"The Pull of His Gravity" Part Two, Chapter 1
By phaedraphelan
Summary: Sherlock and Joan are working on cases as they adjust to being a couple in the fullest sense of the word. As mature people, realizing that they have found the defining relationship of their lives, the effect is profound.
Disclaimer: "Elementary" is the artistic property of CBS and no infringement is intended.
Sherlock watched Joan walking toward him to meet him on lower Broadway and his heart came into his mouth as he was struck by how beautiful she was these days. Her long hair was covered with a favorite beret, but long tendrils framed her face in which her clear skin only emphasized her bright red lips and dramatic dark eyes. He came toward her and caught her by her arm and they continued to walk together.
"My God, Joan, you look stunning these days. I have never seen you look more lovely. You must tell me . . . have you taken another lover?" He teased.
"Why would I take another lover when I have found the love of my life?" Joan said, blushing as she looked up at him, which only added to the glow in her aspect these days since they had come together as man and woman.
They stopped in the street with people passing on either side of them and they kissed right there . . . so passionately that even the jaded New Yorkers passing by had to steal a glance and smile.
Their recently solved Brunell case that had involved Joan being held hostage for nearly a whole day by the distraught father of a murder victim had been very unsettling to Sherlock, reminding him of his feelings when she was kidnapped by Le Milieu three years earlier. When Gregson brought Joan back to him in the brownstone that night, Sherlock was a basket case. He had feverishly worked the case with Marcus Bell all day, not allowing himself to think of what could possibly happen to her, but when the case was resolved and he got the call from Gregson that Joan was fine, he couldn't stop the tears that came or the painful cramping in the pit of his stomach.
"Well, I am delivering your woman to you, Sherlock. You two should feel free to make yourself scarce for a few days. Call me when you're ready to come back to work."
"Thank you, Tommy," Sherlock said gratefully.
Sherlock had caught Joan up in his arms as soon as she came into his sight and after holding herself together throughout the ordeal, Joan had broken down in tears. Neither of them heard anything else from Gregson as he quietly exited the brownstone.
"Dear God, Joan, I am thankful that you are safe. I was so worried."
Sherlocks knees suddenly sagged under him and he went pale.
"Damn! I'm feeling ill. I'm so sorry . . . I just was so worried . . . so worried."
When Sherlock began to gag ominously, Joan helped him to the bathroom where he promptly vomited the contents of his stomach as she held him.
"I am all right, Sherlock. It's all right."
"But I could have lost you! What would I have done if I lost you?"
"Come, let's go to bed, Sherlock. I am so totally exhausted."
Joan led him to the bedroom they shared now, undressed him and helped him into bed. Then she moved to go get cleaned up from her ordeal.
"Please don't leave me tonight. Just come and just be 'with me' tonight."
joan climbed into bed with him and they fell asleep instantly in each other's arms.
Now after the resolution of that case, they were finding it difficult to be apart for even a short time without becoming anxious. And when they were together the powerful need they had for each other came upon them sometimes without warning.
"My darling, we're going to have to find some place to be together for a while this afternoon," Sherlock whispered into Joan's ear. "I have this sudden indescribable urge to have congress with you, lassie."
"Sherlock, we told Gregson that we would meet back at the precinct within an hour."
"I think that we will be late for our rendezvous with the captain."
Sherlock's hand found its place low on Joan's back as they walked along together toward the nearby entrance to a familiar small boutique hotel on the corner and stepped into the well-appointed lobby. Sherlock went to the desk and registered the two of them. Then he took Joan by the hand and they went up to the room together.
As they rode the elevator to the fifteenth floor, Sherlock took Joan into his arms and kissed her passionately over and over. He was so taken with her that his heart was pounding in his chest.
"I need you so, woman. Please indulge me my desire to be your consort this afternoon. I am like a horny adolescent today. The sight of you has me completely undone."
"Oh, Sherlock, baby . . . baby," she murmured as her hands found their way inside his jacket to snuggle close to his warmth.
Sherlock ushered her into the small, but well-appointed suite. Then he walked to the bed and tossed the heavy spread aside and drew back the crisp clean sheets while Joan shed her clothes till she was wearing nothing but her underthings. She did not play the coquette with Sherlock when he needed her this badly. She knew why they were in that hotel room and so she prepared to give herself to him. When she turned her attention to Sherlock, he was fumbling with his shirt buttons as he stared at her with such hunger that she blushed.
