A/N: No, there won't be a second part to chapter nine, primarily because I got tired just thinking about dealing with all those characters at one time. However, I'm glad that so many of you like the chapter. You'll probably find out what happened in the Grace-Luke story I'll write, eventually. But that's neither here nor there. On to chapter ten. It's pretty fluffy and, um, a little racy. It just kinda happened. Sorry. Hope I don't offend anybody. Anyway, thanks for all of your reviews. Don't be too hard on this chapter. Alexandri

"I still can't believe you blindfolded me," Joan groused as she clutched Adam's hand and stumbled after him. Thirty minutes before her currently graceless predicament, she'd received a text message: Put on your coat and meet me out front. Love, Adam. When she'd called him back to tell him she couldn't (she was still neck-deep in wedding arrangements), he'd insisted. When she'd gotten in his car, he'd locked the doors, kissed her senseless, and drove off. "You kidnapped me!"

"Jane, not so loud," he whispered. "People might actually believe you."

Now that she thought about it, she did hear a lot of activity around them. Frowning in the direction of his voice, she gestured toward the blindfold and said in a dramatic but much softer tone, "I wonder why they would. Maybe because it's actually true."

Adam stopped, causing Joan to run into him. Slipping an arm around her waist to steady her, he bent so his mouth was next to her ear. "I love you, Jane."

"I know." She refused to say the words back. This little stunt of his was putting her way behind schedule as if the holidays and the start of the new semester hadn't screwed it all up to begin with.

She felt his lips curve into a smile against her ear and suppressed an answering shiver.

"I've missed you, too."

The shiver she'd been fighting back shimmied down her spine. Annoyed with her susceptibility to him, Joan crossed her arms over her stomach and tossed her hair back defiantly. But she couldn't help wondering when his voice had gotten so raspy and warm and downright sexy.

"We haven't seen each other much for the last few months," he continued. "The holidays don't count. I mean, we saw each other but we haven't really had any time alone, wouldn't you agree?"

Pouting, Joan nodded. She knew she was being childish but being abducted, even by her beloved fiancé, was bringing out the worst in her.

"Wouldn't you like to spend some time alone with me?"

Just like that, her childish resistance crumbled. She ran her hands up his chest as she pressed against him. "Of course. It's just that I have a lot of planning to do."

Hugging her close, Adam kissed her temple and smiled. "Not tonight, you don't."

Before she could object, he took her hand and steered her through what she guessed must be a throng of people. One elevator ride later, they were walking down a quiet hallway. "Where are we?"

He released her hand and she heard the jingle of keys. "It's a surprise."

"What kind of surprise?"

"Hopefully, the kind that will make you forget how tense you are about this. Come on," he said and led her forward. "Stay right here and do not touch the blindfold."

"Adam, what are you doing?" she asked as he left her there. He didn't respond, just kept moving around the room. Joan felt an odd sense of displacement as if she had stepped into some kind of void. "This isn't funny."

"Okay," he said from behind her, making her jump. "Are you ready?"

"You wouldn't believe how much."

He untied the blindfold and wrapped his arms around her waist. "What do you think?"

Joan rubbed the heels of her hands into her eyes then blinked to clear her vision. What she saw made her jaw drop. They were standing in a hotel room. From the satin brocade comforter to the gleaming mahogany furniture, it was easily the most beautiful room she'd ever set foot in. "Oh, Adam."

"You like it?"

Turning in his arms, she slipped her arms around his neck. "I love it."

"Good."

"I'm sorry I was such a brat."

Adam shrugged. "That's okay. I expected as much." When she gasped in offense, he laughed. "You do like to have your way, Jane."

"That's true," she admitted grudgingly.

"Why don't we make ourselves comfortable?" Adam asked as he unbuttoned her coat and pushed it off of her shoulders.

"Okay." She tugged off her gloves and tossed them aside as she watched him. Her hat and scarf quickly followed. "If you don't mind me asking, what prompted all this?"

"I told you," he answered as he hung up her coat, "we haven't had much time together and I missed you. I thought we could have a pre-married weekend, you know, so we could reconnect."

"Pre-married weekend," Joan repeated with a smile. "I like that. But, sweetie, it's Thursday. I have to work tomorrow."

"I had to move up my plans a little."

Joan watched him come back to her. He was keeping something from her, she just knew it. "Why?"

