Chapter 26

Janice arrived at 12:00 on the dot.

"Afternoon Mrs. Ellingham, Hi there little man!" Janice reached for James and picked him up to give him a hug. Louisa was really glad that Janice stuck with them for so long, and that she and James got along so good. He was a handful these days, but Janice was more than capable of keeping him busy.

"Oh, hi Janice. Listen, I want to thank you again for being able to come and help us out on a Saturday of all days. But today is really the only time for us to do this, or we will never move to the new house. You're a lifesaver."

"It's my pleasure; I really don't mind spending time with the most handsome guy in town." James liked Janice a lot and he gave her one of his sweetest grins which only made her hug him tighter.

"I already prepared lunch, so if you want, you can give it to him now, I will just wait for Martin to finish with his last patient, then we can have a quick bite before we'll head on over to the house."

Louisa had a very busy morning. She made sure that she packed everything they needed for whatever needed to be done at the house. She didn't want to forget a single thing, and made endless trips to the car as she constantly remembered something else. They simply had to do as much as possible at the house today and she hoped that she would be able to convince Martin about Ben. It's only two weeks till the end of Autumn Term, and then it will be Christmas and this year she wants to spend Christmas in their own, brand new house! If Ben was able to paint their house in 2 weeks, they would be able to move in and settle Just before Christmas. And that was what's she's working towards.

Martin finally came and after a quick lunch, they left in the fully stocked Lexus.

Martin unlocked the front door and the smell that hit them wasn't very nice. They quickly opened as many windows as they could.

Louisa stood in the middle of the living room, hands on her hips with a delightful smile on her face. Her hair was in a ponytail and her cheeks were a little flushed with excitement! Her eyes sparkled with enthusiasm. She had jeans on and a loose fitting red t-shirt. Red always suited her so well, weather it was a tight fit dress, a cardigan or simply a t-shirt. She looked fantastic and Martin was openly staring at her! He walked over to her, and bend over to place a soft lingering kiss on her inviting lips.

"You" … he cleared his throat and wondered why it was hard to tell her something nice. "…look very beautiful, Louisa!" His voice was so soft that she almost didn't hear what he said as he barely moved his lips away from hers when he spoke. His eyes were close to hers and it felt like it was penetrating her soul. She literally felt weak in her knees and swallowed hard. "Thank you Martin, but this is almost the oldest clothes in my closet and might I add, their feeling a little tight around the butt. You, Doctor, should have also changed as putting up blinds and curtains in your best suit, is not advisable." She looked up in his eyes and even though it sounded like a reprimand, her eyes and face were soft and…well, just lovely.

"I don't have other clothes. This will just have to do." Martin shrugged his shoulders and Louisa grabbed onto his arm as he turned to walk away from her.

"You should really consider getting some informal pants and shirts. You know you are allowed to wear something other than a suit occasionally, right? Especially at home. Well, at least take off your jacket and tie and roll up your sleeves. Here, let me help" and with that she slipped her hands under his jacket and pulled it off. Then she got hold of his tie, loosened it and pulled it over his head. She took both items, walked to the kitchen and placed it on a cupboard. When she came back Martin was still standing at the exact same spot. So she walked over and started rolling up his sleeves.

"There we go. All better. Now, let's get started before I start to enjoy undressing you too much and then we might not get anything done, hhmm?" She looked up at him and he felt like his heart could explode at any minute. Well not only his heart, of course.

He cleared his throat and said: "Right. In which room shall we start?"

After three hours of nonstop hanging and shifting, which Martin insisted on doing on his own, Louisa called for a break. She could see Martin was hot, flushed and exhausted, which was clearly helped on by his lack of appropriate clothes. This was not something he did every day, and it was really hard on him. Even though he is very fit and healthy, it was still not part of his everyday routine and she was sure he will feel the effects in the morning! He didn't allow her to do much, just asked what she needed to be hang where and what needed to be moved and just did it! He was a real trooper. She felt really bad for not being able to help that much, but he said she's still at a vital stage in her pregnancy and should not be shifting anything heavy. She knew better than to disobey him, as that would probably only lead to a lecture, or even worse, something bad could actually happen and she would never forgive herself if it did.

She went to the kitchen and got two bottles of water that she packed in for the day and an apple for each as well. Martin was still in their bedroom as that was the last curtains they hang, and Martin moved their new bed and things as Louisa wanted it.

When she entered the bedroom Martin was standing in front of the window looking at the beautiful view they will have. She walked over to him, handed him his water and apple and just stood next to him, silently admiring it all while they quenched their thirst and had a quick bite. "I cannot wait for us to live here, Martin." Louisa's voice was soft, wishful, longing. She still cannot believe that they are here. Not just here, in this beautiful house, but also here, in their lives. They really had a tough journey so far, nothing easy about it, but they arrived. Soon, really soon, they'll be living here, and then their lives together can really start.

