After everyone had gone and the house had been tidied up, Millie began the dreaded journey towards the bedroom to finally face Max alone. She was not expecting a positive reception.

She walked into the room to find Max sitting on the bed, reading. At least he had started to read when he had heard her footsteps coming down the hall. Before that he had been sitting there frowning, deep in thought.

When she entered the room, Max refused to look up to acknowledge her presence. This isn't a good start, she thought to herself. She bravely walked over to the bed and sat beside him.

"Max?" she said softly.

"Hmm?" he replied, without moving his eyes from the page he was pretending to read.

Millie had expected more of a reaction than this, and she was slightly put off. But she determined to press on.

"Max, I'm sorry about before," she said.

"Sorry you were caught?" Max said calmly, still without so much as glancing up from his page.

Millie resolutely continued, "Sorry you were upset. I know I got carried away, but it wasn't as bad as it looked. You know I would never have done anything…"

At this Max looked for her and raised his eye brow as if to say, "Do I?" before turning his attention back to his book.

Millie reached and took hold of his arm. She was beginning to get annoyed. "Come on Max, you do know that! Anything I did was just in the spirit of a Hen's night. It was completely harmless."

"Harmless, you call it?" said Max hotly. That was it, he couldn't pretend to ignore her anymore. "Don't give me that! I saw you! You were practically sucking his cock!"

Millie became indignant at his accusation. "What? I was not! All I did was grab the envelope with my teeth! I had no choice, I was handcuffed!"

This little reminder did nothing to appease Max, "Oh! How convenient. 'I had to take his dick in my mouth because I was handcuffed!' The perfect excuse!"

"Excuse me, but I had nothing in my mouth but an envelope!"

"I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't walked in though? How far would you have gone then?"

Millie looked at Max incredulously. "Hey, do you think I'm in the habit of publicly fellating people? Are you kidding me? With your sisters there and everything? Actually, you know, I wouldn't even have sex with you after we're married in the presence of an audience, let alone publicly perform oral sex on strangers!"

Max was still upset and angry, but he knew accusing her of exhibitionism was probably taking things a bit too far. It was probably time to stop with the melodramatics and tell it like it was.

"All right then, how would you feel if you put yourself in my place? You come home happily intending to gaze on your sleeping son before making love with his gorgeous mother, when you're greeted with a room full of friends cheering as your lover is cuffed in a chair wearing her 'blow job face' while some guy pokes his crotch at her. How would that make you feel?"

Millie frowned. "I don't have a 'blow job face'!" she retorted.

Max treated her to an impression of it. It occurred to her it was a particularly convincing impression. For a moment it made her wonder where he had learnt to mimic this action so accurately, but mainly it made her think how stupid it must make her look.

"Eww, do I look that bad? I'm never doing that again!"

Alarm bells starting sounding in Max's head. Perhaps all the things he'd ever heard about the dangers of turning girlfriend into wife were true? He pictured a future in which their affectionately playful sexual adventures were replaced by a lifetime of predictable, perfunctory sex.

"Oh great, so not only do I catch you on the verge of being unfaithful to me, now you're announcing you'll be denying me sexual favours? I would have thought you'd be doing whatever it takes to save our relationship, but apparently not!" He pointedly turned his attention back to his book.

Millie could see Max's accusations were getting more and more ridiculous. All they were doing was going around in circles arguing about her Hen's night escapade. And anyway, despite her own feelings of guilt, she was still angry at Max. He was, after all, the one who had lied in the first place. It was time to turn the tables.

"Well anyway, how was your night? I suppose you didn't go anywhere near your stripper then?"

Max made no comment, so Millie went on. "So, was she attractive?"

Max would have loved to have kept on examining Millie's transgressions, but he knew when he was cornered.

"She was OK," he said with a shrug.

"Did you touch her? Did she smooch up to you?"

Max knew his own behaviour was far from blameless. He made one last effort to deflect any guilt from himself.

"She did what you'd expect a stripper to do. Of course, she didn't open her legs and invite me to remove my 'present' from anywhere inappropriate."

Millie gave a sarcastic laugh. "Well, what a relief! Did she sit on your lap?"

Max looked guilty. "Yes," he admitted.

"Facing you with her legs around you?" Really, she would be annoyed whichever way he said. But facing him and being able to look into his eyes seemed worse somehow.

Max didn't respond to this, which only served to make Millie confident that the answer was yes.

"I see," she said, getting off the bed and leaving the room. She knew that they had both misbehaved that night, but Max's vagueness about the whole thing only led her to presume he was ashamed of how far he had gone.

Max sat on the bed and heaved a sigh of exasperation. He was hurt, but so was Millie. There was really no point in each blaming the other when they had both suffered. When it all boiled down to it, he knew he loved her, and there was Thomas to consider. He got up to find her.

