Chapter 34

Morning dawned beneath a low layer of clouds that made the view out his window seem dreamlike. Sean looked down at Elizabeth's sleeping form and he grinned. "Maybe it is a dream."

Elizabeth stirred at the sound of his voice and smiled. "It's cold. Get under here and keep me warm," she said with her eyes lightly shut.

Sean was more than happy to oblige. No matter how often they slept together, he never tired of the feeling of her skin on his. He ran his fingers along her body, tracing imaginary figures over her hip and ass. He rubbed his morning stubble along her cheek, causing the woman in his arms to growl discontentedly. Sean felt nails digging into his back in retaliation. He growled back at her, raking his course features over her face as he kissed her roughly along her neck. Her skin grew pink and tender with his abrasive rubbing, making her appreciate his soft lips even more when he deigned to use them alone. As she clawed at Sean more desperately, he redoubled his efforts.

Sean ran his face down her body, gripping her firmly as she writhed beneath him. When he alighted on the tops of her breasts she moaned approvingly and rubbed her thighs against his. Sean chuckled warmly and returned the favor, leaning his weight down between her legs. He played with her firm breasts, alternately kissing and fondling each of them. One of the joys of sleeping with Elizabeth was the likelihood of finding her frisky in the morning. She always appreciated his morning erection and this time was no exception.

Before long Elizabeth was moaning happily from his attention and Sean could feel the resulting dampness on his thigh as he rubbed. However, he was nowhere near done playing with the perfect globes in his hands and mouth. He took his time running his tongue over a nipple and then switching to the other one while a free hand ran light circles over the freshly exposed tip. He had heard that it was possible for some women to orgasm from breast-play alone and although he didn't think Elizabeth was one of them, Sean was determined to find out for certain.

Elizabeth shocked him when she took the initiative by firmly grasping his member and guiding it into her steaming depths. The position was awkward, forcing Sean to abandon her breasts, so he shifted his attention to what was happening at the mingling of their hips. He pulled forwards, plunging himself deeper and causing his beautiful lover to gasp in pleasure. Her brown eyes darkened in hunger and the sight along with her long black hair splayed about her in a wide halo fueled Sean to even further heights of desire. He was now able to keep his pace long and steady since his hip joint had time to recuperate. Sean held his lips to Elizabeth's as she gasped into his mouth when a whimpering cry was uttered from her lips. She shuddered and Sean could feel her rippling with an orgasm down below. Sean slowed his pace as sweat dripped down his brow. If he weren't careful he'd let loose himself but he wasn't ready just yet. He didn't fully enjoy himself unless Elizabeth came at least two or three times.

Elizabeth wrapped her legs around Sean after he felt the steam in his groin diminish enough for him to pick up the pace. She groaned at his redoubled efforts and thrust up her hips to meet his own downward lunges. Her groaning grew in pitch as her hips sped up, forcing Sean to keep up in a blur of movement. She wailed and cried out Sean's name with every forceful collision. Her pussy grasped his cock and seemed to suck at it as if her very life depended on it. The sensation was too much for Sean and he sprayed her insides with a triumphant roar. Elizabeth clamped down on him hard and shook with her own violent orgasm as her eyes rolled back into her head. Their bodies locked in a rictus of pleasure with muscles strained so tightly Sean was certain that a bone or two would snap.

Sean collapsed atop his lover with a final shuddering spurt. He rolled over and cuddled up next to his lover. Elizabeth murmured something but he didn't quite catch it.

"I said after the bout of sex last night, one would think that would be enough. I wonder if it'll taper off after we're married."

"Not likely. You keep inspiring me to all new heights," Sean commented. "After we have the baby, who knows? It might get even better."

Elizabeth playfully slapped him and then settled into his comforting arms again. "Sean, are you sure about what you just said? About a baby, I mean."

Sean looked down at her and hugged her tighter. "Of course I am. I want one as badly as you do."

"But," she hesitated. "Do you think you're ready for that big of a change? A baby is a big thing. I mean, you're still young..."

"Let's not get started on the whole age bit again," he chided. "We've been over that already. By my friends' standards I'm already an old man. I mean, the woman I love and my two best friends, Eric and Vanessa, all have a decade on me."

"Don't remind us," she groaned.

