A/N: Okay so this started out as one of my little E/C drabbles, but it took on a life of it's own and became what it is. I didn't intend for it to be M rated...but that's part of the life it took on.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I'm merely taking them out to play with and return them at the end, no worse for wear.

Prompt 23 - Lovers

Eric blinked away the cobwebs of sleepiness as he pressed the button to start the coffeemaker, then he slowly ambled down the hallway toward his bedroom. He sighed heavily as he made his way toward the master bathroom, tiredly rubbing his eyes as he crossed the threshold…but when he dropped his hands, he experienced a full body wake up call the vision that greeted him. It never failed to take his breath away, and not for the first time he looked heavenward and thanked God for bestowing on him such a gift.

The woman he loved more than anyone and anything else in this world stood before him completely and gloriously nude. Having just finished her shower, Calleigh stood before the mirror running a comb through her hair. As he was prone to do, Eric said nothing, but leaned against the doorframe and just watched her. His lips settled into a smile as he watched her finish combing her hair and pick up a bottle of scented lotion. His heartbeat began to quicken as she gracefully moved to the bathtub and raised one leg, resting her foot on the tub ledge. His mouth opened slightly when she leaned over and began to rub lotion into the bare skin of her legs.

Eric's lips turned downward into a frown when her hair slid forward, obstructing his view of her breasts. That would just not do. He moved from the doorway and slipped up behind her, encircling his arms around her waist. When she straightened up in his arms but didn't startle, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "You knew I was there, didn't you?" He smiled at the shiver that coursed through her body.

"Mmmhmmm," she murmured in reply. "I felt you as soon as you entered the bathroom." She turned in the circle of his arms and rose up on her toes, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as she leaned in for a kiss.

Without breaking the kiss, Eric settled one hand on her hips and with his other hand reached behind his head and slipped the bottle of lotion from her hands. He squeezed a liberal amount of the lotion into his hand and began to rub the lotion over her back, deepening the kiss as his hands moved inexorably toward her perfectly rounded bottom. He spent extra time kneading the cheeks of her bottom, wanting to make sure the lotion was absorbed.

The feel of his hands on her bottom, combined with the feel of his growing erection pressed against her abdomen sent waves of desire and need coursing through Calleigh's body. Her warm lips moved to pepper his face and neck with kisses, her tongue reaching out to lave the places she kissed.

Eric reveled in her low moans of approval as his hands moved over her bottom, and moaned himself when she thrust her hips against his growing arousal. He could feel her wet heat, and he reached around to tease her with feather light touches, prompting Calleigh to thrust her hips at him again and again and again.

When she frantically shoved his boxer shorts over his hips and thrust against him one more time, he growled and moved his hands back to her bottom, slipping down to the back of her thighs, lifting her up and onto his erection.

Calleigh cried out at the exquisite invasion, tightening her grip on his shoulders as she sank downward to pull him in deeper.

Needing leverage, Eric kicked his boxers off his feet and turned and moved quickly toward the bed.

"We're going to be late," Calleigh panted, her warm breath tickling his neck.

"You started this," Eric retorted as he tumbled them onto the bed.

Calleigh giggled as her back hit the cool sheets. "I did not," she denied half heartedly, ending in a moan as Eric began to move in and out of her body.

"Did," he breathed, pulling almost completely out. Punctuating his words with strong thrusts, he continued, "You were…the one…standing… there…without any…clothes on."

"Well," she drawled, her accent even more pronounced, "I can't exactly rub lotion into my skin if I'm wearing…oh God," she moaned as he deepened his thrusts by slipping his hands under her bottom.

He smiled as her eyes rolled back into her head and her mouth opened, her tongue coming out to lick her lips. Quickly he bent to capture her tongue within his lips, kissing her deeply.

Eric came close to losing it when Calleigh's legs wrapped around his hips. Knowing a double edged assault would bring her release he released her lips and latched onto a breast, laving it with his tongue as he reached between their bodies to that little sensitive nub.

Calleigh cried out, her hands grasping for purchase in the sheets as her head thrashed from side to side. A few glancing touches from Eric's thumb was all it took and she came, her back arching up off the bed, sheets fisting in her hands.

All it took was her body contracting around him, and with a final thrust into her welcoming body Eric too came with a shout. He continued to pump in and out of her body as their climaxes waned, and as their heartbeats slowed he dropped down onto her body, leveraging his weight on his forearms as he gazed at her. Again she took his breath away. Never was she more beautiful to him than when she lay beneath him, thoroughly loved and completely ravished. It was all he could do to form a few coherent words. "I love you," he breathed.

Calleigh smiled broadly, running her fingers through his short hair. "Oh God…I love you too, Eric," she murmured in reply.

Eric slid to the side, gathering her in his arms as he turned.

Calleigh struggled to be the voice of reason, but his hand lying heavily on one cheek of her bottom wasn't helping matters, nor was the quivers she still felt beneath her hands as she softly caressed his body. Finally, she mustered up the energy. "Eric, we have to get up…if we both show up late again, everyone's going to know we're…" she paused unable to continue as his lips descended on hers.

He broke the kiss and gazed into her eyes, once again entranced by the deep green they became before, during, and after they made love. "Lovers?" he said softly.

"Yeah," she answered, gazing back at him, unable to tear her eyes away from the brown orbs that looked at her so intently, as if they looked down into her very soul.

"Let them," Eric stated. He answered the call and kissed her softly. "They'll find out eventually…we can't keep it a secret forever."

His words stopped Calleigh's thoughts in her tracks. Forever. She could see that with Eric. It had taken a while for her to get used to 'her and Eric', being one with him in more than just the physical sense, to more than just trusting him with every fiber of her being. She couldn't imagine a future without 'her and Eric'…and now, knowing that he couldn't imagine a future without her made her heart swell with love for him.

Her voice was thick with the emotion she felt, "I love you more than I can say," she breathed, her eyes filling with tears.

Eric rolled on top of her, cradling her face in his hands, wiping the tears that threatened to fall down her face. "I love you too, Baby." He kissed her softly; then pulling away he winked at her. "We're gonna be late, but we can save time if we shower together."

"Yeah," Calleigh answered eagerly. "Saves water too," she added as she moved out from underneath him, grabbing his hand as she scooted off the other side of the bed.