Well, folks, the reception's over and the guests have gone home, and Erik and Jenna are FINALLY alone. Time for them to enjoy a wonderful wedding night.

****This chapter is rated M****

CH 19

The apartment was finally quiet as they closed the door behind Antoinette, Matthew, and Nadir. It was going to be difficult not to have Matthew home for the weekend, but they knew he was in good hands—and Jenna and Erik were finally, after so much time, truly and completely alone.

Erik untied the mask, and placed it on the entryway table, as was his custom when they were at home. Then, turning toward Jenna, Erik placed his hands on her shoulders and asked her softly, "Are you hungry, dear wife?"

"No, Erik," she answered, her stomach too full of fluttering butterflies at that moment to care much for food, "I'm fine."

"Then may I trouble my beautiful bride for a dance?" he asked her, a tender smile forming on his lips.

Jenna felt her heart thrill, remembering the last dance they had shared. "Of course, Erik," she answered. "I would love to dance with my husband."

Without another word, Erik led Jenna into the living room, where the stereo was still playing softly. Placing one arm on her waist, he sighed when she wrapped an arm around his neck. Taking her other hand in his, and placing it above his heart, he began to slowly sway along to the music.

Their bodies moved together in perfect harmony, and Erik smirked when he remembered the clumsy fashion in which their first dance had begun. "I do believe, Madame, that marriage has improved your dancing skills," he told her, in hushed tones.

"Is that so, Monsieur?" she answered back.

"Indeed, dear wife," he reiterated, in a husky voice. "I feel no more awkwardness—no more clumsiness in the way you move," he told her, pulling her hips more tightly against him.

"Perhaps, that is because," she answered, her voice quiet, "My husband is finally ready to take the lead."

"Mmmm. . ." he hummed, bending his head low to drink in the scent of her throat, placing a gentle kiss on her collarbone. "Indeed he is. In fact, he has been dreaming of little else, but leading you in this dance."

"I see," she responded, breathless now, from his seductive tones, and the way his hips were swaying in time with hers. "Well wherever he leads," she gave a little gasp, as the hand Erik had been resting on her hip sensually traced up the curves of her body, on his way to her hair. "His bride shall surely follow."

Jenna closed her eyes, as she felt him remove the pins—one by one—that held her hair up away from her face. When her curls finally fell wildly at her shoulders, Erik tangled his fingers in them, and pulled her face tightly against his for a kiss. "He is certainly glad to hear that," he rumbled, just before crushing his lips to hers.

Erik and Jenna reveled in the passion they found in that kiss, their mouths extending their dance, their tongues intertwining. Soft sighs of pleasure escaped them both, as their lips continued their heady entanglement. When they absolutely had to pull back, so that they could breathe, Erik looked Jenna deep in the eyes, before lifting her up in his arms, and stating, in no uncertain terms, "It is time I take my wife to bed."

He carried her tenderly over the threshold of the bedroom they had shared so many times in the past month. Never before—however—had they shared it as man and wife, and that knowledge made everything wonderful and new. Erik set her on her feet at the foot of the bed, taking her face in his hands again and kissing her passionately once more. Jenna let her hands roam freely over Erik's body, unfastening buttons, pushing the coat and vest off of his shoulders. When he was finally divested of his shirt, Jenna broke free of the kiss so that she could once again let her lips journey the path of sorrow and cruelty that crisscrossed Erik's chest. His head fell back in pleasure as her healing lips rejuvenated his once tortured flesh, until his entire body felt as if it would sing out in ecstasy.

Taking her hands, and gently pulling her to her feet, Erik once again captured her mouth with his. His fingers wandered down her back, finding the zipper that held her dress in place. With a gentle tug, he loosened her confines. Softly nudging the straps from her shoulders with his warm hands, the gown whooshed to the floor. Standing back a bit to admire his wife, as she stood before him in only her lacy undergarments, and the cameo that still hung around her neck, he purred, "I do love twenty first century fashions, my Jenna." Remembering his own clumsiness that first night, when it came to removing her dress, he added, "They are so much more convenient."

Jenna giggled, pulling his mouth to hers once more. As her hands explored his taut, sinewy back, Erik began to unclasp her bra, her pliant lips working wonders to ease his frustrations with the tiny hooks and eyes. When he finally had it undone, he allowed the offending undergarment to fall to the floor, and his eyes feasted on the treasure once more laid bare before him.

"My Jenna," he rasped, his throat, suddenly dry. "I have dreamed about the flawlessness of your breasts, but my memory could never hope to compete with the reality of your perfection." His hands trembling, he reached out and caressed each creamy mound before him, brushing his thumbs over their rosy tips, eliciting a sharp gasp of ecstasy from her lips. "Erik," she moaned, as he made her body hum with desire, taking one of her tight buds in his mouth, circling it with his tongue, and nipping it gently between his teeth. Encouraged by her enraptured response, Erik continued to adore her other breast with his mouth, as his hands trailed lower to hook the waistband of her lacy underwear. With a gentle downward pull, the delicate garment fell to the floor. Cupping the gentle curve of her rear end, he kneaded her supple flesh, pulling her tightly against him, crushing her bare breasts against his chest. "You are remarkable, my beautiful bride," he hummed low, as he traced the outline of her collarbone with his tongue.

