A/N Thank you for all who wrote that they enjoyed the pun. This was going to be part of the last chapter but became too long, so enjoy this one. I'm glad you're enjoying the story and thanks to all who read and review.

I own nothing

Ch 25 Silence is Golden

Running back to the Inn Lorelai squealed to Luke to stop. "Good God Lorelai now what!?!" Luke was frustrated and wanted to get somewhere private.

"Look Luke, it's snowing!" They'd reached the Inn's back porch so Luke set her down and kissed her deeply. She opened her mouth and received him like a drink of life-giving water. As they broke she whispered, "This is a very good sign."

"Lorelai you're the most beautiful, intelligent, amazing woman I've ever met, the fact you said yes's a very good sign," Luke chuckled and led her in the back door up the stairs to the room he had reserved.

Stepping in the room Luke removed her cape and his coat and jacket. Then he ran his hands down the front of her dress slightly dipping into her dress. He caressed her hair with his left hand while he drew her to him with his right. He leaned in to capture her lips saying, "Can you feel how much I want you? How I want to possess you, to feel you envelope me and to taste what no one else has? All night I've wanted to gently pull on these sleeves and see you." Luke tugged at Lorelai's sleeves and pulled them off her shoulders so that her breasts became exposed.

Lorelai has been standing with her eyes closed as Luke has been speaking, as her breasts feel the cool air of the room she looks up and sees Luke looking directly into her eyes, his own filled with desire and want. He pulls her dress down further and it falls to the floor.

Lorelai hears his sharp intake of breath and she smiles, she is wearing a white lace garter belt with natural color stockings and a white thong, she's still in her powder blue high heel stilettos. She makes a move to remove the heels and Luke whispers, "No, don't move."

Luke realizes that in order to remove the thong, the garter belt will have to come off first. Luke studies her body as he ponders the situation. "How attached to this thing are you?" He looks at Lorelai as he hold's the elastic of the thong away from her body?

She isn't capable of making coherent words right now so she just shakes her head. Luke gets a glint in his eyes and pulls out his Swiss army knife. Opening the blade he brings it towards her hip, Lorelai is even more aroused as Luke cuts the elastic on the left side then the right side and slowly removes the thong from her. Luke gathers her into his arms and let's his hands move over her slowly. "Lorelai," he whispers to her, "do you trust me?"

"With my life," she whispers back. Luke chuckles and Lorelai can feel the vibration all the way down her spine.

"Well, I'm not going to take your life, but if you let me I maybe able to cause a little death." Luke leads Lorelai over to the fireplace where there are a group of pillows. He helps her down and stands up to remove the rest of his clothes.

After they have finished, Luke picked her up and carried her to the bed. "Lorelai, are you alright?"

She nodded her head and kept her eyes closed. Luke went into the bathroom to get a washcloth. He ran tepid water over it and brought it out to cool her off. As he gently put the cloth on her thigh she swatted his hand away. "Lorelai, I'm not going to do anything but cool you off, I promise." But Lorelai shook her head. Luke realized that she probably was overly stimulated. He wanted to help her reach a balance but he knew he had to be careful. He gently removed her shoes and then undid her garter belt. Lorelai made a guttural sound when he touched her skin, but he was able to remove it and her stockings with little discomfort.

Leaving her on the bed he went into the bathroom and drew a bath using the lavender bath salts that the Inn provided. Wrapping a towel around himself he went back into the room and picked Lorelai up off the bed and carried her into the bathroom. He set her down on the floor and helped her sit down in the tub.

He rolled up a towel and placed it behind her head. Lorelai had no energy to do anything, so she lay there allowing the water to sooth her nerve endings. Luke drew a glass of water and gave it to her, "You lost a lot of fluid so I'm sure you're dehydrated right now." He held her head up and helped her drink as Lorelai tried to chuckle, but nothing came out.

"Lorelai, did I go too far? Did I hurt you?" Luke was concerned that what he had thought was pleasure were actually painful screams.

But Lorelai shook her head and mouthed, "John Mellencamp said it best, it hurts so good. That was amazing Luke, I don't think I want to do this every time, but just, wow."

Luke felt much better, he had wanted to give her a night she would remember and he didn't want it to be a bad painful. He sat by the tub and scooped water over Lorelai's body to help sooth her frayed nerve endings.

"What was that anyway? Had you learned that from someone?" Lorelai croaked, her voice was going to be gone for a while.

"The technique is a combination of things, but the experience you had is called la petite mort, or the little death. I've never experienced it in that level of intensity with anyone before. It was something I'd hoped we would be able to reach; as you figured out, it takes trust in your partner to get past that last wall. I'm sorry I didn't think about our last position being a cause of over stimulation. Are you starting to feel better?"

"Yeah, but no more rounds tonight OK?" Lorelai lifts her left hand to hold Luke's and she sees her engagement ring, "Oh My God!" she croaks, "This is the Tiffany ring! But the saleswoman said the man had ordered it over three months before, we hadn't even gone out had we?" There on her hand was the emerald cut diamond with a square blue sapphire baguette on either side. "This is the most beautiful ring I've ever seen!."

Luke laughed, "You hadn't even looked at your ring before this? I ordered it the day after our first date. I'd have ordered it after our first kiss, but we were able to get a date in before I had to go to New York City."

"I was a little preoccupied before this thank you, I didn't really care if you had given me a ring you had gotten out of a gumball machine. I was just happy we're engaged." She smiled up at Luke.

Luke held out his hand to her, "Do you think you can stand having me near your body yet?" he grinned wickedly.

Lorelai whispered, "Yeah, feeling sort of proud of ourselves are we? Well I think I could stand a little cuddling now." She held out her hand so Luke could help her up. He wrapped her in a soft towel and kissed her deeply.

