Okay, gang, this chapter is very definitely, very solidly rated M.
Roger wasn't even in the shower five minutes. After quickly washing up, drying off, and putting on clean clothes, he still had ten minutes before he was due at Holly's, so he bustled about his suite organizing and packing as quickly as he could. When the ten minutes were up, it was all he could do not to run down the hall to her suite.
After the hottest shower she could stand, Holly toweled her hair dry and put on a comfortable pair of white flannel pajamas patterned with coffee cups in all different colors. She had just finished combing her hair when she heard the knock at the door. Setting the comb on the edge of the sink and turning out the bathroom light, she hurried to answer it, and sure enough, there stood Roger, his hair still damp from his own shower, in a white button-down shirt open at the collar and a pair of navy blue pants. She noticed that he had his hands in his pockets. "Are your hands okay?" she asked by way of greeting.
Roger was looking at Holly so intently that he had honestly forgotten he had shoved his hands in his pants pockets after knocking on her door so that he didn't grab her and pull her to him before saying what he wanted, what he needed, to say to her. They needed to talk first. "I wanted to talk first. I thought we needed to talk first. And I figured if I didn't take my hands out of play, so to speak, I'd take you in my arms and forget about everything else."
Holly motioned to him to enter her suite, and having noticed that he had said he wanted to talk first, and he had said that he would take her in his arms and forget about everything else if his hands weren't in his pockets, which sounded like an excellent idea to her, she pulled the DO NOT DISTURB sign off the doorknob, hung it over the outside doorknob, and chained the door after closing it.
Roger was seated on the couch now, sitting on the edge of the cushion with his tightly clasped hands dangling between his slightly open knees. Holly wanted to sit down on his lap, thread her fingers through his hair, and kiss away the tension in his jaws and shoulders, but she knew he was right: they needed to talk first. They had said before parting to get cleaned up that they would talk first. So they would talk first, and depending on what was said, maybe they would finally do more than talk. Taking a deep breath and slowly exhaling, Holly silently renewed her commitment not to push Roger in any way, then sat down on the opposite end of the couch from him, turning to face him, propping her head on her hand, with her bent elbow resting on the back of the couch.
Roger looked over at Holly. "Are you sure you're all right?" he asked worriedly.
"I'm fine," she assured him. "Not a scratch."
Roger blew out a breath. "I can't believe you did that, Holly," he said, awed.
"I'd do it again," Holly replied matter-of-factly. "I told you, Roger: you've been shot three times that I know of...and if it's more than that, I don't want to know...and I wasn't about to let number four happen right in front of me. But it was more than that. So much more than that." Now Holly was battling not to reach out and touch him, afraid that what she wanted to say would fly right out of her head the second her hands were on him. At his earnest, expectant look, she said, "When Hart pulled that gun, I saw my whole future going up in smoke, because my future is with you...the life that we want together but that we've never quite managed to get. Something or someone was always in our way...usually one or both of us." She smiled ruefully here, and Roger nodded with his own rueful smile. "But I made up my mind this time that if you would give me one last chance, I wouldn't let anything or anyone, including one or both of us, especially one or both of us, tear us asunder again."
"If there had been real bullets in that gun, you could have died," Roger said, the words choked and ragged with emotion.
"I don't believe I would have," Holly said. At Roger's skeptical look, she went on, "I have the best reason in the world to fight: you. Us. If I had been shot for real...and if I hadn't survived it...then at least I would have known that you were all right, and I wouldn't have died without fighting with everything in me."
Roger swallowed hard, looking so vulnerable that Holly had to fight the tears that were threatening to well up in her eyes. "When you pushed me out of the way and then the gun fired and you fell, for those few seconds, I thought you'd really been shot. I thought you were going to die right there in my arms," he said, his voice and his eyes both anguished. "And..." He stopped talking, swallowing hard, having to recover himself before he could continue speaking.
Holly's throat ached with unshed tears, and she moved across the couch until she was sitting right next to Roger, putting one hand on his arm and wrapping her other arm around his shoulders. Roger unclasped his hands and covered Holly's hand on his arm with one of his own. His own eyes shone with unshed tears as he met her gaze.
