CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Temple doorway was the only thing standing between them and an evening of carnal bliss. Steven took a moment to compose himself, and then gave Peridot a small smile. "OK, I think I know what I wanna do with the place. Wait here, I'll be as quick as I can-"

"Oh, can't I watch? Please?" Peridot begged. "I've never properly observed the room when it's under instruction."

"Well..." Steven pursed his lips thoughtfully, and then nodded. "All right. Let me just quickly set up the safety commands, then you can come in."

Satisfied with that response, Peridot hopped up onto one of the bar stools and watched as Steven stood in front of the door. His gem glowed and the corresponding gem on the door lit up momentarily before the entire thing split in two to allow him access. He stepped inside and glanced around at the fluffy clouds for a moment before gathering his thoughts. It took a while. Most of them had joined the marching band that was currently having a small party in his brain. "Right," he muttered under his breath, and shook his head. "Concentrate, Steven." He straightened up and adopted a serious pose. "All right, room, same rules again. You are only to obey verbal commands. Understood? Clod."

The tiny whale popped into existence in front of him. "Understood," it said calmly.

He relaxed and grinned at it. "Cool. OK, so next, you're not to force Peridot to do anything she doesn't want to do, not under any circumstances ever. Clod. Understood? Clod."

"Understood," the whale said again.

"OK..." He took another look around and frowned. Had he forgotten something? He was sure it had taken longer to set up the rules the previous two times. Maybe it was just because he knew what he was doing now? Still, he couldn't shake the niggling feeling he'd forgotten something- "Aha!" He snapped his fingers and pointed at the whale again. "The other gems! They said they won't be back tonight, but just in case, don't let them in and don't let them hear anything we're doing. Clod. Understood? Clod."

"Understood," the whale said a third time.

"Excellent." He gave the whale a thumbs up and spun back around and opened the door. "OK, you can come in now."

Peridot slid ungainly off the stool and jogged over to join him. "So..." She looked curiously at the whale. "How does this work?"

"Well, I've told the room to only do what I say, so now I just, y'know, have to say it," he explained. "Do you want to...?" He waved at the expanse of cloud, but Peridot quickly shook her head.

"No, you go ahead. I'd like to see it first," she said.

"OK." He nodded and thought for a moment. "OK, room, we'd like a room with like, floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides, and a non-interactive backdrop of a mountain valley. Make it look like we're halfway up the mountain, overlooking an evergreen forest and a lake. You can take a peek at my thoughts to see what I mean, 'kay? Clod."

Immediately, the clouds parted and Peridot's mouth dropped open as all of a sudden, she found herself looking out of an enormous plate-glass window overlooking a tree-covered mountainside. She stepped forward and pressed her face against the glass to get a better look and sure enough, down at the bottom of the valley was a beautiful clear, calm lake, just as he'd specified. She turned her head slightly, and discovered that the windows did indeed wrap around three sides of the room. The fourth was rough granite, indicating that the room had literally been carved into the side of the mountain.

The actual contents of the room were fairly generic, having been pulled from Steven's memories of various hotel rooms he'd seen online back when he'd been planning to book a real one. Twin chairs stood in front of one of the side windows, a table set between them. On the other side of the room was a loveseat facing a wall-mounted TV, in case they got tired of looking at the view. But in pride of place, in the middle of the room and facing the main window, was a king-sized bed, covered in clean, white sheets.

"So... what do you think?" Steven asked hopefully. "Any suggestions?"

"Hmm?" Peridot tore her gaze away from the view and looked at him in surprise. "Oh, me?"

"Yeah, you!" he laughed. "It's for both of us, isn't it?"

"Well in that case..." She looked around the room again, and then back outside. "Could we possibly have a balcony and a hot tub?"

"Sure, great idea. Oooh!" His eyes widened with inspiration. "How about a heated infinity pool? With bubble jets? An infinity hot tub!"

"I have no idea what that is," she admitted. "But I trust your judgment."

"Well... if you hate it, we can always just delete it," he pointed out, making her laugh. "All right room, you heard the lady. And me. We'd like a balcony with a heated infinity hot tub. Clod."

At once, a platform appeared outside, wrapping around the three windows, filled with bubbling, steaming water that appeared to flow straight over the edge. "Oooh!" Peridot gasped with awe, and took a step forward before noticing a small flaw in the design. "How do we get out?"

"Ah, room!" He groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Can we get a set of doors so we can actually get out and use the tub? Clod."

A set of glass sliding doors obligingly materialized in the middle of the window and he nodded, satisfied. "Thank you, room. So..." He glanced at Peridot and grinned. "Wanna try it out?"

"Yes," she replied without hesitation. Then her eyes narrowed. "Although... I feel the experience would be enhanced if the weather conditions were different."