"Will you undress me, luv. I am suddenly all thumbs here. My hands are shaking so. I find myself so in need to 'fornicate under consent of the king,'" Sherlock said, referring to the euphemism that Joan understood to communicate the urgency of his need."
"Baby, I'll take care of you. You know that I will," she said as she unbuttoned his shirt, removed it, kissed his muscular chest, and then rubbed the short crisp ruddy hair on his head that was just growing back in after Everyone had made him shave his head in payment for the information he needed to free Joan.
"You love to do that, don't you?"
"I love your head, with or without hair. I love both of them," she said using her own double entendre that Sherlock also understood.
Then Joan pushed his trousers down, freeing him completely from them, so that she could attend to him. She was shocked to see that his testicles were heavy again so soon and that he was experiencing such a powerful erection. They had been together In the early morning hours, but he was obviously ready again to spill into her. Joan was constantly astonished at the rebounding nature of Sherlock's sexual power. The thought of him spurting into her caused her own parts to contract involuntarily in preparation for him.
Sherlock slipped his feet from his shoes and Joan knelt to remove his trousers and boxers completely. Then she kissed him all the way up his slender yet muscular legs and embraced him around his hips. Joan relished the fresh smell of sandalwood soap from his early morning shower mingled with his own rich manly scent as she kissed all the length of him.
"Oh, Joan!" Sherlock cried out as he staggered back onto the bed as Joan gripped him around his thighs and continued to kiss him as he writhed in ecstasy upon the bed till he began to lose his semen in spurt after upward spurt, while he feverishly pulled her hair hair loose so that it fell down onto her shoulders.
"Joan . . . Joan, luv! Oh, Jesus, I'm undone!" He cried out as his hips contracted in spasm after spasm till his ejaculation finished.
"It's all right. I know there is more where that came from," Joan said, smiling, and well aware of Sherlock's capacity to recharge quickly.
"Yes, you do know me, better than any woman has ever known me."
Sherlock drew Joan up onto him and placed her on her back on the bed, stripped her underthings away and then gave himself to kissing her all over her breasts and belly, murmuring all the words of love to her that had been running through his mind all morning.
"God, Joan! I see you and all I can think about is how I need your arms around me, your flesh holding mine, the sound of you in ecstasy saying "yes" to me over and over as I ravish you. And you always say 'yes' to me. Please always say 'yes' to me. I don't know what I would do if you were to turn me down. I guess that is what held me back from declaring myself for such a long time. You know all my flaws, my terrible weakness . . . and I feared rejection."
"Oh, Sherlock, you know I will always say 'yes' to you," Joan whispered as Sherlock continued to kiss her all over her neck and then her soft breasts and then finally her belly.
Joan was completely excited by the thought of being with Sherlock again. Despite the Brit's seemingly ascetic nature she had come to know the passion pent up in him that could be unleashed from the moment they first came together sexually. Kisses which at first were almost tentative and tender, would quickly become hungry and unrestrained, and when he made love to her, Joan would swoon as he became like a wild horse on her, snorting and grunting with each powerful thrust.
"Please, luv . . ." Sherlock begged Joan.
"Oh, Yes, yes! I can't get enough of you."
Then Sherlock got onto her and they began to reach for the summit together, Sherlock easing into Joan, well aware of his tremendous girth and not wanting to injure her.
"You know you won't hurt me, Sherlock. Take me, baby!"
"Joan . . . Yes, Joan," Sherlock groaned as she easily stretched open for him and they found their rhythm together. "Oh, God, woman! Yes! Yes!"
"Oh, Sherlock . . . baby! Yes, baby!" Joan cried out as her body completely accepted him.
He was on top of her, thrusting deep into her over and over, growling and grunting and snorting the way that he so often did, filling her so completely that the marvelous friction drove them into a wildly intense rapture as they kissed the deep kisses of a man and woman passionately in love, moaning, murmuring each other's names along with every known term of endearment that came to their minds.
"Ooh! Ooo, Sherlock, my Sherlock! Baby! Yes!"
"Joan . . . my sweetheart . . . woman! Woman!"
The climax seized Joan's pelvis suddenly and she groaned and gasped as her body went rigid in the seizure.
"Sherlock! Ooh! Ooh!"
