Eight Saturdays

Description: Lorelai and Luke are in a rut, but Lorelai has a plan to get them out of it. A to-do list fuels eight weeks of experimentation as the couple seeks to reignite their passion in the bedroom. Pre-AYITL. Rated M, M, M!

Disclaimer: I don't own Gilmore Girls. If I did it would probably be on HBO or Cinemax at night.

A/N: It's not necessary to read "Don't Say Dirty, It's Too Easy" before you read this one, but I do reference it a few times. You shouldn't be confused if you haven't read it though.

Onto the show!

Hatching a Plan

Lorelai laid on her back, her legs wrapped around Luke's waist as he filled her with long, deep thrusts. Her fingers clutched his shoulders and she threw her head back into the pillow with eyes tightly shut as she tried to catalogue each sensation, every grunt and moan from the man who was hers.

Three years back together and the sex was still good. Of course it was; sex with Luke was always good. But Lorelai remembered when it was great. Before the breakup, maybe even before Rory dropped out of Yale, sex with Luke was something to really look forward to. They had fun, they played with each other, it was often exciting and new and interesting.

Maybe it was just the new relationship glow Lorelai was missing, as she laid here making love to her partner for the thousandth time. Maybe she just needed to accept that, with time, that part of relationship became a little... routine. Expected. Not stagnant, not boring, but maybe a tad predictable.

It's not like Luke wasn't a good lover. God, she could write sonnets about what he was capable of doing between the sheets. He was a very physical man, and with his strength came the kind of stamina that women would slash tires over. It was just that their lives had become relatively simple over the past few years, and with that simplicity, she felt they had lost a certain urgency. Sex happened every week or so, it was good, but they didn't jump each other's bones like they used to. They didn't find any opportunity to grope or squeeze each other while passing by. The sexy playfulness that made so many of their interactions feel like a form of foreplay was missing.

Luke sped up, his grunts coming more frequently in what Lorelai knew was his last burst of energy before he would finish.

"Lorelai," he mumbled. She forced her eyes open and looked up at him. He watched her intently and she smiled.

"Come for me, Babe," she urged him on. She hadn't finished. He knew it, and few things irked him more than not satisfying his woman, but Lorelai felt it wasn't going to happen. He wasn't doing anything wrong – quite the contrary – but she was too in her head to really enjoy it.

Luke slowed down and dipped down to kiss her, long and slow as he pushed his hips down so his pubic bone dragged over her clit with each stroke. Lorelai moaned at that feeling. He always did know how to make her tingle with desire.

Luke continued these slow grinding thrusts for moments longer, and to his credit, he made her feel something. Lorelai closed her eyes again and tried to focus on the tingle and not on the things she felt were lacking from their love life. She managed to find the smallest, weakest of releases, tightening around him until he was letting go inside of her.

It was nothing to write home about, but at least Luke wouldn't be disappointed.

He rolled off her and onto his back, putting his arm out for her to roll onto his shoulder, like always. She did so willingly, breathing in deeply the smell of his freshly cleaned skin.

It was bedtime. He'd had a shower, washed the day off, and come into the room where she was laying in her pajamas reading a book. He crawled onto the bed on his hands and knees and up to where she lay, and he kissed her long and slow. Just like that, Lorelai knew what they were going to do.

Routine.

As she laid against his chest, she felt him sigh.

"You okay?" he asked. Lorelai looked up and found him watching her. She smiled.

"I'm good."

"You seem off." Lorelai shrugged.

"Just tired I guess. I'm gonna clean up and get some sleep." Luke accepted a quick peck on the lips before Lorelai pulled herself out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

She knew he wasn't going to let it go that easy. He knew her too well, so she would have to tell him what she was thinking about eventually; she just needed to wrap her mind around it first. She didn't want him to feel like he wasn't satisfying her – that wasn't it at all. She was a very happy woman. She was just feeling a little underwhelmed these days. She needed a solution before she could let Luke in on it.

As she cleaned herself up, she thought about what to do next. She decided to make that a priority for her Saturday, while Luke was busy at the diner. By the time he got home from work, she vowed, she would have a plan.

XXXX

Saturday mornings were usually the time when Lorelai slept in as late as she could muster. With Luke up and out by 5am, she luxuriated in the sheets, spreading herself out across the bed and remembering a time when the whole thing belonged to her.

This was not a typical Saturday morning.

Not wanting to arouse suspicion, Lorelai waited in bed feigning sleep until she heard the front door close and Luke's truck roar to life. Satisfied he was gone for the day, she flung the blankets off and got out of bed.