Roger swallowed hard again, wet his dry lips, and holding Holly's gaze, spoke again. "After I lost you, it felt like I was breathing with one lung," he began. "It's possible to live that way, but you're never not aware that a vital part of you is missing." His fingertips brushed the back of her hand that was resting on his arm, sending jolts of electricity shooting throughout her body. "When I saw you fall today after the gunshot, the last six months flashed before my eyes at lightning speed, starting with the moment you showed up at my door to tell me what Dinah and Hart were really up to, both with their affair and with trying to gaslight me, and everything that's happened since then...the way that you've been there for me every step of the way, helping me to find ways to prove what they were really doing, and all the time we've spent together, getting to know each other in ways that we never did before, and learning to trust each other again, to trust each other at a level that we never have before."
"Something has always kept us near each other, even when we weren't together," Holly said, touching his face before letting her hand return to his arm. "We have been to hell and back, Roger. Most of the time, we have driven each other to hell and back. And we still love each other. We love each other in a way that we weren't capable of when we were young, and in a way that we weren't capable of two years ago." She gently squeezed his bicep. "I finally know that I love the entire complex, fascinating bundle of all the things that you are, and I am done running from that love, and denying it, and fighting it." She looked deeply into his eyes, gently brushing her hand down the back of his head before returning it to his arm, as she said, "You're my soulmate. You're the half that makes me whole. And if it came down to it, yes, I would have died for you today. But I would much rather live for you, live with you, for the rest of my life."
Roger turned to face Holly now. Her arm was still draped across his shoulders, but he gently took her other hand from his arm and held it in his other hand. "I honestly can't pinpoint the exact moment that I realized I was breathing with both lungs again, but I am, and it's because of you. It's because you're back in my life, and in the last six months you have shown me that you're here to stay, and we have grown closer than we ever were before at any other point in our lives...and I want that to continue. I want us to keep growing closer, Holly."
Her heart was pounding now. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?" she asked quietly, hopefully.
"I'm saying that I love you," Roger replied, "and I trust you more than I have ever trusted anyone." He let go of her hand now, bringing both his hands up to cradle her face, tenderly stroking her cheeks with his thumbs. "I've wanted you back since the moment I lost you, and there was a long while there where I didn't think there was any possibility that that would happen, that we had used up all our chances, and if you were happy, I had to be strong enough to leave you alone and find some way to get on with my own life."
"I wasn't happy," Holly said tearfully. "I wasn't really living. I was just existing. I walked around and worked and breathed, but without any verve, without any energy, and with a very empty, very heavy spirit. I was just going through the motions. That's why I had to try again with you. I am never more alive than when I'm with you, and I could never, I will never, love anyone else the way that I love you."
Roger let go of Holly's face and lifted her hand from his arm, laying it over his heart. She could feel his rapid heartbeat hammering against her palm. "I needed to be sure that you weren't going anywhere, and I am. And I needed to be free of Dinah before anything happened between us. Legally, I am. I have no idea what happens now with her and Hart-"
"It doesn't matter. Whatever it is, I'll be with you through all of it," Holly said.
"That's what I want," Roger said surely. "I want to be with you. I want to be with you in every way, and I want that more than I've ever wanted it in all our lives, Holly. I want a life and a home and this love with you." He covered her hand on his heart with his own and looked into her eyes, into her very soul. "I trust you with my heart. I trust you with my life. They're yours. I'm yours, forever. And I don't want one more second to go by without both of us knowing that I'm yours and you're mine. I want our new beginning to start right now."
Holly's vision was blurred by the tears that she could no longer keep at bay. "And I'm yours," she whispered, her voice choked with all of the emotion she was feeling now. "I'm yours forever. I trust you with my life, and I love you so very much."
Then she crawled into his lap and kissed him, softly and tenderly at first, but as her arms wrapped around his neck and she shifted, straddling his lap, unconsciously grinding herself against his growing arousal, and his arms wrapped around her, pulling her torso flush against his as he lay back against the couch, holding her as tightly as he could, the kiss grew increasingly heated and hungry as Roger's questing tongue thoroughly explored Holly's mouth, and she eagerly stroked her tongue inside his mouth, curling around his tongue, absorbing the taste of him, of his toothpaste and his desire for her, silently rejoicing in the low groans coming from Roger, and gradually realizing those tiny mewling sounds from the back of the throat were coming from her.
