Disclaimers in chapter 1. Enjoy!

All he knew in that moment was Kendall and how it felt to have her kissing him, to have her running her fingers through his hair, to feel the heat of her body so close to his. When she swiped her tongue across his lower lip, he gladly obliged. The kiss turned into a passionate duel between the two of them. He wanted nothing more than to pick her up and take her into the bedroom and make love to her till he passed out, but he knew that this confession wasn't the end of things. They needed to talk; they needed to understand each other.

When he felt her take off his bow tie and undo the top button on his shirt, he knew he needed to stop, so he pulled out of the kiss. He laughed as she tried to follow his lips to resume the kissing. When she finally opened her eyes to see him not kissing her, she started to pout.

"Ok, you are going to have to stop that."

"Stop what?"

"That incredibly sexy, irresistible pout thing you do when you want to drive me crazy. You need to stop it now."

"Why?" she said, making the pout more pronounced.

"Because it's going to make it very, very, very difficult to let you go for a moment."

She leaned back into him. "Exactly."

"Kendall, believe me, there is nothing else I would rather do right now, but we need to…"

"Talk" she whispered, finishing his sentence.

"Yeah, talk."

"Yeah" she said as she untangled her fingers from his hair. He groaned as she walked seductively over to the couch and sat down, crossing her legs so that the slit of the dress fell open and showed a lot of leg.

He ran his fingers through his hair and started looking around the room.

"Something wrong?" she purred at him. He gave her a not so serious glare.

"You need to behave."

"Maybe tomorrow" she said, twirling a strand of hair through her fingers. "So, are you going to join me?"

"Give me a minute."

She watched him glance around the room again before he walked over to the phone. He punched in a few numbers.

"Yeah, this is Slater. I need you to put a do not disturb on this number and make sure that everyone knows that if they try to call me, they are fired immediately. Seriously, unless the building is on fire… great, seems we are on the same page. Good night."

Zach then opened up the desk drawer and pulled out a pen and piece of paper. He scribbled something on it and grabbed a knife off the room service cart. Kendall laughed loudly as he stabbed the piece of paper onto the door and put the do not disturb sign on the knob before locking them into the room.

"What did it say?"

"Knock on this door before daylight and I will either fire you or kill you with my bare hands."

"Catchy!"

"Isn't it" he said, smiling. "Where's your cell phone?"

She pointed to her purse on one of the end tables. He pulled his out of his jacket and turned his off before doing the same to hers. He opened a desk drawer and dropped them in.

"Well, I think that about does it."

Kendall cocked an eyebrow and patted the couch cushion. He started toward her, but stopped short. His eyes darted toward the bedroom door.

"Just… give me… don't move."

She stared as he darted into the bedroom. She heard him rustling through a bag. He was back quickly and made his way across the room to her. She thought he was going to sit next to her, but instead he placed one arm around her waist and another under her legs and picked her up. She squealed as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He turned around and sat back down where she had been. He kept one arm under her waist and used the other hand to adjust the pillows behind her so that she was comfortable sitting in his lap. Kendall couldn't imagine being any more comfortable.

"Zach…"

"Can I start?"

She just nodded.

He took a couple of deep breaths before starting in.

"I didn't get the divorce. I couldn't do it. I mean, I was there, standing at the court house with that attorney, ready to file, but I couldn't do it. I had to know… you had something else you want to stay to me before…."

"Ry…"

He placed his index finger over her lips before she could finish the name. "Let's just not… maybe some things are better left unsaid right now."

Kendall just nodded.

"I just felt like we had unfinished business. I just couldn't get the divorce until I knew what you wanted to say to me. It felt wrong. I kept the papers. I was going to either file them or burn them after we had a chance to talk. I do love you, Kendall, believe in that. I don't want to divorce you, but this sham of marriage we entered into isn't working for me anymore. I meant what I said after Thanksgiving – no end, no limit, no fear. This is you and me. You're a Kane woman and I can be a complete bastard most of the time. This is going to be hard, but a good kind of hard. I'm not going to change who I am because I fell in love with you, but you do bring out a part of me that I didn't know existed, a part of me that wasn't there with Ma…"

Kendall placed her index finger over his lips, this time. "Things better left unsaid, you remember?"

He smiled. "Yes. My bad. We don't need to look back, just forward. This is me and you now. Most people aren't going to be supportive. Most people…"

"You know, you can just say her name, Zach."

"Ok, then, Erica is going to do everything she can to drive a wedge between us, but if you want this, if you want us, a real us, then I'm willing to battle Erica and Jackson and… well, those we agreed not to mention tonight because you are more than worth it."

She smiled and placed her hand on his face.

"I'm willing to battle Erica, Jackson, JR, and all of Pine Valley because you are worth it too. I love you. I didn't know this kind of passionate, infuriating, completely exhilarating kind of love existed, but here it is, and I'm right in the middle of it. I wanted to tell you that on the island. I wanted to tell you that after the fire, before the fire, every time we counted money together, but I couldn't. I didn't trust myself to follow through and I didn't think I could trust you with my heart. And then, well, things imploded on Thanksgiving and I thought I would be better off alone. I was determined not to let anyone else in after Greenlee left… but there you were, always in face and in my space and I found myself loving it. I wanted… no, I needed you to be around and to be around you. Not having seen you over the last week has been heart breaking. I want us. I know it's going to be hard, but the way I see it, the passionate fights will lead to very passionate making up, and that is something I can completely get behind."

That made Zach laugh loudly.

"But, Zach, what about… what about the baby?"

He looked down at her stomach, where this gift of a child was growing. He looked back in her eyes and saw that the apprehension was back.

"I'm here for you, Kendall. You are a smart and savvy woman. You know what you want and what you are ready for. Once again, who could know what's in your heart better than you. If you don't want to have the baby, I'm here. If you want to have the baby, I'll make it work with Lavery and I'll build a crib for the house and start a day care here at the casino or at Fusion or both. But, I'm here. Nothing you could decide is going to scare me off."

She had tears in her eyes. She desperately tried to keep them at bay as he talked, but listening to all he was willing to do for her and a child that wasn't even his made the tears come. He wiped them away with his thumb as they ran down her face.

"Is that what you wanted to know?"

"That is exactly what I wanted to know."

They smiled at each other and she leaned in to kiss him again, but he pulled back.

"One more thing…"

"What, because it's almost…"

"Your Christmas present" he said as he pulled a small box out of his jacket.

The tears started to fall again as he opened the box and presented her with a beautiful diamond ring.

"I noticed you haven't been wearing the other one, and that's fine. I wanted… well, I thought you should have a proper ring, one that was bought out of unconditional love, not revenge and spite. Do you like it? If not, we can go and…"

"Shut up. It's perfect" she said as she took the ring out of the box and slipped it on her finger. They both stared at the ring and smiled at each other with a look of love that neither one had shown the other before.

Kendall looked at the clock on the wall.

"Well, Mr. Slater, are we about finished with the talking portion of the evening?"

"Why?"

"Well, it's almost midnight, and I thought you might like to… let's just say, celebrate… the New Year with…"

"Mrs. Slater?"

She smiled brightly. "Yeah."

"I think that would be a great idea" he murmured as he leaned in to kiss her again. As the clock chimed midnight, Zach picked his wife up off the couch and carried her toward the bedroom.