The downpour hit about 100 yards from the one-room bungalow, and both Mal and Inara were soaked by the time they made it up onto the wooden porch. Mal managed to force the door open and held it for her.

"Ladies first."

Inara stepped inside and activated the glowlights. "Well, it's certainly...rustic."

Mal shook his hair out, not a bit unlike a wet puppy. "What it is, is a dry place until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Inara looked uncertain.

"You think I'd risk having Serenity try and land in this soup? Heat and storm'll break by tomorrow." He sat down on the couch and pulled off his wet boots and socks.

"You sound very certain."

By now, Mal has pulled down his suspenders. "Used to get these storms on Shadow six weeks out of the year. That was our rainy season."

"Forty days and forty nigh...Mal, what are you doing!?"

By now, he'd struggled out of his wet shirt and had draped it over a chair. "I'm sweating like a pig! Might as well cool off as much as I can."

Inara silently wondered if he'd been stealing time on Jayne's weight bench. She fanned herself, to no avail. "It is rather warm."

By now, Mal was tugging his pants down. "Mal!"

He looked up, all blue-eyed innocence. "What? I'm keepin' my skivvies on."

"Thank Buddha for small favors."

He smirked at her. "Not that small, darlin'. Yanno, you might wanna do the same. We got a long wait til this heat breaks."

"Captain! I am certainly not going to..."

"What? Strip down to your skivvies? Suit yourself, Inara, but I'm tellin' ya that ya'll be much happier."

Twenty minutes later, feeling a trickle of sweat run down between her breasts, she had to silently concede he was right. She cleared her throat. "Mal?"

He looked up from where he was sprawled on the couch. "Changed yer mind?"

"Would you mind turning your back while I...?"

Mal was enough of a gentleman to agree without cracking wise, but not enough of one to avoid peeking in the dressing mirror that afforded him a lovely view of her backside as she stepped out of her soaking wet dress. Inara suddenly whipped the top sheet off the small bed and tied it around herself like a sarong.

"OK, you can turn around now, Mal."

"Comfy?"

"Yes, thank you. I'm a bit cooler."

"Be even cooler if you'd untie that sheet thing."

"Mal, I am not about to have you see me in my..."

"Underwear? Hell, I've seen women's underwear. Once or a few times, even on women. 'sides, not like you've got anything to be ashamed of. Leastways, not as far as I can tell, tho' ya never know...

Inara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Are you implying, Malcolm Reynolds, that I might be hiding something?"

She could feel herself getting hot, and not just from the oppressive humidity.

"Some sort o' hideous birthmark, maybe? A large hairy mole?" He had to admit he was enjoying riling her up. "Or maybe a tattoo?"

"Mal!"

"What's it say, Inara? Does it profess your love for your first client inside a red heart with an arrow?"

She felt her temper snap. Without thinking about what she was doing, she stood up and untied the sheet in one swift motion, letting it drop to the floor. "See, Mal! No hideous birthmark, hairy mole or tattoo!"

Mal was rendered speechless, staring at her unblemished body in matching black satin bra and panties, glistening from the heat. It was now his turn to be nervy as he felt his groin start to tighten. He swallowed thickly. "No, I suppose not."

Inara hadn't missed the flare of lust in his eyes, nor the non-too-subtle way in which he had covered his lap in one of the couch pillows.. "You sound disappointed."

"Disa...oh hell no, sweetheart. Far from it."

"Would it make it easier if I did have some sort of hairy mole?"

"You lost me. Easier how?"

Inara crossed the cramped room and sat next too him on the couch. "Easier to deny how we feel about each other."

Mal swallowed again, making a valiant attempt to look her in the eyes. "We don't...I mean, I don't..."

She smiled and gently patted the pillow Mal was clutching to himself. "You know, Mal, you might be even cooler without that pillow in a deathgrip."

He doubted that very sincerely.

She gently pried it out of his hands. "Better?"

"Inara, we shouldn't..."

She shushed him with a finger to his lips. "Maybe we should."

Mal prided himself on not being a complete cad when it came to women, but he surely was no saint either. The two of them in the small cabin, dressed in next to nothing was more than he could withstand. He took her face in his hands "I won't have regrets between us for this. We do this, it's with eyes wide open about the consequences."

Inara leaned forward and whispered into his mouth. "No regrets."

He pressed her back along the couch as he covered her lips with his, He was practically drowning in her jasmine scent and he didn't want to be saved. Mal licked a salty trail from Inara's jawline down to the clasp between her breasts holding her bra together. With a bit of difficulty, he managed to get it unhooked and drew it off her body. He brushed a thumb across one hardening nipple, causing her to arch up into his already aching groin. He circled his tongue around first one nipple and then the other.

Inara's hand were trying to free him from his underwear and causing his thoughts to short-circuit. He finally had to still her hands before he was completely undone. "I think I'd best do this myself."

Mal stood and carefully slid out of his shorts before reaching down and gently drawing down her panties. Many a long night in his bunk, he'd imagined what she might look like unclothed and ready for him. Mal was not the unimaginative sort, but he felt as such staring down at the reality of her.

Inara reached out and drew him back down to her, gently closing her hand around him, eliciting a groan. In response, he trailed a hand up the inside of her thighs and roughly brushed his thumb over her clit. It was now her turn to groan.

His sweat-soaked body slid over her as he lifted his hips and gently pushed himself inside her. Her body surrounding him felt better than he could have either imagined or feared. Merciful Buddha, don't let this end too soon, he silently prayed, as he started to move slowly within her.

Inara wrapped her legs around him to pull him even closer inside her, rocking her hips with his quickening rhythm. He gave her all of himself, silently imploring her to accept what he was offering, and she had no choice but to accept.

Mal couldn't hold out any longer. Just as he broke inside of her with a shout, the heat itself broke outside.

For long minutes afterward, they lay together, soaked in each other's sweat. Mal reached down and pushed a damp tendril of hair out of Inara's eyes. She smiled at him. "The heat's gone."

"No, baobei, I think it's only startin'."