They broke the kiss, both breathing heavily. Holly had dreamed of this for so long, fantasized about this so many times, and now it was finally, really happening. They looked deeply into each other's eyes, their chests heaving. Roger's hands had been spanning Holly's waist and now he gently caressed up and down her back. "I have missed you so much, Holly," he said, bringing one hand up to catch a tear as it fell from her eye.
Her hands began to wander his body as well, from his chest to his shoulders to his back. "I've missed you too," she said. "But we don't have to miss each other anymore."
"No, we don't," he agreed, sitting up with her still straddling his lap. "I am never leaving your arms again."
"Good," Holly said with a smile, stealing a quick kiss before pulling back to look into his eyes once more, "because I'm never letting you go again." The way he was looking at her, with such love and such trust and such openness, took her breath away. Then he kissed her again, moving from her lips to her jawline, then kissing his way down the column of her throat. She closed her eyes as her hands flew to the back of his head to hold him to her as he rained kisses up and down her throat. When he stopped kissing her throat and lifted his head, she opened her eyes to look at him, touching his face for a few seconds before sliding her hands down to fumble with the buttons of his shirt. When she got the first three buttons undone, she parted the fabric and pressed her lips to his chest, right over his heart, feeling its hammering beat against her mouth. She looked into his eyes as she pressed both her palms over his heart, and he wondered at the somber expression on her face that had supplanted the passion and love and joy that had been there only seconds before. "I can't promise never to hurt you again," she said seriously, "but I promise that I won't run out on you ever again. I promise that I will never shatter your heart again. You and me...this is it."
"Yes," Roger agreed. "You and me...for the rest of our lives. This is everything. And we're gonna have arguments, because it's us, and it's human nature. We're going to hurt each other's feelings, again because it's human nature. But we're not going to let anything destroy us or tear us apart again."
"No, we're not," Holly vowed. "We're together from now on."
"And no more secrets between us. We tell each other everything," Roger said.
"Yes," Holly said, stroking his chest now. "No more secrets, no more lies...no more letting anything or anyone come between us." Her fingers brushed lightly over his nipples, circling them, and he moaned low in his throat. She smiled and bent her head, following her fingers with her tongue, circling first one nipple then the other.
"Oh god," Roger groaned, sucking in a harsh breath. When Holly raised her head, he claimed her mouth once more in a long, deep kiss. When he broke the kiss, Holly's lips remained parted, her breath coming in short, shallow pants. "For the first time in two years, I don't have to remember how it feels to make love to you," he said huskily as he caressed her back, her hips, her thighs. "You're finally in my arms again, and I am going to take my time in rediscovering every exquisite inch of you."
"Mmm, yes," Holly said as she finished unbuttoning his shirt. "And then I'm going to reacquaint myself with every gorgeous inch of you."
"It's a good thing you had that nap on the way back from Springfield," Roger said as he rose from the couch with Holly in his arms.
Her arms went around his neck as he settled one arm under her bent knees and one arm across her back. "I want to make love with you until we both pass out from exhaustion in each other's arms," she said as he carried her to the bedroom.
"If that's what you want, then I'm your man," Roger said as he laid Holly on the bed, then stretched out beside her.
She had been unbuttoning his cuffs and had just begun to pull the shirt from his body, but she stopped when his words registered. "You really are, aren't you?" she said, looking up at him with wonder and joy.
"Afraid this is all a dream?" Roger asked, helpfully shucking his shirt and tossing it aside, where it landed on the floor beside the bed.
"I've been dreaming of this for a long time," Holly admitted as she stretched out, pulling Roger down to her.
"It's not a dream," he promised softly as he went to work on the buttons of her pajama top. She sat up to help him take it off, and once it was on the floor with his shirt, he gently laid her back on the bed and followed her down, kissing her lips, then her chin, her throat, down to her breasts, soft moans coming from both of them. Roger's hand covered one breast while his mouth descended on the other, kissing, licking, nuzzling the soft mound as he gently caressed her other breast. When he drew her nipple into his mouth and sucked, Holly arched into him, her hands flying to the back of his head to hold him there as she closed her eyes and just let herself feel it all: the touch of his hands, the heat of his breath, the warmth of his mouth, their moans and murmurs of pleasure. He kissed his way over to her other breast, covering that one with his mouth now while his hand fondled her other breast. Holly stroked his bare shoulders and upper back with one hand while holding him to her breast with her other hand, tunneling her fingers into his hair as she arched into him more deeply.
