A/N : OMG! socalwriter from The Incision is joining the fun of the squee squad! We rock:D She's got fabulous AdDek stories, I tell ya. If I could link you guys to her website her, I would. But has a strange thing about disabling url links here. Anyway, hot squee!

Derek looked up from the box of china it felt like he'd been unpacking for days and looked through the big dining room entryway into the living room. His wife had rearranged their new furniture for the third time that day. She was standing back now, evaluating the setup. He could tell from the way her mouth was drawn up on one side that somehow it still wasn't right.

Laughing, he put down the gravy boat from their ridiculously expensive Tiffany set and walked into the other room, his arms wrapping around her from behind.

"Addison, there are 14 rooms in this house. If you spend this much time on all of them, we're gonna still be moving in here next Christmas."

She turned in his arms and kissed him.

"Well, when you buy a woman a house for her Christmas gift, you can't help it if she's a bit... overwhelmed." Her lips touched lightly against his again and Derek tightened his hold on her.

"But good overwhelmed, right?'

Her smile made his legs tremble.

"A very good overwhelmed."

A crooked grin took hold of her face as she looked over his shoulder back at the dining room.

"How's that unpacking going in there?"

Derek sighed. "Am I crazy or do we have, like, 2,000 pieces of china?"

"You might be exaggerating just a bit," she answered, her voice playful and sexy.

"Not by much," he insisted.

She kissed him again and rolled her eyes, then she pulled back as if she had just remembered something and turned to look at the clock.

"Hey, it's after midnight, which means it's officially Christmas Eve. And I always let you open one gift on Christmas Eve."

"Ooh, gift time! Excellent. Gimme, gimme, gimme."

Addison giggled at his exuberance and took his hand, leading him toward the stairs.

"Oh, is my gift in the bedroom?" he asked, unable to keep his voice from giving away how much he hoped his gift was in fact very much going to involve the bedroom... and his wife.

"Shut up and follow."

Derek laughed and did as he was told. But as he walked, he couldn't help but think how miraculously different this Christmas was from their last. This year, there was no avoiding shopping together for their family's gifts, no avoiding their "coupledom" and there would be no admissions of feelings for anyone other than each other.

She had given him time to let it pass, and pass it had. And Derek had realized that what he'd had to get through was far less about love for another woman and more about giving himself permission to love and trust his wife again. And her patience and her willingness to endure him and his moods and their ups and downs had been enough for him to turn the corner and finally see that his future was as much about Addison as his past had been.

So to show her he meant it, to prove that he was looking forward, he had given her the one material thing he knew she truly longed for... a house. But more than that, it was their home, one Derek intended to make sure remained filled with the laughter and happiness that they'd shared in it these first few days. This time, it was their responsibility to keep the marriage working, not just hers.

"Merry Christmas, Derek."

There was a bow on the bedroom door. He winked at her.

"You sure you shouldn't be wearing the bow?"

"You are so bad!" Addison hit him playfully on the arm as she scolded him. "Go inside, now!"

"Yes, ma'am."

Derek twisted the knob and walked inside. He flipped on the light and took in what lay in front of him before he looked back at her.

"When did you..."

"You didn't really think it honestly took Adele two hours to pick out rose bushes, did you? Richard and two very-well paid delivery men helped me do this while you and she were gone."

Their bedroom was finished--finished not with the bedroom set she had insisted upon buying that Derek found far too feminine, but that he'd also been unable to refuse her--but instead with the dark cherry wood king-sized sleigh bed he had coveted and all the matching pieces of furniture that went with it. The bedding was navy blue and white--stripes, which he knew Addie loved--but in his favorite colors.

"You like?"

Turning toward his wife, Derek pulled her into his arms and kissed her, showing her just how much he liked it. She responded to him fully, holding nothing back from him and Derek felt his head swim as her hands pulled his thermal t-shirt free from the top of his jeans.

"This... is a good Christmas," he managed to choke out between kisses. Addison laughed, then gasped as Derek swept her shirt off and picked her up, easing her back on the bed.

They kissed and kissed and touched and explored, their hands and lips driving each other mad without either pushing too far, too fast. They both wanted to take their time tonight, and no one was complaining about the drawing out of the anticipation and the intense pleasure that they were both getting from just being together so freely, so comfortably.
But finally, Derek felt himself reaching the breaking point, and his hands made quick work of divesting his wife from the rest of her clothing.

That was when her hand eased toward the nightstand. Derek reached up and caught her by the wrist, though, stopping her movement.

"Derek?"

He stared up at her as she sat perched above him, her body straddling his, her eyes questioning his action. Addison had been forced to go off the pill months ago after they started to cause her migraine headaches. Ever since, they'd made it a fun part of their sex life to try as many different condom types as they could find. But tonight, Derek just felt an instinct telling him it was time to be done with that, too. It was time for him to just be with his wife and know that any consequences that came would be welcome ones.

"Want to make a baby?" he asked, a smile tugging at his mouth.

Addison looked at him uncertainly... but hopefully. She was ready, too, just scared at his sudden suggestion. "You're sure?"

Derek let his right hand snake behind her neck, then he pulled her toward him for a deep kiss. He rolled her body beneath his as they continued to make love for the first time in their new bed in their new house on Christmas Eve.

"I hope she looks just like you," he whispered.