These vignettes set the tone for what is to come. It is a little different from the usual update, thanks for indulging me.

Our New Life

Being loved by Caroline Elliot is the elixir of her touch. She bestows a pat or a stroke like the blessing that it is to her boys, her mother, now to Kate. Her hand on a shoulder, the quick one-armed squeeze, a playful swat as she sends one of the boys on their way, the back pats that finalize her hugs to them. At home Kate's life is filled with Caroline's touch. Caroline's arms around her middle from behind or linking arms with her as they walk, Caroline drawing her onto her lap for a snuggle and a kiss, fingers lifting the hair from her neck, creeping under her jumper to find warm skin. This Kate has come to expect.

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Caroline has finally come to terms with the fact that the people she works with really had known about her and Kate for quite a while and hadn't been particularly bothered by it. Really they were more curious about them than anything. After her forced announcement the first day of term there had been only token repercussions from a few parents which Gavin had handled efficiently. In a few weeks, people no longer gave the two of them a second glance as they arrived or left together, walked the corridors or grounds of the school, it all became routine and Caroline relaxed into herself again.

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What Kate hadn't expected was the wonder and joy of experiencing Dr. Elliot morph into her Caroline when they were at school. To watch the confident poised Head striding down the corridor quelling rowdiness with a sharp look or by simply calling out the name of a would be offender. See her stop for a question from one of the Deputy Heads then come on to stand beside her as she chatted with a few teachers. Kate could feel Caroline's fingers entwine with hers as they talked. Not covert, simply discrete, simply Caroline. This never failed to send a thrill through her.

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Being loved by Kate McKenzie is the sound of music. Kate's eclectic playlist is the soundtrack of their lives together. Music is the barometer of her mood, the path to her heart, portal to her soul. Caroline had always liked music, the radio played in her car, the boys tunes pound through the house. Once in awhile she even went to the trouble of putting on music for some special occasion. But usually there were so many things buzzing in her head that she hadn't even thought about music. It would have been just one more item on her to do list.

Now, effortlessly for her, there's music in her life. The music of Kate. She never knew what they would hear next. Much of what she heard she couldn't have named, even when it was familiar, something she liked, something she ought to have known. When she first began to ask the title of the music they were listening to, Kate would look at her sharply to see if she was having her on. Finally, she'd come to realize that, unfathomable as it was to her, Caroline really did not know. So, in her kind, gentle way, Kate's made Caroline her music student, telling her not only the name of the piece and the composer but the artists and other details as well. Caroline absorbs this, asks questions, remembers what she's told, uses it to enhance her experience of the music and of Kate.

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Being loved by Caroline Elliot is the elegance of always having fresh flowers in the home. The arrangements and bouquets Caroline insists are not an extravagance but essential to gracious living.

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Being loved by Kate McKenzie is the tactile way her fingers find a lock of hair, caress your cheek, or arrange your scarf whenever she is near you.

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Being loved by Caroline Elliot is an avocado sandwich on your tea tray because she knows you crave it.

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Being loved by Kate McKenzie is returning to your office from a meeting that ran long to find a firm, crisp apple on your desk. The variety you prefer, still a little cold from the fridge because Kate missed you in the lunchroom today and knows you've skipped the meal to keep on keeping on, so you can get home on time this afternoon.

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Being loved by Caroline Elliot is receiving her constant attentions. The texts using innocuous words and phrases that pull at your core because of the special meaning they have for the two of you. The flowers on your classroom desk, the granola bar you find slipped into your purse for a snack, the bottle of water 'for later' that she hands you at lunch.

Her loving gaze as you move through the rooms of the home you share. Anticipating your needs, her jump to fetch the remote, her 'here let me' as she takes from your hands anything you are carrying no matter how much she's already holding just because you are pregnant. Its the attentiveness of her hand at your elbow, the door held open, the chair pulled out, her encompassing blue eyed devotion.

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Being loved by Kate McKenzie is having her brown eyes on you, seeing you, registering your mood, your state of being. Even when you are unaware of it she is sensing, discerning, perceiving. And you may only know it when she is meeting needs you didn't know you had. Putting her agile fingers on your shoulders and easing away the knots. Extinguishing the desk lamp and pulling you off to bed because you're more tired than you knew. Inviting Celia and Alan for Sunday dinner because she knows that now you're no longer casually in and out of one another's home day to day you're both missing it. Having her come to curl with you on the big chair in the study as you read the ubiquitous report, her head on your shoulder, her warmth against you making it impossible to concentrate. As she knew it would.

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Being loved by Caroline Elliot is being given a full pedicure because pregnant as you are, you can no longer reach your own toes. Then, being propped in bed with your feet on an old towel while she paints your toenails smurf blue so you'll have something colorful to look at while you are forced to rest so often.