Roger continued mapping her body, kissing his way down to her stomach, dipping his tongue into her navel and making her shudder. His hands gripped the sides of her elastic-waisted pajama bottoms and he pulled them down. She lifted her hips to help him, and after he had removed the pajama bottoms, when he moved back up the bed to divest her of the white cotton panties she wore, she unbuttoned and unzipped his pants and gently tugged them down. He hissed out a breath between his teeth when her fingers lightly brushed the bulge tenting the front of his boxers.
After Roger had kicked the pants away, Holly slipped her fingers beneath the waistband of his boxers and pulled them down. When his erection sprang free, she reached out to caress his hips, caressing her way from his hips to his shaft after a moment. Her hands gently encircled his swollen cock, stroking him gently from base to tip. She felt him pulse in her hands, heard his breath hitch as he moaned her name. She smiled as her eyes met his before letting go of his cock to stroke her way up his torso. He kicked his boxers off, yanked off his socks (having toed off his shoes before laying Holly down on the bed), then reached for her panties, drawing them down and off her body.
Both totally naked now, Roger's gaze swept Holly from head to toe. "You are so beautiful," he said softly, reverently.
"You make me feel beautiful," she replied softly.
Then he nuzzled her hipbone while stroking her thighs with his palms, moving over and kissing his way down her left thigh to her knee to her calf to her ankle, her instep and down to her toes. Then he shifted and, starting with the toes on her right foot, kissed his way up her right leg.
When he reached her right hipbone, he knelt between her parted legs and then lowered his mouth to her center, lightly grazing her sex with his tongue before gently parting her lips to slide a finger inside her, eliciting a moan of pleasure from deep within her chest.
And then he was making love to her with his lips and tongue and fingers, adding a second finger to the first pumping in and out of her, stroking her inner walls, and alternating between stroking her clit with his thumb and his tongue. Holly gave herself up to the sensations, focused completely on the way Roger was making her feel as he worshipped her with his mouth and fingers. She writhed under his ministrations, moaning, "Oh, Roger, yes," repeatedly, feeling the peak approaching, and then Roger curled his fingers inside her, hitting just the right spot, at the same time he flicked his tongue over her clit just right, and then Holly was soaring, sailing, shouting out Roger's name in ecstasy as her orgasm surged through her entire body with the power and intensity of a tsunami.
Roger felt Holly spasm hard around his fingers and smiled against her clit, licking the juices from her opening with long, slow strokes as she came down from her orgasmic high. When she stopped trembling, he gave her clit a soft, lingering kiss, then kissed his way back up her body. When he kissed her mouth again, Holly could taste herself on his tongue. He pulled back from the kiss just enough to touch his forehead to hers. "I love the way you taste," he said huskily.
Her hair was well-mussed and spread out on the pillowcase around her. She had finally caught her breath and was looking at him with undisguised love and a hearty dose of lust. She pulled him down to her again, his chest hair rubbing against her nipples as she locked her arms around his neck. She could feel his arousal against her thigh as he shifted on top of her. "I need you inside me," she said breathlessly. "I need to be as close to you as I can possibly be."
Knowing she was more then ready for him and wanting the same thing she did, Roger looked deep into Holly's eyes as he slowly slid into her until he was fully sheathed inside her, and they both stilled, savoring the perfection of the moment, the feel of her body stretching to accommodate him and gripping him so intimately, the feel of him filling her completely. "God, Holly, you feel incredible," Roger breathed.
"So do you," Holly replied as she wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him as deep inside her as possible. Her arms were around his neck, and his arms were braced on either side of her head on the pillow. She gently pulled his head down to hers and kissed him deeply, tenderly, running her fingers through his hair before letting both of her hands fall once more to his shoulders. When they broke the kiss, Roger rested his forehead against Holly's for a few seconds, not wanting to rush for even one second. Her hands roamed restlessly up and down his shoulders, biceps, and back as she reveled in finally being able to touch him again as much as she wanted and for as long as she wanted.