Sean smiled. "Look. I am ready for a baby. I'm actually looking forward to it; to show a new life what wonderful things there are in the world, to be a father. Yes, I'm ready for that. And let's put it this way. We're rich. If I wanted to I could stop going to school to help raise our kid. It's doable."

"Sean, you don't really mean that. You've worked hard for your biochemistry degree."

"That can come in time. We'll only have an opportunity like this now."

Before she got too old, Elizabeth knew he was thinking but was not saying. He was putting his dreams on the shelf for her sake. True, financially they could manage but putting Sean's degree on hold was an entirely different matter. But Elizabeth wanted a baby badly as well. She didn't know what to think.

Sean interrupted her thoughts. "Look, let's put it this way. Grad students raise families all the time and they usually have the hardest time balancing raising the baby, studying for classes, and going to work. With our financial position we don't have to worry about the latter. To top it off in the other case, both parents are grad students. All I'll have to worry about is class and all you'll really have to worry about is work. Between the two of us we'll give our child plenty of time and love. There's only one problem that I can't get over, though."

"What's that?"

"How are we going to prevent Eric, Vanessa, and your parents from spoiling our baby rotten?"

They both laughed.

Sean let out a satisfied breath as he thumbed off his cell phone. "It's done."

"What is?" Elizabeth asked, looking up from her sandwich. They were having lunch and, as always, Elizabeth was comfortably sitting in his lap as they ate.

"I just got a call from our real estate agent, Kathryn. The paperwork's been cleared. The house is ours and we can move in." Sean watched as a great burden lifted off of his fiancée's shoulders and the grateful smile stretch across her face.

"That's some of the best news I've heard," she beamed a warm look his way and beyond into some not so distant future. "It's really starting to come together now." She put down her sandwich and snuggled in Sean's arms. "Our wedding, our home, and our future."

Sean gave her a warm squeeze. He couldn't express in words just how relieved he was now that they could get on with their lives. He just kissed her and let it go at that, letting his lips express what words would only mangle. The next step to take would be preparing their nest. Sean was fond of his apartment but after spending so much time at Elizabeth's house he had gotten used to having much more space. Sean grinned. Speaking of which, he couldn't wait to see the look on his lover's face when he showed her some of the remodeling he snuck in behind her back.

"Well, let's get cracking," Sean announced. He called up the moving company that they planned on using before and was very glad to find out that they could begin within the week. They were going to be very busy in the next few days.

They finished their light lunch and cleaned up before getting things organized. A list had already been drawn on how to go about packing and the essentials of the things they were going to need. Eric and Vanessa came over in the evening and lent them a hand. Sean's clothes hadn't been much of a problem; he didn't have much. Elizabeth also had most of her clothes squirreled away with her surviving furniture in a storage unit. Sean stepped into the other bedroom and knew that his work was cut out for him. The weapons racks would be difficult to dismantle and the proper temporary storage of his weapons would be more than a trifle task. He would take care of that last.

"Sean?" He turned around at the sound of his fiancée's voice. "What are we going to do about your mural?"

He hadn't given it much thought yet but did so now. "I don't know. Maybe roll it up and save it for now. The fixative that I sprayed it with should protect it, at any rate. As for displaying it again," Sean looked at his fiancée, "I'm not lonely anymore. I can put those images behind me from now on."

Elizabeth smiled at him and stepped into his arms. "You know I'm also very busy with the wedding plans. And now you're throwing in all this work on moving into our new house. We're going to be terribly busy. I'm not sure if I'll have enough energy at the end of the day for our usual evening recreational activities."

"Well, since I'm sure you'll be very tired I suppose I can just help you relax a little by giving you a massage every night."

"Mmmm. I thought you'd see it my way."

"Love you, too."

The week had seen Sean and Elizabeth through the hectic process of moving into their new house. Elizabeth was at the same time pleasantly surprised and mildly annoyed at Sean's minor remodeling of their closets. He had a contractor come in and knock down the wall partitioning the two closets and moved it over so that one was larger than the other. Elizabeth was pleased with the larger closet space, as Sean knew she would be, as most women would be. However, she saw right through his ploy and huffed about him curtailing her expansion plans for his wardrobe. He knew she was poised to fill the closet with clothes of her own choosing. Of course, Sean played it innocently and said that she needed the space. He forged ahead and mentioned that the carpenter would be back in a few weeks to put in a shoe rack for her as well. She grumbled slightly at his going over her head and then soundly kissed him in thanks. Sean couldn't be more pleased with himself.