"Joan . . . I love you . . need you. Oh, God, Joan!" Sherlock cried out as he felt her spasms and his own testicles seemed to explode when he spilled into her.
Then Joan surrendered in his arms as Sherlock held her tightly to his wildly beating heart, kissing her again and again as they slipped into the afterglow.
"Oh, Sherlock," Joan whispered, swooning, "I saw stars in your arms. Please hold me tight, love. Don't stop holding me for a minute."'
"I promise. I will hold you forever . . . forever," Sherlock said in her ear as he kissed her ear lobe and then sucked it gently as they lay naked in each other's arms. "I am so in love with you, Joan. I see you and I remember the touch of you, the scent of your body, of your hair and I want you again. I felt as if I would burst from my trousers earlier. I just suddenly needed you so badly. My flesh . . . I was aching so for you. I have always been in control of my flesh, Joan, but since coming to terms with my feelings for you, the urge for coitus with you comes so strong upon me at times that I can but yield to it."
"I know . . . I feel the same passionate urges. I am constantly in need. I feel like a wild woman when I see you and . . . I want you. . . every time you want me I want you, Sherlock."
Joan's parts gripped him again and Sherlock cried out in response "Oh, Joan . . . Joan! Yes! Yes!"
And they were gone again, caught up in the rhythm of coitus, reaching for the climax again.
When Sherlock wakened later in the afternoon, his urges had been quelled. Joan lay cuddled against him, her face still flushed from their passionate afternoon, her long hair lying all over him, her full breasts nestled up against his chest. Sherlock kissed Joan awake and she stretched and smiled at him, causing his essence to spill from her and run down her thighs onto the bed.
"Oh, Sherlock, I am so full of you," Joan murmured as she gave him that look of mutual knowledge they often shared since becoming intimate.
Sherlock just rubbed his hand against her thighs and they fell open for him. When that happened, Sherlock was done for. He fell upon the fragrant wetness there and they were lost in each other again as he inhaled her. Then Sherlock drew her up onto him, kissing her all over her face and lips as he slipped inside her once more, rocking more gently than at first, but still powerfully and definitely in the rhythm of sexual connection.
"Oh, Sher . . . lock, baby! Ooh!" Joan cried out as she began to tremble on the verge of being taken To the summit again. "Ooh . . . Ooh!"
"Take it easy, luv, I'm takin' care of you."
Sherlock thrust himself all the way inside her up against her cervix and held her tightly in place there as Joan fluttered like a pinioned butterfly in his arms, her deepest parts quivering in response to the direct pressure of his member upon her cervix as her orgasm swept her in a brilliant display of exploding blue lights in her brain that caused her whole body to seize in a powerful spasm. Sherlock watched her eyes roll back into her head the moment it began.
"Sher . . . Sher . . .lock!"
"Oh, God! Sweetheart! Luv!" Sherlock's voice broke as his whole body went rigid in same moment when he began to ejaculate again. "Dear God! Aargh!"
"Sherlock . . . Please, baby . . . Please. . . Oooh, ooooh!" Joan cried out as her orgasm peaked and merged with Sherlock's own just before she melted in surrender in Sherlock's embrace in complete capitulation.
"Yes, yes! Oh, God ! Yes! Luv . . . luv. . . my sweet woman," Sherlock gasped as they lay still connected with Sherlock kissing her all over her face.
Finally they came back to their senses and began to try to pull themselves together with difficulty. They could not move from their position of connection, but lay still joined for several minutes, sinking into the afterglow of what they had shared.
"I think that we are going to have to try to go find the captain, luv. I sense that he may be looking for us from the recent calls on my phone."
Sherlock had checked his phone and had seen that there were several messages from Gregson within the hour. Joan moved to slip out of bed but Sherlock reached for her and drew her back into his arms and kissed her tenderly upon her lips as they lay naked in each other's arms in the sumptuous bed that had become a cocoon of pleasure for them on this day.
"Thank you for being with me, Joan. I don't know what I did with myself before I found you. I was so incredibly lonely . . . always wanting and needing, but viewing coitus as simply exercise with no emotional input, no attachment. I have only come to know what true sexual communion is with you, what it means when a man an a woman come together this way."
Sherlock trailed his finger tips around Joan's dainty nipples and then bent to kiss and suckle as his hands squeezed her hips and then gently rubbed and then finally smacked her shapely bottom in a gesture that very definitely asserted his ownership of her hind parts.