Luke always prepared coffee for her in the morning, which Lorelai was even more grateful for than usual at this ungodly hour. She flicked the machine on to prepare her morning jolt, and dug around in the junk drawer for a pad of paper while it brewed.

Once she had her coffee and a pop tart, she headed for the living room where her laptop lived. She plunked down, set her breakfast to the side, and got started developing her plan.

The hours ticked by as Lorelai surfed the web, taking notes whenever something struck her as interesting. She wasn't surprised to find so many articles about her situation: how to spice things up in the bedroom. As a long-time devoted reader of Cosmo, she knew this was a popular topic, and she was pleased to see so many unique ideas to add to her list.

It wasn't until her belly began rumbling in earnest that Lorelai realized she had been working at this for almost half a day. The clock on her computer told her it was nearly noon, and she hadn't even dressed, let alone eaten a proper meal. Paul Anka had been out for one pee break, but she was pretty sure he was ready to mount a resistance if he didn't get another.

She sighed and looked over her list. It was long and convoluted. She would have to clean it up before presenting it to Luke. Despite that, she was happy with what she had accomplished. As her list progressed, so did her plan for reintroducing some excitement into the bedroom. She was eager to share her ideas with Luke.

XXXX

Lorelai arrived at the diner a little after 1:30pm. She planned her visit for just after the lunch rush, knowing Luke would be preparing to take his break and planning to join him in his old apartment to go over her ideas. She had considered waiting until he was done work for the day, but she was too antsy to sit at home. She wanted to pound out the details (dirty) and get to work.

"Hey handsome," Lorelai greeted brightly as she entered the diner. She was pleased to see the place had only a few customers still dining, which meant she'd be able to steal the big man for a little bit.

"Hey." Luke leaned over the counter and welcomed Lorelai with their customary peck before she came to sit on the stool by the register. "Coffee?"

"Dear god, yes," Lorelai exclaimed. As he poured her coffee, she asked, "Have you taken your lunch yet? I thought I'd join you."

"Not yet, was just about to. What do you want?"

"Whatever you're making for yourself is fine." He quirked a brow. "Scratch that. Burger and fries."

"That's what I thought," he said with a small grin. He turned back and gave their orders to Caesar and then snagged the coffee pot to do a round of refills. Lorelai sipped her coffee and tried to pull together her thoughts for their upcoming conversation. She didn't want to spook Luke, or make him feel like he wasn't satisfying her, so her verbiage was particularly important. She couldn't just pull her usual string of consciousness thing, or else Luke would probably not be receptive.

By the time he returned to the counter, Lorelai's mind was somewhere else entirely. She didn't even notice him approaching.

"You okay?" he asked for the second time in as many days. She blinked back into focus.

"Uh, yeah, fine. Why?"

"You seem distracted. You did last night, too. Anything wrong?" his tone was casual, but she could see his concern. She silently cursed him for being so intuitive.

"No, nothing's wrong. But there is something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Shoot," Luke said.

"No, not here. It's more of a private thing." He frowned.

"Should I be worried?"

"No, no no no," Lorelai assured him. "Everything is good. Everything is fine. I promise." He continued to eye her unsurely, but seemed to accept this.

"Order up!" Caesar called from the kitchen, setting their plates on the pass-through. Luke turned to collect them and let his right-hand man know he was heading up for lunch, before leading the way with Lorelai and her coffee in tow.

The pair settled at the dining table in Luke's old office-turned apartment-turned office, and tucked into their meals.

"Okay, you gonna fill me in now?" Luke asked as he took a bite of his turkey club. Lorelai nodded and took a fortifying breath before jumping into her prepared remarks.

"Right, so, like you said, I've been a little distracted lately. And I want you to know that it's nothing you're doing, or not doing. It's just me."

"O…kay," Luke drawled, uncomfortably.

"It's just… do you ever feel like our lives are too routine?" Lorelai asked.

"Uh, no?" Luke answered, though it came out more as a question. Lorelai shook her head to get the fog out.

"That didn't come out right. I mean, we've been together for so long, and things are great. Work is good, life at home is good, sex is good… it's all good. But it's starting to feel a little like Groundhog Day, where we're just living the same day over and over again."

Luke looked at her like she was growing horns. "I don't follow."

"Take sex, for example."

"Sex," he repeated.

"Yeah, sex. Like, our sex life is good. Would you agree with that assessment?"

"I would," Luke said, unsurely.

"Right. It's good. Great! But it is kind of routine, don't you think?"

Luke shook his head. "I don't know what you mean."

"Think of it like this." She lifted her burger from her plate to demonstrate. "This burger is the best I've ever had. Your burgers cannot be beat, and that's why I have one for lunch most days. You follow?"

Luke stared blankly. "Uh huh."

