I think my season three will draw to an end within the next few chapters. sam

Dreams of Love

Chapter 54: Home Again

Derek had asked his mom to stay at the cabin on the lake to accept delivery of all the furnishings and to oversee workmen in last minute details. It had occupied Maeve away from the hospital for the last week of her stay in Seattle, giving Meredith a pause from too much company, and really helping Derek with the house. Siobhan had kept Maeve informed of Meredith and Derek's well being over the phone.

Then Guiseppe had stepped in after Maeve had gone home. His authoritative competence and continental charm were enough to keep the construction crew on their toes and keep them working on the main house. He actually found the project interesting and stimulating and had suggested several good ideas to Derek. The result of Maeve's and Guiseppe's support was that the cabin at the lake was completely done and furnished and the new house was totally framed with the exterior walls and roof in place when Derek and Meredith drove up.

Derek enjoyed Meredith's gasp of surprise and pleased exclamation, "Oh Derek, it's beautiful. I can't believe how much is done already. What did you do with the trailer?"

"I traded it to the construction foreman for his son. So the price of the trailer is in the new stainless steel appliances for the main house now. The cabin is all we'll need until the main house is finished. I asked Guiseppe if he wanted to stay out here with us, but he said that we needed our privacy, not a father with a little boy. I have to say I'm glad they chose to stay in town this time. We do need some space. Next year, when they visit after our main house is done, they can stay here, or if Zachary visits alone, he can stay with us in his room."

Derek parked and helped Meredith out of the car. Going from standing to sitting or vice versa, bending, was still problematic for her. Meredith started towards the cabin and Derek grabbed two suitcases and followed. She stopped every few feet and looked around like she was making new maps in her mind. Every change excited her and she praised his choices.

Derek went ahead and put their bags in the largest room and then went back out to the car to unload groceries. Meredith had just made it to the new double hammock in it's own heavy duty frame set in the dappled sunshine. The material was waffled with holes so water would drain. Meredith noticed it would be comfortable for two and grinned, picturing trying it out for more than napping.

Derek was already unpacking groceries into the brand new refrigerator when Meredith entered the finished guest house for the first time. He paused a minute to watch joy light her face. She excitedly looked around at every elegant detail clasping her hands over her heart.

"Derek, it couldn't be better. It feels warm and comfortable as well as elegantly high class. Do you like it? Did it turn out the way you wanted?" Meredith asked, searching his face.

"Yes, I love it. You picked the right color combination and Mom coordinated everything really well. I couldn't have done half so well, by myself and a designer would have been too impersonal. We only made one real mistake with furniture, you know, I showed you in the hospital, so I sent that piece back and replaced it."

It made Derek smile to watch Meredith wander through the house touching everything, oohing and awing as she went. He heard her exclaim in happy surprise several times when she opened cabinets and doors. The huge flat screen TV behind the carved mahogany cabinetry in the living room was a real favorite since Meredith loved watching old movies to wind down. The whirlpool tub in one bathroom made her clap and the shower big enough for two in the other bathroom made her sigh. There would finally be enough hot water to spend as much time in here as she wanted. Yay.

Meredith smiled at all the fresh bottles of her favorite bath products lining the shelves. She knew that was Maeve's touch. Derek wouldn't have thought of that. Then she grinned at the prominently displayed top-of-the-line electric razor. Maeve was definitely trying to tell Derek something. Meredith brushed her teeth and washed her face in her new sink. She casually brushed her hair as she wandered into the bedroom to change out of her clothes. They'd turned out to be a little too tight and restrictive for her wounds.

Meredith stepped out of her clothes and sighed in relief. She turned, in just panties and bra, and froze when she saw Derek leaning against the door jamb. Immediately she covered herself with the blouse she'd just pulled off. She didn't want Derek to look at her. She wasn't ready to look at herself, let alone let Derek look at her.

"Derek, you startled me!"

Derek eyed her knowingly and casually straightened, walking into the room. He pulled his sweater off over his head and unbuttoned his shirt. Meredith watched, mesmerized, as Derek tugged his shirt out of his pants and shrugged it off. He rubbed a hand over his lightly furred chest and belly making her catch her breath. Wow, her feminine body suddenly responded to the male beauty of his with a whoosh of feeling. Her mouth went dry as she watched Derek slowly unzip his slacks and then hook his thumbs in the waistband to lower and step out of them. He deliberately turned sideways so she was treated to the intriguing sight of the prominent tent his erection made in his shorts.

Meredith tore her eyes away and started looking for something to put on to cover up. Derek simply cleared his throat, drawing her attention right back to the spectacular view he provided. He hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his shorts and shimmied them slowly down, letting them catch on his prominence and pull it down until they slid off, allowing his gorgeous penis to spring back up, straight and stiff, ready to love her. Meredith moaned and couldn't take her eyes off it as he walked slowly to her. Derek softly brushed both hands over her hair, following the curve of her head into her throat, and then smoothing lightly over her shoulders and arms.

