rightly | open post.

Mary glanced back at him. “I’ll pass on being a New Yorker, even if I do like the city very much.” It was probably her second favorite large city after London. She reached over and took his hand. “When you were in the war, did you get a chance to visit Paris?” Mary enjoyed Paris, though her French wasn’t very good, and Parisians didn’t seem fond of speaking English.

Steve chuckled at that, shaking his head. "I thought as much. But I was just teasing, you know." He rather liked Mary's accent anyway. He liked everything about her, actually, and he wouldn't want any of it changed.

His smile faded a little at her question, and he lifted a shoulder. "Well, I went to Paris. Can't say I visited much of it, sadly." He wasn't there as a tourist after all, and despite having been to a lot of places during the war, he never really enjoyed any of them. He never got to— Downton had been perhaps the only exception, and only because of Mary.

She knew he was teasing, of course. With a smile, she lifted his hand to her lips and kissed the back of it.

His face always seemed to fall when he talked about the war, and Mary supposed that she couldn’t blame him. From what she had heard of it, it sounded horrible. Still, Mary was curious about what exactly Steve’s role had been in the war. She debated if now was an appropriate time to ask him about it.

“Perhaps when we’re back in Europe we can visit Paris as tourists,” she said.

He smiled warmly at her words, nodding softly. "I'd like that very much. I'd like to visit a lot of places with you, actually." Paris would be a good start, though. Close enough too, so it wasn't too big a stretch for them. "Oh, and we do need to decide on a place to go for our honeymoon."

“Yes we do,” Mary said with a smile. That was a more pleasant thing to think about for the time being. “Do you have any ideas or suggestions? I might like Italy or the French countryside, or we could go to Ireland or out to the English coast.” They had a lot of options.

"Italy sounds nice," he answered promptly. "But we can think of a more specific destination later. There's no rush." Even if Steve felt all but ready for it as it was, he tried not to get too impatient. They'd have plenty of time and their whole lives to enjoy all sorts of things together. "Can you speak any languages other than English?"

"A bit of French," Mary replied, "but I was never any good at it. Sybil always got the best marks in French." Foreign languages didn't come easily to her. Math was a cinch, but words could be confusing, especially in another language. "What about you?"

"I know French. German, too, and some Polish. I can manage a bit of Spanish and Italian, but not all that much." It was a lot to know, he was well aware, particularly for an American soldier, which was why he went on to explain. "Most of it had to do with the work I did, during the war. I'm just lucky languages are easy for me to learn. I've never had much trouble picking up new ones."

"Really?" Mary asked, surprised. "That's quite impressive."

They reached the top of the Ferris wheel and stopped so that passengers below could be let off. She gazed around at the scenery again. There was something quiet and private about being up this high, where nobody could hear them.

"Steve..." she said quietly. "Will you ever be able to tell me what work you did in the war? If we're to be married, I would like to know."

Steve fell quiet for a moment, knowing the question would come even before Mary asked it. Technically speaking, he knew he shouldn't tell her, not even when they were married... but he also hated keeping that part of his life hidden from her, regardless of it being in his past, and having nothing to do with Mary or his relationship with her.

It really didn't matter much now in any case, did it? Besides, it wasn't as though Mary was going to go around telling people. It would be something she'd keep to herself, of that much he was absolutely sure.

"Then I'll tell you," he dipped his head with a faint nod, looking at her. His voice was quiet, even if he knew no one could hear them this high up. "I'm a spy. Well... I was a spy. During the war. That's what I did."

Whatever Mary was expecting to hear, it wasn't that. She was floored, and stayed speechless for another moment before speaking again. "A spy?" she questioned. "Steve... that must have been so dangerous."

It made sense now why he didn't think he would survive the war. Mary clung to his hand, holding it tightly to her chest. The thought of him being hurt was painful to her.

"Well, it..." he started, intent on putting her mind to rest, but stopped when he realized he'd just be lying to her. "It was, yes. Sometimes. But I was damn good at it, too."

For once, being a good liar served him well. Granted, he was only ever a convincing liar under the right circumstances, but still. He shrugged, smiling as he moved his hand to cup her cheek. "It doesn't matter now. The war is over, and so is... all that. What I did."

“Are you...?” Mary searched his eyes. “I mean... the man I love... that is who you are, isn’t it?” It was kind of a silly question built on the shock of his confession. She trusted Steve, but for a moment she was panicking, wondering if he was in spy mode around her. That was ridiculous of course. Why would he tell her that he was a spy if he was spying on her?