"Great. This burger is like my go-to because it's amazing and I love it. But sometimes, just once in a while, I think, 'I don't want a burger today. Today I want a BLT. Or chilli fries. Or maybe I want to skip lunch altogether and go straight for dessert.' You with me?"

"Lorelai," Luke sighed, irritation mounting. "Just say what you want to say, in plain English, please."

"I want to try different things in the bedroom," she finally spit out. He narrowed his eyes.

"Okay?" he questioned, seeking further explanation.

"The sex we have is great. It's fun, we're good at it, you MORE than get the job done, but I know that sex, you know? I love it, but I know it. It's like a burger from Luke's. I want us to expand our sexual appetites, just a bit. See what's out there."

"So you want to do what, exactly?" he questioned. She grinned.

"I'm so glad you asked!" She reached into her purse and produced a sheet of paper, which Luke eyed warily.

"What's that?"

"That is the answer to your question. I started thinking about this last night. I wanted to be prepared so we could have this conversation and work out a plan, together. So I went online this morning and started making a list of some things we could try, assuming we're both game."

Luke looked down at the list feeling an odd mixture of trepidation and curiosity.

"Like what?"

"Let's go through this together. You can veto anything you don't want to do, and the rest we can keep on our 'to do' list," she chuckled to herself. "Get it? 'To do' list?" He rolled his eyes.

"I got it. Let's look this thing over." He wiped his face with a napkin and pushed his plate off to the side so Lorelai could place the paper where he could see it.

"Okay, so I've already gone through a bunch of options and narrowed it down to the ones I'm interested in trying. Now you can go through these and we'll nix anything you don't want to do. Sound good?"

"Sounds fine," he agreed. He pulled the list closer and read the first few items.

"Dirty talk. Mutual Masturbation. Sex toys. Shower sex. PDA, Skinny dipping… wait, we've done all of these things," he said.

"Not recently. And we both seemed to enjoy them when we did them, so I figured we should give it another go," Lorelai said with a shrug. He nodded his understanding and returned to the list, while Lorelai started munching on her burger.

"Unusual location… like what?"

"I don't know yet. We can talk about it, work out something we're both comfortable with." He eyed that item unsurely, but moved on, not immediately prepared to veto unless he absolutely had to.

"69ing. Interesting. Strip club? Veto."

"Really?" Lorelai asked. "It could be so fun! You and me in the lounge, slipping ones in g-strings, getting lap dances… okay, I just heard it. Veto."

Luke smirked, and continued. "Sensory deprivation. What the hell is sensory deprivation?"

"It's like when one person puts on a blindfold or earplugs while the other person touches and teases them. It dulls some senses while forcing the others to overcompensate. It's supposed to make everything feel really intense," she explained, recalling the article she'd read about it that morning. Luke waffled back and forth before accepting this and moving down the list.

"Role playing. Veto."

"Okay, come on, you can't just veto something because you think it'll make you feel weird."

"I thought I could veto anything I wanted," he shot back.

"You can! But I know you're vetoing it because you're picturing me dressing you up as the pizza delivery guy and asking me if I ordered extra sausage, but it won't be like that."

"What will it be like?" he pressed.

"Well, we can talk about different scenarios. I could be your slutty student and you could be my teacher, giving me extra help, if you know what I mean."

"You're about as subtle as a jackhammer," he droned. "Fine, we'll keep it on the list, but we need to work out a different theme because I'm not doing anything that involves costumes or excessive euphemisms." Lorelai giggled.

"You sure about that? You could be my plumber… lay some pipe." He rolled his eyes.

"Moving right along," he said aloud. "Domination and submission. Huh."

"Thoughts?" Lorelai asked.

He shrugged. "We did it before. You don't remember?"

She recalled that night, all those years ago, and felt a surge of arousal go through her. A little liquid courage was all it took for them to embrace the darker side of their sexuality. She filed that away for one of the nights when they were taking on something farther out of their element.

"I remember. I always thought it was as shame that we didn't try it again."

"Then it stays on the list," he allowed. Lorelai could see from his expression that he was remembering that night when things got primordial. A shiver went down her spine, and she had to shake her head to refocus. She tapped on the list.

"Keep going."

"Food play. Ugh," he grumbled.

"It doesn't have to be messy!" she exclaimed.

"Food play, by nature, is messy," he argued. She frowned, but couldn't really disagree.

"Veto?" she asked. He mulled it over a moment longer.

"Veto," he finally decided. "And while we're at it, hard veto on 'car sex'."

"Why?!" she exclaimed. "Come on, we could drive out somewhere remote in your truck. It would be sexy."

