To call Alexis tired on this particular Thursday afternoon was to say the Atlantic Ocean was a little bit damp. It was taking all her energy to just stay awake for the bus ride from the heart of campus out to Baker street, two blocks from the Princeton campus gates. Normally she would walk but she was afraid she actually might sit down in the snow, nod off and freeze to death.

And who wanted that when there was her future hubby's soup waiting for her at home in the fridge? In the time it would take her to get a refreshing and warming shower, Alexis would be able to heat it up in her slow cooker and eat while wrapped up in her big thick and fluffy bathrobe and miss its maker.

'Alexis?'

'Huh?' She looked up blearily when her classmate Lindsay Sabern poked her in the shoulder. 'What?'

'It's your stop, girl.'

Alexis looked up, saw she was at the end of Baker Street. 'Oh, thanks Lindsay. See you later.'

'Tell me how the party goes this weekend,' Lindsay replied as Alexis gathered her things up and deboarded the bus.

The air had a bracing chill to it which most people would have complained about, but for Alexis to walk to the middle of the street where her apartment building was located it was exactly what she needed to stay awake. One foot in front of the other, she told herself, and then before you know it, you'll be home.

She made it into the building, up the elevator and when she was two feet from her door Alexis let out a snarl. She knew that smell a mile off - her roommate Ursula had stolen her stash of Shane's pea soup and was taking it all for herself. Well, today she'd picked the wrong day to be a snack thief.

Biding her time and holding her temper in check until she was through the door, all recriminations died instantly when she saw Shane standing at the stove, stirring the contents of a stockpot with a long-handled wooden spoon.

'Hey, sweets,' he greeted her, glancing up when he'd heard the door open. 'Thought you might like this for dinner tonight.'

'What are you doing here? I thought you were coming down later tonight,' Alexis cried happily, dropping her purse and rushing over to give him a hug and a kiss hello. She wanted to burrow into him and weep from exhaustion, and it must have been all over her face, as Shane cupped her cheeks in his hands and looked her in the eye. 'What, what is it?'

'You are exhausted. Go. Hot shower, comfy clothes, then soup and an hour's nap.'

'Shane, I have a tonne of work to do.'

'Anything that can't wait?'

'No, but...okay.' Alexis gave him a kiss and sighed. 'Remember this when you want to go out with Body and Jeremy after working doubles in the summer, yes?'

'I understand.' Shane gave her ass a loving slap and turned her towards her bedroom. 'Besides, the sooner you do that, the sooner it will be time for loving and wedding talk.'

'I like that.'

Shane laughed as she toddled off, thoroughly wrung out. He was going to be glad when March hit, because she'd be back doing her clinical work and have some semblance of a normal life back instead of working around the clock cramming in information. She wouldn't half-ass it, though, even if her specialty was psychiatry and she was already getting offers from her clinical placement that once she was graduated, she would be more than welcome to work with them and find a mentor in her current supervisor.

He had a feeling she was going to take it, too, to get herself started up until she was able to start working with the police because he knew her ultimate ambition was to be a criminal profiler. As she was working already counseling troubled youths in this pilot project, Shane knew she was off to a good start for it.

Upon hearing the sound of running water in the bathroom, the hiss and whine of pipes as she turned on the shower, Shane turned the pot on the stove down to a warming simmer no different than a slow cooker. He followed her trail of clothes from the bedroom to the bathroom and when he knew she was in the shower, he quietly crept in and stripped to his skin.

'Babe, I'm coming in,' he announced, and pulled the curtain aside to see his beautiful bride-to-be with a face full of green gunk and her hair coated with some kind of clear goo. 'Hello swampy thing.'

'That tired swampy thing to you.' Alexis tipped her head back to rinse the shampoo from her hair and the deep-cleansing mask from her face. 'I opted for shower and not a bath so I don't risk falling asleep and drowning.'

'Good plan. You all rinsed off?'

'Yes, why?'

Shane dipped his head and brushed his lips over hers. 'So you don't taste like soap.'

'Ah, I see. Lemme check.'

Alexis pulled him in for a kiss, parting his lips with her tongue ever so slightly. 'Nope, you don't taste like soap either.'

'Thanks, baby.'

Shane cocked an eyebrow at her, kissed her again. 'I better check, just to make sure you don't taste soapy anywhere else.'

Carefully crouching down, he planted a trail of kisses down the centre of her body while he gripped her hips tightly; he knew the pressure of his hands would help keep her steady. He let his tongue just graze her skin, make her gasp and tremble for him until he reached that sweet juncture of her thighs. Nudging them apart he dipped his tongue there, flicking it out and grazing her, making her moan and sigh for him.

Alexis let her head roll back on her shoulders, hot steaming water coursing over her forehead and down her body while her knuckles turned white on the shower's safety-grip bar behind her. The urge to rock her hips against him had such a different feel when they were together like this, as there was no sense of pressure for her to relate to, no sense of gravity, just herself in the free-fall of a building orgasm.

'Shane,' she whimpered, daring to let one fine-boned hand slick through his dark, damp curls, 'please.'

'Please what?' he murmured in response, his fingertips moving over the inside of her thigh to give her an added little jolt. 'What does my Alexis want?'

'Your tongue...baby, use it on me.'

Understanding her perfectly, Shane let his fingers stroke her and with a move that was quick as lightening, laved his tongue over her trigger, making her muscles clench as she cried out in delight.

'God!'

Shane smiled against her body, and moved a hand to the small of her back as he did it again and again until he felt her go tense above him as she cried out she was coming, then go limp as she slumped against the wall of the shower, breasts rising and falling rapidly as she fought for breath. Love for her, sweet and pure, ran through him like a fever when he saw the lush happy look to her face as she drifted on the bliss of orgasmic come-down.

'Shane,' she murmured, 'I had no idea that was exactly what I needed. I love you so much for it.'

'I love you too, Lex.'

'Your turn?'

'No, I'm okay.' Shane gestured to himself. 'Don't take it as an insult that I'm not at full salute for you, Alexis, because I'm pretty damn tired myself, but I know you were much more tired than me.'

'Ah, so we are saving our energy for making love in bed later?' Alexis asked him and he nodded, touched the tip of his finger to his nose. 'That's fine by me, sweetheart. Right now, I want to eat that soup you made for me, take a little rest and then talk wedding a little bit later.'

'Sound like a plan to me.'

Alexis gave him a kiss, shut off the water and reached for her towel. The wonders a shower-orgasm could do with the love of your life, she thought with a sweet little smile to herself.

Later, when the books had been tromped through as much as Alexis could get through that night, and they had indeed made love in Alexis' big comfy bed, they lay twined together just enjoying the feel of the other's body against one another. Shane knew most would have called it cuddling; he preferred to think of it as quality naked hugging since Alexis had such limited spare time as a medical student.

'So, we never did talk wedding,' he realized, twisting a strand of Alexis' red hair around his finger. 'What did you have in mind?'

'How many florists are we planning to go to tomorrow when we're back in the city?' she inquired.

'Three, I think. Why?'

'Because I was thinking maybe we might have dinner at the Meerkat before the party and do a scouting job of their caterer.'

'Reservations are already made,' Shane told her, making her smile and kiss him. 'You're welcome.'

'You think this is a jinx on us?' Alexis pondered, cuddling against his still-smooth chest. 'That we've been able to get through so much wedding planning hitch free that the day-of will be a total disaster?'

'Yes, yes, I do.'

'Seriously?'

'Of course not,' he scoffed, earning a playful punch in the belly for his troubles. 'I think we are going to have a spectacular wedding, Alexis and nothing, come hell or high water, is going to ruin this journey for us.'