When he raised his head, his gaze found Holly's, and they stared deeply, intensely into each other's eyes. Roger began to move, thrusting slowly, making love to Holly with long, deep strokes. She raised her hips to meet him thrust for thrust, her hands no longer restless but still in constant motion, stroking, touching, caressing him everywhere she could reach. Their eyes remained locked as they moved together in a slow, synchronized rhythm, focusing only on each other and their joining as one.
"God, yes, there," Holly said breathlessly, arching to meet him again and letting out a deep, ecstatic moan when he hit that same spot inside her again. "More," she panted.
He nuzzled her neck, inhaling her scent, pressing several small kisses to her throat before capturing her lips with his own. She responded to his kiss eagerly, then trailed kisses down to his chin and throat as they continued slowly rocking together. "Oh, Holly," Roger groaned as he found her eyes once more, "you feel so good." He saw the love, the trust, the raw desire in her gaze, and felt it in her kisses and her touches.
"It's been so long," Holly panted as she clung to him as tightly as she could, "so very long. Too long." He interrupted her with a kiss. "Mmm," she murmured against his lips before pulling back. "You feel so good inside me, and I love you so much."
"I love you too," Roger said before Holly buried her face against his shoulder, kissing a path all across his collarbone and to the base of his throat, where she felt his pulse pounding.
Making love with Roger had never been like this for Holly before. His touch had never been this sure, this confident. His kisses had never been this reverent, this powerful. His moans and cries of pleasure had never been this passionate. He filled her so completely, and he took her to a point where there was no more him and her and they were one in a way they had never been before.
She held onto him so tightly, moved with him in perfect synchronicity, and gave herself to him completely and beautifully, all of the love, need, and passion she felt surging from the depths of her soul into the depths of his, holding nothing back.
Roger had lived on the memories of making love to Holly from their night at Cliff House over three years ago to the last time they were together before tonight almost two years ago, and this lovemaking was vastly different from all those other times. Holly had never been so responsive before, or so giving. Her body embraced him everywhere and in every way, her arms and legs wrapped tightly around him, holding him as close, as deeply and tightly, as humanly possible, her silken walls gripping his shaft with each thrust he made and she arched to meet, her moans and gasps of pleasure and breathless exclamations of his name mingling with cries of "Oh god, yes," echoing through his brain, her kisses hungry and deep.
And Roger knew why this time was different: this time, Holly was giving him all of herself. He had all of her at last; all of her love, trust, heart, soul, and all of the fire inside her, for he knew her, knew that she couldn't make love with him this way if she didn't trust him completely, if she didn't love him completely, with everything in her.
And so Roger gave Holly all of himself, holding nothing back and knowing, with a certainty he'd never felt before, that this time, she wouldn't leave him, she wouldn't walk away and destroy him again.
And Holly felt the difference in the way Roger made love to her. She knew that she had his love and his trust, his heart and soul, everything he was and everything he would ever be, and this time, she would hold onto it, hold onto him, and love and cherish him the way she knew, with a certainty she'd never felt before, that he would love and cherish her. This time, what they had really would last forever.
"Oh!" Holly gasped, her chest hitching.
Roger knew she was close. He switched to shorter, shallower strokes, kissing her deeply as he slipped a hand between their bodies to find her clit. She broke the kiss to cry out when his fingers brushed the sensitive bundle of nerves. He saw her eyes widen and darken and breathlessly rasped, "Come for me, Holly."
"Yes," she moaned as she felt her whole body tighten. "Oh...oh, Roger...Roger!" Then she was climaxing around him powerfully, her inner muscles contracting rhythmically around Roger's shaft as he continued thrusting into her.
Then every one of Roger's muscles tensed and he cried out, "Holly, yes, Holly!" and Holly felt him come deep inside her. They lay there panting, coming down from their highs, Roger's face buried in the hollow of Holly's throat so she could feel his breath on her skin, Holly's arms wrapped around his shoulders and her legs still wrapped around his hips. Roger lifted his head to look at Holly, his softening erection still inside her, wanting to remain connected to her for as long as possible, his weight supported on his elbows and arms. He tucked his hands under her beneath her shoulders, pressing his body fully to hers.
Their bodies were fused together, his heart hammered against hers, their very souls were intertwined.