"You like to smack my behind, don't you?"
"Yes, I do. I love to smack your hind parts, woman," Sherlock confessed. "Because I know this belongs to me," he said gently squeezing her shapely hips. "Not your mind, not that fantastic brain that intrigues and challenges me every day. But this," he said patting her bottom gently, "is mine. You gave it to me, luv. Do you want to take it back?"
"No, I will never take it back. It's yours. I gave it freely to you, Sherlock, when I gave you my heart."
Sherlock's eyes filled at those words from Joan, overcome with emotion.
"My heart was yours from the first day we met. I fought it, but in my own heart I knew that I was drawn to you as to no other person in my life."
Joan traced around his lips so with her index finger and then let the back of her hand rub against the scruff of his beard as they gazed into each other's eyes for a very long moment.
"I don't want to leave this room today, Joan. I want to lie here with you, touching you, kissing you. Don't you want to get into that lovely shower together?"
Joan nodded and they got up from the bed and went into the deluxe bathroom with its Italian marble walk-in shower and turned the hot water on full force at first. Then they turned the water to warm and reduced the pressure as they lovingly washed each other. Finally Sherlock pushed Joan gently up against the tiled wall of the shower and when she wrapped her legs around him, Sherlock groaned as he came deep into her in one powerful motion, connecting them as one again. Joan gasped and sighed as they joined this way, kissing and kissing under the warm shower of water spraying down on them. They gradually slid down to the floor of the shower where they continued to move in the age old rhythm of coitus till they were both crying in the throes of the intense pleasure in their connection to each other..
"Oh, Sherlock . . . baby . . .baby," Joan moaned, her body caught in the spasms of climax as Sherlock became tender with her kissing her all over her face.
"I love you, woman. I love you so much. I never knew . . . it was never like this for me. Oh, God, God! Aargh!" Sherlock cried out as his ejaculation came in spurt after spurt.
Finally they rinsed themselves off, staggered from the shower, dried each other and fell back into bed, exhausted from lovemaking. There was nothing else they could do but sleep.
When Joan wakened, she was amused to see Sherlock hurriedly getting into his boxers, trying to push his still excited member into them so that he could accept a plate of sandwiches from room service.
Sherlock turned to face her and she just smiled and giggled at the sight of her man with his hair just growing back in, his beard growing out, his chest and back marked with her long passion scratches, some days old and healed and some bright red and fresh, his blue green eyes still full of the memory of their afternoon tryst.
"You're laughing, luv."
"You are such a beautiful man this afternoon. . . all nude, and very tattooed. I do really love you like this."
Joan reached for Sherlock's shirt to cover herself but Sherlock held on to it.
"Please don't cover yourself, luv. Be fair with me. You know I love to gaze at you," Sherlock said as his eyes took in her naked state. "You are the most beautiful woman i have ever known."
Joan let go of his shirt and came to him to kiss him tenderly on his lips. They simply stared at each other and kissed again and again, their nostrils flaring as desire for each other surged in them powerfully and captured them.
"You think of everything. I am so hungry," she said later as she took a bite of half of the corned beef sandwich Sherlock had ordered for them and offered a bite to Sherlock. "I think I should cover myself because I don't think we will get out of this hotel room this afternoon if I don't."
"You know that I find myself totally entranced with you, Joan Watson. I think that we should tell Gregson that we are unable to report today. All I want to think about is your lovely pudenda. Please don't cover yourself from my eyes."
"He doesn't know that we are on a marathon."
"I dare say he has figured things out. He thinks that we are going to marry, Joan. We had that conversation last week. I told him that I am in love with you."
"What do you think? Is that what you want, Sherlock?"
"I want no one else but you. I am prepared to be faithful. I have no desire for any other woman other than you, Joan Watson. Would you be willing to consider me?"
"Yes, I would."
"Thank you, luv."
They both stopped for a long moment, dwelling on the import of the words that Sherlock had just uttered.
Sherlock and Joan continued to share the sandwich, feeding each other the crispy French fries he had ordered from The deli nearby and chasing all of it with liberal swigs of Dr. Brown's cream soda as they lay naked in the sumptuous bed.
