Eventually, though, all the teasing got too much for even the Doctor's control. There was a very dramatic moment when things changed from being slow and leisurely to okay we seriously need to fuck now. And 'very dramatic,' for them, was not very dramatic at all but really rather humorous.

The Doctor lifted his hips so quickly that Rose bounced into the air a little, and he immediately said, "Right! Stay just like that, one moment!" before wriggling out of his boxer-briefs. His trousers had been discarded a considerable amount of time before.

So, Rose – rolling her eyes as she hovered over him whilst he removed the last barrier between them – passed the time by idly glancing around the room mumbling, "Where on earth did you fling my knickers earlier? I'll never be able to find them now."

"Good," he grunted, then grabbed hold of her hips and raised his eyebrows. "Right. Ready?"

Rose rolled her eyes again, which made the Doctor huff, because she suspected that he knew that it wasn't exactly the best sign of a successfully seduced woman if she was rolling her eyes every five minutes during sex, and not in the rolling back in pleasure sort of way. But really, he did ask stupid questions. "Been ready for over an hour, Doctor, you've just been dallying around with foreplay for god knows how long – oh!"

He grinned as he made her gasp out in shock and pleasure at the end of her sentence, pulling her down onto him as he thrust up at the right moment. "Just checking," he said teasingly.

"Very…polite of you," she panted out, starting to move atop him.

"Well, I'm renowned for it," he joked.

"I reckon you must be renowned for a lot of things…"

"Like what?"

"Like this," she said, grinding herself onto him with tiny figure-eight movements.

The Doctor groaned then asked smugly, "Are you saying that you think I'm good at this?"

"You know you are."

"Luck."

"Hmm?" She lifted herself up, teasing the both of them as she slowly slid back down.

"Jesus, Rose."

"What were you saying about luck?"

"What?"

"You said 'luck.'"

"Oh right, yeah, I was saying that it's just good old fashioned good luck, that."

"What is?"

"That I'm good at this."

She arched her eyebrow. It was an impressive feat that she could fix him with such a disbelieving look at such a moment, seeing as he was quite insistently driving his hips up every time her movement encased him inside her.

"So this isn't the result of years and years of practice?"

"Not really, no."

She reached down and put her hands on the floor next to his shoulders, changing the angle. He playfully latched onto her left nipple with his teeth for a moment, and she moaned. "So," she gasped out, eager to continue her interesting line of inquiry, "I'm your first in how long?"

"Are we really talking about this now?" he asked in bewilderment. Last time, the first time, they'd said nothing during their passion. Well, almost nothing. He was fairly certain there'd been a few curse words and the groaning of names. But most definitely not a fully-fledged conversation about his sexual history, or lack thereof.

"We really are," she nodded, started to giggle.

Blimey, he loved her laugh. "Seeing as you've eclipsed any previous encounters," he said smoothly; she rolled her eyes again, "I can't possibly recall in this moment how long ago it was."

"Crafty," she grinned, leaning down to kiss him.

He took the opportunity of her being distracted to roll them over, trapping her beneath him. He grabbed her hands and held them either side of her head. She broke their kiss, but not before tugging hard on his bottom lip in recompense for his manoeuvring.

He moaned against her mouth then transferred both her hands to one of his, gripping her wrists tightly above her head as he used his other hand to grab beneath her left knee. He urged her leg around his waist and she gasped as he slid deeper into her with each thrust.

"Fuck," Rose groaned. "Just – yes – oh god."

"Rose, Rose. Can you - "

"Yeah - almost - "

He let go of her wrists and reached between them, and after a few seconds she was shouting out as she came.

Burying his face in her neck, he helplessly mumbled, "Rose, Rose, Rose." As she clenched around him, he stilled his movements, savouring the feeling. Panting into his ear, her hands moved to his arse, urging him to finish.

"Come, Doctor," she whispered, squeezing his bum. "Now."

The Doctor pulled back slightly, thrust once, twice, three times more, then grunted through his release, biting into her shoulder.

He stayed there, softening inside her whilst his weight pressed her into the cushions further. "Can I just stay here for a sec," he mumbled, suddenly exhausted.

Rose giggled, and kissed his forehead, letting him rest his head on her chest. "Yeah."

"That was amazing," he murmured next, "Even better than last time."

"Yep," she sighed happily.

He lifted his head and looked into her eyes. "I love doing this with you."

Her chest tightened. "Me too."

The Doctor swallowed thickly and, hesitantly, he said, "We could make this work."

"Doctor - "

"We could," he insisted. He reached a hand up to brush aside her hair, tucking a few strands behind her ear. "I almost lost you today. Puts things into perspective."

"You almost got stuck with me, first," she retorted. "Almost lost everything else but me."

He bit his lip. "I almost wish - "

"What?"

"That we could – have a life – you know. Together. Without losing who we are and all we love. I wish…look, we could do this. Here, on the TARDIS. Live here and be – together." He gulped. "Well? Say something."

A slow smile came across her face. "Yeah."

He sighed in relief, then shuffled down so that his head was pillowed on her chest again. "I love this."

"What?"

"Your heart. Hearing it beating. You're so alive, Rose Tyler."

"You're getting soppy," she teased gently, running her hand through his hair. "Think you need to get some sleep."

"Shall we go to bed, then?" he murmured, his mouth moving against her bare skin.

"Yeah."

"Would you like to stay with me tonight?"