Skimming his hands down her arms, Adam grasped her hands and smiled down at her. "Your family and friends love you, but it seems they need a break. If they don't get it, they may revolt. I love you too much to lose you this close to the wedding, especially if I can do something about it."

"Am I that bad?" she asked incredulously.

"They're calling you Il Duce."

"Oh." She sank onto the bed. It wasn't every day she was compared to a dead fascist dictator.

"It's okay, Jane. All you need to do is relax."

"But there's so much to do. I really should be at home, organizing."

"One of the rules of the pre-married weekend is that you can't do any wedding planning."

"But . . ."

Adam shook his head. "No buts. You are supposed to relax and spend time with me." He pulled her to her feet and led her to the table. A large shopping bag sat on top of it. "With that in mind, I think it's time to unpack."

"What all do you have in there?"

"Let's see." He reached in and pulled out another bag. It was filled with votive candles.

"Can we light candles in here?"

Adam nodded. "I checked already." He reached into the bag and pulled out a bouquet, which he handed to Joan with a flourish. "Flowers for milady."

"I thought you said roses were too obvious," Joan said as she happily buried her nose in the fragrant flowers.

"If they were red, they would be. These are peach."

"Thank you." She pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "They're beautiful."

"You're welcome."

"Do you have anything else in there?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. Some mixed CDs Rodney made," he said, pulling them out.

"Ooh." Joan knew firsthand that Rodney made the best mixed CDs.

"A couple of movies I rented."

"What did you get?" Adam handed her the cases. "The Princess Bride. I love The Princess Bride."

"Who doesn't?"

She paused when she saw the second title. "Roxanne?"

"Hey," he said, holding his hands up, "you're the one obsessed with movies from the '80s."

"Yeah, but Roxanne?"

"It was either that or Top Gun and I really didn't want to see Top Gun."

"Okay, but Adam, Roxanne?"

"What's wrong with Roxanne?"

"Nothing. It's just . . .why?" She watched him try to formulate his answer. He looked pained. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just a little embarrassing."

"I promise I won't laugh." Joan gave him an encouraging smile.

He sighed. "The town weirdo falls in love with the beautiful new girl who somehow manages to fall in love with him, too. I can relate."

Joan's smile grew; she was marrying the sweetest man. "You aren't weird, Adam."

"Maybe not now, but I was when we met."

"You weren't weird, just different."

"We both know that's not true."

"Okay, so maybe you were a little strange."

"Jane," Adam said, giving her a "come-on" look.

"Fine," she conceded. "You were weird, but so was I."

"Unchallenged," he said as he took her in his arms. "But then Darryl Hannah was strange in her own way in the movie."

"And Steve Martin had a number of admirable qualities. He was nice and sweet and romantic. Intelligent, witty, caring. He had a sense of humor."

"And he was very agile."

Giggling, Joan nodded in agreement. "And handy with a tennis racket. Can we watch it now?"

"Oh, now you want to watch it?"

"All this talk about it, I'm suddenly in the mood." When Adam flinched, she looked up at him, concerned. "What did I say?"

"Nothing," he said, turning away.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." He picked up the bag and Joan noticed that it wasn't empty.

"What's in the bag, Adam?"

"Proof that I shouldn't be allow to shop unsupervised," he muttered under his breath as he continued toward the closet.

She heard him anyway. "Let me see."

"It's nothing, really."

"I'm just going to bug you until you show me."

Adam's shoulders slumped as he recognized the truth in her words. Clearly reluctant, he came back toward her and gave her the last item in the bag.

Joan glanced at the box then back at her fiancé, confused. "It's a board game."

"Look closer, Jane."

She did as he said and felt the blood rush to her face. It was a game about foreplay. "So, no strip poker, huh?"

"I was in the bookstore killing time until an appointment and I saw it. It looked interesting." He scratched the back of his neck as she set the game on the table. He wouldn't meet her eyes. "And, well, it's been a while since we, you know. Since August, actually, and, God stop me."

Adam reached for the game and Joan stopped him by putting her hand on top of it. "Is there anything else in the bag I should know about?"

"No."

"No trashy lingerie?"

He looked up at her, his mouth hanging open.

"No flavored massage oil?"

"N-No," he stammered.

"No whipped cream?"

His cheeks flushed red. "No."

"How are we supposed to play without all the pieces?" Joan grinned as Adam groped for an answer. She moved closer and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I've noticed too. That it's been a while."

