BEDTIME STORIES

PART 7

As he went to speak, I held up my hand stopping him. He pressed his lips together and leaned his head back against the door watching me as I crawled off the bed toward him. I stood up and started toward him, as I did I took off my necklace taking it in my hand. When I got to him, I leaned up against him, reached up, and took off the one long necklace he wore. For some reason, I decided to leave the shorter necklace with the shark tooth on it on him. I leaned sideways and laid them on the dresser. Next, I removed my rings, and then taking his hands in mine removed his putting them with our necklaces. When I reached for his bracelets he had to help with those because of the way some of them were around his wrist, I took off my own bracelets, took them all, and placed them on the dresser with everything else.

Having done that I took one of his arms, lifted, and unbuttoned the cuffs, then instead of crossing his arms again as they had been, I dropped it down to his side. As I unbuttoned the other cuff, he moved the arm I had dropped to his side. Placing it on my hip right at the waistband of my jeans. When I dropped the other hand, he did the same with it sliding his thumbs up underneath my shirt against my skin.

The entire time I had been doing this he had remained quiet and watched me. I leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. I moved back a little to look at him and reached over to turn off the main light in the room. So that the only thing on was the lamps by the bed. When I leaned to turn off the light, he moved just enough to place a kiss on my neck just below my ear. As he moved I turned my head and captured his lips with mine kissing him again. His hands tightened on my waist as I deepened the kiss.

I pulled back from the kiss and starting at the top began to slowly unbutton his shirt. I had to pull his shirt from his waistband to reach the last buttons. When I got the last button undone, I untucked his shirt all the way around. I flattened my hands on his lower back and then keeping them flattened I moved them around to rest on his stomach right above his pants. Then slowly I began to slide my hands up over his stomach and up onto his chest pushing the shirt open as I went. I felt his muscles tighten beneath my hands as I moved them. Then I leaned down to kiss him and nibble at his lips before I went down his neck and onto his chest.

He kept his hands at my waist not moving them. As I went back up his neck, I slid my hands up onto his shoulders so that I could remove his shirt when I was ready. I covered his mouth with mine and slipped the tip of my tongue between his lips. He angled his head so that he could deepen the kiss himself. As we kissed, I began to slide his shirt off his shoulders and down his arms, but when I reached the bend in his elbows I pulled the shirt forward so that he could not move his arms. I lifted my head and looked at him smiling. He smiled back but remained silent. Slowly I began to walk backward moving toward the bed. I stopped when I felt it behind me. When I stopped, I relaxed my hold on his shirt and began pushing it further down his arms. He released me just long enough to allow the shirt to fall to the floor and then returned his hands to my sides.

I slid my hands back up his arms to his shoulders and as I went to step toward him, he stiffened his arms keeping some distance between us. At first, he just watched my face as he stroked me beneath my shirt with his thumbs. Then slowly with his hands skimming my sides, he brought my shirt up. I lifted my arms so that he could pull it up over my head. Once my arms were free, I put my hands back onto his shoulders. He dropped my shirt to the floor and reached around behind me. He unhooked my bra and slid it over my arms. I removed my hands from his shoulders one at a time allowing him to remove my bra. As he dropped it to the floor, I leaned into him and he brought his hands up and around my back pulling me up against him.

I wrapped my arms around him laying my head on his shoulder nuzzling his neck. As he stroked his hands over my back, he also nuzzled and placed kisses on my neck. He also nipped at my ear and then moved along my jaw to my lips.

As he kissed me I ran my hands down his back and then around to the front right along his waistband. When I unsnapped his jeans, he inhaled sharply as my hand brushed against his stomach. Very carefully, I lowered his zipper and slipped my hands inside his pants. I pushed them down. Then I was moving my hands around to his back and began rubbing them all over it.

Slowly he brought his hands around to my sides and moved them up and down. He did this several times before he moved back so that he could watch my face as he slid his fingers inside the waistband of my jeans. Little by little, he moved his hands around my waist to the button that was already undone because Mom had unbuttoned it earlier. Still watching me, he unzipped my jeans; they were tighter than his pants so they weren't going to come off as easy. Once he got them down past my hips, he gently pushed me back on the bed. I scooted back further onto the bed and leaned back on my elbows. Reaching down he grasped the bottom of my jeans and pulled them off dropping them on the floor at the foot of the bed.

