Hey, hope you've all had a great weekend. Happy Birthday to Benedict for yesterday, here's hoping he has many more to come and keeps giving us so much pleasure with his acting (plus a season 5 of Sherlock wouldn't go amiss).

Thank you all for your reviews, I've had a bit of trouble responding to some of those on fanfiction but please know that I appreciate each and every one...keep them coming, they motivate us writers so much xx

Chapter 27

If Molly was honest with herself she really hadn't believed that Sherlock was going to come and join her in the restaurant. In fact she wasn't even sure how Mary had persuaded her into it at all. The only thing she had stood firm on was not involving anyone else in her desperate scheme even though Mary had assured her she knew at least four guys who would be happy to play the part of her love interest.

In the end she had booked a table in a restaurant that she'd always wanted to try and even though she'd made the reservation for two and given the maître d Sherlock's name she hadn't actually thought beyond that.

As she'd sat at the table and perused the wine list, ordering herself a nice Merlot, she'd figured she'd give him ten minutes and then she'd order and eat alone...it wouldn't be the first time; Molly wasn't afraid of enjoying her own company.

The thing was as she sat their waiting she found herself feeling both more nervous and more hopeful...it didn't make sense. Her head was telling her that he wouldn't turn up but somehow her heart believed differently. It wasn't a huge shock therefore when he suddenly rounded the faux wall by her table and handed his coat to the waiting staff. As she watched him she could feel her heart thudding in her chest.

'Sherlock, you came.'

She saw his eyes narrow as he slid into the seat opposite her. He was wearing a black suit with a crisp, white shirt and he looked as handsome as he ever did.

'Molly...I take it that I am and always was your date for the night.'

She took a deep breath and nodded her head. 'Yes.'

It was the moment that he told her, for the second time, that he loved her that she truly let herself believe it and even though she knew she ought to make him wait...or make him prove himself she felt instinctively that he meant it and she didn't want to wait. She didn't want to have him prove himself or punish him in some way...none of that mattered, what mattered was that he was here with her and he loved her. The only thing she did insist on was her meal...a proper date. She knew that with Sherlock dates would be few and far between so she wasn't letting this opportunity go.

She wasn't sure she was ever going to feel any more overwhelmed or any happier but she was wrong.

MHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMHMH

Molly stood stock still in the doorway of his flat in Baker St, her mouth hanging open in shock. It looked like every surface in Sherlock's front room had a lit candle on it. This time, unlike a few months ago, there was just one scent and it seemed to marry with her favourite perfume. She turned her head to find Sherlock standing behind her with a smile playing on his lips.

'Last time you said you didn't want candles because it was too romantic, I figured this time around the romance was appropriate.'

She took a step into the room and turned to face him properly. 'How did...'

'Billy...I texted him earlier and had him source the candles and set them up, he may have gone a little overboard. Do you like it?'

Molly nodded her head. 'I do, I like it a lot.'

He took her hand and led her into the front room then he took a deep breath and smiled before dropping to one knee in front of her.

'I had him pick me up something else as well, my grandmothers ring...Mycroft had it though God knows why as he was never going to use it.'

Molly chuckled at Sherlock getting off track even as her heart thumped in her chest at what she knew he was doing.

He closed his eyes for a second as though gathering his thoughts and then he opened them and she felt pinned into place by his gaze.

'Molly, I've been a fool. I didn't see what was right in front of me until I'd almost lost it. You aren't just my friend, you aren't just the mother of my child, you are beautiful and warm and sexy and you're everything that I'm not; kind, compassionate, caring. I truly don't deserve you. But Molly, if you'll agree to be my wife I will strive every day to be worthy of you.' He paused and smiled and his face softened. 'Molly Hooper, I love you, will you marry me?'

She bit her lip wanting so much to say yes. 'Are you sure Sherlock? This is so sudden...I mean it's not just about the sex is it?'

He sighed and stood up, still holding the ring loosely.

'You have every reason to be suspicious but I meant every word I said. You aren't an experiment Molly, or a convenience. We can go without sex for the next six months if you want... if that will prove to you that I want you for who you are and not just for your body...' his lips kinked up into a smirk. '...though you do have a very gorgeous body and it will definitely be hard for me to keep my hands off it. But if you need to wait, we can wait.'

Molly took a moment to think but then she let her hands slide up the smooth front of his shirt until she could loop them around his neck. She stood on her tip toes so she was closer to him and then she spoke. 'I don't want to wait, I want to be yours in every way possible. So yes Sherlock, I will marry you.'

The smile that spread across his face at her answer told her more about his feelings than any words could. She moved forward and pressed her lips against his. He opened his mouth to hers and wrapped his arms around her to hold her closer, helping her balance, and she let herself give in and just enjoy being back in his arms once more. She already knew that she wouldn't be making him wait before they became physical. They'd already waited six weeks and she had missed him more than she had thought possible.

Her hands moved to his shirt and she started to undo the buttons but before she could get very far he broke off from the kiss and took hold of her hands, stilling them.

He seemed flushed and breathless from kissing her and she loved seeing him so affected.

'Wait...just one thing...'

She frowned a little but then grinned as he slipped the ring onto her third finger with hands that were shaking ever so slightly. The ring looked old and worn with a large central ruby with a diamond on either side. Molly held her hand out to look at it and marvelled at just how perfect it was.

'Oh Sherlock I love it...and I love you.'

He took her hand and gently kissed the ring then he turned it over and kissed her palm before moving his lips to her inner wrist. He glanced up at her as he did and she felt her heart flip in her chest and desire starting to build. She could still scarcely believe that this had actually happened. That all her ridiculous planning with Mary had even paid off. She'd gone along with it in some kind of desperate hope but it had worked more than she could ever have dreamt.