"You have?" he whispered.

Joan nodded. "Mm-hmm. And I must say, I'm looking forward to seeing what the game suggests."

If possible, Adam turned redder. "So, you're not offended or turned off by it?"

Slowly shaking her head, Joan stretched until her mouth was next to his ear. "Quite the opposite."

With a sigh of relief, Adam took her face in both of his hands and kissed her.

Sweet at first, the kiss soon became passionate as he playfully licked at the seam of her lips, coaxing them to open for him. She obliged, gasping as his tongue swept past, reacquainting itself with the contours of her mouth. Her tongue stroked his as he kissed her with an ardor that pushed all thoughts of planning out of her mind. Arching into him, Joan slid her fingers into the crisp hair at his nape, tugging him closer still. He pulled back, dragging a whimper from her. A moan swiftly replaced it as he drew her lower lip into his mouth, nibbling it teasingly as he gradually ended the kiss.

Joan sank against the table, her mind deliciously fogged by Adam's kiss. She watched him take a deep breath before heading for the door. Only then did she realize that someone had knocked.

Adam opened the door and stepped back as room service wheeled a tray in. He tipped the man and all but pushed him into the hallway. Then he turned and grinned at Joan.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "When did you order room service?"

"When I checked in this afternoon." He crossed the room and began clearing the table. "Hungry?"

She began to transfer the food to the table. When he glanced up, waiting for her answer, she grinned and said, "Like you wouldn't believe."

Adam woke up and knew instantly that Joan wasn't in bed with him. Running his hand over her side of the bed, he scanned the room. Not there. Turning over, he spotted her standing in front of the French doors, wearing his sweater. "Jane?"

Tearing her pensive gaze away from the view, she looked at him and smiled.

"It's late," he noted, glancing at the clock. "Is everything all right?"

"Yeah."

"Then come to bed. You have to get up in the morning."

"I'm fine. Go back to sleep." Nodding as if to confirm her statement, Joan turned back to the view.

A worried frown marred Adam's forehead. Something was wrong. He was the one prone to late-night restlessness, not Joan. Shoving the covers back, he got out of bed, found his pants, and pulled them on before approaching his fiancée.

She monitored his progress in the glass, smiling when he came to a stop behind her. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"You didn't," he assured her as he took her in his arms. "You want to tell me about it?"

"Tell you about what?"

He heard the hopeful note in her voice, the one that said she didn't want him to press her for answers. For a moment, he considered giving in to her unspoken request, but something told him not to. "Whatever has you wide awake and upset at two-thirty in the morning."

She sighed, knowing he wasn't going to drop the issue, and leaned into his warmth. His arms tightened around her and she marveled at how loved and protected he made her feel with that one gesture. "I'm not upset," she finally admitted.

"So what's different? You were fine earlier."

"Just thinking."

"About?"

Shrugging, Joan placed her hands over his where they lay on her stomach and laced their fingers together. He'd been stroking her stomach with his thumbs. Any other time, she'd have let him continue. His habit of caressing her whenever he touched her was one of her favorites, but it was distracting. "Before you picked me up, Grace said something to me and now I can't get it out of my head."

"Tell me."

"She said I should let you help with the wedding."

"We agreed: no wedding planning during the pre-married weekend."

"I'm not planning, I swear." She gazed up at his skeptical face and laughed. "Really, I'm not. But what she said got me to thinking. Do you feel left out?"

"Left out?"

"Of the wedding process. You know, since I haven't asked you to do much."

Adam frowned as he contemplated the question. Aside from coordinating the honeymoon and the rehearsal dinner, his involvement in the "process" was nonexistent. "I did in the beginning. I thought maybe you didn't trust me not to mess up whatever task you'd give me."

"Oh, Adam, no. I never thought that," she said with an adamant shake of her head.

He gave her a little squeeze before continuing. "Now, I figure you're trying to give me as much time with Dad as possible."

"So you don't feel left out? Because Grace said you wanted to help."

"Of course, I want to help, Jane. It's my wedding, too. I just assumed you had your reasons for not asking."

Joan's shoulders slumped and she rested her forehead against his cheek. A part of her wanted to share the insanity that was wedding planning with him. She suspected that when the dust settled and she and Adam had been married for a while, she would look back at these hectic few months with fondness. But, at present, all she could think about was the never-ending details and the upheaval his life had undergone. A much larger part of her just wanted to alleviate as much stress for him as she could. She'd never meant to make him feel snubbed. "I'm so sorry, Adam."

