A/N: This story is now rated M. It was something I thought long and hard about, but after over 40,000 words of building up to it, I simply didn't feel like "fade to black" was an option. (On the other hand, FFN has its rules, and this is, IMHO, firmly M - in other words, don't expect extremely explicit erotica either.) If you're under 16 years old or simply don't feel comfortable with that, I suggest you either skip the chapter or stop when they get to the bedroom. You're not going to miss anything but the obvious!

Needless to say, the characters are still not mine.

The party went surprisingly well. Everyone behaved – even Beryl was almost pleasant to talk to. Valkyrie wondered if it was because it was so obvious that she was getting on better than ever with Carol and Crystal; not that they were bosom buddies but she found she didn't mind spending a few minutes now and then talking to the twins.

As long as she didn't have to do it too often, of course.

And no one seemed to notice Fergus disappear to Gordon's office for half an hour, either. Valkyrie had told him how to open the secret door, not wanting to leave it ajar or slip away with Fergus to open it herself in his presence.

So, all in all, she considered the party a success. She got a lovely dress and a necklace from her parents as well as a promise to pay for her driving lessons – she'd completely forgotten to ask about them, as she could drive well enough and having a licence didn't seem too urgent, not without a car of her own. The twins gave her a bracelet that didn't actually look too awful, and from Beryl and Fergus she got a gift card to a Dublin department store; not too original perhaps, but she was sure it would come in much handier than any present they could have picked out themselves. She also got some more gift cards from the rest of the family, which suited her just fine.

The downside of the party being a relative success was that people were not in a rush to leave.

It was nearly midnight when her parents, who had lingered for another twenty minutes after the last of the guests had left, gave her a kiss on the cheek and a hug and said their goodbyes.

She yawned, suddenly tired. She was used to staying up all night and making do with very little sleep when needed, but usually when that happened there was enough adrenaline to keep her going. Tonight she was just tired, exhausted from all the socialising.

Still. Tired or not, there was a phone call she was going to make. The thought was enough to give her energy levels a boost, and after hearing Skulduggery's velvety voice tell her he'd be there in fifteen minutes, a giddy, nervous excitement took care of the last of the exhaustion.

True to his word, Skulduggery arrived exactly fifteen minutes later. Valkyrie knew this as she'd checked the time when she rang him. He actually knocked on the door – the first time since she'd known him, she realised; they always either arrived together or he'd walked right inside when she'd got there first and had agreed to have him pick her up.

She closed her eyes for a moment, took a deep breath and opened the door.

xXx

He looked at her, his skull, gleaming in the light of the chandelier, tilted. 'You're beautiful.'

Valkyrie could feel the blood rush to her cheeks. 'Thanks. You're not looking too bad yourself.'

She had to admit to herself that he cut an impressive figure, especially in the tuxedo he was wearing – not the same one he'd worn to the Requiem Ball, obviously, as that one had got rather tattered in all the fighting – all tall and straight and broad-shouldered. She could feel his magic swirl around in the air and wondered if it was because he was as excited as she was or whether the giddiness she was feeling had heightened her senses, made her more aware of him and his magic. Whatever it was, she hoped it wouldn't disappear.

'Not too bad?' he asked, sounding mock-offended. 'I'll have you know that it took me an hour to get dressed, simply because I couldn't tear myself away from the mirrors. It's very rare that one gets to see a man as dashingly handsome as I am, after all.'

She grinned, glad that he had that wonderful knack of dispersing tension. She knew why he was here tonight, after all. He knew it, too. And she knew that he knew it, and she knew that he knew that she knew that he knew it, and… Even after everything, all these years of friendship and all these weeks, months, of kissing, she was nervous.

'So…' she said, looking up into his eye sockets. 'Um…'

'Yes?'

Her mouth had gone dry. She swallowed, trying to think of the best way to move from point A – standing in the middle of the grand downstairs living room – to point B, the upstairs bedroom that had once been Gordon's, and which she had made sure was presentable. It was odd, taking Gordon's bedroom, especially when he was still floating around, but it was the nicest one in the whole house, much nicer than any of the guest bedrooms, and she'd figured as the new owner, it would only make sense.

Instead, she blurted out, 'My present?'

'Will come tomorrow.' He sounded apologetic. 'It's just that it's rather large, and it needs to be delivered separately, so I thought it would be better if I had it brought here tomorrow.'

'Oh. You're still not going to tell me what it is, are you?'

He laughed. 'No, I'm not. You'll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I'm afraid you'll have to make do with me.'

'I think I can manage.'

'Are you sure?' His voice had dropped a little; it was lower, even more velvety than usual and definitely seductive. She shivered, feeling the heat pool in the pit of her abdomen. Oh yes, she was sure; surer than she'd ever been about this before.

'Oh yes.' She stepped closer and took his hands, the bones of his fingers, firm and safe, tangible beneath the soft leather of his gloves. 'I think I've waited enough; don't you?'

