeping with one for nearly five months. I'd always assumed that they were a myth, something that Core parents made up to scare their sons out of getting involved with women from outer planets. But she was real. And I felt so bad for her, I couldn't stand the thought of an innocent teenager being used as a whore to satisfy her family's grudge against the Alliance." "That's just how you are." Kaylee told him. "You're so sweet. What happened after that?" "I wanted to help her." Simon said uncomfortably. "But she needed more help than I was able to give. Especially since that was around the time when those bizarre letters from River started arriving. My parents said I was being paranoid, so did all my friends. Penny just shrugged it off. So I started looking for River by myself. I was staying out late, coming in at insane hours when I came in at all. I never told her where I was going or what I was doing, and she assumed I was being unfaithful." Kaylee frowned. "She shoulda known you wouldn't do that." "She had no reason to think otherwise." Simon pointed out. "I felt like I couldn't tell her about River. If the authorities came after me, I didn't want her to be in danger as well. And I was the first man she had ever slept with willingly. Based on her experiences before me, thinking that I was betraying her had to be devastating." He paused and closed his eyes for a moment before continuing. "She got pregnant." "Pregnant?" Kaylee repeated, sitting up. Finding out about a former lover he had been close to was one thing. But if he told her that he had a child somewhere in the 'verse, she wasn't sure how she would react to that. Simon nodded, painfully. "Things were so bad between us, I was neglecting her so much, that she managed to hide it from me until she was nearly five months along. When I found out, I felt like such a bastard. I begged her to forgive me, I swore that I would take care of her and our child. She forgave me, and I somehow deluded myself into thinking that I could save River and still keep Penny, that I could take her with me when I left." "Did something happen to her?" Kaylee asked. "Or the baby?" Cringing, Simon took another breath. "For two months, things got better between us. Then one day, I came home early and found her packing her clothes, all her belongings. She said she was going home to Bayou, and that I was better off without her. I was so shocked, all I could think of to say was that I wouldn't let her leave with my baby. She broke down and told me that the baby wasn't mine." He spat those words out almost bitterly. "She admitted that she had been sleeping around, because that's what I was doing." Kaylee gasped, suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of anger at a woman she had never met. "How could she do that to you?" Simon just shook his head. "She wouldn't have, if I had just told her the truth about River from the beginning. When I finally did, it was too late. She was devastated. Two days later, I found out that she had been arrested in a blackout zone. I went to bail her out, and she gave me false credentials and I.Ds that would allow me to return to the blackout zone without being arrested again myself. If she hadn't done that, I don't know how long it would have taken for me to find River. Or if I ever would have found her at all." "That don't excuse what she did." Kaylee said angrily. She kissed him softly, running one hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, baobei. I shouldn't have made ya think about that." "It's all right." Simon promised. "Like I said, that's all in the past. You're my future. And right now, my future is looking very, very good." He ran his hands down her back as he spoke. "That's so corny." Kaylee snickered and swatted his chest lightly, then settled against him again. After a minute, she raised her head. "You said she was a whore? And a spy? So she would have had some trainin', right?' Simon chuckled, already knowing where this line of questioning was headed. "She taught me a few things." "Huh." Kaylee considered that for a moment. "Okay, so maybe she weren't all bad." ____________________________ END Remember, there is a special hell for trolls and people who don't comment! ;-P