"You are as beautiful to me as I am to you. I love you the way you love me. I accept everything about you, good and bad, the way you accept me. Would I be diminished in your eyes if I'd been hurt?" Derek smiled warmly into Meredith's eyes.

She shook her head, "No, of course not, but ..."

"Believe me when I say this physical state I find myself in is all about you. I haven't been able to think of anything else but loving you for the last half hour. Trust me, okay?"

Derek took one of her hands and placed it on his chest. When she uninhibitedly caressed him he closed his eyes in pleasure and tilted his head back.

"Touch me, baby, I need it so much," said Derek, making it all about him, instead of her, so she could relax.

Watching his face, Meredith trailed her palm over the muscular pad of his pectoral and then lightly stroked over his deltoid. He felt so good – all hot, satin skin over hard muscle. She flattened her palm on his chest again and petted him to his abdomen. The corners of Derek's lips turned up and his belly rippled convulsively under her loving hand.

"Mm, that feels so good. Touch me more, honey, touch me all over."

Forgetting herself, Meredith dropped her blouse to use both hands to please her lover. She pressed both hands up his mid line and then caressed over his chest to both shoulders and down his sides to his hips.

"It's been too long since I've felt like this, sweetheart," Derek crooned to her and lightly hugged her, rubbing his hot bare flesh against her cool pale skin.

Meredith trembled and wanted to hide again when she saw his eyes open, looking at her. But then he dropped his warm mouth to hers making her mind blank to everything but his playful tongue. Derek barely traced the tips of his fingers around and around, over and over her soft back and arms, face and chest. Meredith's need mounted until she moaned into his mouth and clung tightly to his shoulders. She pressed into his long length nudging her tummy, making him pulse.

Suddenly, Meredith pushed him, urging him to sit on the end of the bed. She excitedly dropped to her knees to lick and kiss his heavy manhood. Derek sat up at first, watching her, but when the sexual thrills mounted, he spread his knees wide and dropped backwards on the bed, lying flat. Meredith wrapped her arms around his hips with her hands under the small of his back. She suckled his cock deeply into her mouth and closed her eyes, enjoying the moment.

Derek groaned and panted, trying to control himself, but ultimately Meredith had her way with him. She kissed and sucked him into heaven. He decided he was going to lie in heaven forever so he sank into their new bed and flung an arm over his eyes.

Meredith crawled up beside him and urged him up higher so he could lie full length. Grumbling, he complied and was only barely aware that Meredith covered them with a quilt and snuggled in beside him. In another moment he was deeply asleep, exhausted from weeks of very little sleep in an armchair, Meredith's cramped hospital bed and noisy on-call rooms. Meredith smiled mysteriously and closed her eyes in a deep dreamless sleep too, her healing wounds forgotten...

Something tickled her tummy several hours later and Meredith murmured and rolled to get away. The tickling increased across her back and bottom, feathering down her legs and finally driving her crazy between her toes. She slowly opened her eyes as she stretched her feet out to see Derek mischievously sitting up next to her dragging a fluffy little puff ball on the end of a flexible plastic stick across her sensitive skin. He feathered the insides of her calves and thighs and then trailed his little toy across her belly again.

Meredith giggled when he deliberately tickled her under the chin and behind her ear. Her nipples pearled and Derek unhooked the front clasp of her brassiere one handed. Still half asleep Meredith forgot why she'd been worried about nudity until Derek feathered the thin lines across the top of her breasts and the long line down her sensitive side following it under the curving underside of her breast. She shivered and wanted to curl up and cover herself.

That feeling slowly dissipated when Derek lowered his dark, silky curls to trace the same path over again, using his soft hair to tease her. Meredith shivered and quaked and then thrilled when he replaced his curls with firm lips. He nibbled at the tops of her breasts and then traced a path down her side following the line like he could erase it. And magically he could. Half asleep, Meredith's blood heated with every nibble, preventing shame from getting too tight a grip on her, until nothing else existed but her lover making light, tender love to her. All her uncertainty melted away as her banked need for Derek reawakened and intensified. She was suffused with sensual longing, not with fear or worry.

Derek was careful to apply no pressure to any part of her still healing body so the ache she felt was all pleasurably sensual. He alternated teasing her breasts with his fluffy toy and his gentle lips, then he teased his way down her belly to her tummy ring. As always, he stopped to circle it and play with it, nibbling her soft flesh all around. Meredith shifted off one of the largest semi healed bruises on her hip so she could concentrate on Derek's loving mouth. He pulled her panties down her legs when she lifted her hips, taking advantage of her shift. It felt natural and right to Meredith and delighted Derek. His kiss followed her panties down her legs and then he licked and nibbled his way back up.

Derek delicately licked and sipped from her feminine crevasse and was thrilled that Meredith was already letting him have such intimacy. She wasn't afraid of him or of sex. She'd always been amazingly open, giving, and hot in bed and she still was. Derek had been afraid that the vile creep who'd attacked Meredith had succeeded in stealing some part of that from them. He never doubted they'd be able to work through it and reclaim it, but it was a tremendous relief that they wouldn't have to. They already had mounds to overcome with her anxiety and panic attacks, her worry over the scarring and imperfections, and the constant unfavorable comparisons she made between herself and Ellis or Addison.