Putting his knee down on the bed between my knees, he moved onto the bed. Using my arms, I scooted backward toward the head of the bed. He continued to follow me as I moved backward until I could put my head down on the pillow. Once I lay back, he was over me on his hands and knees. I reached up and using only my fingertips ran them from the waist of his boxers up to his shoulders. Then I slid my hands around his neck and tugged on him.

Slowly he lowered himself down on me. First, he straightened his legs and settled between my thighs. Then he lowered his upper body down, supporting his weight on his forearms, with his hands on either side of my head. He buried his hands in my hair holding my head steady as he bent to kiss me. Then he was nibbling at my lips before slipping his tongue past them and into my mouth and I returned the favor. I moved my hands to his back so that I could hold him even closer to me.

How long we lay this way touching, caressing, kissing, I don't know. When suddenly he kissed his way down my neck and between my breasts. He stopped laying his head down on my chest. Neither of us had said stop yet and one of us should have long before now. I don't know why he hadn't but because of the way we lay I knew how aroused he was. I knew I wanted to be as close to him in this way as I could right now. This was the only way for then to be close and to her it would seem like a dream. Just as in the past, before we had met, times we spent together would seem like dreams to him and sometimes even seem that way to me, but they really weren't. Somehow, we had traveled in our sleep and spent time together, because we were drawn together in that way when our subconscious minds took over. We had been in that secluded spot on the beach only a mere eighteen hours ago. However, for them, almost five months had passed. That's how big a difference time was between here and there. Suddenly he moved, rising up he gave me a quick kiss and then got up from the bed without saying anything. I watched as he went into the bathroom. When he first went in there, I don't know what he did, but then I heard the water in the shower turn on, and then he crossed in front of the door as he turned the lights on over the sinks. He turned them on as low as they would go, which created a very soft lighting. Then I heard him go into the shower. I lay there for a minute or so contemplating what I wanted to do.

Having made my decision, I got up and dropped my panties on the floor beside the bed, and then quietly I went into the bathroom. He stood beneath the shower his palms flat against the wall, his head hanging down letting the water hit the back of his head and neck. I'm sure his eyes were closed.

Quietly I opened the shower door and stepped inside. I even managed to close it without his noticing. He didn't realize I was there until I wrapped my arms around him from behind pressing into his back. He jumped when I touched him, so I knew I was right when I had thought his eyes were closed. Otherwise, he would have seen my arms as I brought them around in front of him. Without moving he asked, "What are you doing?"

Resting my head on his back, I placed my left hand on his chest. With my right, I began to move it down across his chest, ribs, and lower onto his stomach. For a second or two I moved it back and forth across his stomach below his belly button. Then slowly I began to move it lower, I could feel his hair curling around my fingers as I said, "I decided I wanted to be here with you. We both agreed Saturday that if either one of us said stop we would. At the moment neither of us has said stop." I said this as I took him in my hand. When I did I heard and felt his sharp intake of breath, but he said nothing.

Slowly I began to stroke my hand up and down saying, "I want to help you, I want to please you unless you are going to be the one to say stop."

I felt him take a deep breath, "Are you sure? You don't…"

I interrupted him before he could go any further. "If I didn't want to, I would still be in bed by myself. However, you're going to have to teach me how. I have an idea of what to do, but I've never done this before. I don't want to hurt you."

I heard the smile in his voice as he said, "You couldn't hurt me doing this." He lowered his right hand and at first, he just ran it up and down my arm between my wrist and elbow, letting me do this on my own.

I also began to move my left hand over his chest and to place a kiss on his back. As I moved my hand across his chest, I noticed that his nipples had hardened as mine do. Therefore, I took one between my thumb and finger, tugged on it, and rolled it between them as he had mine. When I did that, I felt the muscles in his chest tighten.

Then he was sliding his hand down my arm to my hand and wrapping his hand around mine. Gradually he increased both the pressure and the pace at which I was stroking him. He kept this left hand braced on the wall.

