Solana watched as Lunick scarfed down his lunch. Thanks to the S.S. Anne's Champion Suite's Ultimate Balcony Dining experience, they were able to snuggle up with a four-course meal in the comfort of their own room. To top it off, the suite also included Club Class perks such as complimentary evening canapés and an exclusive anytime dining option with expedited seating and expanded menu options, which her husband took full advantage of. They were three days into their honeymooners cruise experience and Lunick still participated in every meal option the cruise liner offered. His cast iron stomach was proving itself as he wolfed down every single morsel of food offered to them. He claimed it was from a culinary perspective, but Solana knew he was fully enjoying this, which she surmised there was nothing truly wrong with that. Hell, after everything they'd been through they deserved the Royal treatment. She just didn't want him stuffing himself silly the entire trip.

She continued to watch in amazement as Lunick took another hefty forkful of his sliced smoked white-striped Basculegion and sirloin over his bed of roasted vegetables. He finally caught her staring and swallowed what he had in his mouth.

"What? I told you you should upgrade. The dining options are insane."

Solana shook her head. She took up her fork and impaled one of the cantaloupe melons in her bowl of fresh fruit salad.

"No thank you. I'm content with what I have. That's not why I was staring, by the way."

"So you're not jealin'. Okay. You just enjoy watching your new hubby eat. It is pretty sexy, isn't it?"

"Something like that…sure."

"Seriously, Babe. When's the next time we're gonna have an opportunity like this? You should take advantage of the exquisite dining experience like I am. Fully indulge. Carpe diem and all that jazz."

"Lest you forget, I'm a recovering anorexic. I don't need a relapse."

Lunick frowned.

"I'm sorry." Solana quickly said. "I don't mean to put a damper on this for you. Enjoy your food. Live it up, as you so call it."

"You don't have to apologize, Solana. That was a really dark and enervating period you went through. Don't downplay it."

Solana sighed and rested her fork down. "It's just hard, you know? Not obsessing over certain things like weight and calories. You know my past. You know how that complicates things for me."

"I do. So let's not dwell on that." He put his fork down as well and reached across the table to hold Solana's hands. "This vacation is about us, about our new lives together as husband and wife. Let's celebrate that. I know exactly what our next activity should be."

"Didn't you say I get to choose the next one?"

"You do. But I get to decide how we go about it. Let's finish our lunch and then you let us know what's next on our itinerary. We'll be stopping at the first island soon which means it'll be our first stop to do any shopping and any tourist activities you may want. So let's do something before then. But remember, I decide how it goes down."

"I still don't understand what you mean."

"You'll see, Babe. And you'll learn."

"I'll learn?"

"Yep. Just listen to me, okay?"

Solana was visibly confused.

"Why are you talking as if you'll be giving me a lesson to something?"

"Because I will be."

With the same care and diligence she put into everything she ever did, Solana Kaneko was going all out to learn a new skill, a skill being conferred upon her by a master. All the tools she would need to master this skill had been arranged for her, put in their proper place in preparation for her lesson. She assumed the correct stance, her poise crucial to her advancement and eventual mastery that would please her new Sensei.

She wanted, no, needed to please her teacher. Until such time as she was ready to be a master herself, she must do exactly what it took to please him. That was all she was about. Well, at least for a few, glorious days.

Then it would be back to real life, back to managing the team, back to preparing to travel to other regions for missions, back to…

No!

She was failing!

Her Sensei would not be pleased.

By an act of sheer will she turned her attention back to the tools she had been provided for her lesson. They were all that mattered. None of those other things existed. Still, she needed to clear her mind, to find her center once more. So, she let her mind drift to the day before. That was permissible, considering what that day had been.

It had been magical! She had spent much of the later part of the day kissing Lunick. She loved kissing him, almost as much as she loved him! Kissing him was so right, so natural…

…he was so good at it!

Lunick was good at a lot of things. He was an amazingly talented cook, a ferociously good kisser, he was becoming a better and better Area Leader, he kissed like a champion, he was a loving, caring husband, he kissed really, really good and he was a great partner for her…

…who happened to be a master of the passionate lip lock!

Plus he was turning out to be pretty good in other areas too!

In fact, he was so good at kissing she had spent the majority of the fireworks show that had capped off their wedding day festivities a mere fifty hours ago kissing him, her eyes closed, enjoying him fully.

Yes, she liked kissing her new husband.

There! Center found!

Ah! At last! I'm actually marinating! Lunick will be so proud!

With a contented smile on her face, her eyes closed behind her sunglasses, Solana reached for a glass sitting on the small table beside her lounge chair. She brought the rim to her lips and took a sip of the sour, sweet, cold beverage.

'Mmmm, must remember to thank Leilani for turning me on to Margaritas!'

The slurping sound to her right let her know that her Sensei was also demonstrating his mastery of the skill he was teaching her. She risked a peek at him as he sipped the last of his Sangria punch. She drank in the sight of him, the dimples that refused to leave his face, giving him a permanent boyish look she hoped he would never lose. His chest would never be broad, by any stretch of the imagination, but it had filled out in the last few years so it complemented his slender physique perfectly. How ferociously delicious the boy she fell in love with first as a person would become such a hottie!

Lesson over!

She got up from her lounge chair and crawled on top of him, leaning over him, her lips gently brushing his, tasting the faint hint of alcohol left by his wine-based punch. His lips parted slightly at her touch, his tongue darting out to trace the edges of her lips.