He pulled her closer, so close that his teeth almost touched her forehead. 'You have been exceedingly patient,' he murmured, so low that she had to strain to hear the words. 'I… I hope it's worth the wait, Valkyrie. I don't want to disappoint you.'

She wanted to reassure him, tell him that there was no way he could disappoint her, but the truth was that she had no idea, and she wasn't going to lie to him. She certainly hoped that it would be everything that she had dreamed of and more, that it would be worth the wait, that it would be perfect in every way, that she would enjoy every second of it – but the truth was that she was going to have sex, or as much of it as was possible, with Skulduggery, with a man who was made up of nothing but bones, which was still really, reallyweird to think about, whenever she'd actually tried to imagine it, and she had to acknowledge that as much as she was looking forward to it, and even though she was so used to what Skulduggery was and even though she'd never felt repulsed by him in any way, there was a possibility that she'd just be too weirded out once they got down to it.

Not that she was going to tell him that either.

So she just shrugged. 'We won't know until we've tried,' she said. 'And I'm really looking forward to trying.'

His head dipped a little and when she looked up, her lips found his teeth. She angled her head a little and kissed him, loving the way it felt, loving the way it made every bit of her body sizzle with desire, loving the way her magic swelled inside her, pushing upwards to meet and mingle with his. She'd kissed magical boys before, of course; apart from Caelan, both of the other two boys she'd kissed had had magic. But this was something that had never happened with either of her living boyfriends. Only with Skulduggery.

Her body was pressed against his, any exhaustion she'd felt before swept away. She could feel his ribs against her breasts through the thin layers of fabric separating them; his hands were roaming freely along her back, bolder and more insistent than he'd ever been with her before. She hoped his clever fingers would find the zipper on the back of her dress soon, but knew he probably wouldn't until she'd given him a clear sign – although as far as she was concerned, her signs had been clear enough.

She pulled back, regretfully, a few minutes later. Part of her wished they could just stand there and kiss forever, while the rest of her wasn't going to be satisfied with that.

'Upstairs?' she whispered, still trying to catch her breath.

'Upstairs,' he agreed.

xXx

She wasn't quite sure how they got upstairs to the bedroom – it involved a considerable number of stops on the staircase and kissing; she remembered that much – but they finally made it. Skulduggery's tie had come loose and the two top buttons on his shirt were opened, exposing the upper sternum and the symbols tattooed on his collarbones. Valkyrie took care to avoid touching them. Tonight, she wanted just Skulduggery.

They stopped in the middle of the bedroom. He pulled her into another kiss, but this time, his hands went straight for the zipper on her back, although he took his time with it, letting his fingertips run along her skin as the zipper moved downwards. She managed to manoeuvre one of her hands between them and started working on his buttons, keeping her other hand on his shoulder.

She was so intent on the kiss and his buttons and the wonderful buzz inside her that she barely registered when Skulduggery's hands slid back to her shoulders and pushed down the straps of her dress. He grasped her fingers with his and pushed her back a little, letting go of her hands, enough that her dress, now unhindered by the position of her arms, could slide down all the way, a puddle of silk on the floor.

'You're so beautiful.' His voice was barely above a whisper, quiet and reverent. 'I don't know what I've done to deserve this.'

'And here I was thinking that you are well aware of your exceptional awesomeness,' she said, trying to keep her tone light.

'Oh, I am.' His hand hovered over her arm, not quite touching it. 'I'm charming, brilliant and very good at everything I do. And yet…'

'You know what else you are?'

He tilted his head instead of answering, his dark eye sockets trained on her face.

'Overdressed. Very much so.'

'Hmm. It seems that you might just be right. Doesn't happen often, I know, but this time I have to agree.'

'You're such a goon. And still overdressed.'

His jacket was off in a flash; the tie joined it on the back of a chair a moment later. Her disappointment at missing out on half the fun must have shown on her face. 'I can't let you undress me,' he said, shrugging out of his starched white shirt. 'Another time, yes, but I have to look presentable in these clothes tomorrow at your party. If I let you take them off…'

'They'd be in a crumpled heap on the floor. I know.' She took a step back and sat down on the edge of the bed, deciding to at least enjoy the show if she couldn't actively participate in it. 'You should have worn something else. A dressing gown, maybe. Something that even I couldn't ruin.'

'I'll keep that in mind.' His hands were on his belt buckle now and she had to remind herself to breathe. He hesitated for a moment. 'Just so that we're clear… You do know that there's, um, a distinct lack of something to admire down there, right?'

Valkyrie felt like slamming her head into the nearest wall. 'I know you're a skeleton. I've seen pictures of skeletons. I know you don't have any flesh at all. I won't be disappointed by the lack of it.'

He nodded and dropped his trousers. Valkyrie couldn't help but laugh at the sight of what was revealed – a pale pink silk ribbon tied around his pelvis, with a somewhat flattened bow in the front.

'My birthday present,' she said, once she'd stopped laughing. 'May I unwrap it?'