"All I can say is thank God the band was loud tonight or Tobin will be having lots of complaints tomorrow morning." Luke chuckled.

"Oh, no. I didn't even think of that. Was there anyone from town here tonight?" Lorelai looked horrified.

"I didn't see anyone, all the people seemed to be from out of town." Luke curled up with Lorelai and kissed her gently. "If they hear about it, I'll just tell them I was celebrating our engagement; that's a bigger story for this town anyway."

"Hey, when can we get married?" Lorelai asked excitedly.

"When do you want to?" Luke asked expecting her to say, June or May.

"How about tomorrow?"

"Lorelai, we can't put a wedding together in twenty four hours!" Luke was shocked, "Don't you want a wedding with all your friends and family?"

"Do you?"

"But you actually have friends, my best friend will be there no matter when we get married. And your mom and dad will want to be there as well as Rory. Right?"

"Are you saying you're my best friend? Aw, Luke, you know you're mine too? I mean Sookie is a really good friend and so is Rory, but you've always been the one I could tell everything to." She whispered.

"Thank you, but about the wedding, I think May or June would be good, it's really before the tourist season so both of our businesses shouldn't have a problem with us being gone."

"Now is good too, we only really have the townies and as you are insisting on an actual wedding they could be there in a very short time."

"Lorelai, please let's set a date that is far enough away. I don't want to worry about you stressing out on work and wedding details."

"Luke, it would only be a stress if I cared about colors or styles or food, I just care about being Mrs. Gilmore-Danes." Lorelai grinned wickedly.

"We still have to tell your family and friends about this, I know your mom is going to have some timeline about everything, so humor me and set a date that will actually keep people from giving us a hard time. OK?"

"Arhg!" Lorelai started to get out of bed and scream but then the pain of her throat reached her brain and she collapsed back onto the bed.

Luke was immediately concerned and said, "Lorelai are you OK? What happened?"

"Rory" she mouthed, "I've got to tell Rory about this!"

"Lorelai, it's after three o'clock in the morning and I'm sure she's asleep. Besides, Mrs. Kim won't let her take a phone call at this time of night even if you were in the hospital!" Luke was trying to get Lorelai to calm down and rest her voice. "We'll call her first thing in the morning OK?" He was rubbing her back to try and get her to relax. Lorelai nodded her head and laid back in Luke's arms.

"Since we are talking marriage in the very near future,"

"Not soon enough" Lorelai croaked.

"Very near future," Luke gave her a stern look, "Jess and I saw a house last week that I think would be good for all of us, do you want to go see it tomorrow?"

Lorelai grinned and nodded her head vigorously. "Where?" was all she was able to get out.

"It's still in Stars Hollow, about ten minutes out of the square. Really beautiful place, about ten acres, a pond almost lake, stables for a couple of horses and a guest cottage for those people who we really don't like but decide to visit anyway." Luke chuckled.

"Like my relatives," Lorelai mouthed.

"Or mine, don't forget that Liz will probably drop by from time to time. It also has six bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. I thought we could designate one for us, one for Rory and one for Jess, which might diminish the possibilities of running into naked bodies considerably." Lorelai made a face. "Yeah, I didn't want to think about that either, but it is a fact we need to live with. Not that you care, but it has a really nice kitchen that I'll enjoy cooking in, and I thought that one of the rooms would make a good workroom for you. So does it sound good?"

Lorelai leaned in and kissed him, "Perfect," she whispered in his ear.

"Ok, I'll call the realtor on Tuesday and maybe we can go drive by when we wake up?' Lorelai nodded as she was drifting off to sleep.

The next morning Lorelai's voice's still gone and she feels as though she had run a marathon. Luke goes downstairs to get coffee and some breakfast and Lorelai picks up her phone to call Rory. She tries the house and Rory answers. "Hello?"

Lorelai can't make any real noise, just some squeaks. Rory is angry, thinking that it is some prankster, "Look, whoever you are, I don't think this is funny!" She hangs up as Luke comes in the door.

Lorelai is holding her phone looking upset and Luke panics, "Lorelai, did Rory get upset with you?"

Lorelai shakes her head and points to her throat. "Can't talk" she mouths as a tear rolls down her cheek.

"Do you want me to call Rory?" Luke asks. Lorelai nods her head.

Luke dials her phone and Rory answers very angry, "What!"

"Rory, it's Luke."

"Wow, Luke I'm sorry, someone has been pranking me this morning. How are you? Is mom with you, she isn't home?"

"Yeah Rory, your mom's here, she just lost her voice last night and she wanted to give you some news. I'm going to translate if that's OK?"

"Uh, sure Luke, what's up?"

"Your mom says to tell you we got engaged last night."

Rory shrieks and Luke holds the phone away from his ear. Lorelai puts her on speakerphone. "Oh, my God! That's great! Ask mom what the ring looks like is it like the one from Tiffany's?"

Luke chuckles as is surprised that Lorelai shakes her head no. "She's telling me to tell you no it's not." Lorelai mouths, 'not like the one, is the one.'

Luke laughs, "well apparently I'm caught, she said to tell you it isn't like the ring it is the ring."

Rory squeals again and says, "A ring like that has only one owner. I'm so happy for you guys! When are you getting married?" Lorelai shot a death glare at Luke.

"Well, we're in negotiations on that one, but today we're going to see a house Jess and I saw that might work for all of us. Would you like to go on the initial drive by?"

"That would be great! When are you leaving?" Luke looks at Lorelai who holds up two fingers.

"I think your mom thinks we will be able to pick you up in two hours?" Luke looked at Lorelai who nodded her approval.

"Sounds great, I'll be ready. So, Luke, having a silent mom will be novel for a bit eh?"

"Oh, yeah, too bad it won't last." Lorelai slapped his arm as he laughed and hung up the phone.