"Mmmm, fruity." He said, breaking the kiss with a smile.

She got up, retrieving her drink and returned, sitting on the edge of his lounge, taking another sip of her drink. Solana was aware what too many of the concoction of lime juice, blue curaçao and tequila would do to her, especially the next morning, but she had been nursing this one for some time, sipping from it occasionally, enjoying the intense mix of flavors instead of the pleasant buzz and mild loss of control it would bring if she drank it faster.

She took another, bigger sip. If there ever was a time and a place to be a little out of control, well, this was it!

Lunick must have been thinking the same thing, because his hand reached around her waist, then glided down her back, finally coming to rest on the narrow triangle of material that made up her bikini bottom. She responded by leaning over to kiss him again after another big sip of her drink, sharing some of it with him through the kiss.

He returned the response when his fingers started kneading, very slightly.

"Awesome." He whispered to her.

"Badical." She whispered back.

"If you say 'Booyah' I'm going to call Dr. Joy to have your brain examined."

"Why, Lunick? What if I get inspired to say it, loudly…breathlessly?" She cut off his response by kissing him again, her free hand tracing circles around the sinewy muscles on his belly.

"Mmmm…mmmm…uh…mmmm…I…mmmm…thought…mmmm…I...ohhhhh…mmmm…was…supposed…mmmm…to…mmmm…shout that?" He uttered between kisses.

She pressed her forehead to his, her fingernails lightly drifting over his chest. "Maybe the point is we both shout it at the same time."

"Heh, heheh. Oh yeah, I like the sound of that, Babe. Good one." His fingers started tracing the edges of her bikini, just lifting the band as if they would plunge inside.

"I think your job is to provide the good one." She whispered to him, her fingers drifting down his belly once more, over the top of his trunks, tracing all the way down until her hand came to rest on his thigh, causing him to shudder along the way.

"I take it that it's time to go back to our room?" He smirked, his other hand coming around to trace the top edge of the front of her bikini bottoms.

"Oh? Why would we do that? After all, we paid all that extra money to get the private pool and everything?" Her hand left his thigh and traced its way up to his belly and chest, then back down again. His eyes all but rolled back in his head.

"Uh, I uh, we, uh…" He stammered but she cut him off again with another kiss, her hand making repeated trips. He suddenly sat up and sprang to his feet.

"I, uh, need to cool off just a bit." He said as he hopped into the Solarium pool set in the deck of the private room they had bought as part of their honeymoon package.

Solana looked at him, disappointment and confusion shading her features. "Lunick?"

He popped up on the side of the pool, using his arms to prop himself there. "Babe, why don't you get in with me? The water's actually pretty warm, almost reminds me of a hot tub. You know, Solana, like the one at that chalet in the Sekra Mountain Range?"

He wagged his eyebrows at her and threw something onto the pool deck with a wet 'fwap.'

Her eyes got big as saucers as she realized a soaking wet pair of blue swimming trunks were sitting there, no longer where they were supposed to be.

"Lunick! I was kidding!" She half whispered, half shrieked.

"I'm not. It just occurred to me, we had a really, really good time with that hot tub up there, yet in the last almost year and a half we haven't managed to get back to there and find out just how enjoyable that really could be."

"But that was…"

"An outdoor hot tub surrounded by a privacy wall. Hmmm, sounds familiar doesn't it? You bet! Look around, Solana, what do you think a honeymoon suite like this is made for?"

Solana was turning as red as their rose-tinged bedroom, but was oddly intrigued by the whole scenario. Looking around, half expecting something like a large group of kids to troop into the pool area at a moments notice despite the fact they really did have complete privacy, she slipped into the pool beside her husband, coming up behind him, slicking her hair back away from her face.

Wrapping her hands around his waist, she kissed his neck, pressing her body up against his back. The pool was quite large overall and it was still deep enough at this end she couldn't touch the bottom with her feet. She contented herself with hanging onto Lunick as he hung from the side with his elbows. At least until he turned around, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her close.

Yes, the water was quite warm, as pools in a tropical climate often are, even more so since the water was heated just very slightly for the patrons of the exclusive cruise liner. One wouldn't want to experience 'cold pool water related shrinkage' in these situations!

Demonstrating a deft touch with his hands, Lunick undid the knot at the back of her top. It joined his trunks up on the deck. He kissed her on the lips then at the base of her neck as his hands explored further downward and gripped her teal bikini bottom. Not much later the rest of the suit followed and landed on the deck as well.

Solana moaned from his touch and she crushed her body into his as Lunick leaned back against the edge of the pool. He held her close as their lips met again passionately. Solana wrapped her legs around Lunick's hips, feeling his hardness as he gently navigated inside of her, holding her firmly beneath the water.

They both moaned from the pleasure it evoked and their eyes rolled. Minutes later, they were both breathless and smiling, much to their mutual happiness.

A/N: I've really been pumping these out! Three chapters in one day?! I've impressed myself, lol. But I may slow down a bit to refocus on We've Come This Far. Doesn't mean I'm stopping this one. As I said earlier, this story will be a lot shorter and much more condensed, so it's understandable why I'm able to upload this one faster. But I'm content with the progress I've made on this so far so I'll be turning my attention back to my main fic. Who knows? Maybe I'll upload another chapter tomorrow? We'll see.

Please don't forget to review!

Always Do Everything With Love.

XyKPfan