After they finished eating, they both fell sound asleep from pure sexual exhaustion and it was dark when Sherlock wakened, with Joan sleeping on his chest, her ebony locks flowing over him. He moaned softly to himself and drew her even closer enclosing her in the warmth of his embrace.
Joan murmured his name in her sleep and snuggled closer to him as she felt his arms tighten around her. Sherlock's flesh stiffened at her embrace and he gasped and touched her thighs so that they fell apart in response to his gentle probing.
"Oh, Sherlock . . . Sherlock," Joan moaned softly as he had his way with her, searching, rubbing and touching her.
"Ooh! Ooh! Sherlock!" Joan cried out helplessly, half asleep.
"Please forgive me, luv. I love you . . . love that I am your man, that you will consider me."
Sherlock eased Joan down onto his ready member and she groaned out loud and her eyes opened wide when his length penetrated her up to the hilt.
"Oh, God! Ooh, Sherlock! Ooh . . . Ooh!" Joan wailed as she began to move upon him in the rhythm of coitus.
Tears filled Sherlock's eyes as he felt the comfort of Joan's flesh once again. He rocked with Joan, thrusting up into her warm flesh, possessing her mouth in kiss after kiss. Joan held on to him, rocking with him, giving him back thrust for every thrust, till Sherlock took them both to climax again before they slipped into sleep again.
The next morning it was Joan who wakened first. She always let Sherlock sleep since he so often found sleep difficult to come. She stretched against his muscled body, enjoying the way her body felt after having coitus with Sherlock nearly a dozen times in a twenty-four hour period. She was still warm inside, her body so turned on by him that she could only cling to him as she vibrated inside.
"Sherlock . . ." Joan whispered into his ear
"Umm . . . Joan," Sherlock answered sleepily.
"We never went home yesterday . . . couldn't get out of this bed."
"I didn't want to leave this," Sherlock said, patting her hip affectionately. "I love you to distraction, woman."
Sherlock and Joan finally pulled themselves together, ordered breakfast from room service and fed each other warm scrambled eggs and toast along with cups of perfect hot black tea as they sat on the rumpled bed.
Sherlock found himself staring at Joan's unfettered breasts as they floated free under her sweater, glad that she had not decided to put her bra back on. Then his eyes met Joan's and she saw his need, his desire burning there as his nostrils flared wide in arousal. Her eyes dropped to his groin where his boxers were already completely distended and she felt the unmistakable heat in the pit of her own belly.
"We are to meet the captain at 11:00. That is three hours from now," Sherlock said quietly. "I imagine that I can give you at least three flights of fancy in that time. I think that is what you need today, luv."
Joan flushed and smiled at him.
"Take those silly shorts off. And lie back so your doctor can examine you."
"Your wish is my command," Sherlock said as he pushed his shorts down and off, revealing fully the state he was in, fully comfortable with his own nakedness..
"My God, Sherlock!"
Joan was struck at the sight of his massive erection. Since they had become intimate sexually and Joan realized Sherlock to be so at ease with his nakedness, she found the sight of his aroused genitalia most beautiful. His member was huge and thick, all the way from root to tip, and intact, and in his state of excitement his member lifted up so high that, his heavy rust colored testicles at the root of his organ were clearly revealed. And now its mushroom shaped bright red head pushed up from its foreskin.
"I'm in pathetic shape here."
"Beautifully pathetic, Sherlock," Joan said as she caught him tenderly in her hand and applied the pressure that brought cries of ecstasy from his lips.
"Oh, Jesus Christ, Joan!"
Joan released him and stripped off her sweater and then her panties and lay back facing him with her knees demurely together. But Sherlock leaned forward and touched her closed knees with just the tips of his fingers and they fell open to him revealing her own swollen genitalia.
"I can't help myself, Sherlock. I wanted you from the beginning. I tried to find substitutes-dating services, Andrew, but nothing was able to quell the desire I had to be your woman."
Sherlock gasped and snorted like a wild horse and drew Joan into his arms and kissed her over and over so passionately that he took Joan's breath away as he rubbed and squeezed her all over her body. They were gone, lost in their passions as they groaned and gasped at the intensity of what they were feeling. The Sherlock got onto her and they came together quickly.
"Oh, God! Joan! Joan!" Sherlock cried out as he found the depths of her and began to thrust with all his power. "I can't get enough of you, Joanie! Aagh! Aaagh!"