He leaned his head back so that now the water was hitting his chest and running down his front. Hoarsely I heard him whisper, "I can't believe this is just like the dreams I've had. Until now I never realized it was you I was dreaming about."

Since he had tilted his head back, I was able to kiss him just below his ear and whispered to him. "Uh, Honey those weren't dreams. I've been able to find you and come to where you are for quite some time now, but don't worry about that right now." As I talked, I had moved my left hand down low on his stomach stroking back and forth with my fingertips. I also took his earlobe between my teeth and nibbled on it.

During this time, he hand increased the pace more and began to thrust into my hand as well. Beneath my hand, I felt his stomach muscles begin to tighten and quiver. Finally, he thrust into, against my hand and I felt the warmth from him as he climaxed. At the same time, I heard him moan, 'Angel'. Gradually he slowed the pace but did not stop it completely. He released my hand from his and began rubbing his hand up and down my arm again. I didn't stop stroking him just yet, each time I came to the tip I would run my thumb over it making him quiver again from the sensation. When he could stand it no more he again wrapped his hand around mine and slid my hand off him. Moving to flatten it against his stomach with his hand covering mine.

As I continued to place kisses on his back, he stood so that he could put his left hand over mine. He didn't stand this way for long before he was releasing my hands and turning to face me. He used one hand to cup the back of my head so that he could kiss me. His other arm he wrapped around my waist pulling me up against him. I gasped when he did this because for the first time in a very long time we were touching with nothing between us. Until now I didn't realize how much I had missed being able to be next to him in this way.

When I gasped, he had moved his head back enough to look down at me. "What is it?"

Still dealing with what I was feeling I just shook my head and laid it down on his chest pressing close to him. He gave me a minute before he tilted my head up so that I had to look at him and asked me, "Is something wrong?"

I smiled up at him, "No nothings wrong. I just realized that it had been a long, long, long time since we have been able to be together this way with nothing between us."

He tucked my head beneath his chin and wrapped his arms around me holding me close. "You're right it has been a long time."

Before he could say, anymore, I shivered and he noticed it. Running his hands down my back he said, "Why didn't you tell me you were getting cold?"

As I said, "I hadn't noticed till now." He turned so that I was under the running water and leaned over to adjust the temperature warmer. It didn't take long for me to warm up, but we noticed that it wasn't staying warm for long. "I think we've used all the hot water," he said, reaching and turning off the water.

As I squeezed the water from my hair, he opened the shower door and grabbed a towel hanging on the rack. He let me have one end to dry off my face and then he took it and wrapped it around me tucking the end of it between my breasts to hold it in place. Then he took another one and wrapped it around his waist. Taking my hand, he helped me out of the shower, while he grabbed a third towel to dry his face, chest, and hair. I went into the bedroom.

I was standing at the dresser combing my hair when he came out of the bathroom. He stopped in the middle of the room behind me and watched me in the mirror for several minutes but said nothing. As I watched him, he moved toward the bed and dropping the towel on the floor crawled into bed. He propped himself up on his side pulling the sheet up to his waist and continued to watch me.

I smiled to myself as I looked at him. I knew when I went home at the end of the week this picture of him in the mirror would be burned into my mind. His thick dark hair, his dark skin, the slight beard, the muscles across his chest and in his arms. Yes, I would definitely remember this when I went home, and how it felt to be wrapped in those arms.

When I finished with my hair, I went through all our jewelry until I found my necklace. I don't know why I took it off earlier but it's a good thing I did. I always wear it unless it doesn't match what I'm wearing or if I'm taking a bath or shower. I put it on and moved to my side of the bed. I turned off the lamp on my side so that the only one on, was on his side. Then I reached up and untucked the towel letting it drop to the floor. He lifted the sheet and I crawled into bed next to him. I lay down on my back and he covered me with the sheet up to my waist. We lay this way for several minutes not talking, just looking at each other.

Reaching out he ran a finger from the dip in my neck down between my breasts where the necklace lay. He picked up the ring and cross, laying it in his palm, the back of his hand resting against my skin. Looking at me he said, "I still have those questions I had earlier. And this time you won't get to distract me from asking them." As I went to say something, he closed his hand around the ring and the cross and lifted his hand to place a finger on my lips. When he saw that I was going to cooperate, he laid his hand back down where it had been and asked, "Why do you sleep in this and none of your other jewelry?"