'Molly, are you still with me?'

Sherlock's knuckles were tilting her chin up so he could look in her eyes. He looked both puzzled and faintly amused.

She smiled and chuckled a little. 'I...I just can't believe this has happened. Is this real? Are we actually engaged?'

He smiled and moved to kiss her neck and the feel of his lips against her skin sent tendrils of lust down through her body.

'Mmhmm, we are. And now we're celebrating.'

His hands had found the zip at the back of her dress and he slowly pulled it down until she felt the material start to sag and she was glad that she'd treated herself to some new lingerie. She shrugged out of it and let it pool to the floor around her feet and she heard Sherlock's breath hitch in his throat and she knew he liked what he saw.

SHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSH

As Molly's dress fell to the floor Sherlock saw the deep red bra and knickers that she was wearing underneath and he felt his erection somehow get impossibly harder. He hadn't thought that she would ever find anything to beat the sheer black bra and knickers that she'd worn for him before but he'd been wrong. He'd also been wrong all those years that he'd deduced that Molly's choice of underclothing would be prim and white. Maybe he'd only fooled himself with that thought in order to stop her seducing him even then. He was beginning to realise that his feelings for Molly went back further than he'd realised...maybe even to before he'd faked his own death. She'd been his blind spot for too many years...but no more.

He turned them both so he could sit on the arm of John's chair and he pulled her between his legs so that he was head height with her chest and he hummed in delight.

'Oh Molly, you never cease to amaze me. You look stunning...edible even.' At that he glanced up at her and gave her a sinful smile which he knew, from her expression, told her exactly what he had meant by that last comment.

As he mouthed at her breasts through the lacy material of the bra her hands wove themselves into his hair, pulling on the strands, until he heard himself groaning in response. He wanted to fuck her so badly but he also wanted to eek this out until they both could barely take anymore.

He slid his hands down her back until they met the curve of her backside, feeling the material of the knickers high on the globes of her ass as he squeezed them. She moaned and arched her back pressing her breasts against his mouth even more and he knew that this wasn't enough.

He stood and bent his head to kiss her once more and as their mouths met he picked her up feeling her legs wrap around his waist, her hot core against his aching crotch. He swore he could feel her heat through his trousers and he felt himself pulsing in response.

As he carried her through to his bedroom...a room that he hoped would now be theirs and not just his...she kissed and licked and bit her way down his neck and he found himself wanting to be marked by her. He wanted everyone to know that she was his and he was hers...it felt so feral and primitive but he was no longer repulsed by that thought. He didn't want to be more than human when being human felt so damn good.

When he got to the bedroom he lay her down on the bed and just for a moment he indulged himself as he lay on her, kissing her and rutting his hips against her. He felt her hands moving to the waistband of his trousers as she desperately tried to release him but he wasn't ready to have sex just yet. He had plans first and they involved hearing Molly calling his name as she came on his face.

As he pulled away from her and stood back up he saw her sulky expression and frown. It made him laugh a little. 'Patience Molly.'

'I don't want to be patient, I want you to fuck me.'

He chuckled at the mulish tone in her voice as he shucked off his jacket and started on his shirt, pulling it from his trousers and undoing the buttons.

'And I will, I just want a little fun first...don't you?'

He smirked and raised an eyebrow as he threw the shirt onto the same chair as his jacket and then he kicked off his shoes and moved his hand to the fastenings on his trousers but Molly scooted forward and placed her hand on his.

'No, no Mr Holmes, let me.' She looked up at him and he felt his composure starting to fall away.

'God, Molly...if you do that I won't be able to last...trust me.'

Her hands had been busy and even as he spoke she pushed down the material and palmed his cock through his shorts and he groaned and bucked towards her.

'I don't care...you'll be hard again soon enough. It's not like we have any other plans for the night.'

As she took him into her warm, wet mouth all he could do was thread his hands into her hair and hold on.

He tried not to look down; tried not to see his cock sliding deeper and deeper into Molly's mouth but he could hear every sound as well as feel her teeth scraping down his shaft and the head starting to brush the back of her throat and he knew he was going to come.

The last straw was feeling her moan vibrating down the length of his cock and he finally looked at her and the sight was too much. He cried out her name as both a warning and an exclamation of pleasure and then he came, pulsing into her mouth feeling her throat working as she swallowed his cum and it was almost too much. His legs felt weak and as she finally released him he stumbled to his knees in front of her, breathing heavily.

'Jesus...Molly...'

He looked up to see her wiping the back of her hand across her mouth and looking at him with lust filled eyes and it gave him a warm feeling to know that she had enjoyed the act almost as much as he had.

She pulled him to her and he eagerly moved to kiss her, unafraid to taste himself on her lips. It felt erotic and carnal and he knew that she had been right and it wouldn't be that long before he'd be ready for her again. Maybe she'd done herself a favour as he was now in a position to concentrate entirely on her pleasure and that was most definitely what he intended to do.

He stood and stripped off the rest of his clothes as Molly moved herself back into the bed and leant up in her elbows watching him as she bit down on her lower lip. Just seeing her lying there in that lingerie, her lipstick slightly smudged from giving him a blow job and from receiving his kisses, had Sherlock feeling hungry himself. He couldn't wait to taste her.

So much has happened; Molly's thoughts as she waited for Sherlock, the proposal and now the sexual reunion. As you've probably gathered we are nearing the end but one more chapter to go. I hope you're enjoying them finally being together after such a long wait...you've been very patient xx