A/N - The start of this chapter is M-rated (not sorry, but there's a significant part in it anyway) (it's okay if you don't read it, I mention it in the non-M part) so I've put a line break after the M bit is over for those who would prefer to skip that. It's there for a reason :) Thank you all for the wonderful feedback so far, glad to see you're all enjoying reading this as much as I am writing it!

Chapter 3 - Honesty: "Eyes that know me, and I can't go back."

What had started off as a slow, soft kiss, quickly turned into a passionate, desire-fueled make-out. As they slowly lifted their top halves off the pillows to sit up properly, her hands slid up his arms, linking together behind his neck. His hands gently traced up from her waist, one stopping at her face to cup her cheek, the other continuing on to tangle in her hair. Lips eagerly parted to allow this kiss to deepen, tongues claiming each other's mouths, urging softs moans from both parties. It was intoxicating; the further they went, the more they wanted. Leonard's hands moved back down to her waist, and he gently pushed her onto her back, moving his body to hover over hers.

Pushing one knee between hers to spread her legs slightly and give himself leverage, Leonard held her hips as he leaned down to kiss her again. Penny's nails raked lightly down his chest, moving to caress the muscles in his arms before settling them on his back. His lips parted from hers to move to her neck, and she pushed her hips up to his as she felt his tongue graze against her skin. Ever since they'd learned how sensitive that particular part of her neck was, he never failed to use it to his advantage and her pleasure. As his teeth lightly nipped at her neck, a low moan escaped her, and he felt her fingernails dig into his back. He trailed his kisses down her neck, along her shoulder and collarbone, down to her chest. He went back up from there, meeting her lips as his hands began to push her camisole up. She lifted her body slightly so he could pull it off, and soon enough it was on the floor and his lips were back on her chest. Her fingers gripped at his curls, urging him on as his teeth and tongue worked at her breasts. She began to writhe beneath him, scraping at his scalp.

Once he began to work his way back up to her lips, she placed her hands on his shoulders and swiftly flipped them over, straddling him. His brows raised in surprise, and she grinned at him in response. Leonard placed his hands on her thighs, his fingers slipping just under the material of her shorts, and she placed her hands on his chest, leaning forward to plant a tiny kiss on his lips. Her lips then continued to travel down his neck, to his chest, where she slowly made her way over his skin. Her tongue joined the fray when she reached his stomach, and he groaned beneath her. Shifting her body down slightly, her lips and tongue continued their work until she reached the waistband of his boxers, where she stayed for a moment, her chest heaving into the hard body beneath her. She made her way back up to his mouth, grinding her hips into him as she placed her lips over his.

Keeping their lips locked, Leonard rolled them back over. As the kiss escalated, hands began to roam, his down her sides and hers down his chest. He slid his hands up from her thighs beneath her pajama shorts, and her fingers hooked over the waistband of his boxers. Removing his hands, he sat up, removing his own shorts, before returning his hands to her hips. She looked up at him, panting, as he slowly pushed the pajama shorts down her legs, alternating kisses on her thighs. Both final items of clothing now on the floor, he moved back up, kissing her softly, before pulling away again.

Leonard took her whole body in with adoration. His fingers traced over her face, through her hair and over her shoulders. They moved gently down her chest, over her breasts, down her abdomen and stomach; skimmed over her hips and massaged down her legs, before making his way back up again. The whole time her eyes stayed on him, absorbing his touch; the touch she had missed immensely.

Cupping her face with his hands, Leonard gave her a gentle kiss, before smiling at her. "You're beautiful."

A fresh blush spread over her cheeks, and she linked her fingers behind his neck, meeting his lips with hers. "I love you, Leonard." Penny's eyes stayed steadily on his, their foreheads touching, hot breath mingling between them. It didn't matter to her that they had gone so long with seeing each other before she said those words; he deserved to know, to understand that even after what happened, she still felt that way about him.

Kissing her fully, deeply on the mouth, Leonard held her bottom lip between his before returning, "I love you too, Penny."

Their lips crashed together, the relief of letting each other hear those three words bringing in a new wave of desire. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and he placed one arm beneath her, holding her and supporting his weight in one. The other hand moved to grip her thigh as he pushed into her.

They both groaned in relief as he filled her. Leonard moved slowly at first, as they allowed the familiarity to come flooding back, and the indulgence of finally being with each other, this intimately, again. Penny's fingers found their way into his hair once more, tugging at his curls, and one hand scratched pleasantly down his back to grip at his ass. Moaning into each other through lazy but desperate kisses, the pace quickly increased, the build up need for release escalating fast.

"Oh God," Penny breathed, a low moan coming from her throat as his hand brushed up her thigh, landing on her ass, his lips moving to suck at her neck, "Leonard, mmh."

As she swiveled her hips into him and dug her heels into his back, he grunted. "Uh, Penny," he released a long moan as her lips moved to suck lightly on his earlobe.

Moving his hand from her ass, Leonard trailed a finger from her bottom lip, down between her breasts and over her stomach, slipping his hand between them where their bodies met. She yelped in surprise, throwing her head back. "Oh, Leonard, yes!" Penny moaned uncontrollably as his fingers worked at her sensitive spot, remembering exactly what worked on her. She pushed herself into his hand, throwing her head forward to bite into his shoulder. "God, yes, oh baby I'm so close, oh God!"

The feeling of her teeth sinking into his skin caused him to grunt and moan loudly, her name falling from his lips as he moved them over her skin. As their lips regained contact, he removed his hand, moving it back round to her ass, pressing her further onto him. His desperate need for release grew stronger, and he could tell she was close too, so he upped his game, thrusting into her harder and faster. Before long they were all but yelling each others names, planting lazy kisses on each others lips in between, sweat mingling and dripping from their bodies.

