As always, the characters do not belong to me. I'm just taking them out to play.

Once Engelmann was gone, Louisa returned to Martin in his room. "Now Dr. Ellingham, if and only if you promise to tell me if it bothers your ribs, I'm going to take you upstairs and show you exactly what I had in mind last night."

"Louisa…no. I might, I might lose control again. I might … I couldn't bear to hurt you."

She looked at him appraisingly with a gleam in her eyes. "Oh now, all the more reason. Martin Ellingham out of control in my bed is…uh huh…." She purred as he took his hand and led him up the garden path, or in their case, the stairs.

Martin stopped at the door to their bedroom, pulling his hand out of hers and mentally digging his heels into the floor. "No Louisa," he whispered loudly.

She turned and looked at him incredulously. No?"

He looked at her face, her beautiful, lovely face and almost changed his mind. But the heat from last night, the insatiable longing, the need of her had returned and he knew he would go too far. "I…I can't," he said dolefully, reminding them both of that morning not too terribly long ago when she had brought him breakfast and tried to break through his barriers. "If I were to hurt you I couldn't live with myself. I've done enough damage…"

She stepped closer to him, leaving only a minimal space between them. "We've both done damage, Martin. And now we are working to fix it, be better with each other. And I've missed being intimate with you too. I feel more connected to you when we have that between us. I need this too, Martin."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. She missed…him? He had never felt particularly adept at making love to his wife, or any woman for that matter. In fact, with the exception of Edith Montgomery, he had avoided anything beyond an occasional short fling because he knew after a while he would be rejected if he didn't walk away first. Edith had rejected him only to show up years later interested in picking up where they'd left off. But Louisa… she seemed determined to make things work with him, including the bedroom. Still, despite his feeling of ineptness, with Louisa he had almost always felt… good. He mulled the word in his mind momentarily. Yes, good was the perfect word, because for Martin Ellingham, there had only ever been bad and tolerable before this woman standing before him now. "Louisa, I don't want to jeopardize what we've worked so hard to achieve."

She stood there, looking at him as intensely as she ever had, and chewing her lower lip. She was nervous too, he realized.

"Martin Ellingham," she finally said, "if you don't get into the bedroom now, you will be the one in jeopardy because I might just jump you right here at the top of the steps. Why do I always have to push so hard with you, hmmm?"

His eyes widened in sheer terror of the image of her following through on her threat. But then the heat took over again and he felt his body react to that very same image and he was trying to protect her from. God, the woman was infuriating. And then something inside him shifted and he wanted simply to hold her.

As if she sensed his current need, she stepped into him, her arms surrounding his torso as she held him tight against her. "Please Martin don't fight me on this, unless it will hurt your ribs."

His arms wrapped around her shoulders and now he was the one doing the holding. "No, no more fighting. I can't deny I need you, Louisa… not sexually…No, that isn't right. I do want you in that way but…I…"

"I know Martin; I understand."

"You do?"

She smiled up at him as she moved away enough to turn toward their room. He followed nervously but not warily, as he had before. His feelings from last night seemed to have abated.

Louisa was on the bed, still fully clothed which surprised him. Confused, he stood at the foot of the bed trying to decide what he should do.

She patted his side of the bed. "Slip off your shoes and come here," she commanded.

Still befuddled, a state he had become familiar with when dealing with Louisa, he did as he was told and settled into the bed stiffly. After a moment, she scooted closer to him. "I thought we might just hold one another for awhile. And then, well…we'll follow where our feelings take us. Might be all we do is hold one another or might lead to something more. But no pressure in any case. We'll just love one another in whatever form it takes, yeah?"

"I… I thought…"

"I know what you thought, Martin. And if that's where things lead, then I'm all for it. But I want you to feel like …well, like you have some control over it all. I know emotions frighten you, Martin, even on your best days. With all that has happened… well, I just want you to feel comfortable with things."

Martin considered what she said. "Emotions do frighten me…some. They leave me….vulnerable. After my parents..." He grimaced. "At first I tried to deny my feelings for you but… it was useless. I do love you, Louisa. It's just… I don't know how to…" He sighed heavily. "I don't understand relationships, how they work. I'm…learning or trying to at least. I thought I was…better. That is, until the accident."

"You were doing much better, Martin. We were doing much better. We were working on our little project, remember?"

"Right. Yes. About that…"

"You've changed your mind?"

Martin could see her disappointment. "No. But just now… with me still recovering, I don't think it is the right time."

"Well, we can discuss that later. Although the clock is ticking on that, as you know. But right now, today… it's just you and me, alright?"

"Yes…good," he said quietly as he lifted his arm and pulled her to him. She snuggled against him, her arm encircling his torso, and her head settling over the pectoralis major, in effect covering him with her upper body. It felt glorious but made him nervous at the same time. Stiffly he wrapped his arm around her back, relishing the feel of her.

"This isn't hurting your ribs is it?" she mumbled against his chest.

