A/N - This chapter contains NC-17 content. If you are under the age of 18 or uncomfortable with such subject matter, please continue to Chapter 37.

Wednesday, October 29, 1986

Remington's eyes blinked open as the feeling of being watched invaded his dreams. Instantly on alert and prepared to defend, instead his lips lifted into a smile as he found a pair of amber eyes watching him. Brushing heavy hair back over a shoulder, he laid a hand against a cheek, his thumb rubbing it.

"Can't sleep?" he inquired. Laura continued to stare, her eyes reflecting a perplexing mixture of confusion and longing.

"Say something to me in Gaelic," she requested in a whisper. Understanding set in.

"Mo chuid den tsaol," he whispered back, then watched as her eyes closed and she let go of a breath she'd clearly been holding. When she opened her eyes again, only the longing remained.

"I want to be close to you, Rem," she told him, her voice hesitant. This time it was his eyes that closed as his heart tripped hearing the words he'd feared not so long ago that he'd never hear again. He let out a deep breath, his handing wending its way to the back of her neck as he opened his eyes.

"Come here, love," he implored quietly. She wriggled over until their bodies nearly touched, then sighed as his lips covered hers.

The kiss started tentatively, then became more ardent, his lips trailing over hers. She allowed him to roll her to her back, as he leaned over her, seeking firmer contact. Her hands skimmed up his arms, then over his shoulders before tangling in his hair, pressing him even closer. Breaking away from the kiss with a quiet gasp, his lips traveled across her face, touching eyes, nose, cheek and chin before returning to her lips.

"Laura," he murmured against them.

She stroked her fingers over his shoulder and down the length of his back, then back up again, smiling against his lips as he arched into her hands. He moaned against her mouth at the feel of her hands against his bare skin, urging her lips apart with the touch of his tongue, reveling in her taste when she opened to him. When at last their lips parted, his mouth journeyed down the column of her neck, kissing, tasting, suckling as she squirmed with delight beneath him, while her hands rediscovered the warm, taunt skin of his sides, over his ribs. He hesitated, briefly, as he lathed the hollow of her throat but long enough for her to understand. Taking the sides of his head in her hands, she urged his head up so that their eyes could meet. Her breath caught at the near desperate need lighting his eyes.

"Make love with me, Rem," she requested on a whisper.

He let out a staccato sigh at her words, and kissed her gently, before returning to hollow of her throat, as long, elegant fingers meandered along her waist and ribs, before working loose the first of the buttons on his pajama top. Each piece of skin earned the attention of mouth and fingers, leaving her quivering with the need to feel them touching skin-to-skin, from shoulder-to-hip, when at last the final button fell free. With a hand to his shoulder, she nudged him to his back, before rising up to straddle him, while sliding the shirt off and tossing it aside. Remington sucked in a deep breath at seeing her nearly completely bare before him after far too long an absence. A hand found the back of her neck, urging her downwards. Stretching out her length over his, her hands tangled in his hair. They kissed long and leisurely, as his hands explored the feel of her back, the panty covered curve of her bottom. When he moved to roll her back over, she shook her head against his mouth.

"Not yet", she whispered, as her lips left his. "You first."

Straddling him again, she grazed her lips along his neck, before settling in to suckle the skin where neck met collarbone, pulling firmly until he groaned, hands grasping her hips desperately while his hips bucked of their own accord. She smiled against his skin, then continued her explorations, leaving not a piece of skin untouched. Small hands explored his chest at length, before each nipple was lathed with attention, leaving him moaning and squirming beneath her, as his hands clutched whatever part of her body that was in their vicinity. A swirl of her tongue around his navel earned a deep, throaty groan as his hips raised from the bed again and fingers tangled in her hair. His pants slipped over his hips and off, earned a grateful hum. Toes suckled and nipped left his body twitching as he called her name repeatedly.

She lifted her eyes to look at him. Eyes closed, a hand reaching for her, he'd allowed himself to get lost in the pure pleasure of her touch. It was one of things she loved most about him: that he never made her question if her actions gave him pleasure. After years of hiding from one another for fear of finding themselves rejected by the other, here, when they made love, they hid nothing at all from one another.

Her lips slowly moved up his legs, her mouth settling in to gently suckle the inside of a thigh. He pushed himself up on an elbow, trying to grab an arm and pull her upwards. She smoothly evaded his hand, laughing as he groaned her name and fell back against the bed.

"Lauraaaaaaa… I'm not goin' to be able to take much more o' that, love, if ye don't wish to be waitin' a while," he managed to spit out gruffly, the song of Ireland pervading each word as she had held him teetering on the edge of bliss.

She lifted her head, flashing him and impish smile before swirling her tongue around the tip of him, carefully backing away as his hips bucked wildly, helplessly at the sensation. Only once he settled did she use hands and mouth to shove him over the peak into oblivion. She laughed when, even as his body still jerked beneath her in the aftermath of his climax, his hands reached for her and pulled her up the length of his body before flipping them over. He buried his face in her neck, panting for breath.

"I believe you're mine to do with as I please now, love," he managed to say breathily, against her skin. She brushed her fingertips down his back in response, smiling as he still arched helplessly into her hands. He lifted his head to look at her, a smile quirking at the corner of his lips.