That last baffled Derek because it was so obvious to him that Meredith was so much more than either of those cold, rigid women. He'd said as much to Meredith while she was still hospitalized, in front of Dr. Ingersoll, but he wasn't sure it sank in. He'd made his point though. Ingersoll had taken note of both his concern and Meredith's reaction.

For his part, he was still too overprotective and bossy with her. He'd been working on not taking everything too personally, and he thought he'd made progress, but he still had to force himself not to hover every minute. It had helped when Guiseppe had intervened for him a few days ago and had made Meredith understand how he felt ...

"Derek! You're hovering again! Please, go sit over there and let me do it by myself!" Meredith had said, finally so exasperated with him that she'd wanted to shove him out a window.

"Meredith," Derek had started to speak semi apologetically, semi frustratedly, but had been interrupted by her step dad.

"Bambina," Guiseppe had finally, mercifully, sternly, intervened, "your wounds are obvious and deep and quite painful, si? Well, so are Derek's, and you have no care for him. It is time you see what we see, and think about someone besides yourself. For every wound you have, Derek has one too," Guiseppe's words, voice and face were unusually strict and they made pouty Meredith pay attention and straighten up.

"Look at it from his point of view. His beloved was attacked by a madman and for a time, he had no idea if she'd been raped or killed. For sure he knew she'd been brutally beaten and stabbed. Even her friends were beaten and stabbed. She was terribly hurt and he, an extraordinary healer, could do nothing to help her or her friends," Guiseppe had held up his hand to stop Derek, who had been trying to halt Guiseppe, "No, Derek, she needs to hear this. See, even now, he tries to protect you.

"Do you know how horrible it is for a strong man to be unable to help the woman he loves? Trust me, that brings a man to his knees, I've been there. Every moment he worried if you lived or died was utter torment. Your pain was his pain, your tears were his tears. Put yourself in his place. How would you have felt if it were Derek that had been stabbed, beaten and kicked?" Guiseppe relented a little and gave a gentle smile in response to Meredith's stricken look.

"So, if he needs to reassure himself by taking care of you now, then it would be very loving and kind on your part to let him. Gradually, over time, your relationship will balance out again, but in the meantime, how do you say? Cut the slacks for your man."

The mood lightened and Meredith giggled at Guiseppe's idiomatic mistake, "Okay, Papà, I'll cut Derek some roomy slacks."

Derek had smiled when Meredith had thrown her arms around her dad's neck and said, "You're the best, my Papà, and I love you."

Then she'd thrown her arms around Derek and said, "I'm sorry I haven't taken care of you the way I should have. I didn't understand."

Derek had hugged her gingerly to his heart and had gratefully nodded to Guiseppe over Meredith's head. Guiseppe merely shook his head wisely at the pair. Humph, even though they'd both been through years of study as doctors, they were still so young ...

Derek tasted Meredith's feminine passion and his own rose again. She was so beautiful and special – his strong, talented woman. He lapped her passions into a hot intensity and grinned when she moaned and clamped her thighs around his head. She threaded her fingers through his hair and tugged when molten heat suddenly erupted between her legs and shot through her system. Meredith screamed her release and Derek gave her soft nexus one last kiss, before nibbling his way up her body again. He rolled with her in his arms onto his back, and covered them with the quilt again.

"Oh, babe, that felt wonderful," Meredith murmured into his throat, "I love you so much."

"Meredith, I was a worried that we'd have problems with this after everything we've been through. A lot of couples do, I suppose," he softly questioned her, even as he commented, kissing her hair and snuggling her on his chest.

"I guess that ... man ... was more about general attacking and fighting for my life and overall safety for me," Meredith answered him after a long pause in a small voice, "He didn't manage to attack the sex act itself. Does that sound weird? Is that normal?"

"Oh, baby," Derek kissed her reassuringly, "I don't know, I'm just glad."

"I still feel so awful about how I look, but that's all, I guess," Meredith admitted.

"They're already just lines, Meredith, and Mark says they'll keep reducing. Soon, whatever is left won't even be noticeable to you," Derek nuzzled her temple, "They're invisible to me now. Besides, how could they grab my attention when you have two other lovely attention grabbers right here."

He naughtily felt her up, and Meredith squealed, "Derek! Hey!" then she giggled when he lightly tickled her.

He was still being extremely cautious when he touched her so he didn't hurt her. Meredith snuggled herself into a closer fit over half his body and closed her eyes, ready to sleep again.

"Hey, yourself, lady, you're going to have to let me up if I'm going to have any chance of sleeping tonight."

"Aw..."

"Up."

"Derek..."

"No."

"What if ..." Meredith rubbed him suggestively.

"Well, if you put it that way, c'mere you."

Meredith giggled excitedly as she mounted him for a slow ride back to paradise.