"Yeah," she beamed. "I'd like that."

He shifted off her, and reached over to his jacket to fish out a packet of tissues from his pocket. He handed her a couple to clean up, then stood, closing the TARDIS doors and moving over to the console to transport the TARDIS into the vortex.

Rose giggled, watching him pilot the TARDIS naked as she stood up and wandered over to him.

"What you giggling at, Rose Tyler?" he asked, turning his head and waggling his eyebrows as she sneaked an arm around his waist.

"You. You look silly."

"Charming." He leant towards her and kissed her nose.

"I can practically see my fingerprints on your bum," Rose commented, moving her arms around his neck. She lifted herself up on tiptoes and leant in, teasingly murmuring, "Wasn't too rough for you, was I?"

The Doctor chuckled, then nodded towards her shoulder, where his teeth had sunk into her skin. "Could ask you the same thing. That's gonna bruise."

"Best choose my clothes carefully when we visit Mum, then. Make sure she doesn't see that you've corrupted me," she grinned, then released him to start walking down the corridor.

He hurried after her. "She's going to kill me," he realised aloud, gulping audibly. "Your mother is going to kill me."

"She won't find out," she said. "How would she know?"

"She – ugh, I don't know. Mother's intuition?"

"She'll be fine."

"No, no. No. She'll kill me. No, worse than that, she'll - "

"She'll be fine," Rose repeated. "I don't make a habit of talking to her about the sex I have with my - " she hesitated for a word that wouldn't make the Doctor run a mile, like 'boyfriends' might well do, "- significant others. And even if she does find out, she'll see I'm happy and she won't care."

"Yeah, right. That may have been the case with you and Mickey," he grunted, wincing as he said her former boyfriend's name in this context. "But to her, I'm an alien. And I'm nine hundred and one years old. And she hates me."

"She doesn't hate you," Rose sighed, pushing open the Doctor's bedroom door.

"She does," he said, following her in and closing it.

Rose made her way to his bed and slipped under the duvet, making herself comfy. The Doctor moved to the other side and did the same.

"She really doesn't," Rose insisted. "In fact, whether she knows we do this or not, she considers you part of the family anyway, all right?"

"She - " he started, then paused, taking in what Rose just said. "Wait. Really?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Then, he seemed to realise that he looked more touched than horrified, so he quickly pulled a face. Rose giggled, seeing right through him. She knew that it meant a lot to him, having a sort-of-family again.

"Anyway, I'm tired. Let's sleep?" Rose suggested hopefully.

"Yeah," he whispered distractedly, lost in thought. He pulled her in close and she soon drifted off. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, he tried to sort through his feelings.

::

"Rose," he whispered. "Roooose."

Rose mumbled something indistinguishable into her pillow.

"Rose, wake up. Please."

She groaned and lifted her head. "What?"

"Can you move over a bit? I've got pins and needles in my arm," he smiled sheepishly.

Rose giggled and rolled over, so that she was no longer trapping his arm beneath her. "Didn't know Time Lords could get pins and needles," she said, whilst he stretched his arms up and yawned. She admired his torso as he stretched, then grinned when she noticed the slight tenting of the duvet. "Didn't know Time Lords got morning erections, either," she added.

The Doctor growled at her and wound his arms around her back, hauling her close to him, the covers the only thing between their bodies. He nuzzled her neck and nibbled at her jaw and soon Rose was scrambling to get the duvet out of the way to feel him hot and hard against her. She rolled onto her back and pulled him atop her. "Best not let it go to waste," she teased, tongue touching the corner of her mouth.

He trailed his fingers down her side to her hip, his thumb softly stroking her skin. "It wouldn't've gone to waste," he grinned back.

"Ooh, didn't know you did that sort of thing."

"Weelll, your species highly recommended it as a way of - " he paused, moving his hand to the space between her legs, "- dealing with stress. And frustration."

"Do you feel stressed and frustrated often, Doctor?" she smiled slackly, groaning when he slid two fingers inside her. She reached down and took his cock in her hand, and he bucked against her.

"You have that effect on me, yeah," he admitted, before dropping his mouth to hers, kissing her insistently.

When he released her, she grumbled something about worrying about her morning breath, but he ignored her, kissing his way down her neck then right back up to her mouth again. He pulled back, resting his forehead against hers as she panted for breath, and held her gaze as he enclosed his free hand around hers, guiding the pressure and pace until she had it perfect, so perfect that he had to let go of her hand to grab the pillow beside her head, clenching it tight.

In his distraction, the hand between her legs stilled, so she batted it away and positioned his cock at her entrance, teasing her folds with his tip.

"Fucking – fuck, Rose," gasped the Doctor, and then he slid inside.

"Mmm, third time's the charm," Rose giggled happily. "No going back now, you know."

"Oh – yes – we, uh, we decided that three times was inexcusable, didn't we?" he groaned out as he drove into her.

"Yep. Kind of inevitable, though. I mean, all these temptations, all the positions we've got left to try - "

"Ye-yeah, but Rose, how are you even still talking? That won't do." He seized the underside of her knees and pushed her legs towards her chest, driving deeper. She grabbed the headboard behind her with both hands and groaned, and he grinned in success. Both of them were soon so consumed by their activity that their conversation was reduced to incoherent moans of approval and filthy words of encouragement.

Needless to say, the fourth and fifth times later that day firmly cemented the idea that they were simply not going to be able to give this up.