Martin watched her for a minute or two and said: "I cannot wait for the endless nights we will spend together in this room, in that bed. " He looked at her with such love in his eyes, that she nearly started crying.

To hide away her emotions, she made a little joke to cover up. "Doctor Ellingham! Since when do you talk about things like that? You are getting cheeky!" She leaned over and gave him a little peck on the mouth. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her close to him.

"Well what do you expect when you insist on looking so beautiful?" He leaned in and whispered the last words in her ear as he was afraid that she would see all the emotions displayed in his eyes! "And with the view out there and the view in here, you can hardly blame me."

Louisa wanted to keep the mood light and tried again to make a joke about it. "And here I thought I married a man that was completely different than all other men, only to discover he also only have one thing on his mind." She laughed softly while she stood close to Martin, Pressing her body against his. She felt Martin's desires pressed against her stomach and when she looked up into his eyes she saw love and lust in his. She hastily took him by his arm and dragged him towards the bed that was still only covered with plastic and pushed him on it quite hard! She jumped on him and started unbuttoning his shirts, removing it quite fast. Then she started losing his belt and zipper.

Martin jumped up holding Louisa in his lap and said with clear disgust written all over his face. "Louisa! You cannot honestly expect us to…uhm…you know…. on this filthy plastic! God knows how many dirty hands touched it!"

Louisa loosened Martin grip on her, dropped her legs to the ground and stepped back. "Well, you better make a plan then, real quickly, yeah?" She gave him a grin, while she nodded with her head towards the bed.

He was clueless for a second or two, but finally caught on. He went to the bed and viciously ripped of the plastic. He bundled it all together in some sort of roll and tossed it in the corner. He rushed to the bathroom, washed his hands and hurried back to the room where Louisa looked at him with a huge smile on her face.

He went over to her, and pulled her close again. Her hands started to loosen his belt and in a swift movement, she pulled it off. Next she loosened his zipper and pushed his pants to the floor. He gave a small step out if it, and was now standing only in his underpants.

"Uhm, Mrs. Ellingham, it seems you are slightly overdressed?" Martin looked at her with one eye brow raised?

Louisa threw her head back and laughed while she pulled her red top over her head and also very quickly unbuttoned her jeans and got rid of them. She stood in front of Martin with only her underwear on and he had to practice real self-control not to simply rip off her bra and nickers. He looked down at her belly, which was only slightly showing signs of a pregnancy. He reached and slowly ran his fingers across her stomach before he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer. His skill full hands undid her bra in no time and he saw how her breast fell free from their entrapment. They were marvellous. He started kissing them while his hands moved to take down her panties. She was breath-taking. Martin reached up and pulled on the elastic that held her hair up and it fell loosely over her shoulders. He could smell the fresh lovely scent of her shampoo. She gave him a smile while she said: "Dr Ellingham, you are now way overdressed for this party"

A little while later, while they were still trying to catch their breath, Louisa thought that now might be a great time to talk to Martin about Ben. She must get it sorted today. She turned towards him, while draping her leg over his.

"Martin, I really want to spend Christmas here in our new house this year. I know you really don't care for Christmas that much, but it's really important to me. Last Christmas was….well let's just say it wasn't good, so I want this Christmas to be special as I feel we've come a long way and it feels like this would be our first Christmas as a real family." She played with his hair and she simply looked at him with big expecting eyes. He found that utterly sexy.

A muttered "yes" was all that escaped his tight throat.

"So, we really need to find a painter, right, as that is the only thing keeping us from moving in? Everything else is taken care of. The plumbing and electrical were checked long ago and our new furniture is already starting to gather dust. "

"Yes, everything is sorted but painting. I will try to find a reliable painter in Monday."

"Well, I think I, might have found us a painter." Louisa knew she had to pull out all the stops to get Martin on board. She shifted herself and straddled Martin. She leaned forward and placed her hands on both sides of his shoulders while she leaned over and kissed him softly. Her bare breasts were touching his and her body against his made everything else she was saying sound very distant. Her hair was hanging around both their faces like a curtain. He was only aware of her closeness and beauty.

"Remember the tourist, Ben who came to your surgery for an accident he had fixing a roof? The one me and James met on the beach?" Louisa spoke softly and after she paused she planted another lingering kiss on his lip, slightly biting his bottom lip before she talked again. He could only nod.