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Being loved by Kate McKenzie is not being allowed to read reports and trade magazines in bed anymore. In fact, being made to promise to do your 'homework' before dinner just as Laurence is required to do. After dinner is family time unless there's a special dispensation for work brought home from the office – and the reason for that had better be very convincing.

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Being loved by Caroline Elliot is the mischievous glint in her eye, her cheeky tone and twinkling eyes, the gentle tweak, the witty retort, the too innocent moppet eyes when she is having you on, the peal of her laughter in the house. All of this is new since last year. It's a balm to Kate's soul to see happiness dissolve guardedness, to see the response of Caroline's boys to this new side of their Mum.

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Being loved by Kate McKenzie is the sight and sound of her at the piano. The music that she plays from memory, eyes closed, head moving gently with the music, her face and body at one with the composition, transported elsewhere. Caroline doesn't know where she goes but she comes back refreshed, renewed.

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Being loved by Caroline Elliot is the privilege of her proximity. The swish and sway of her body, the graceful gesture, the tilt of her head, the bashful smile, the curve of her fringe, the exquisite form and coloring and texture that is Caroline. Vivacious and brilliant, her essence is a shimmering radiance to light the lives of all who are fortunate enough to come into her sphere.

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Being loved by Kate McKenzie is the privilege of her proximity. The gentle charm and grace that soothe and calm, her effortless changes from casually mod to sophisticated elegance, the switch that takes her from unassuming to majestic in a flash. Her cool composure, keen intellect, the openness and equanimity that deceive complacent assumptions. Her shining hair and luminous skin radiate vitality. The subtly athletic frame whose slender strength somehow manages to evoke vulnerability and therefore inspires protection for her.

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Being in love with Kate McKenzie is to be in some greater or lesser degree of arousal at all times. The sensations that even the most innocent touch will kindle, engaging emotions, engendering feelings, reviving memories, igniting passions.

The tender gaze that realizes you. Her brown eyes, sometimes almost ebony other times with hints of amber but always, always, seeing eyes, knowing eyes, comprehending eyes. Eyes that have seen the darkness and light in you that no one else even suspects is there. Eyes that can strip the clothing from your body, extract the oxygen from your lungs, render your muscles inert but tingle your nerves, cause you to be conscious of body parts that it isn't appropriate to think about just now.

She doesn't even need to be present for these reactions to occur. But when she is, when she is, oh yes, the gears engage. The motor is throttled up from the ever-present idle, juices flow; there is a need to swallow and dampness in unspeakable places. Suddenly, it isn't possible to remain still, it becomes necessary to move in close, touch silken skin, inhale her scent. To stand beside her engaging in insipid conversation with others only because she is there and so you can wrap a finger around one of hers and feel her fingers mashing it between them and know that she feels what you feel and any time is far too long to wait to be alone together again.

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Being loved by Caroline Elliot is to be in possession of a fragile jewel. Only Kate's rare authenticity and self-assurance could embrace this treasure without crushing it. But Kate's possession of Caroline frees her to be even more quintessentially Caroline and thus more covetable.

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Kate is sterling, pure, true, and under this benevolent tenure, the magnificence that is Caroline moves through the world like an aura. A shimmering presence that is golden, lighting the way, lightening the load for others as she assumes their burdens, leads, guides, protects. She is adroit, ingenious, appealing, and wholly desirable.

The light of her blue eyes is as warm as the waters of a tropical sea, as beautiful, inviting and irresistible; a tidal pull into her lushness. Her voluptuous body, overtly feminine, delicately drawn, fully developed, sinew and muscle wrapped in luxurious softness. Somehow just being Caroline is the most sensuous, alluring thing in the world to be. Everyone wants her but she has given herself to Kate, whole-heartedly, totally without reservation.

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In the love between Caroline Elliot and Kate McKenzie to say the name of your beloved is the highest, deepest appreciation of her essence. To hear your name on her lips the ultimate in aural stimulation.

Of course, you've found pet names for one another but these are for use in lighter moments. When emotions surge the intensity is too weighty for these other appellations. Only the name that evokes everything will carry the density of import, the fire of ardor, that ever-present incandescence that is your love.

Neither had thought much about her name before they met. It was just her name. But when heard on the lips of the other, in the voice of the adored one, that name is a volt charging through the torso to spread through limbs like a flush.

To hear your name on the lips of your beloved is a secret message just for you. Its significance conveyed in tone and timber, pitch and breath and volume, the variations endless. Implications of the moment crystal clear, a perfect revelation of innermost depths of yearning and elemental need. A reflection of profound ecstasy when lovemaking takes you beyond passion to that white-hot place of total absorption in sensation and gripping intensity. Saying the beloved name reveals all she'll need to know to orchestrate maximum pleasure, locking you both in sweet intercourse. The trifecta of voice and touch with eye contact can cause instant orgasm. To say the beloved name is everything.