A/N Thank you to the few regulars that keep reviewing this story. I do appreciate your feed back. It helps to keep me going. I just thought that I should warn you that we are on the homeward stretch. The end is in sight.

Getting started

The next few days for Ryan and Marissa were blissfully happy ones. They got back into their routine. Clothes became a rarely worn commodity as they tried to quench their sexual thirst for one another. But it refused to be sated. It was as if they were trying to make up for all the time that they had lost in their years apart. They grew closer and closer as they talked through their plans and about their dreams for their future together. But it seemed that Marissa's suggestion that she could wear Ryan out was nothing more than a hollow threat.

The picnics beside the stream had become the lunchtime norm and each day as they lay in one another's arms basking in the sun and the afterglow of their love-making, Marissa would wonder if her dreams of a baby were perhaps already taking root and growing inside her. Ryan still had no idea that they weren't just practising anymore but playing for keeps. She knew that he would be over the moon when the time came and she couldn't wait. And even though she didn't want to presume for a minute that just because they were so compatible sexually that it would necessarily follow on that they would conceive quickly … she couldn't help but feel that perhaps it was already on it's way. She knew that some people took some time conceiving after having been on the pill for a period of time but something in her just told her that she wouldn't be one of them. She just hoped that it wasn't just wishful thinking.

---

Friday morning dawned and it was grey and overcast. Occasional showers of rain moved across the sky making a gentle pitter patter on the roof but they seemed to be getting heavier and more frequent not lighter. It was the first day since they'd arrived in France that hadn't been blue sky beautiful. As usual, Ryan woke first. He looked out the window and snuggled up even closer to Marissa. He was spooned around her naked body and even though he'd awoken that way just about every day since they'd gotten back together it still brought a smile to his face. He couldn't imagine anything better and he wanted to be able to do it every day for the rest of his life.

Marissa stirred and rolled over in his arms. "Hey." She smiled.

"Hey to you too." He replied and kissed her sweetly.

"It's our last morning here." She said regretfully.

"No it's not. We'll be back next week." Ryan reassured her. "We'll only need a few days to check things out in Venice and then we'll be back."

Marissa hoped that he was right but she was afraid that if the paparazzi found them in Venice then escaping back here may not be possible … at least not without a posse in hot pursuit.

"Hell." Ryan said. "I'm thinking that maybe I should buy the place and we'll stay here forever."

Marissa smiled at his words. "So I gather that means that you liked my surprise when I hijacked you and brought you down here?"

"You know that I love it here … Just you and me ... It's perfect." Ryan replied. "I had no idea when you came to get me from brunch that this is what you had planned."

"It has been perfect." she sighed. "But we do have to return to the real world sometime." Marissa suggested knowing that it was highly unlikely that they would ever get another opportunity like this again. Their time together here had been magical but the real world was about to invade.

"Why?" Ryan asked. "We don't need anything or anyone else. I just need you." He said and Marissa felt her heart melt yet again.

"When did you become such a romantic Mr Atwood?" she asked softly.

"When I met you Mrs Atwood." Ryan replied swiftly.

Marissa smiled. "Good answer." She rolled to her back and looked out of the window. "When do you think we should get going?"

Ryan looked at her puzzled. "I thought that we'd agreed to wait and leave after lunch?" Ryan said.

"Well that was when I thought that the day would be fine and we'd be having our picnic down by the stream. I didn't want to miss out on it." She explained. "But with this weather I can't see that happening."

Ryan smiled. Their picnics had become something that they both looked forward to. Making love to Marissa out in the open air made him feel as if they were the only two people on earth. It was magical. But certainly if they tried it today … well it wouldn't be very comfortable and it would certainly be very wet. "Maybe not. At least not unless you were planning on growing webbed feet. If this rain gets any heavier I suspect that our little stream will become a raging torrent."

"Maybe we should just have some breakfast and then get going. I guess that this weather will slow us down a bit?" Marissa suggested.

"Mmmm." Ryan replied and then pulled her closer to him. "Or we could just forget about Venice all together and spend the day in bed." Ryan countered.

Marissa was startled. Much as the idea of spending a rainy day in bed with Ryan appealed to her … there was no way that she was going to let a little rain spoil her plans now. She had to think of something quick. "You can't get out of it that easily. I've already called my friend Cathy and told her that we're coming and she's promised to hold us my favourite room. I can't just let her down now."

"I'll happily pay for the room … she won't be out of pocket." Ryan stated as he started to run his hands over Marissa. Cupping her breasts and gently tweaking her nipples he replied. "There's just something else that I'd rather be doing."