Holly was looking at him with a combination of bliss and tenderness. She framed his face in her hands and whispered, "I love you," before lifting her head to kiss him gently.
When they broke the kiss, Roger tenderly brushed Holly's hair off her forehead and looked at her with such love and such wonder it stole the breath she had just regained. "I feel..." he began, trailing off as he was momentarily overcome by emotion.
Holly clasped her hands behind his neck. "What do you feel?" she asked softly.
"All the walls are gone," he replied. "You're not holding anything back. You love me like you've never loved me before."
She smiled up at him. "Yes, I do," she said. She felt him slip out of her, and he shifted to lie on his side next to her. Holly moved with him, lying on her side and snuggling against him, their arms still around each other, their chests touching, their legs tangling together under the covers. "I'm finally home. You're my home. It's taken a lifetime to get here, but now that I have, nothing and no one is going to make me leave you ever again." She traced a fingertip down his cheek, then his jawline. "For the first time in my life, I feel at peace, because I am finally, finally where I belong. The right place, the right time, the right man, the right life."
Roger kissed her, tightening his arms around her. "Have you thought about where you want to live this right life?" he asked.
"Wherever you are," Holly replied instantly, her hands slipping just a bit lower, to the middle of his back. "But I take it you mean the big question of whether to stay in Bay City, or go back to Springfield."
"Yes," Roger admitted.
"Have you thought about where you want to live?" she asked, rubbing his back.
"With you."
"That's a given. I meant location."
"I know that Chrissy and Kevin and Jason are in Springfield, and so is Peter," Roger said. "But so is a lot of baggage."
"A lot of narrow minds and disapproving, judgmental people," Holly agreed.
"You own KBAY now, and I'm settled at Hudson Enterprises, with Yahoo going national by the end of the year," Roger continued.
"And Michael's here," Holly said. "And Donna. Rachel. Frankie and Cass. Our friends who are supportive of us and who don't judge us for our past mistakes. I think there's really only one answer."
They said it in unison: "Bay City."
Roger smiled. "You know what I'd really like?" he asked. At her expectant look he said, "I'd like us to buy a house, to have a house together that we make into a real home. Not a mansion. That's just more bad memories for me."
"No, not a mansion," Holly agreed. "I never really liked the Spaulding mansion, even when you weren't living there, and I've been to Rachel's, and it's nice, but she has a sentimental attachment to the place. She used to walk by it on her way to and from school every day when she was growing up, and when she met and fell in love with Mac, she told him about it, and he bought it for her, for them. And she has all those kids and stepkids and grandkids running around all over the place. We need a place that's big enough for Blake, and Ross, and for the boys, and any future grandchildren Blake and Ross might give us, for holidays and visits, but not a mansion."
"Maybe a split-level ranch, three bedrooms?" Roger asked.
"And a basement," Holly said. "If it's a finished basement, maybe we could make it into a playroom for Kevin and Jason and any future grandchildren." Roger beamed at Holly. "What?" she asked.
"We're lying here talking about buying a house together and fixing up a playroom for our grandchildren," he replied. "Do you realize what we're doing, Holly? We're making plans for our future. Our future!" he exclaimed happily.
"Get used to it," Holly replied, rubbing her foot slowly up and down his calf beneath the covers. "All my future plans include you."
She said it so matter-of-factly, so naturally. "You're really mine," he said in awe.
"Completely," Holly said, leaning in for a kiss. "In every way." Another kiss. "For the rest of my life." Another kiss, this one deeper and lingering. She shifted so that she was lying fully on top of him, grinding herself against him, feeling him respond in the way he began to grow hard beneath her, in the way his tongue probed every nook and cranny of her mouth. She pulled back from the kiss and he actually pouted slightly, which she found all kinds of adorable. "It's my turn," she said huskily as she shifted again, straddling his waist, her backside brushing against his erection for a second in the process, making him even harder than he already was.
Then she trailed open-mouthed kisses across his chest, laving each of his nipples in turn before moving lower, kissing and caressing her way down the center of his chest, both his ribcages one after the other, his belly, his navel, the crease where his hip met his thigh, then the crease where his other hip met his other thigh. Roger fisted his hands in the sheets, on sensory overload as Holly kissed and nuzzled his thigh before stroking it, her breath warm, her kisses wet and soft, her hair tickling his skin. "You're magnificent," he declared breathlessly.