"It would be cramped and uncomfortable, and all I'd be able to think about is getting caught."

"That's part of the fun," she reminded him. He hit her with a firm glare.

"Veto."

"Oh, fine," she grudgingly allowed. On the whole, he was being pretty accepting of her list, so she didn't want to sweat it when he nixed something.

"What's this one?" he asked, pointing to the next item on the list.

"Ooh, that's a good one! Edging is when we bring each other right to the cusp of orgasm over and over, until we finally give in and have like the most intense, powerful climaxes ever," Lorelai explained, obviously really into the idea. Luke bit the inside of his cheek as his mind conjured the look on Lorelai's face and the pull of her body as she neared that incredible peak. He couldn't deny he was intrigued by the idea.

"It's definitely in," he agreed. He reached the final item on the list, and stopped to read it a few times before speaking it aloud. "Anal." He looked up and found Lorelai looking at him nervously. "You want to do this?"

"I guess I've always been a little afraid of it, but I want to push my own boundaries a little with this. I thought it was a good way to do it," she explained. Luke eyed the item and then returned his gaze to his partner.

"You've never…" he let the sentence go. She shook her head.

"No. Have you?"

"I have," he answered hesitantly. Her eyebrows shot up immediately.

"You're kidding. How did I not know this?"

"I don't really like to broadcast my sexual history," he answered plainly. Lorelai shook her head, as if trying to make sense of this new knowledge.

"Who was it with? Rachel?" He sighed.

"Not Rachel."

"Was it Anna?" she pushed. Luke sighed.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm fascinated! Was it someone I didn't know? It had to be, right? Because with the stick up Nicole's butt, there was definitely no room for anything else in there," she teased. Luke rolled his eyes as his cheeks flushed red, unwittingly answering Lorelai's question. "No way! It was Nicole?! How is that possible?"

"Look, just because she was a little uptight doesn't mean she was a prude," Luke explained, uncomfortably.

"Was it her idea? Were you her first?"

"I really don't want to talk about this," Luke said, hoping to put an end to it. Lorelai saw his discomfort and opted to back off the questions about his ex, instead moving on to him.

"Did you like it?"

"Yeah, I mean… it was good. Different."

"Have you ever wanted to do it with me?"

"Lorelai, I want to do everything with you," he reassured her. Lorelai offered a small smile and looked back down at the last item on the list.

"So it stays?" she questioned.

"It's up to you. I'm okay with it if you are." Lorelai regarded it a moment longer before offering a decisive nod.

"It stays."

"Okay," he agreed. "So, when did you want to do these things? Just when the mood strikes, or are we supposed to be keeping some kind of dirty calendar?" Lorelai grinned, pleased that he seemed to be coming around to the idea.

"Okay, I know you're joking, but I thought we could actually keep a bit of a schedule, just to make sure we actually do it." He groaned.

"Ugh, I so do not want to be one of those couples that schedules sex."

"It's not like that, Luke. It's not like this is the only thing we'll do in the bedroom. We can still have sex whenever the mood strikes, but I think if we make a schedule for trying some of these things out, it will help get us out of this rut we've fallen into."

"I guess," he grumbled.

"I was thinking we could try this for the next eight Saturdays," Lorelai continued on, ignoring his lack of interest in the idea. He narrowed his gaze.

"Why eight?"

"That takes us right up until April comes in mid-July," Lorelai reasoned. "Unless you want to be getting our freak on with your kid in the house…"

"Eight is good," Luke said quickly, cutting her off. Lorelai smiled.

"Eight Saturdays," she confirmed. "And if it's not working out, or if either one of us isn't feeling it, we can pump the brakes. But I figure the worst that can happen is we try a few things we don't like; that's not so bad, right? And who knows, maybe we'll enjoy ourselves and have a few new things to add to our repertoire. What do you say?"

Luke sighed. He took in her hopeful stare and felt his resolve give way before he consciously decided he was in. "I can do eight Saturdays." Lorelai's smile was immediate.

"Oh Luke, you won't regret this," she assured him.

"I guess we'll find out." Lorelai shook her head, unwilling to be brought down from her high. She pushed up from the table, leaving her half-eaten burger on the plate.

"I have to go, I have some shopping to do," she said, alluding to some of the items on the list that required props and toys.

"You're not gonna finish your lunch?" Luke called after her retreating form.

"Not hungry, too excited!" she exclaimed, just before the door slammed shut in her wake, leaving Luke sitting at the table feeling like he'd just been sucked up and immediately deposited by a tornado.

He dropped his head into his hands.

"What did I just agree to?"

A/N - So? What do you think? There's lots more to come, most of it is written so I plan to update every few days. Stay tuned!