Her question drew a short laugh from him, an eyebrow raising in surprise. "Mary, of course! What sort of question is that? Did you really think I'm lying to you right now, that I've been... I don't know, lying to you this whole time?"

Frankly, Steve couldn't even think of a reason why he would spy on Mary, but even if there were a reason, it was beside the point. He had never been anything but honest with her and around her, and it hadn't once crossed his mind that she might've doubted that once he told her the truth. Maybe he should have.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “It was simply so shocking. I never expected you to tell me that.” Mary turned her head and kissed his hand. “I should like to think I can tell when I’m being lied to, and I have never felt that way with you. I love you... and I can’t imagine how dangerous your job was.” It hurt her to hear about it even now.

"I never lied to you, Mary. Not about anything." The things he couldn't tell her, he simply hadn't, but he had never lied about them. He certainly had never lied about how he felt about her, or how badly he wanted to build a life and a family with her.

"What matters is that I am here now. Alive and well. And in one piece, thankfully," he huffed a bit, leaning in to kiss her on the lips. "Please... I'm glad I got to tell you the truth, but I don't want this to change anything between us."

Mary rested her forehead against his, their noses touching. “It doesn’t. The way you treat me has always been so genuine, your love so pure. I’ve always felt it, even when you couldn’t tell me what mission you were working on.”

Their car started to move again, but Mary stayed where she was, close to him with their faces together. “Kiss me again,” she whispered.

Steve smiled, glad to hear her say those words. It put his mind at rest to know that she felt how true his feelings for her were. At her request, he didn't even think twice before responding, especially when he knew they had only a short window of time to indulge. Tipping his head, he kissed her deeply, putting his arms around her and pulling her closer to him.

Mary moaned softly and opened her lips against his. For the moment, she completely forgot that they were in public and all she wanted to do was keep kissing him. Her fingers traveled to his hair, threading through it. She felt a stirring between her legs, desire awakening in her, even if this was a completely inappropriate place for it. Mary slid her tongue into his mouth, flicking it against his.

He let out a surprised hum against her lips, caught off-guard by how responsive she was to the kiss. Not that Mary ever held back from taking what she wanted when it came to things like this, at least not anymore, but never had she done so in such a public context.

Far be it from him to mind, and given the chance he would happily keep going, but... he also knew it wouldn't be long until they were close enough to the ground to start drawing some attention. And while Mary would manage to keep her state of arousal a secret, Steve's own eagerness would be a lot more difficult to mask.

So after indulging in a deeper kiss for a few seconds, he pulled back, breaking the kiss with a shiver that rolled down his spine and drew a trembling sound from him. "Mary," he said, his voice low and a little rough. "We need to... stop. We should stop."

As right as he was, she absolutely hated the idea of him stopping. Mary whimpered a little but obeyed and pulled back from him. Her cheeks were flushed and her lips full. “I think I got carried away,” she explained breathlessly. Mary still felt hot from his kisses, arousal already pooling between her legs.

Steve closed his eyes, licking his own lips as he let his head rest against hers for a moment. "Just a little bit," he said with a small smile, tone amused. Kissing her cheek, he finally leaned away from her, tucking a stray strand of her hair behind her ear, then simply holding her hand in his own. "I'm sorry. We'll have plenty of time alone later, I promise you."

She nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed that she had taken it so far. “Forgive me,” she said. “I didn’t mean to be so forward.”

Sometimes the intensity of the feelings that she had for him still scared her. It felt like she wanted him all the time. Perhaps it was merely the impatience of having to wait until they were properly married. Despite the engagement, she knew that they weren’t out of the woods yet until her parents were fully on board.

Their car stopped at the bottom and the door was opened so that they could be let out. Mary held Steve’s hand tightly in her own.

"There's absolutely nothing you need to apologize for," he said, hoping that would soothe her worries and wash away her embarrassment. Steve felt truly lucky that he had a woman like Mary, and that she wanted him just as badly as he did her and wasn't afraid to express it.

Holding her hand tightly, he helped her out of the car once he was outside, tugging her a little closer. She was standing right in front of him and he cupped her face, tipping his head down to kiss her again. A little tamer this time than it had been in the car, but a kiss nonetheless, although he really couldn't care any less if anyone happened to be staring at them.

He always had a perfect way of comforting her, which was one of the many things that Mary loved about him.

It was a sweet kiss, one that lingered until Mary reluctantly pulled away because they were standing in the way of people trying to get on the ride. She laced her fingers with Steve's as they walked away from the Ferris wheel. "Are you hungry?" Mary asked. She was ready to eat, even if it meant sampling some things she had never tried before.

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