I lifted the ring out of his hand, "This was a wedding ring for one of us before. One looked like this and the other looks like the one Mom wears. I can't remember who wore which, but I know that it helps me be close to you when I'm asleep. I've worn it for so long, that I miss it if I don't have it on and can't sleep. Since Friday night I've never thought to try and sleep without it." I took the necklace off and unhooked it, sliding the ring off into his hand. Then I re-hooked it and slipped it back over my neck taking the ring I slipped it onto my left-hand ring finger. "See how easy it slips on and off and sometimes it will sling off if I'm not careful. It can't be fixed to fit properly so I keep it on my necklace." I reached up to his hand that lay on my chest and slipped the ring onto his little finger, it didn't go on very far at all. When I went to take it off his, he curled his hand so that I couldn't remove it.

I curled my hand around his as he looked down at me and said, "This one was mine. Yours must look like the one mum wears. She said it had the Triskel and Celtic knotwork on it didn't she?"

I nodded, "Yeah. Hers has the Triskel in a circle and then down either side is the Celtic knotwork. Ask her tomorrow if you can look at it, you might remember it too."

When he had curled his hand, the cross had still been in his hand too. As he slipped the necklace over my head he said, "I'm here right now so I don't think you need this." Then he laid both the ring and the necklace on the nightstand behind him. When he turned back to me, he rested his hand just below my breasts above my stomach. "Earlier when mum wouldn't let me touch you, was it because 'he' is not at home right now?"

I nodded, "Yeah. Had you touched me or Mom it would have confused 'her'. She knows that you are not there. Had you touched us; she would have felt your presence and thought you were there. It would have messed with the concentration she needed to focus on calming down and stopping the pain."

He had been staring at his hand as he listened. He looked up at me then and said, "Why doesn't it make a difference now?"

I covered my hand with his. "Right now she is sleeping. She feels your presence with me as 'his' presence with her in her dreams. And she is seeing one of two things, 'him', as she knows him and often dreams of him. Or she is seeing someone who is very much him but she can't really see his face, usually, when she can't see his face it's you as you are now. The same thing happens to him when they are apart. When he can't see her face it's usually me as I am now. Does that make sense to you?"

He nodded, "Yeah, I just felt so useless, not being able to even hold your hand to help make you feel better." He moved his hand to cover my stomach when he did I jumped. He immediately lifted his hand so that it no longer was touching me. "What's wrong? Are you starting to hurt again?"

I sighed, smiling, "No, we are all fine. It's just that sometimes with some of the children when anyone here touches my stomach I get an odd feeling. The only way I can describe it is a merging of energy. Right now it would be yours and the baby's. Some would say your aura and his are joining for some reason, but I feel it. Sometimes whoever is touching me can actually feel the baby move if I can stand them to have their hands on my stomach long enough. I can feel it when it happens and Mom and one of my friends have felt it before." Taking his hand in mine, I took a deep breath to prepare myself for the jolt I always feel. Slowly I flattened his hand on my stomach again. Even though I tried to prepare for it, I still jumped a little at his touch. "Now just relax and wait. I don't know if you will be able to tell anything from here or not. I know that when 'he' is home, he likes to touch her stomach as often as 'she' will let him. At night, he will fall asleep with his hand on her stomach. Says he can hold both her and the baby that way."

We stayed that way for several minutes and I could feel the energy increasing, but I said nothing. Finally, he moved down in the bed so that he could lay his head on me just below my breast and still keep his hand on my stomach. I put my hand on his shoulder, the other still rested on top of his on my stomach. Eventually, the baby began to move. I don't know if it was the energy he was feeling or if it was because of the warmth from the hand on my stomach. He wasn't so much pushing as he was rolling or turning, perhaps to change his position. I wasn't sure if he could feel the movement or not so I pressed his hand down onto my stomach, putting pressure on the baby. This had the desired effect because the baby pushed back not liking the pressure he was experiencing.

