A/N: Well folks, the time has come. This is the last chapter in Consent to Release, only the epilogue is left. It's been great, and I love and appreciate each and every review and supportive message I've gotten over the last... well, more than a year now. I guess that's my signal to stop, huh? I just want to give everyone a huge THANK YOU for everything. Sorry I've been late on updating, life has been insanely busy, as I'm sure has been for all of you!
HUGE thanks go to larin20, EmmaleeWrites05 and sererah for supporting me throughout this fic, and for giving me fuckhot suggestions and advice. Hehe love you girls!
Disclaimer: Naturally, I do not own Twilight, nor Star Trek, nor Firefly, nor any franchise that may be recognizable here. I got a promotion at work, but not THAT big of one!
I felt shaky all over. I'd done all kinds of things for my husband; we'd made love on every type of surface and in every kind of position, shared each other in the most intimate of ways with our best friends, taken control over each other's bodies in the best ways we knew how. I loved him unconditionally, completely, entirely. I would do anything for him, if he asked, and even if he didn't ask at all. I'd do it all.
But this leotard looking thing... the sky-high wig complete with headband... the Comm badge pinned to my left boob... I wasn't so sure.
Emmett was late home from work, which had given me more time to get his surprise ready. His birthday was in a week, but I wanted an early start to the celebration I had planned. Alice was awesome at orchestrating costumes, the props, dinner reservations, the hotel room, all of it. And she had gotten this down to a T. I looked exactly the way I was supposed to look, kinky black curls and all.
I just hoped I hadn't misread the signals that he'd sent, saying this costume, this Star Trek fantasy, was what he'd wanted. I'd never done the whole role-play thing before, and my heart was pounding with nervousness. My palms were sweaty.
I could hear the car door slam and the crunch of gravel outside. Shit! He was home... shit shit shit... get in position... Night #1 was about to commence... fuck!
"Babe?" Emmett called into the house as he shut and locked the door behind him. "Are you here?"
It was dark in the house; I'd done that on purpose. It's not easy to make your house look like the inside of the Starship Enterprise after all.
"I'm upstairs," I called, the tone of my voice quaking slightly. I cleared my throat and tried my soft, lilting, English/Greek accent I'd been practicing. "Imzadi, I'm in our room." My leg was bouncing up and down, which I fought to still.
"Imzadi? Babe, what-" Emmett paused, from what I could hear; he was just outside the door. "Oh my God," he moaned and it sounded like a good moan. I could hear the clunk of his head on the door now, and I could picture him squeezing his eyes tight shut, utterly turned on.
"Come in," I purred and the door slowly swung open. Emmett staggered in the room, pants already tented. Yes and please... I licked my lips and beckoned him to me. "I sense you're feeling aroused, excited," I said in my best Deanna Troi voice. I stood from the edge of our bed, which I had done my best to recreate into the beiges, pastels, and dark tones used on The Next Generation.
"Yes... Counselor," he stammered. "You might say that..." He was just as nervous and excited as I was, and far more handsome than William T. Riker could ever hope to be. He loosened his tie, keeping his darkening eyes on me. I took a step towards him and he twitched. "Baby..."
"I can help you with whatever is troubling you," I continued, swallowing hard and forcing myself to hold back from flinging myself into his arms. He was severely lickable when he looked at me that way, like he was about to pounce. "Imzadi, you're so tense."
"What a surprise," he choked out, raking me from head to toe until I felt completely and utterly devoured. His eyes drifted over my breasts, which I had propped up into my most revealing bra, pouring up out of the top of my uniform, which felt like it had been painted onto me, it was so tight. I looked down, and saw what he could see; my nipples were pressing hard against the gray fabric, perfectly outlined through the thin material of my costume.
"Um..." I didn't know what to say next. Quick, Bella, think of something... anything... You've only seen The Next Generation a million times! What do you remember about Betazoids? Something about Lwaxana Troi, Daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, Heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed... FOCUS! And then it hit me. "Alice asked me to be a part of her wedding ceremony," I said, and Emmett lost focus for a moment, small frown lines appearing at the corner of his mouth. I hoped he'd catch on quickly; see where I was going with this. "So I'd like to show you my wedding outfit."