"And you, my dear husband," she sighed, feeling slightly weak from his ministrations. "Are far too overdressed." She fumbled with the button at his waist, cursing her bumbling, graceless fingers for making her stumble in her desire. But finally, when his trousers were unfastened, and falling to the floor along with his own underclothes, Jenna smiled when she saw his manhood straining in her direction—obviously aching with the desire for them to become one. She reached forward and took him into her hand, loving how he felt at once firm and hot to the touch, feeling him grow even larger and harder as she held him in her grasp. When she began to gently stroke him, a raw cry built up in Erik's chest and exploded from his lips.

"Oh, my Jenna," he spoke through clenched teeth, "Your touch is amazing." And he caught her mouth with his and she rhythmically stroked him up and down, bringing him greater and greater delight with each touch.

He nudged her closer to the bed, and they fell upon it, a tangle of lips and limbs. When his fingers reached low, and gently stroked that most sensitive nub between her legs, she cried out in hunger for more of his delectable touch. "I need you Erik," she panted, as the pleasure began to build within her core.

Erik rolled them so that she was on her back, his legs positioned between hers. Her arms wrapped around his back lovingly, as he lay his body down gently on top of her. The skin-to-skin contact alone was enough to evoke a gratified moan, but when his hardened length found her soft wet opening, he knew he was on the threshold to paradise. Gazing lovingly at her face, smiling sensually as he noticed the pink flush that was creeping over her features, Erik whispered to her, breathlessly "Jenna, I love you," as he pushed himself inside her welcoming folds.

Jenna cried out at his delicious intrusion, as Erik lay there still for a moment, loving the sweet sensation of her body stretching to accommodate him. "I love you too, Erik," she moaned, as she lifted her hips to meet his, taking him even deeper into her body. Erik slowly began to rock above her, groans and gasps of pleasure spilling from his lips, as he reacquainted himself with the blessed heat of her body. His arms cradled her tightly against him, as his lips peppered hot kisses all over her face and neck. "Jenna, my Jenna," he groaned over and over again, as the waves of ecstasy broke over him, and he felt himself pushing ever onward toward his peak.

Jenna writhed eagerly beneath him, wrapping her legs around his waist, urging him deeper, farther into her core. Her own pleasure built within her, like a golden thread coiling, twisting, tangling itself tightly around her insides. Finally, the thread snapped, and a thousand tendrils of flame spiraled out to her extremities, causing her toes to curl and her fingernails to trail hot ribbons of red down his back. She lustily moaned his name as she thrashed against him, her body convulsing around him in wild, erratic squeezes and pulls that brought him close to the edge of his own rapture. With a few more deep, urgent thrusts, Erik felt his own orgasm take him. Letting loose with an animalistic growl, white lights flashed behind Erik's eyes, as he filled her with his seed, pumping into her over and over until he had nothing left to give.

Spent completely, and still within her, he collapsed upon her body. Lovingly, she stroked his hair, soothing the storm that had just raged inside him, cooling the embers that sizzled and licked at his soul. When the stars stopped swirling behind his eyes, Erik lifted his head slightly, touching his forehead to hers, and placing a gentle kiss upon her now swollen lips. "That was everything, Jenna," he heaved out, in short gasps, his breath still coming too harshly to allow for normal conversation. "That I had ever dreamed—and so much more." He reached out to brush a damp strand of hair away from her face and whispered, "I simply cannot express how much I love you."

"I know how much you love me, Erik," Jenna assured him, tilting her head up to bestow him with a little kiss, "Because that is how much I love you. Words will never capture it, my love. But," she raised an eyebrow flirtatiously, "we can continue to try to find other… methods … to express the depths of our passion."

She lifted her hips against him seductively and he could already feel a new stirring in his loins. "Madame wife," he teased, using his fingers to pinch an already hardening nipple, "You are quite the little vixen."

"Indeed," she agreed, arching a bit against his teasing hands.

"One might even call you insatiable," Erik continued, kissing her hotly in the crook of her neck.

"Guilty as charged," she admitted, tangling her fingers in his hair, to hold his mouth against her flesh.

"And I am an extremely willing accomplice," he murmured, trailing his finger once more to that point of pleasure between her legs, as he felt himself hardening again inside her.

"They really ought to lock us up together," Jenna sighed, trailing her hands down his back to squeeze his firm buttock, feeling her pleasure slowly begin to build once again.

"And throw away the key," Erik added, amused vaguely at the unknowing references Jenna was making to the previous night. Amused, that was, until Jenna's hips pushed forward against him, pulling him deeper inside her and rendering him once again incapable of thought.

They made love again and again, filling the night with whimpered moans and fevered passion. When they both finally drifted off to sleep, barely able to move, they were cradled tightly in each other's arms—one heart, one soul, for their first night of forever.

Well. They are certainly very, VERY married now, LOL. Hope you all enjoyed their wedding night. I think THEY certainly did.
Now, tomorrow is the final chapter in this little AU-BUT that does not mean it is the end. As I said at the beginning, I like to think of this story as open ended, so I plan on adding little vignettes here and there, when I think of them, or when I need a break from my new writing project-which I will tell you about tomorrow. If you happen to have any ideas for scenes you'd like to see between Erik and Jenna, let me know. I have a couple in mind, but I'm always open for more.

Until tomorrow!