He kicked off his shoes and socks, completely naked now apart from the gloves that were still on. 'Of course. I'll even let you take off my gloves. By the way, I'd say you're the overdressed one now.'

Valkyrie looked down at her underwear, which was so brief it was barely there.

'Point taken.' She got up and reached out her hand, grabbing one end of the pink bow. 'I go first.'

The ribbon slipped off smoothly and easily. He offered her his hands next; she had to work a bit to get the gloves off, tight as they were, careful to avoid ripping off parts of his fingers with them.

'You're the sexiest skeleton I've ever seen,' she said with a grin once she was done and took a step back again to admire the sight before her. Not that she'd seen many, of course… there had been that plastic one at school, hanging in the corner of one of the classrooms, but she'd never found that one particularly appealing. Skulduggery, on the other hand, may have lacked flesh, muscles and skin, but there was an odd sort of gracefulness about him – gracefulness combined with power, which made him remarkably attractive also physically.

And there was something else she had to admit to herself – the lack of dangly bits, although she suspected it would become impractical at some point, also meant that he didn't look quite as ridiculous as any other man she'd seen naked. The first time she'd seen Fletcher naked, she'd had a hard time taking him seriously.

Skulduggery stepped closer, reaching behind her to open her bra. He didn't have any problems with the clasps and the strapless bra fell on the floor next to her dress. He picked them both up and put them away on the same chair he'd used for his own clothes. She resisted the momentary urge to cover her breasts – she wanted him to see her, but there was still that sense of embarrassment she hadn't quite managed to banish.

She made a quick decision while he was still busy with arranging the clothes on the chair and slipped out of her knickers before sitting down on the bed again.

'Ah,' Skulduggery said when he turned around and looked at her. 'Well.'

She shrugged, fully aware of how that slight motion made his gaze drop to her chest. 'You were busy.'

'So I was,' he agreed before bouncing down on the bed next to her. 'Right, where were we?'

'I think we were doing this before all this stuff about clothes got in the way,' she murmured and pulled him into a kiss. It felt so right, kissing him, without anything between them any longer, and after the months of anticipation, she could finally give in to her desires, delighted to find his response was just as eager, just as passionate, just as hungry.

He was half on top of her, responding to her kisses as well as he could, nipping at the side of her neck with his teeth when her lips were on his jaw and cheekbone and the back of her skull, his hands roaming along her side and stomach, not yet venturing anywhere she wanted them.

She pulled him closer, knowing that he was trying to keep most of his weight off her to avoid bruising or hurting her, but she didn't care about that now. She needed the contact, needed to feel his body tight against hers. And she wasn't in the mood for slow, careful exploration. They'd have all the time for that later; she felt like she would explode if she didn't get what she needed right now.

She grabbed his hand and put it on her breast, her mouth too busy with his jaw to bother with words. Skulduggery didn't need further instructions as he moved downwards along her body, the smooth thin bones of his fingers caressing every inch of her, finally dipping into the wet heat between her legs.

She came with a deep, shuddering breath, bucking against his hand, not more than a few seconds later, which didn't surprise her – it rarely took her long to reach her peak when she was this aroused. What did surprise her was the force of it; she'd had plenty of orgasms before, even at the hands of a boy, but she couldn't remember one this strong. She couldn't even gather her thoughts until she'd had some moments to come down from those dizzying heights again.

His hand was still resting lightly between her legs, mercifully not teasing her any longer – she didn't think she could take it, not yet – when she finally managed to open her eyes again.

'Happy birthday,' he said, his head tilted, his voice smooth and confident.

Valkyrie shivered at the velvety sound. She might have to rethink that 'not yet' bit. 'You don't need to sound so smug,' she said at last, when she'd managed to get her breathing under control again, her voice still a bit rough. 'It was all this anticipation that did it, not your special skills.'

'Hmm,' he whispered, his teeth close to her ear, nipping at it gently. 'So what would I have to do to prove myself?'

She let her fingers run lightly over his ribs, taking another deep breath. 'I think we'd have to try this again, under more controlled circumstances. Just give me a few moments.'

It was his turn to shudder when her hands moved downwards. 'Does that feel good?' she asked, trying to pay attention to the small signs his involuntary shivers and breaths gave her. 'Do you… I mean, I don't even know what you'd like me to do.'

'Keep going,' he murmured, lying down on his back next to her. 'Just being touched like this… I can't feel the sort of things I could when I was still alive, but it was such a long time ago that I don't even remember what it felt like. This' —his entire body trembled when she planted a kiss on one of his lower ribs— 'this is wonderful. It hurts when someone hits me, or kicks me, or punches me, but this… A light touch, it's… I don't know if I can explain it, but it's amazing.'

She smiled against his hip bone. 'Light touch. I can do that.' She closed her eyes, focusing on the scent of him, the way the bones felt against her lips and her fingertips, so very relieved. It was going to work out. She was certain about that now, any lingering doubts brushed away. At the very least, it wasn't going to fail because of any physical issues.

And she was really looking forward to round two. It was going to be a fun night.