I could almost hear the little clicks going on in his head as I spoke the words. The grin was back and bigger than ever. His eyes followed my hand as it slid to the back of the leotard. My purpose was double fold; one, I could get out of this damn thing while being in character, and two, I could tell he wanted me naked. The zipper slowly slid down the back, and I nearly sighed in relief as it loosened its grip on my body. Emmett's eyes widened as the gray fabric slid off my shoulders.
When the fabric was gone, I stepped out of my clothes, rather than kick them away. Licking my lips, I walked closer to Emmett. I loved being naked when he was fully clothed. Even though I was clearly in control of this scene, he was still in control of my body, and I loved feeling like he held some power over me. I didn't know if it would always be like this, but I loved when it was.
"That's... that's beautiful," Emmett said, his voice cracking. He was still eying me hungrily, a slow smirk spreading across his face.
"Imzadi," I whispered, reaching for him. The word didn't seem so strange now, it felt reverent. It meant the first person whose soul touched mine, my "first", so to speak. And while Emmett wasn't my physically first lover, he was the first and only one to reach my heart, to connect with me.
We reached for each other at the same time, my hands gripping the collar of his shirt tightly, dragging him to me. Emmett palmed my ass, dragging me against his clothed, hard body. Definitely hard in all places...
"D-Deanna?" he stumbled. "What do you sense from me?" Emmett was struggling with the role play aspect as well. It was something we'd never tried before. "Like, can you sense what I'm going to do to you tonight?"
My heart leapt in my throat. "Imzadi, I sense love, arousal, and excitement. I trust you... I'm in your hands."
"Can I ask one more question?" His lips ghosted over my throat, nipping in my favorite spot right at my collarbone. His hands were wandering further south, between my cheeks. My breath caught in my throat.
"Anything," I whispered.
"Did you bring something with chocolate?"
I smirked. This part of Deanna Troi, I could relate to the most, and I was most excited about sharing with Emmett. I pulled away from his arms, walking towards the nightstand, and held up a bottle of chocolate sauce, something I'd been promised would be less sticky than Hershey's. "Are you sure you're not empathic too?" I grinned.
* CtR *
Emmett set down the remote after pausing the movie we were in the middle of. Serenity sat frozen on the screen.
"Hey, I was watching that!" I complained. I wanted to see more of Jayne. If I was honest, he reminded me a lot of my husband. All muscle and hard body... was it hot in here or was it just me?
"I just remembered!" He looked like a kid at Christmas. Screw Jayne, I wanted a live show of my man. "Jasper's bought Alice a ring. He said I could tell you, cuz unlike Ali, you can keep a secret."
"Oh my God!" I exclaimed, sitting up excitedly from my slouched position on the couch. "Are you serious?"
"As serious as he is," Emmett grinned broadly. "And if we're not best man and maid of-"
"Matron," I corrected.
"Whatever of honor, I'm going to be pissed!"
I laughed. "Assuming she says yes."
Emmett looked utterly alarmed, eyes widening with scandal. "You think she might not?"
"I'm not saying that, I'm just saying, you never know." Alice was crazy about Jasper, even though they'd only been together for a few months officially. I knew she'd say yes in a heartbeat, but I'd always been taught never to assume things. I'd assumed things with Edward and I'd been dead wrong. Lesson learned.
He frowned and sat back on the couch. "I guess you're right. I forgot how scared I was when I planned on proposing to you. I was terrified you'd say no."
I stroked his hand reassuringly. "It never even occurred to me to say no. I was... I am so in love with you, I barely hesitated!"
"I remember," he smirked. "And you didn't hesitate to take off your clothes less than five minutes later either."
I playfully punched him in the arm before pulling myself flush against him in his lap. "Shut up," I murmured into his neck. I left a trail of kisses there, and his arms tightened around me. "Emmett..." I bit at his earlobe. He groaned loudly and tilted his face for me to kiss him, our tongues meeting and pressing together, sliding slowly together. Memories of that night, the night I agreed to be his wife, bombarded me. When he got down on one knee while we were watching the eleven o'clock news in bed, when we made love for hours and I knew I'd never love another the way I love him, not even if I lived to be a hundred years old. He was my match in every way, and it was more true today than it was back then.