"Oh God," Penny moaned, feeling herself tightening around him, "oh, fuck, Leonard, mm baby-" Her words were cut short as he slammed hard into her, biting at her neck. She screamed his name as she came, gripping onto him, her entire body tight around his.

This prompted Leonard to come too, and not long after he was yelling her name too as she throbbed around him, pulling him with her into a blissful state they'd missed for so long.

He dropped his forehead to hers, and they exchanged short, sweet kisses as they came down from their high. A few minutes later, he rolled off of her and onto his side, and she turned onto her side too to face him.

"That was amazing." Penny stated, her voice a little above a whisper, a smile on her face.

"I know," Leonard smiled back at her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, before letting his hand rest on her hip. With his other hand, he pulled the covers back up over their naked bodies.

Bringing one hand up to rest on his arm, Penny sighed. "I've missed this," she admitted, her voice faltering slightly. When she raised her head to look at him, he saw tears lining her eyes.

"Hey," he said softly, his hand drifting up from her hip to her chin. "I've missed this too. A lot." He smiled sadly. "I've missed you a lot."

Grasping his hand with hers, Penny sniffled. "I've missed you a lot too, Leonard."

"Penny, I've missed you too..." Leonard ran his thumb along her jaw, sighing. "Come here." Shifting his body, he turned so he was leaning his back against the pillows, and she moved with him to rest her head on his chest. Trying to lighten the mood, he laughed slightly as a memory filled his mind. "D'you remember that time we broke the bed?"

This made Penny giggle. She was grateful for the distraction; she wanted to savor the intimacy, allow herself and him to just be happy, in the moment, rather than begin talking about the past and get upset. "Yup! I always felt a little sorry for the people in 3B. They always gave me funny looks whenever I passed them in the lobby."

"Yeah... poor 3B."

"Guess Sheldon had it worse." Penny bit her lip. "That poor Whackadoodle."

"Well, he survived," Leonard chuckled.

"Thankfully this apartment is at the end of the block, so no neighbors got disturbed just now. Not too sure about the people in 18. Bet they got a nice surprise there. Oh, well!" First time for everything, Penny thought. "I met the people in 18 back when I moved in. They seemed nice, I'm sure they can forgive me for this. Though I've never heard anything from 38, and they seemed quite rowdy in the elevator, so maybe these floors are nice and soundproof."

"That's very analytical of you," Leonard observed.

"Shut up." Penny rolled her eyes.

Laughing, he kissed her hair. "So, your British accent is pretty good."

"Well, I had a lot of practice." Penny grinned. "It's annoying because they all speak so differently, so in the end I gave up and had a few lessons with a dialect coach."

"Paid off, it's way better than it used to be." Leonard teased.

"Come on, it was not that bad! You said it was alright before!" Penny pointed out, her voice high, as it always went when she was defending herself.

"That was a guess, I was focusing more on what your mouth was doing rather than saying. Just knowing you were doing the accent was enough."

"Ugh," Penny tapped his chest, mocking offence, "whatever. I thought doing that accent in bed after that movie would do something for you."

"You didn't even notice when I did the accent!"

"Hey, I was too busy focusing on-" Penny stopped, before jutting her jaw out in defeat. "Alright, I get your point now."

"You could always do your accent now." Leonard suggested with a grin.

"No, you already heard it earlier!"

"Yeah, as your character. That's different."

"You still heard me. I think you should do it."

"No... I don't think that's a good idea."

"You're right," Penny nodded, "you probably sound like Ross when he did it in his lecture in Friends."

"Okay, it's not as bad as that."

"Prove it then."

Becoming shy, Leonard paused before answering with a quiet "no."

"Yup, that's what I thought." Penny winked, nuzzling her head into his neck and wrapping an arm over his stomach. "Mm. You used my Star Wars shower gel."

"Yeah. Is that okay?"

"Uh-huh," Penny replied sleepily, the tiredness of the day setting in along with the exhaustion, a consequence from their recent activities. All the awkwardness and nervousness she had been feeling earlier were blanketed by the complete comfort she felt right now in his arms. She had craved this for so long, and now that she had it, it felt wonderful; she didn't want to let this go.

"Too bad you didn't have the matching shampoo and conditioner."

"You're such a nerd." Penny muttered, closing her eyes as he traced patterns on her arm. This. It was this that she missed the most. The closeness and intimacy they shared that came so naturally to them both. Nothing could take that away from them.

"Says the one who bought and uses Star Wars shower gel. And I saw the case for Babylon 5 by your TV."

"Oh." Penny sighed. "Oh well."

Impressed that she hadn't even tried to defend why she had Babylon 5, Leonard emitted a low chuckle. Glancing down slightly, he saw that she had closed her eyes. He had sort of figured that after that, they'd end up falling asleep here together, but it still took him a moment to process that it was actually happening.

So, perhaps tonight they weren't going to talk about what had happened in the past, and catch each other up on their lives. Maybe they weren't going to talk about the honest 'I love you' that had fallen from both of their mouths earlier. And for Leonard and Penny, in that moment, they could deal with that. In their warm embrace, knowing the other was going to still be there when they awoke, that was enough. Words took time, truthful conversations took energy, and longed-for reunions took trust and comfort.

Reaching over, Leonard shut off the night light on Penny's side, before extending his arm to shut off the one on his side. "Goodnight, Penny," he whispered quietly, placing a kiss in her hair. God, it felt so good to say those words again, with her in his arms.

"Night, Leonard."

And for the first time since moving in, Penny fell asleep with ease, comfortable in her own bed at last.