Vanessa and Eric were a big help in getting things organized after they moved in all the boxes and Sean's furniture. The king-sized bed that Vanessa bought Elizabeth for her birthday looked right at home in the master bedroom with the diaphanous curtains hanging from the four oak posts undulating gently from the breeze blowing in from their balcony. Sean and Elizabeth had a quick wrestling match on the vast mattress, mangling the sheets into a mountain range of cream and silk. Surprisingly, Elizabeth wound up on top and out of breath. They kissed.

"Hmm," she mused. "I can get used to this. But we still have a lot of things to do. We'll continue this sometime later."

"You'll have to pin me again first."

Elizabeth gazed at him challengingly. "That can be arranged."

Sean swallowed the dry lump in his throat and stood stupefied for a moment before catching up to his fiancée as she went out the door.

Eric and Vanessa were taking a break and were snuggled up in Sean's couch, which they had just finished moving in. Sean and Elizabeth smiled at them as the entered the room, quietly watching their friends as they chatted. Or rather, while Vanessa talked and Eric sat silently except for the occasional comment. They really were a perfect example of how opposites attract. Idly, Sean wondered what their roles in bed were. He shook that thought from his mind and made some noise to announce that he and Elizabeth had entered.

"You know," Sean began, "I hate to admit this, but my couch really doesn't fit the room." Already he could feel Elizabeth's lips curling up in a predatory smile and he was beginning to regret opening his big mouth.

"You're right, Sean," Elizabeth commented. "I guess we're going to have to go shopping."

Sean winced. What was it about the way she said that word that gave him the willies? He suppressed the need to shudder and kept his mouth shut before he said anything else stupid. "So, what's for dinner?"

Eric and Vanessa looked up from the couch. "Well, I'm too pooped to cook," Vanessa declared and Elizabeth seconded that.

"Pizza it is," Sean interjected. He had his cell phone in hand before anyone could protest. Next thing on the list would be to get the phones hooked up in their new home. Sean swelled in pride at the thought. It was theirs. Not his or Elizabeth's, but something that belonged to both of them. Sean paid attention to Elizabeth's plans as she thought of decorating and planting a garden while Sean ruminated on converting one of the rooms into an exercise room. They also were beginning their plans on the nursery. That brought another smile to his face as he ordered a large pie with everything and another chicken with pesto.

They gathered in the kitchen and chatted about the house and upcoming wedding plans. The wedding was still a ways off but that just gave them more time to hammer out more details or add new ones. By now the buzz and joyful rush of planning had worn down and the women had taken a more leisurely pace, which was better by Sean and Eric's opinion since they were offered more bite-sized chunks of how much it was going to cost them. The guest list was enormous with the combined families of two couples, especially when Eric and Vanessa's family were Irish with their famed large families. Elizabeth, not wanting to be outdone, extended her invitations to all of her old friends that she had before she met Charles. Sean simply groaned at how much the catering was going to cost him.

After dinner Eric and Vanessa decided to call it a night and left Sean and Elizabeth alone in their new home. This was the first night they were going to spend in the house now that moving in was out of the way. Certainly, the place still had much needing to be attended to but it was beginning to feel like home.

Sean wrapped his arms around his fiancée lovingly. "Like your belated birthday present?"

"Very much so. You know, we never celebrated your birthday."

"I was in a bit of a coma at the time," he commented wryly. He didn't like Elizabeth touching on that terrible time not too long ago. "And we had just had our first date the time before."

"I ruined that one for you after I threw you out of my house, didn't I?"

"Well, I've stopped making all that big of a deal out of my birthday. So there is no loss there."

"Really, why?"

Before, Sean would have shrugged off the question. If it were anyone else he might have. But Elizabeth wasn't just anyone. "Well, you know I'm not all that social a person. I don't make friends easily. There's no doubt in my mind that I get that from my dad. He wasn't the most sociable of people. So when it came to social events and such..."

"He really never made a big deal out of it and he never threw you any big parties."

"That about sums it up." Sean shrugged. His father's antisocial personality was also why Sean was so attached to him. He didn't have many friends, so Sean was the one he talked to in the end. Elizabeth nudged him out of his somber thoughts.