Marissa smiled as she felt her body begin to react yet again as her need for him was re-ignited. "Well … how about I let you DO me and then we'll get going. I think that there's enough hours in the day that we can fit in both." Marissa teased.

Ryan smiled. "You don't know just how long I expect to be DOing you."

"Ryan Atwood!" Marissa said sounding shocked. "You can't be serious? Do you know how often we've been DOing it? Surely you can last a few hours? It's not as if you're never going to get the opportunity again. I promise that it's even more fun in Italy than it is in France."

Ryan looked at her surprised. "MORE fun?" he questioned, the doubt clearly written on his face.

Marissa nodded with a smile on her face.

"Well I that case I think that we had better hurry up and get to Italy. I need to find out more about this. I may have been missing out." He teased but started to get out of the bed.

Marissa looked at him shocked. "If there's one thing I'm certain of … it's that you haven't been missing out!" she stated. "But I don't think that we have to leave straight away." She said. Ryan's ministrations had awakened a need in her that she wanted quenched before she even considered moving from the bed. "Why don't you come back here and we'll just freshen up you memory of what 'Doing it' in France is like. Then you will have something to compare it to when we get to Italy." She explained.

Ryan pretended to be deep in thought. "I guess that makes sense." He smiled. "So you saying I can have it now and later?" he asked.

Marissa nodded ... the sparkle in her eye enough to have Ryan back in bed within seconds. There was no way that he was missing out.

---

After breakfast they cleaned up and packed up what few belongings they had with them and once Ryan had safely stowed them in the car, he came back inside only to find Marissa standing by the door gazing around the small farmhouse that had come to mean so much to them. He could tell how much she regretted having to leave.

"You know it's not too late. I could still call Roger and tell him that I can't make it to Venice and we can just stay here." Ryan suggested.

Marissa shook her head. She knew that was not possible. Unbeknown to Ryan, their friends and family would already be on their way to Venice. There was no way that they could not go. "No. I want to go to Venice. I just …" she started and then looked at him. "I'll just miss this place." She explained.

Ryan smiled softly. "You know when we first arrived I was a little surprised by where you'd brought me. I thought it would be a little …. 'rustic' for your liking. No room service. No house-keeping." He explained.

Marissa shook her head. "That was part of the attraction. The fact that it would be just us. It seems to me that the only time that we ever have any problems … it is usually because of other people." She said thinking of the dramas over the years with Oliver, Theresa, Trey, even her mother and more recently Annabel, Karl and Sasha.

Ryan had to agree. "Yeah. We do seem to get on pretty well when it's just the two of us together … when there is no one else around to interfere." He said and placed his arm around her pulling her close. He could see how upset she was.

She turned to him and buried her head into his shoulder trying to stop the tears from falling. She was surprised by how emotional she was feeling.

"Hey." He said as he put a finger under her chin and lifted her face to look into her watery eyes. "Don't cry." He smiled at her. "I promise that we'll be back here just as soon as we can. It will only be a few days."

Marissa tried to smile in return. It's just that she knew that 'as soon as we can' was going to be a lot longer than he realised.

They walked out and Ryan locked the door behind them and then they ran through the rain to the car. As soon as they were safely inside out of the rain again he turned to Marissa and asked. "Do you actually know the way or are we just going to get onto the motorway and look for a sign that says Italy?"

Marissa smiled. "Emma said there is a map inside the cover of the Paris street directory that's somewhere in the car."

They fished around looking for it and finally found it under the passenger seat. Marissa pulled it out and opened the book only to find a one page map from a rental car agency. It had Paris on one side and the whole of Europe on the other.

"Whoa. Detailed!" Ryan remarked and they both burst out laughing.

"I guess that we can at least see what direction we should be headed in." Marissa suggested trying to remain positive.

"I guess. Although … with no sun, you could turn me around and I wouldn't know which way was north. This could be interesting."

"Well … I'm up for an adventure." Marissa replied. The last thing she needed was for Ryan to use this as an excuse to try to cancel the trip to Venice and return back into the farmhouse.

Ryan glanced at her. All traces of her recent tears about leaving the farmhouse now totally gone. There was a sparkle in her eye. How could he not want to go on an adventure with her? "It's a pity that this car doesn't have GPS." Ryan remarked.

"Where's your adventurous spirit Atwood?" Marissa asked.

Ryan laughed but turned the key to start the car. "Okay. Just remember you're the navigator. If we get lost then it's all your fault."