"Hmm." He looked outside at the perfect, blue sky with its perfect, cotton-candy clouds. "Yeah, I think I get what you mean, it's kinda too nice to sit in hot water. We need rain or snow, right?"

"Right," she agreed. "I personally believe snow would be the most atmospheric, unless you have any preference towards rain?"

"No, snow is great," he assured her, and raised his voice slightly. "Hey room? Can you make it snow outside please? Clod."

At once, the sky turned gray and fat snowflakes fell from the sky in swirling flurries.

"How's that?" he asked smugly.

"Perfect," Peridot said happily. She stared out of the window for a little longer, watching the snowflakes settle on the trees below, then raised her gaze up to the infinity hot tub again, where they were all melting in the steam. "Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed. "I have nothing to wear!"

"What a coincidence, I was planning on wearing the same thing," he joked.

"Oh, well in that case, let's be one of those obnoxious couples who wear matching outfits," she joked back.

Steven laughed and kicked off his shoes before quickly stripping off the rest of his clothes and sliding open the doors. Snowflakes drifted around him and settled on his skin, but although he broke out in goosebumps, he noticed he wasn't uncomfortably cold. Still, he slipped into the hot water as quickly as possible and relaxed with a happy sigh. He'd never thought of water as having a texture before, but somehow this water was luxuriously soft and the bubble jets were a gentle touch rather than the pummeling streams he'd encountered in hot tubs in the past. He floated on his back for a moment, looking up at the dark gray clouds, then leaned up slightly to see Peridot stood at the edge, dipping her toes in the water. "Come on in," he called over. "The water's lovely!"

Peridot pulled her foot out of the water and watched in fascination as the water droplets sparkled and vanished, shortly followed by the snowflakes that fell upon her exposed skin. True, her light-projected repelled such substances anyway, but not like this. Hearing Steven call her name, she stepped forward and slipped into the water, letting out a slight 'eep' of surprise when the water came up to her chin.

"You OK?" Steven asked, coming to her aid.

"It's a little deeper than I expected," she admitted.

"Yeah, the room seems to have done a kind of pool-hot tub hybrid. Come over here, there's a seat," he said, leading her towards the edge.

Peridot sank gratefully onto the raised ledge, where the water now reached just below her shoulders, and tilted her head back to look at the falling snow. The sky was quickly darkening and through a break in the clouds, she could see stars beginning to appear. Steven sat down next to her, then very unsubtly stretched and put his arm around her. She gave him a sidelong look, then laughed and snuggled closer to him. "This is perfect," she said with a happy sigh.

"Yeah, it's not bad," Steven said, trying not to sound too smug. "Needs some music." He paused, and then added, "clod."

At once, faint music drifted out of the open doors. Peridot smiled and leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek. "Now it's perfect."

"You're right." He looked around approvingly. "I can't think of any way to make this better."

"Hmm." Peridot smiled. "I can think of one."

"Yeah?" Steven waited for her to elaborate so he could command the room, but instead of answering, she climbed into his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "Oh," he croaked once they'd parted for air. "Yeah. Yes. That uh, that was a definite improvement."

Peridot grinned and adjusted herself so that she was straddling his hips. "Then let's make some more improvements."

And so, for the next five minutes, many similar improvements were made and expanded upon; Peridot rocked her hips against him, her lips curving into a sly smile when she felt him respond beneath her. Steven retaliated by grabbing her butt and giving both cheeks a squeeze that made her gasp. "You OK?" he checked.

"Mmm." She blushed and ducked down to kiss his jaw. "I liked that," she admitted.

"Ah, good." He smiled and grabbed her butt again and pulled her closer. "I liked doing it."

Peridot groaned and bucked her hips against him again, trying to increase the friction between them, but it was proving difficult with all the water. "Shall we take this inside?" she suggested.

"Excellent idea, couldn't have said it better myself," he said, and kissed a spot on her shoulder before sweeping her up into his arms and standing up. "Hold on," he commanded, and waded through the water until he reached the other side. "Erm..." He looked around, and then down at her. "Hmm. Room, can I get a set of steps out of here please? Clod."

"You could've just put me down," Peridot commented, although she was secretly pleased he hadn't.

"I could've," he admitted. "But I didn't want to just yet."

She laughed and hugged him a little tighter as he stepped out of the water and back into the room. "Now you can put me down," she said, nodding towards the bed.

"Yes, again, that is true." He leaned forward and kissed her. "But I still don't want to."

"You are going to have to put me down eventually," she reminded him. "Unless you're planning on some impressive shapeshifting tricks."

"Oh gosh no." He shuddered and stuck out his tongue. "I don't want to even begin to think of all the horrible ways that could go wrong. Cats sprouting out of my body was bad enough."

