Erin woke up to the soft feel of lips against her forehead, and she sighed as she blinked her eyes open to see her fiancé smiling down into her face. "I see that both our little ones have crawled in with you?"

She frowned a little, looking down to see that he had spoken rightly, as Catherine was snuggled up between her and Elise. Both girls were still fast asleep, and she shrugged a little at David crawled in next to Elise, settling his arm around them as he looked into her face. "Did everything go well with the case?" she murmured as she rested her chin on top of Catherine's head, snaking her arm out so that she could wrap her hand around his arm, wanting to be in close contact with him.

"It went as well as can be expected. The unsub decided to take his own life, rather than be taken alive, which is always a sad outcome. Now, why the sleepover in our room?"

She drew in a deep breath as she tapped her thumb against bicep, wondering how she could delicately bring up the conversation she had had with Beth the previous evening. "While you were gone, we had a visitor."

"And not a welcome one. I can tell by the look on your face."

Erin gave him a little half smile as she nodded. "I should hate that I am an open book to you, but I don't think that there's anything that I can do to change that, since I've let you so far into my heart. Nor do I think that I would want it any other way. I need someone who can help keep me accountable and rescue me from my blacker moods." David nodded as he leaned in carefully, kissing her forehead before resting his head on the pillow once more. "Beth came over."

"Aaron's Beth?" She nodded. "What did she want?"

"She wanted to warn me against stealing her man," she said with a self-deprecating little chuckle, "as if she truly thought that she had something to be worried about. From one little birthday party, she's assumed that Aaron and I are somehow involved behind your back, and I tried to dissuade her from that notion, since I am so deliriously happy with you. Plus there's the little fact that the direction of Aaron and mine's relationship has mutated into something that's more like siblings, and I could never see myself sleeping with him ever again. If you had asked me even three years ago if that was possible, I would have laughed in your face, you know."

"I do, and I am so glad to see that you both have reached a place of mutual trust and admiration from the place of hurt and acrimony that you were both in." Erin nodded as she blinked her eyes slowly, still feeling exhausted. "How about we all get some more sleep, and we can talk about it more in the morning? It's about three in the morning, so it's very early for you."

She nodded as she let out another soft sigh, snuggling in ever closer to her little family as her allowed her eyes to close once more. It didn't take long for her to get back to sleep, since she was safe in the arms of her beloved. When she woke up next, the little ones were gone, and she was alone with David. He was still fast asleep, which told her just how much the case had taken out of him. Reaching up, she stroked his hair lightly before sliding her hand down his face to gently tug on his goatee before slipping down even lower and spreading out on his chest. A small smile turned his lips upwards, and she knew that he would soon be waking up, so she contorted her body a little closer to him. Erin felt his hand dig into the softness of her hip and she began to return the smile as his eyes blinked open to focus on her.

"Good morning, darling," she murmured before closing the distance between them and giving him a soft kiss. "I think that I'm feeling a little more settled this morning, after the excitement of last night. But I wonder where our children are?"

"Probably at Elise and Catherine's lessons, since it is nearly eleven."

"What?" she asked, sitting up a little to look over his shoulder at his bedside clock. "I didn't think that I was quite that tired."

"When you feel safe, you sleep better. But I can't believe that everyone was so quiet as to not wake us up when getting Cath and Leelee."

"Maybe Tabitha is finally learning the importance of sleep," she murmured as David pulled her closer to him. She could feel his erection pressing against her stomach, and her smile turned a touch more sensuous before she began to unbutton his pyjama top, her fingers tugging at his chest hair as they kissed once more, things quickly escalating with the knowledge that they were alone and didn't need to worry about being interrupted. Somehow, Erin ended up naked in a matter of moments, though she would swear that she never truly saw David's hands move to strip her.

"And it's a good thing that she did, since this affords us time to come together like this. It feels like too long since we slowly made love."

"Is that what this is?" she gasped out as David began to press quick kisses and nips along her jawline and neck before working his way down to her upper chest. He nodded before sucking lightly on a place that she knew would be easily covered by her clothes. "Then I give myself wholeheartedly over to this pleasure."

David laughed a little before nipping a little too sharply on her collarbone, and she gasped in pained pleasure, arching up into his body so that she could get in closer contact with him. "I love how you react to me, stellina," he growled lowly before dragging his lips down the swell of her breast before closing his mouth around one nipple. A soft sigh broke from her lips as he laved his tongue around the rapidly hardening bud, her hand instinctively burying itself in his hair to hold him close as she tried to think gentle thoughts, wanting to draw out this pleasure for as long as possible.

All too soon, he began to kiss his way down her torso until he was nudging her legs smoothly apart. Erin knew that she would come undone all too soon the moment he began to eat her out, and she closed her eyes as his tongue began to do delicious things to her body. The buildup to her orgasm took a little longer than usual, since David seemed content to let things go slowly until she could hold back no longer, coming apart with a strangled little mewl. Before the aftershocks of her orgasm had fully passed, David was entering her with one stroke, filling her to that sweet completeness that she had come to love so much with him.

Closing her legs around his hips, Erin drew him in deeper, finding their usual pace and giving herself over to the next wave of pleasure that she was certain to find in his arms. As his heavy breathing filled her ears, Erin cooed and moaned as they built up to another orgasm for her. She welcomed his heavy weight falling on top of her as they caught their breaths, and snuggled in close to his chest. "I love you."

"I love you, too, Erin. Now, what do you say to sharing a shower with me, so that we can get clean before our children come home?"

"I think that sounds lovely," she replied as she allowed him to help her up, all thoughts of Beth and their little conflict slipping to the back of her mind as she focused on what truly mattered in her life – her fiancé and love.