I knew that he felt him push back because he began stroking his hand across my stomach and I felt his sigh of relief that everything was okay with the baby. He lay there stroking my stomach until the baby finally stopped moving. When he stopped moving I felt the energy feeling go away. As I ran my fingers through his hair I said, "You're not going to feel anything anymore. The energy feeling is gone; I think he might have settled down for the night."

He nodded his head against my stomach but said nothing. I wasn't sure what was going on with him so I wrapped my arms around him and lay there holding him. Knowing when he was ready to talk he would. Finally, he lifted his head to look at me. I could see in his eyes how emotional this had made him. He moved up so that he was looking down at me, he searched my face before lowering his head and softly kissing me at first. Then he was deepening the kiss and sliding his arms beneath me to pull me closer to him. I could tell that it was his emotions causing him to act this way. Finally, I cupped his head in my hands so that I could move him back to look at him. I could finally read the emotion in his eyes as relief. Until he had felt the baby moving, he had not really believed me when I told him that we all were all right. Softly I said, "I told you, we are all fine."

He closed his eyes and turned his head to kiss the inside of my left wrist. "I know you did, but until I felt him move, I just didn't really believe that she' and the baby were okay. I don't know why I felt that way, but I did." Then he opened his eyes to look at me. "Will everything be okay now or will she have more problems with him?"

I stroked one of my thumbs across his cheek. "As long as she stays in bed and eats and doesn't get too stressed everything should be fine. I just don't know for sure though, she's never been in this situation before. 'He' has never been gone this long before, nor have so many come back wounded, dead, or dying. And most of the doubt you had comes from your connection with 'him'. He's dealing with whatever it is that is happening, plus his worry about 'her' and the baby and all the children. That worry I can feel and so can she even though we don't know what is causing it."

He sighed then, "If he and I have such a connection why do I not know what is going on with him?"

I smiled at him then, "You could very well know. However, you can't say anything to me or to Mother knowing that from us, 'she' will learn as well as her Mother. And for whatever reason 'he', his father, and the council have seen fit to keep all information to themselves. So you see to protect me and 'her' and everyone else you wouldn't tell me even if you remembered."

He nodded he understood but said nothing, then pulling a hand from beneath me he reached over, turning off the lamp on his side of the bed. Then leaning over me and partially covering my body with his, he began kissing me again. Slowly he stroked his free hand down my side, up onto my stomach and then up to cup my breast. I gasped as he gently squeezed it, he lifted his head just enough to softly ask, "What's wrong?"

I ran my hand up to his arm onto his back saying, "I'm sore now because of the baby."

He kept his hand where it was but gentled what he was doing even more. I couldn't make up my mind if this was good or not. It was no longer uncomfortable due to the soreness, but I realized I was much more sensitive due to what was happening because of the baby. It was as if everything he did to my nipple and breast sent a sensation right to the center of my being. Because I had been trying to figure out this new sensation I didn't realize until the hair on his chin brushed against my breast that he had been moving down my neck placing kisses as he went. First, he used his tongue to circle my nipple once he reached it. Then he was placing feather light kisses on it and down onto the underside before going back up to circle the nipple again. Next, he would alternate between nipping at it with his teeth and kissing it to soothe it. Finally, he took it in his mouth and began to suck on it. Once again, I felt a pull right to the center of my being. I didn't realize that I had arched my lower body into him until I felt his hand cupping my hip pulling me closer. Then he was sliding his hand down the back of my leg to the bend in my knee. Cupping the back of my knee he began to lift until my foot was flat on the bed next to his leg that lay between mine. By doing this, he had managed to get us even closer. I knew we were reaching the point where we were going to have to stop. And even though I didn't want to I would have to be the one to do it.

I laid there for several more minutes running my hands over his back before I finally start to whisper, "We…" I stopped and gasped as he slid his hand beneath my hip again and rocked me against him. When I got my breath back, I tried again, "We have to stop and we can't do what we did this morning." I wasn't sure if he heard me at first, but as he began to work his way up across my chest and neck, I realized he had and was taking as long as possible to stop. He finally reached my lips and began to kiss me. He did two or three times before lifting his head to look down at me.