"For what?"

"For excluding you," she whispered. "That was never my intention."

"What was your intention?"

"To spare you the headache. You have so much going on right now. I figured you didn't need this as well."

"No matter what else is going on in my life, Jane," he began, "I will never be too busy for you. We're getting married.

"I know."

"That means that you never have to try and do everything by yourself." Extracting one of his hands from her grip, he tipped her chin up so that she could see his eyes. "You can always lean on me and I will always support you. All right?"

Tears shimmered in her eyes and a smile quivered on her lips. She tried to answer but found she couldn't, so she just nodded.

"Good," he whispered before brushing a kiss across her mouth.

He didn't know how long they stood staring at the view when he felt her mood change again. "What?"

Joan shrugged and began to trace her fingertips over his hands and arms. He loved it when she did that. "I was thinking about the wedding," she confessed sheepishly.

"Jane."

"I wasn't planning. I was worrying."

"About what?"

She shrugged again. "I don't know. I guess I'm scared it won't be . . ."

"Perfect?" Her laughter surprised him. "What did I say?"

"I'm not expecting perfection," she explained as her laughter died down. "That would be too easy. Nothing is ever easy for us."

"You have a point."

"I'm scared it won't be magical. This is so huge. We've been through so much, you and I, just to get here. I want our wedding to reflect that. I want it to show how important, how amazing it is that we made it this far."

"It is pretty amazing."

"This wedding," she said so softly he almost didn't hear her, "it's my gift to you." Shock filtered through his brain but she didn't seem to notice. She continued staring out at the woods. "You've given me so much. I want to give this to you."

Slowly, with great deliberation, Adam turned Joan toward him and cupped her face in his hands. "You are the greatest gift I have ever received, Jane. I don't need anything else."

"That's sweet, but . . ."

"Let me finished." He smiled to take the sting out of the interruption. "Whatever I've given you doesn't need to be repaid or reciprocated."

"I know. I do. It's just," she paused, searching for the right words, "I want to create something immaculate in its beauty, something that I created with you in mind. Maybe I'm not making sense, but it's important to me that, in some tangible way, I show you how much you mean to me."

"Jane, you don't need to do all this."

"Yes, I do."

He slid his hands down her back. "No, you don't because you already show me." Seeing the doubt in her eyes, Adam pulled her tight against him. "Every time I enter a room you're in, you temporarily forget that anyone else is around. When I give you a sculpture or a surprise, this look comes over your face. You get this soft, secret, little smile and your eyes light up like it's Christmas. When I'm sad or sick or tired, you go out of your way to make it better. And when we kiss or make love, you give yourself to me with such complete abandon. I've never wondered about my importance to you. You show me all the time."

Joan gazed at him with teary eyes and a tremulous smile, speechless. Finally, she said, "I need you to go choose suits for you and your groomsmen. I was going to do it, but you'd know what you like better than I would."

"Okay, Jane," he said with an understanding chuckle.

"And, when you have time, I need to go over the menu with you. Just to make sure there's nothing you don't like and to make sure no one is allergic to anything."

"No more planning, Jane."

She sniffled. "Okay."

Adam kissed her one more time. She clung to him as if she was trying to pour all of her love into him. When he pulled back, there were tears on her cheeks. Gently, he dried her tears and led her away from the window. "Ready to go back to bed?"

"Mm-hmm."

He rummaged through a drawer, eventually pulling out a nightshirt, which he tossed on the table.

"What's that for?"

"You." Without any warning, he pulled his sweater off of her and started to slip the nightshirt over her head. "Arms."

Joan thrust her arms through the sleeves. "Why couldn't I wear your sweater?"

"Because it's not meant to be slept in," he answered. Suddenly, he stopped and eyed her suspiciously. "I'm not going to able to keep you out of my clothes, am I?"

"I don't think so," she admitted, shaking her head.

Sighing with mock resignation, Adam finished tugging the shirt down. "I guess I'll just have to take you shopping with me from now on."

"Apparently," she replied. "Someone has to keep you from buying dirty board games."

"I can't believe you just said that," he exclaimed as she shook with laughter. "That's it." Adam scooped her up and carried her to the bed.

"Put me down," she squealed, slapping at his shoulders.

He kissed her sweetly on the cheek. "As you wish," he said and tossed her on the bed.