"Well Ben is apparently really good at painting houses and fixing them up. While he was staying at the beach cottage he repainted and repaired everything for the owner. So when I mentioned we were looking for a painter, he offered to do it. According to him, the owner was very pleased with his work and he said you could even call the owner for a reference." Louisa shifted herself and was now sitting straight up. She looked at him with big eyes and a beautiful smile. Her fingers were making circles on his stomach and he could only stare again at those marvelous breasts of her. Someone once asked him if he was a breast or bottom man - he was a breast man. They were so fascinating and distractingly wonderful.

Martin had an uneasy feeling in his stomach when he heard Ben's name but with Louisa sitting on top of him, looking like a goddess, he couldn't say much. It was as if his mind registered the warning signs but other parts of his anatomy quickly shut it down. That usually don't happen to him, so this is an unusual feeling.

Louisa saw the frown creeping up on Martin's face and she knew she have to act quickly to keep Martin's attention on her while her tongue persuaded his clouded mind.

"Ben still did not find a place to stay yet and since White Rose Cottage is currently empty, I thought he could rent it. But then he had a great idea. He said he could paint our house and in return, he could stay at white Rose Cottage rent free. Win-win for both of us. So what do you say Martin?

"Uh, I…I… don't think it would be advisable. And did you not say he's a teacher?" Martin tried really hard to concentrate on the conversation as he is starting to realize what Louisa was doing. In one quick movement he shifted her bottom from his torso and got up. He found his scattered clothes and got dressed quickly.

Louisa watched Martin as he got up to get dressed. She knew her original tactic did not work. She thought the powers of her body would work on Martin, but as always, his logical mind took over too quickly. Or maybe she's not grabbing his attention so much anymore. She is not as 'sexy' as she used to be, when Martin first became interested in her. She did have a baby a year and half ago, and she is pregnant again and of course she is almost 39. She suddenly felt very exposed and fragile and drew her knees close to her chest, wrapping her arms around it. Her teeth got hold of her lip and was being severely punished again. She don't know why, but her eyes started filling up, and at that moment, Martin turned around, with her clothes in his hands, fully dressed.

Martin, who was deep in thought about Louisa's suggestion, didn't even realize that Louisa got awfully quiet while he dressed. He only had to give her one look to see that she was not a happy camper at that very moment as big awful tears started dripping down her cheeks. He was defenseless against tears.

Did he say something wrong again? He hardly said a word. How can this be? He thought they were quite happy today. They just did…

"Louisa, why in the world are you crying? Did I say something wrong?" He sat next to her, unsure if he was to touch her or not. The way she was crying, all wrapped up in herself made her look like as small fragile girl that got hurt falling down. It felt like someone punched him hard in his heart as he had a huge ache seeing her like this.

"I'm sorry" said Louisa as she tried to control the tears that kept coming and she honestly don't know why she was crying so terribly. Maybe it was the realization of lost powers or did she even have any powers at all when it comes to Martin? Or was it the realization that they might never find someone to paint this blasted house so they could move in? "I just really had my heart set on moving in before Christmas…and Ben seemed like the perfect solution to a problem. It's been weeks, since we bought the house and we're not moving forward. I feel that you don't want us to move in. Is that it, Martin?" Louisa started sobbing loudly now.

Martin moved closer and took his beautiful, naked, sobbing wife and pulled her very close into his arms. "Of course I want to move here, with you, and James. There is absolutely nothing I want more! Why would you even think that? These last couple of weeks have been quite busy." He let out a sigh and took a big breath.

"If you really want to and we absolutely can't find any other capable person in this god forsaken village, we can ask the tourist to paint, in exchange for rent. But I will deal with him. I want you to leave it to me. You can tell me which colors are for which rooms and I'll make sure he gets the job done. And I will call that owner of that cottage to get a thorough reference on him before he sets foot in this house. I have his details at the surgery, I will call him Monday."

Louisa just cuddled deeper into Martin's embrace and they sat like that for a couple of minutes more. It was Martin who broke the silence and the cuddle. "I think you should get dressed now. We still have a couple of things we need to take care of and we only have one more hour left before Jenny wants to go home." He handed her her clothes and she reluctantly got up while saying "Janice, Martin, Ja-Nice! At least you got the first letter right." She gave him a small smile and dressed herself. She used her hands to rake through her hair and tied it back again. Martin was standing in front of the window again, and when Louisa was done dressing and straightening herself, she walked up to him and put her arms around his waist from behind. "Thank you and I am really sorry for earlier." She turned Martin around and reached up to give him a kiss. "I am really glad we got to…uh…christen the bed." She grinned a bit and Martin felt a blush creeping up his neck, spreading to his cheeks.

"Yes, it was … good"

A/N: Thanks a Million to each and everyone for sticking with me for so long! Your kind reviews are more than generous!