A/N: Okay, we have arrived at the chapter that earns the M rating. Although the section is highly suggestive, it is not explicit. I tried very hard to make the love scene powerful and real and still keep it beautiful and tasteful. This was a very difficult section to write, so I hope it lives up to everyone's expectations for E and C's first time. If you wish to skip the more heated portion of it, I have included asterisks above and below it. The section inside the asterisks is the section for mature audiences only. Also, I was not initially happy with the section so I went back and rewrote it, including a few PONR lyrics you will recognize. These are of course the inspired works of Mr. Charles Hart, as are the lyrics to "Think of Me" that are included in this chapter (as I mentioned before in the author's note in the beginning). That man is truly a genius. His control of the English language is unbelievable. Anyway, enough from me, more E/C!

PS – Thank you once again for all the great reviews. I got a little spoiled yesterday when they were really rolling in. Keep them coming! I love to here from you.

Ch. 31 – In One Combined

Christine stood on the balcony of her room, staring out at the gardens in the moonlight. Tonight had been a disaster. Not only had Erik failed to forgive her, he had made it clear she would never have any place in his life again. In the morning, she would leave this lovely home and return to her cottage, and then what? Since the day she had learned he was alive, every dream for her future had included him. What would she do now?

She sighed. The tears would not come. So instead of tears, tonight she would sing. Closing her eyes, she leaned against the railing and remembered the first aria she had ever sung for her Angel on the stage of the Opera Populaire so many years ago. The words seemed to say everything in her heart and she offered them sadly to the sympathetic night:

"Think of me.

Think of me fondly, when we've said goodbye.

Remember me, once in a while.

Please promise me you'll try."

"When you find that once again you long to take your heart back and be free,

If you ever find a moment, spare a thought for me."

"We never said our love was evergreen, or as unchanging as the sea,

But if you can still remember, stop and think of me."

"Think of all the things we've shared and seen.

Don't think about the way things might have been..."

"Think of me.

Think of me waking, silent and resigned.

Imagine me...trying too hard to put you from my mind."

"Recall those days.

Look back on all those times.

Think of the things we'll never do."

"There will never be a day when I won't think of you."

The last words came out as an anguished sob. She could not continue. Her pain was too great and the tears that had earlier deserted her came now unbidden, flooding her eyes. She sank to her knees on the balcony, crying at last for what she had lost all over again.

"Christine," Erik said softly. At the sound of his voice, so near to her she raised her anguished face. He reached out his hand to help her to her feet. She looked up at him in confusion. In his eyes now, she did not see rage and despair; instead she saw only love and forgiveness reflected back to her at last."Angel?" she whispered hesitantly in reply. He took her hand comfortably in his, and at once it was as if the past three years of torment had never been.

"Come with me, Christine, I want to show you something," he said softly. He led her out of her room and down the stairs into the west wing of the house which had been closed off during the party. Although she didn't understand the sudden change in his demeanor towards her, she would have followed him anywhere.

After a time, they reached the furthest room in the house. Erik instructed her to close her eyes, and then led her into the center of the dark room. He lit several candles, and then stepped back in front of her so he could watch her reaction. She opened her eyes, and her breath caught in her chest. Never had she seen such beauty created by human hands. The room was an unimaginable shrine to the music they both adored. With a loving hand, he tilted her chin upward to see the stars twinkling amongst the stained glass angels she knew at once had been meant for her. She was unable to speak for many moments, tears of joy and disbelief shining in her eyes.

He moved close to her, taking her in his arms, this time gently with a soft reverence, as if she were a holy thing, which to him she was. Burying his face into the soft mass of her curls, he whispered, "I never forgot you, Christine. I never stopped hoping that one day, we would have all this together. I've found everything I ever wanted, but without you, it was all meaningless." He released her enough so that she could see his face.

She brought her hands up to caress first the left cheek that she remembered and then the right one still in disbelief. Her eyes sought his with a deep sincerity, and she was finally able to tell him the words she should have told him three years ago, that night below the opera house. "I am so sorry Erik, for everything. I love you." In these simple words, Erik felt that the very last wound in his life was healed, every gaping hole in his soul complete. The tears in his eyes betrayed the depth of his emotion, as he replied simply, "Thank you. I love you so much, Christine." He pulled her to him once again and she reveled in the knowledge that he was really there, really holding her, really loving her as a whole man once more. She thanked God in heaven for his miracles, for this was surely one of them.

Warning: M rated

There were other things to be said, other things to be explained, but with the most important words out of the way, the rest of them could wait. As they stood there within the circle of each other's arms, Erik reached down to claim her lips once again. The kiss deepened, and his hands were again in her hair, at her neck, on the soft curve of her hip. She moaned softly at the unnamed voice rising up within her, calling out for them to be one at last. Erik felt himself losing control as she melted against him, and once again gently ended the kiss, turning her head to lay it against his shoulder. When he felt he could breathe normally again, he spoke into her ear, his voice heavy with desire, "I am sorry, my love. I do not wish to rush you, but I have waited so long, and now my body calls out for you as if I am no longer its master."

At the feel of his enchanting voice and warm, soft breath in her ear, she felt she would come undone. In answer, she turned her head so he could see the matching desire in her eyes, her answer plain for him to see, her voice shaking, "Erik, if you force me to wait for you much longer, I will surely lose my sanity. Please, my love, I've no wish to spend another night alone dreaming of what we could experience in reality this very moment if we so choose." She touched his lips with her hand, the contact igniting once again the fire that had momentarily been diminished. With every ounce of his being screaming for him to take her to his room and make love to her at last, he held himself in check for one more agonizing moment, pausing to ask her once more, his eyes holding hers, "You are certain, my love?"