"No…erm… quite…comfortable actually," he replied as he looked at her silky mane of hair. He watched the top of her head for a moment, conducting an inner debate before finally leaning down ever so slightly to kiss her there. His hand began to think for itself as his fingers began to stroke her upper arm where they rested. "You feel… good."

"So do you. I've missed this."

"Hmmm… yes." He let his eyes close to the world and opened his other senses, the smell of her was intoxicating, the scent of her morning shower still lingering but mixing with a scent that was distinctly Louisa. The feel of her skin beneath his fingers was smooth, velvety even. And as he nuzzled at her neck to steal a taste of her, he felt himself begin to float. The close contact was reaffirming what he'd known since the first day he met Louisa. Every sense he had was attracted to her. He'd never believed in love at first sight or any other romantic rubbish, but Louisa was forcing him to rethink those notions. He had fallen for her that first day and fallen hard. The more time he spent with her, the farther he fell. He never would feel this way about any other woman; she possessed his heart; not in a literal sense of course, but in every other way.

Slowly relaxing, Martin let his feelings take over. He really was content in the moment, holding his Louisa, simply taking in the sensation of her. It felt…good; no, better than good. He felt more like himself than he had since the accident. And he wasn't afraid.

For Martin Ellingham, not being afraid was momentous. He couldn't remember a time when he wasn't afraid of something. And those few times where he felt a momentary absence of fear and essentially forgot himself, it ended in disaster. But here he was with Louisa and he wasn't afraid and more importantly, he didn't feel as if disaster was imminent. He sighed with relief and satisfaction.

She turned her face up and began to nuzzle his neck, planting little kisses there. He held her tighter, relishing the love that she was sharing. But his contentment changed when she began to nibble at his ear.

A groan bubbled out of him as other sensations began to overpower his gentler ones just a moment ago. "Louisa," he breathed. "Mmmmmm…." She returned as her activities grew slightly more heated.

"Erm… Louisa…. "

"Martin?" She was climbing over him now, perching herself over his torso as she leaned in for a kiss. The one kiss led to more kissing and Martin lost himself in the feelings that were beginning to boil inside him. He felt a twinge of pain but the other feelings she was igniting were more powerful and he dismissed it.

His mind recalled a dream from years ago, one of Louisa over him, kissing him and teasing him, wearing a white gown and robe. In the dream she removed the robe and continued her slow taunt. In reality on this afternoon, her actions were much more frenzied. Her clothes went quickly as did his shirt.

He knew she was very heated as she began to undulate over him, still kissing and nipping. He was encouraging her, his hands finding her most sensual spots and making the most of them. And there they were, frenzied, aroused, and ready to lose the remaining clothes and complete their dance when she shifted her weight in a manner that sent searing pain through Martin's ribs. Letting out a howl he nearly threw her off him as he attempted to push away the source of his pain. Once she was off him, his hand went to his side as he fought the urge to double over, knowing it would only cause more anguish.

"Martin! Oh god… I've hurt you… What….what should I do? Do you need to go to the hospital?"

His head still swimming from the pain, he held up his other hand. "Just a minute… let me…" he paused to breath, "just give me a minute."

Louisa nodded and sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, chewing her bottom lip. "I'm sorry," she said gently, her voice riddled with guilt.

Martin couldn't speak so he just nodded. Forcing himself to breath evenly, taking short breaths to not pressure the ribs, he began to feel some relief. Finally able to take more normal breaths, he looked up at her to see tears rolling out of her eyes. He reached up to wipe a tear away using the back of his fingers. Then his hand slid to cup her jaw and his thumb took up the duty of clearing the tears. "It will be alright," he said with more confidence than he felt. "Perhaps you were correct in your concern for my ribs," he added, even attempting a small smile.

"Oh Martin," she cried in earnest now.

"Please Louisa, do not feel guilty. I was enjoying our… exercise until… well, that is until my ribs complained."

"But I started it; I insisted…"

"And I very willingly went along. I'll be alright. And it was…worth it."

Louisa began to relax a little. "You're feeling better then?"

"Yes, somewhat. I…I'll need to be careful for awhile but I don't think any real damage was done."

"You're sure you don't want me to take you to the hospital?"

"No…I mean yes, I'm sure. Perhaps we could resume… cuddling? You would need to be on the other side however."

Louisa looked into his glistening eyes. He really was in pain but she could also see that he really did want to cuddle. "Alright then, if you're sure."

"I am."

She settled against him and he wrapped his arm around her to hold her near. "Mmmm, yes; this is much better." She was still for a moment and then started to giggle. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing… I was just thinking what it would be like if I did take you to the hospital. They would ask how you injured yourself and you'd get all flustered as you explained that your wife was molesting you."

Martin stiffened. "Louisa! You were not…molesting me," he said emphatically.

Still grinning she replied. "Oh yes I was."

"Not at all. I … I wanted you to do what you were doing and…more."

She leaned up to kiss his cheek. "Me too, Martin; me too."