"Ooh! Ooooh!" Joan moaned with each thrust. "I . . . can't . . . can't resist. . . you! I love you, Sher!"
Joan dug her nails deep into Sherlock's shoulders and her teeth clattered as wave after wave of rapture took her over the top.
At the sight of Joan in rapture Sherlock lost vision in his passion and began to gasp and grunt as the convulsive movements of the climax seized him and the familiar blue lights exploded in his brain.
Joan went limp in his arms in her moment of capitulation and Sherlock held her as the contractions continued to wrack his pelvis. He was always instantly repentant when Joan gave in to him this way, kissing her tenderly over and over, murmuring the most intimate terms of endearment over and over as they came down from the incredible high of orgasm and then drifted to sleep in each other's arms.
In the late afternoon they wakened from their marathon, still craving one another but incredibly hungry as well.
"Let's go pick up some steaks and take them home and cook them together, luv," Sherlock whispered into her ear. "I am too excited by you to behave myself in a restaurant this evening."
"Okay, but you must turn your head while I get dressed. I know that look in your eyes," Joan said playfully. "I don't think you ever get enough, do you?"
"Not enough of you . . . not enough of what you give me. And it's not simply your delightful arse. It's knowin' you love me, that you will give me what no woman in my life ever gave me till you."
Sherlock became very serious for a moment and drew Joan into his embrace and kissed her gently upon her mouth.
"What do I give you, Sherlock?"
"Your understanding. From the beginning you understood me. You are the only one that understands me completely . . . and I love you so," Sherlock said, his eyes suddenly brimming with tears. "When I am an old man and can barely get this thing up, I need to know that you will be in my bed because you understand me as no one else does."
Joan stared at him and in her heart realized how starved emotionally that both of them had been, for such a long time, more starved than either of them had realized. When they first came to terms with their feelings just before Kitty left, it had hit them so powerfully that they were practically useless for days for anything other than trying to satisfy their needs for one another. Their most recent case had forced them to take a break from none stop lovemaking but the conclusion of the case had only made them want to resume their emotionally passionate life style.
Now Sherlock smacked her on her bottom and gently stepped back from her, his hands trembling because of the depth of his feelings.
"Let's get dressed, luv," he said hoarsely, or we will be back in that bed."
They quickly dressed and left the room where they had found so much pleasure for the better part of two days and returned to Brooklyn, stopping on their way home at their favorite meat market where they bought two beautifully marbled rib eye steaks and then at their local bakery a loaf of French bread.
When they got home, they hurriedly put the meal together and soon they were sitting down to a fresh spinach salad and medium rare steaks with crispy buttered French bread, feeding the succulent morsels of food to each other till they were sated.
"It was excellent, luv, wasn't it?"
Joan nodded as their eyes met in an intimate moment that made both of them catch their breath.
"I love to eat with you, to watch you enjoy the pleasure of good food. It is almost as beautiful as watching you have carnal pleasure," Sherlock said, his nostrils dilating gently as he reached for her hand across the table and drew it to his lips. "I love every moment we share. I hope I bring you the pleasure you desire, Joan. If not, you only have to utter the word and I will try to do whatever it is that you crave. Watching you gasp and cry out in my arms in that supreme moment fills my heart with something that I can only describe as the deepest love. You have taught me the inextricable connection between love from the heart and sexual fulfillment. I . . . I love you, Joan."
Joan blushed at this outpouring of passionate words from Sherlock.
"And i love you. I find you irresistible, Sherlock. . . irresistible. I am a complete woman when you make love to me. You are quite a guy, you know."
Now it was Sherlock's turn to blush as Joan complemented him on his sexual prowess.
"You bring out the best in me, mylady," Sherlock said softly. "Now I am going to send you to our bed to rest while I take care of the kitchen."
Sherlock drew Joan up from the table and they wrapped their arms around each other and lost themselves for the moment in a wildly passionate kiss.
"Oh, God, Joan," I think the kitchen will have to wait," Sherlock groaned softly as he flesh rose up to press insistently against Joan's.
"I beg you to indulge me. I find myself overwhelmed with desire for you at this moment."
Joan responded by pulling his shirt from his trousers so that she could touch his bare skin and run her hands up and down his chest letting her nails scrape him gently.
"God, woman! I love it when you do that," Sherlock murmured as he picked Joan up in his arms and carried her off to bed.