There were no words to her response this time; her body would no longer obey. Her mouth hungrily rose to take his and his body met hers with a force that crushed her. With a low growl of frustration at the long distance to his bedroom in the enormous house, he swept her graceful frame easily in his arms, never breaking the contact with her mouth, and strode down the hall, ascending the enormous staircase.

Her hands sought his hair, his neck, his strong shoulder inside his shirt. After believing for three years that she would never touch him again, she could not get enough of the feel of him, and her wandering hands made it difficult for him to think on the journey to his room. Once inside, he pushed the door shut behind him, and stood her gently beside the grand mahogany bed, pausing only momentarily to light a few candles around the room. Christine felt as if her legs would no longer support her and she shivered with the withdrawal of the warmth of his body from hers.

As he returned to her at last, he stopped to savor her unbelievable angelic beauty in the candlelight. Understanding what he wanted, she willed herself to stand before him, allowing him to look at her with the same devouring eyes with which she had ravished him in the hallway.

In the glow of the candle she was all exquisite loveliness, an alabaster-skinned Aphrodite. Erik stopped behind her, his body scant inches from her own. She could feel his nearness, and moved to turn towards him, but his hand stopped her. Instead, he ran his palms along the curve of her neck, and along her elegant shoulders, feeling the inebriating satin of her skin. Christine's eyes fluttered closed. As one hand continued to caress her shoulder, she felt the other move to undo the ribbons from her hair, hearing his breath catch as the flowing beauty of it tumbled freely down her back. Lifting its thick mass to the side in one hand, he stepped closer to her until she could feel his hard, muscular body pressed against her back, and he begin to trace with his lips the path that his hands had moments ago abandoned. Christine felt herself begin to tremble as his lips continued the reverent adoration of her neck and his other hand moved deftly to the buttons at the back of her dress. She wondered silently how much longer she could bear this sweet seduction, this exquisite torture, as his lips trailed down the curve of her back where the buttons of her dress were now coming undone as if by magic.

At last, he turned her so she was facing him, and as he moved to slide the dress from her shoulders, she met his eyes, and with her own hands dropped it to the floor. She reveled in his reaction, as he stood taking in her unimaginable perfection.

She needed suddenly for him to understand that she wanted the same privilege to witness his body, the one she had dreamt of so often. Impatiently, she began once more to remove his shirt. Moved by her need for him, he gently helped her to slide it away, guiding her hands to his skin. At the magnificence of his well-muscled chest, Christine once again moved her fingers over the sculpted hardness of his flesh and then lower to caress the taut muscles of his abdomen. She stepped from the circle of her dress and moved forward so as to place her skin against his, reaching to pull his hips to her own. She felt Erik's sharp intake of breath at the intimacy of the contact. With a low growl of frustration, he quickly removed the last of her undergarments that separated their burning flesh.

When she stood, entirely bare before him, he reached out to press her body to his once again and the flames that ignited when the masculine solidity of his body met her feminine softness, seemed almost visible. With a strength that both terrified and thrilled her, he swung her into his arms, laying her down on the bed before him. In another moment, he joined her beneath the fine sheets, covering her body with his own. Her eyes widened in surprise and exquisite delight when she realized he was now bare before her as well.

His eyes held hers for a moment, as if in awe of all that was taking place between them, and then he began to worship her with his lips: her neck, her shoulder, her collar bone - touching her, tasting her, drinking in her sweetness. His movements were slow and deliberate, his long deft fingers playing over her body and bringing forth an exquisite medley of intense sensations. Christine's mind was a haze. She could not think, did not want to – only to feel, to feel this unimaginable crescendo of pleasure that bordered on pain in its intensity.

What raging fire shall flood the soul?

She heard the words in her mind, and she knew the fire they spoke of for that same fire was coursing through her very veins in that moment. Erik's mouth traveled to the curve of her breast, his skillful hands slid even lower.

When will the flames at last consume us?

Christine gasped, her chest beginning to heave as her breath quickened. Already she was consumed...and still he traveled lower.

How long should we two wait before we're one?

Her body was nearly screaming the question.

She arched her body against him in desperation, begging for something she could not name. Erik obeyed her unspoken command. This time there was no slowing the haste of their need for each other. Their hands and bodies moved of their own volition, as if the script for this night had been written since the beginning of time. Once joined in body, their passion burst forth to blossom at last, fusing their two broken souls into one whole. The bridge that had separated them so long was crossed and burned at last, their separate lives consumed by the flames. There would be no going back. Fate had decided that long ago.

They lay there for a long time, wrapped in each other's arms, neither able to pull their eyes or hands away from the other. So many unspoken thoughts passed between them as they lay there. The bond they shared had never been more complete than in those powerful moments.

After a time, not wanting to interrupt with words the golden haze that enveloped them both, Erik pulled her to him, stroking her hair until she at last fell asleep in his arms. He lay there for hours, delighting in the feel of her beside him, the joy he felt inside threatening to drown him. He raised his eyes to the heavens and thanked God silently for the greatest gift he had received in all of his life, the one he had thought he would never be granted – Christine.

He propped himself up on his elbow to look at her, lying serenely next to him, her auburn locks spread luxuriously across the pillow. Her pillow, he thought, marveling that the empty side of his enormous bed had been claimed at last, and by the one person in the world he wanted there. He lay back down in content, drawing her sleeping form into the curve of his arms. She sighed and snuggled up against the solid wall of his chest. Erik at last closed his eyes and enjoyed the most peaceful sleep in all his life.