Peridot snorted with laughter and nuzzled his neck. "I admit, I find the idea somewhat intriguing, but I would definitely prefer you to stay in your default form," she confessed.

"Then I suppose I'm going to have to put you down now." He opened his arms, intending to drop her on the bed, but her arms were still wrapped firmly around his neck and he fell on top of her with a yelp. "Ack! Sorry!"

Peridot giggled again, and then her expression turned serious. "I love you," she whispered, reaching up to brush his curls off his forehead.

A burst of warmth radiated through his body and he smiled softly back down at her. "I love you too," he whispered back, and leaned down and pressed his lips gently against hers. "You still OK?" he checked, pulling back slightly.

Peridot leaned forward and kissed him again, parting her lips and letting his tongue slide against hers. "I want this," she told him when they eventually parted, breathing heavily. "I want you." And she pulled his head down and eagerly kissed him again.

Reassured, he let his hands skim her upper body, stroking her warm, soft skin, cupping her breasts and tweaking her nipples until they stood up in stiff little peaks, making her moan softly. His hands moved lower, his fingers tracing light swirls along the side of her torso, across her lower belly and upper thighs. Her legs parted, granting him access to her pussy, and he teased her for a few seconds by running his fingertips along the delicate folds until she whined and raised her hips towards him. "Steven... please..."

He cut off her complaints with another kiss, and pressed his fingers against her, finding her wet and wanting. He wanted her too, his erection was fast becoming an aching, urgent distraction, but he forced himself to hold back, to make sure she really was ready for him. First one, then two fingers slipped into her, slowly pumping in and out until her juices ran freely over his knuckles. Only then did he withdraw his fingers. "Are you ready?" he whispered, rolling over slightly so that he was positioned between her legs.

She nodded and gave him a tiny smile. "I'm ready," she whispered back. She reached down between them and told hold of his throbbing cock, letting the head slide between her lips until it was pressed against her entrance. And then he was inside her. There was a brief moment of burning discomfort; he was a little bigger than she'd anticipated, and she had to bite her lip to keep from making any noise because she knew if he thought he was hurting her, he'd stop, and if he stopped now, she'd murder him. But the moment quickly passed, leaving her with a very pleasant fullness. He withdrew slightly, and then pushed into her a little deeper, then when he pulled back again, she thrust her hips to meet his, her mouth falling open as he slammed fully into her. "A-ah! More!"

Steven happily obliged. Her inner muscles were clenching all around him, drawing him back in every time he pulled out. He had honestly intended to try and take it slowly, but her gasps and moans of desire were too much to ignore and when he began to move faster, she moved with him, urging him on.

Then moved in unison for some minutes, then Peridot felt her orgasm building. "Don't stop," she begged wildly, grabbing at him and pulling him closer. "Don't stop, don't stop, oh please don't stop..."

He didn't stop. He was close as well, but somehow he forced himself to stick to the rhythm they'd set even as her own movements began to falter. Her hips bucked erratically, her words trailed off into incoherent whimpers and then her entire body stiffened. He felt the muscles in her pussy spasm all around him, and it was too much for him to bear. With a wordless cry of his own, he thrust into her several more times as he came, where he then collapsed on top of her in a breathless, sweaty heap. It was at least a minute before he regained his senses enough to realize he was probably squashing her. "Ah, sorry," he mumbled, and tried to roll away.

"Nooo, don't go yet," she whined, and wrapped her legs around him, then let out a small squeal of laughter as he rolled over anyway, pulling her with him until she released him and fell back onto the bed. "So..." she began, sitting up slightly and leaning hopefully over him. "We're definitely doing that again, yes?"

Steven stared at her for a moment and then smiled. "You liked that then?"

"Very much so," she said dreamily.

"Then yes, I'm sure we can do it again," he teased.

Peridot grinned widely and sat up straighter. "Now?"

"Ah." He laughed and shook his head reluctantly. "I'm gonna need a few minutes first. You wore me out."

"Hmph." She sighed and flopped back down onto the bed again. "Very well. I shall allow you a short period of time in which to recover then." She smirked slightly and ran her fingers around his gem. "I can't imagine it would take too long for a big, strong Quartz like you."

He laughed again and turned his face to give her a quick kiss. "I promise you, I'm going as fast as I can. I just-" He yawned and stretched his arms out, then pulled her closer. "Ten minutes," he promised.

"Ten minutes," Peridot repeated, and then yawned as well and snuggled up against him, enjoying his comforting warmth. Her eyes grew heavy, so she briefly closed them, just for a moment... and Steven watched with almost annoyed amusement as her breathing slowed and her body relaxed in his arms. He was almost tempted to shake her awake at once, but she looked so cute and peaceful, he couldn't bring himself to do so. He'd let her sleep a little longer, he decided. But right now, he was just going to enjoy holding her while they both had some much-needed rest.