Holly looked up from his calf, which she had been kissing and was now caressing. "I'm just getting started," she said in a voice dripping with so much arousal, it made every nerve and synapse in Roger's body jump. She resumed her journey down to his toes, then, as he had done with her earlier, moved to his other foot, working her way up his calf, his knee, and his thigh. His legs were spread wide enough apart for her to kneel between them, which she did now, and his eyes followed hers to his rock hard cock.
Holly wrapped her hand around the base of Roger's cock and gently stroked him from base to tip once, twice, three times.
Roger instinctively thrust his hips into her hand as a low, ecstatic moan rumbled up from deep in his chest.
Then she lowered her head and swirled her tongue around his swollen tip, and he bucked up off the bed shouting, "Oh, god!" before she soothed him back down with her palm stroking his side. When he was flat on his back once more and panting, she wrapped her lips around his tip.
Her lips, her mouth, her tongue teased and stroked and caressed him, and it was both so incredibly tender and so unbelievably intense that he felt like he was going to break out of his skin. Her hand still gently grasped the base of his shaft as she slid him in and out of her hot, wet mouth.
"Holly...Holly...oh god, honey...wait...stop," Roger panted.
He slid out of her mouth when she lifted her head to look up at him, bemused. "You don't want-?" she began to ask.
"I want," he said breathlessly. "But...later. Right now I want to be inside you again so much."
Holly moved up Roger's body, once more wrapping her palm around his length, stroking her clit with his tip, closing her eyes and moaning at the sensations doing that made her feel, and then she took him inside, sinking down on his shaft until he was buried to the hilt inside her.
She opened her eyes to find Roger looking up at her, his hands stroking down her back to her backside to her hips around to her sides. Holding his gaze, she began to move, slowly, sliding almost all the way off him before sinking back down, rotating her hips against his pelvis with each downward stroke. He slid his hands to her hips as she braced her palms flat on his chest, and he settled into her rhythm, caressing her hips and thrusting up as deeply into her as he could every time she sank down on him, drawing primal moans of pleasure from her.
Holly circled her hips with every thrust of Roger's pelvis into her, their movements slow. Their cries of pleasure mingled together, and when Roger heard Holly make that familiar throaty noise, he slid a hand over her stomach muscles, which were quivering with her impending orgasm, and then his hand was between their bodies, applying gentle pressure to her clit, which sent Holly over the edge again, her back arched, her head thrown back, eyes closed, her legs clenched around him, mirroring her inner muscles clenching around his cock, as she joyously chanted his name. The convulsions of her climax sent him hurtling headlong into the abyss after her, exultantly crying out her name as his whole body contracted, white stars flaring brightly behind his eyelids, his muscles and limbs quaking, and she felt him release inside her with a rush of warmth as he cried out in ecstasy.
Holly collapsed on Roger's chest, both of them gasping for breath, a fine sheen of sweat covering their bodies. Roger ran his fingers through Holly's hair, lovingly brushing the damp strands off her forehead. She caught hold of his hand as he lowered it and pressed a kiss to the back of his hand. Then they settled themselves in each other's arms, Roger's hand stroking lazily up and down Holly's back.
They were both quiet for a few minutes, and then Roger shifted, turning onto his side to look at Holly. "For me, it's security," he said. "You feel a peace you've never felt before. I feel a security that I've never felt before. For the first time in our lives, I'm secure about us, and secure in your love. I know that I'm the only one you want-"
"You are," Holly interjected, resting her hands on his chest.
"-and I know that you're never going to leave me again," he continued.
"I'm not," she vowed.
"-and I know that you love me and trust me as much I love you and trust you. And that's how I know that we're gonna get it right this time, Hol," he concluded.
"We are," she agreed before leaning in to meet his kiss, her arms moving up and around his neck.
A low, loud rumble of thunder cracked the air with a rolling boom, startling Holly out of the kiss as she jolted in surprise in Roger's arms. He rubbed her back soothingly as lightning flashed outside the balcony doors, briefly illuminating the bedroom. "Are you okay?" Roger asked, still rubbing her back.