"Oh no you don't," he scolded, before capturing her lips under his.

If Laura thought she had taken her time pleasuring him, showing him all that he was to her, Remington made it appear her efforts had been rushed. When he eased her lips from hers, for long minutes, he traced the freckles smattering her shoulders and chest, his mouth paying equal homage to each of them as it trailed behind. A gentle breath blown across her dampened skin left her arching her back in delight, her hands seeking his hair to tangle in. A thumb brushed over a tautening nipple left her gasping, her hands trying to guide his head to where she wanted to feel his mouth most, only for him to lean back and press kisses against her collarbone as a graceful hand traced her delicate curves. Now she coaxed his head upward instead, reveling in the taste of his lips, his tongue against hers as his hand continued to stroke and explore. She hummed softly, against his lips, drawing a soft laugh from him, before he inched away and kissed a path down between the valley of her breasts.

"Remington," she murmured, lifting her back from the mattress, showing him where she most wanted him at the moment. She sank back onto the bed when a finger began drawing ever smaller circles around her nipple. When he at last took it in her mouth, she groaned his name, her hands seeking and holding him there while her hips undulated against the mattress. Like her freckles before, he lavished each breast with attention until she hovered on the brink of ecstasy. His hand pressed against her mound as he suckled hard upon a breast, until her body was wracked with the force of her climax. He drew her body firmly against him as her body tremored. He could only smile against her neck as her fingers dug into his back, holding him to her.

Then he was on the move again. She shivered as his lips made a trail down her chest, between her ribs, his tongue delving into her navel before he moved on. She anxiously lifted her hips when his hands tugged at the waistband of her panties, then sighed as he slipped them off.

This time, however, Remington wanted Laura to find her release when he was buried deep within her, could feel her clenching and trembling around him. Until then, he had only a single goal: to lathe her body in all the love he had for her until she was mass of quivering flesh beneath his hands and mouth - until she knew without a doubt that she was his and his alone. Twice he took her to the edge, backing away at the last moment, refusing to send her over it. As she lay on her stomach and he pressed a trail of kisses along her spine, watching with delight as her shapely bottom twitched with each touch, she could take no more.

"Rem, please, I need to feel you," she moaned.

He waited until she rolled to her back, tugging at his shoulder, before stretching out over her, positioning himself where they both craved him to be. Laying his lips against hers, he held lips and body still until her eyes flickered open to meet his. Her hands fluttered over his back, whisper soft, until they reached his hips. Clutching them in her hands, she urged him forward. They shuddered in unison as he slowly pushed forward into her depths.

"Rem…" she called out to him in barely more than a whisper. His lips pressed against her neck, as she shifted so that she could wrap her legs high and tight around him. Tilting her hips, she sighed as he sank fully into her.

"I know, babe," he answered, pressing his lips against her forehead before he began to move.

He kept the pace hauntingly slow, wanting to prolong the feeling of their bodies bound together for as long as possible.

"Ag déanamh ghrá a thabhairt duit go bhfuil mar a bhfuil píosa na bhflaitheas i mo lámha," he whispered against his ear, even as he clenched his jaw, fighting against the need to bury himself fully in her and find his release. "Laura…" he moaned, his gruff voice telling her what he sought.

Goosebumps rose against his skin when her legs slipped over his hips, to tighten around his legs, telling him she was close. Dropping his head, his mouth sought her collarbone, drawing her skin inside to suckle. She gasped and arched her back, her hands clutching at his shoulders, as he shortened his strokes. With a final pull of her skin into his mouth, she shattered, arching high from the bed, her body seeking contact with his, as she trembled almost violently in her release.

"Rem," she cried out, before burying her face in his shoulder.

Her muscles clenched down hard around him, drawing him high and tight. The force of his climax took away his breath, as his arm reached around her, pulling her body tight against him and his head dropped to her shoulder, his hot breath warming her skin. Long after their bodies stopped trembling, he remained connected with her, showering cheeks, eyes, and brows with soft kisses, speaking quiet words of Gaelic as she worked her way back to him.

"Mo chuid den tsaol," he breathed against her lips before enveloping them under his, needing to taste her again. When her fingers at last threaded through his hair, he gently disengaged their bodies, then wrapped his arms around her, flipping them so they lay facing one another. Her leg nudged its way to lay between his before she wriggled forward, resting her cheek against his chest. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly against his skin. He closed his eyes at the sensation, while his hand caressed her back and hair in long, soothing strokes.

"Remington?" Her fingers traced patterns against his chest.

"Hmmmmm?" He was battling against falling to sleep, wanting her to slip away before him.

"What did you say to me earlier?" Her hand skimmed over his shoulder, then found the side of his head, her fingers brushing comfortingly through the stands, determined as he that he be the first to sleep. That he was more prone to translating the words he'd speak when they made love as the haze of sleep overtook him, was only a side benefit. She smiled as she felt his chest rise then slowly lower. "Rem?"

"What's life without a little mystery, love?" His hand reached for hers, and folding it within his own, he tucked their joined hands between them, before drifting off to sleep.

Tomorrow's another day, Mr. Steele. I'll get it out of you yet, she thought to herself in the moments before sleep stole her away as well.