"Bella, can I ask you something?" he groaned when we finally pulled back, seemingly hours later. I looked up at my gorgeous, sexy husband, whose hands were tousled from my fingers running through it, warm and full of life, and judging by the lump just under my thigh, very aroused. My heart tripped in my chest. My God, how I love this man...
"Do you think... that it's time?"
"Time?" I was steeped in Emmett so much that I couldn't recall what we'd been talking about before, much less be aware of what he was talking about now. "What?"
"For us..." He distracted me for a moment by sweeping his fingers along the gap between my shirt and pants, making me shiver. "... to quit being Master and submissive, and make a baby."
It wasn't a shock, or a surprise. We'd discussed it so many times before, knew it was where we wanted to go with our marriage, and sooner rather than later. I wanted to be a young mom, and I knew my career could be put on hold. A family was important to me, to us. We hadn't been to Rouge in a long time now, months in fact. I enjoyed that aspect of our lives, but it was something we could do together in our bedrooms or in Jasper and Alice's playroom when we had time, it didn't have to be our lifestyle for us to enjoy it still, and it didn't have to be Master/sub every time we did it either. I knew the answer without another thought. "Yes."
* CtR *
Warrant was blasting through my room. I didn't care about Cherry Pies, I just wanted to sleep. Emmett had worn me out on our first night of trying. I knew I wasn't close to my cycle, and it was only the first night without taking the pill, but damn it was fun to practice. Ever since our trips to Rouge, and all the experimentation we'd done, we were a lot more explosive in bed, and I was proud of the fact that our child would be conceived out of passion and absolute love.
"Answer that damn phone," Emmett grunted into the pillow, laying on his stomach and cradling his pillow like he'd held me as we fell asleep. "Or throw it out the window, I don't care."
"Fucking Alice," I moaned as the light from the phone seared my eyeballs, blinding me like I was looking at the sun. "What?" I yawned, trying to sound ferocious but failing miserably.
"I'm engaged!"
"At three in the morning?" I'm not a nice person when I'm awoken suddenly, I fully admit it.
"BELLA, did you hear me?" Alice ignored my grouchy words. "I'm ENGAGED! Jasper PROPOSED!"
"Congratulations sweetie, I'm so happy for you guys."
"I wish you could have seen how nervous he was! His face gave it all away, I knew from the start what he was about to do. It was adorable. I even think he was sweating!" she gushed, filling me in with every detail from what sounded like an elaborately romantic and slightly complicated proposal during which Jasper hid the ring in some chocolate mousse. There had been an awkward moment when Alice wanted to do food play, dipped her finger in the whipped cream, and found the ring, but she seemed gleeful and ecstatic. "He's just gone to draw us a bath, I'm definitely ready for some proposal sex!" she added.
"You haven't yet?" I was surprised.
"Well... we made love a lot..." she said, and I caught her gist quickly. I had this image of Jasper with a ball and chain or some wedding "theme" like that.
"Say no more!" I laughed sleepily. "You guys are really perfect for each other."
"I know! And all thanks to you and Emmett, you little matchmakers you! You're going to be my maid of honor, of course," she added, very seriously.
"Matron!" I exclaimed. Emmett chuckled beside me, and I socked him in the arm. Butt.
"Same difference," Alice said. "Anyways, I'm off to have a little fun with my fiancé..." she paused, clearly rolling the word over in her head, whispering once more." Wow... OK, night Bella!"
"Night Mrs. Whitlock," I teased, and she giggled before hanging up.
Emmett pulled me closer to him as we drifted off to sleep again.
Things were changing. Major parts of our lives were about to shift, be altered forever. Things would have to be sacrificed, decisions needed to be made with a little more weight put on the consequences. But I was ready. We were ready. I didn't know if we could have our cake and eat it too, but I wanted to try.
I fell asleep with Emmett, warm and comforting beside me. The only way I'd have it.
A/N II: Only the epi to go... whatcha think? :-)