Millie was sitting in Thomas's room, holding a picture of the three of them together taken when Max was only new on the scene. They were still getting to know each other, which you could see from the slight awkwardness with which Max had his arm around her. Nevertheless, Millie remembered, they both had had high hopes for their future together. What had gone wrong since then? They had got through the incident with Sonia and their bond had been stronger for it. Formalising their commitment by living together as a family had also seemed to make them closer. Surely one night when each of them had done no more than most other people would do on their last night of 'freedom' couldn't end things between them? Could it?

No, Millie decided. She wasn't going to let it.

Before she could get up to make her way back to their room, Max came through the door. She could see by his face that he too was feeling contrite. Without a word, she stood up and they both reached out their arms for each other. After an embrace that was unbroken for a good minute or so, they turned to face each other and kissed.

Max was the first to speak, "You already said it, so now it's my turn - I'm sorry."

Millie hugged him tightly, "Thank you," she said.

Max took her face in both his hands and, tilting her head, looked into her eyes. "Let's draw a line under this one for the moment hey?"

"Good idea," agreed Millie. "You know," she said significantly, "this is the first night we have spent alone together in this house."

"You're right," said Max, smiling as his mind conjured up certain possibilities . "We should make the most of it. What shall we do?"

"Household accounts?" suggested Millie teasingly.

Max smacked her bottom. "I have a few better suggestions," he said, tracing her hairline gently with his lips.

"Such as?" said Millie, .

"Well, I think there are many surfaces on this house that we haven't had sex on yet," he said.

"You're not looking at any in this room I hope?"

"No, let's leave Thomas's room sex-free."

"I'm glad you think that. Say, why don't we light a fire and watch a movie or something while finishing off a few leftovers from tonight?"

The idea of watching a movie undisturbed by a screaming toddler was appealing, but this wasn't the kind of 'alone time' Max had in mind. He felt a bit disappointed.

Millie hooked her thumbs into the belt loops of his jeans and pulled his hips towards her own. "Of course," she said coyly, "while we're watching the movie we'll be lying naked together on the couch, fulfilling whatever physical cravings we may have, whether they be for food or for each other."

Max smiled, "Now you're talking."

He took Millie by the hand and the two of them returned to their sitting room. Max lit the fire while Millie organised food, drinks and a quilt. Once they had both completed their set tasks, they met by the sofa. Max reached his arms around Millie and took hold of the zip of her skirt. He brought it down gradually, then slid his hands into the skirt's waistband and loosened it from her hips until the skirt fell to floor around her ankles. Max paused to appreciate the way her long bare legs tapered down into a sexy, strappy pair of high heels. Then both sets of hands set to work unbuttoning the other's shirt. Millie's had fewer buttons, so it didn't take Max long to remove it to reveal the rose-coloured push-up bra Millie had chosen to augment her cleavage in her low-cut blouse. He stoically suppressed the thought that she had chosen this bra for a night from which she had expected him to be absent, and planted delicate, teasing kisses along its lacy edge as he worked the back of it undone.

Millie's hands, meanwhile, had peeled off Max's shirt and jeans, and soon they were lying naked on the sofa, indulging in the sensation of being able to lazily explore each other's bodies without the threat of interruption.

Max looked up at Millie. "Hey we forgot about a movie!" he said languidly.

Millie slinked her naked body up to the end of the sofa and reached behind her to grab the remote. She started to play the dvd in the machine. Of course, it was one of Thomas's.

"Ooo, 'In the Night Garden'. What a turn on!" laughed Millie.

"Works for me," said Max. "I reckon that Upsy Daisy would be up for it. Actually, she reminds me of you, with that oral fixation of hers."

Millie gave Max's arm a little slap. "All right then. If I'm Upsy Daisy, who are you?"

"Igglepiggle obviously," said Max. "Anyone can see that those two are doing it. Why else is he's always carrying that blanket?"

"At least you didn't say Makka Pakka. I've no doubt he's a deviant. I bet he's into all sorts of kinky stuff."

"You are so unadventurous," scolded Max. "But right now, I'm perfectly happy with good old fashioned shagging on the sofa."

Millie pointed the remote at the television and turned it off. She let it drop to the floor as she pulled Max towards her and kissed him passionately. There was a particular poignancy in the way they kissed and caressed each other, almost like they were afraid what would happen if they let each other go. In the space of a single evening, both had been tempted, both had been hurt, both had had their confidence in the other shaken. Neither had quite forgiven the other, and neither was entirely sure of their future with the other. But it didn't take long before, after a slightly tentative start on both sides, their lust and the sense of familiarity soon moved them beyond slow gentle motion towards escalating passion.

And so it went that like so many other couples had before them, they proved that nothing multiplies the likelihood of conception like an illicit, desperation-charged quickie on the sofa motivated by uncertainty, alcohol and the resulting denial of the potentially procreational consequences of the union...