"Yeah. I just wasn't expecting that is all," Holly replied. Sheets of rain poured from the black night sky then, pounding hard against the balcony, the balcony doors, and the hotel roof.
Roger looked over his shoulder outside the balcony doors. "It's really coming down out there," he said before turning back to face Holly once more.
She smiled at him, recovered from the temporary shock of the sudden storm outside, then moved to lie on top of him again. Leaning down so that her face was close to his, she looked into his eyes as he wrapped his arms around her and softly sang, "'Rain falls angry on the tin roof, as we lie awake in my bed...And you're my survival, you're my living proof, my love is alive and not dead.'"
She would have continued singing if Roger hadn't tugged her to him then to kiss her. When he broke the kiss, he said softly, happily, "You serenaded me."
"I told you I would when it was just the two of us," she reminded him with a smile, tracing the outline of his smile with her fingertip. "And the moment was too perfect to let it pass, with the rain outside and us here in bed in each other's arms. Besides, it's our song."
"It was so hard that night-" Roger began.
"Yes, I remember," Holly said with a smirk.
Roger smirked back at her, then grew serious again. "I was going to say it was difficult to walk away from you that night. I wanted you so much."
"I wanted you too," Holly replied just as seriously. "I wanted this." She gestured between and around them. "But that night, we wouldn't have had this. So I'm glad we waited. It was worth it." She moved closer and murmured, "You were worth it" against his mouth before her lips met his.
When the need for oxygen forced them to break the kiss, once they caught their breath again, Roger looked at Holly, his eyes shining with a happiness she had never seen in them before, and she knew her own eyes were a mirror of his. "This is amazing," he said. "To think, I can do this whenever I want to." He cupped her cheek in his hand, running the pad of his thumb lightly over her lower lip.
"And I can do this whenever I want to," Holly replied, leaning in for another kiss. As they kissed, one of her hands slid down to goose his backside, making him jump and pull away from the kiss.
"Did you just goose me?" he asked, surprised. The only reply Holly could make was to laugh. "You did," he said as a smile bloomed on his face. "Oh, you want to play, huh? Well, I can do this anytime I want to, as well," and he moved over her and began tickling her.
"ACK!" she shouted, and then she dissolved into helpless giggles as Roger tickled her. He knew all of her ticklish spots, and made sure to get every single one of them over and over. "Okay...okay..." she gasped after a couple of minutes. "You've...had your...fun."
Roger was laughing now too. He and Holly had never been this playful together, even when they were young and had first known each other. He liked it.
Holly writhed beneath him, still laughing, reveling in the playfulness of the moment, something they had never had together before. She liked it.
He stopped tickling her and looked at her lying there beneath him, panting, her face flushed, her eyes sparkling. "What?" she asked breathlessly as she adjusted the covers around them.
He smiled. "You," he said. "Us. I'm so happy."
"I am too," Holly said. "This is our time, Roger. This is what we've waited for, what we've fought for. This is us."
"This is us," Roger echoed. He tucked Holly's hair behind her ear. "Love doesn't seem like a big enough word for everything I feel for you, but it's all I have."
"It's enough," Holly assured him, rubbing his back and pulling him closer to her. "It's everything."
"Yeah," Roger whispered before leaning down to kiss her eyelids, after which he rained kisses all over her face before fusing his mouth to hers once more.
Then they made love again, slowly, tenderly, until Holly climaxed around Roger, happily crying out his name as intense waves of pleasure washed through her entire body. Roger followed her over the edge, surging into her hot and hard as he moaned her name aloud. Afterward, Roger laid his head on Holly's chest and listened to her heartbeat as they both came down from their highs. Holly held Roger, stroking his hair.
She broke the silence after a long moment. "I just realized something."
"What's that?" Roger asked, lifting his head to look at her.
"I get to wake up in your arms in the morning," she replied with a smile.
"You do," Roger said, smiling at the smile on Holly's face at this realization as he shifted so that he was spooning her. She settled back against him with a contented sigh, and he kissed her shoulder, then her hair as he settled himself against her back. "And every morning after that," he added.
"And every morning after that," she echoed, turning her head for one more kiss before they settled down in each other's arms, sleepy and sated.
They fell asleep a few minutes later, both with smiles on their faces, and both feeling a contentment deep in their souls that they had never felt before and that they knew this time would last.