He didn't have any intention of falling asleep, but her soft warmth resting against him so trustingly made him drift off. He woke a short time later in the best possible way. She was covering his chest with feather light kisses. Noticing that she'd been successful in waking him, she reached up and kissed him softly on his lips.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Carson," she smiled.

After throwing a surprised glance to the clock, he rubbed her back, still delighting in this new ability to touch her whenever he liked.

"I suppose we had better wake up for the day," he said with an exaggerated sigh.

"I'm starving," she said.

His stomach growled in response and they shared a smile while tossing on a minimum of clothing.

They muddled through making a meal together, laughing through their mistakes and taking plenty of time for wandering hands and questing lips. They both exclaimed over the exquisite meal, unaware that their mood and the fact that they hadn't eaten for many hours was giving the food its exceptional flavor.

When they were finished, she stood and kissed him on the forehead, saying, "I'm going to have the longest bath of my adult life."

He started to smile, but frowned as a thought occurred to him.

"You're feeling all right, aren't you? Nothing's hurting, is it?" he inquired, concerned, but no longer shy when discussing these intimate things.

"I feel wonderful," she reassured him. "I just want a long, lazy bath."

"All right," he said cheerily. "I'll clean up here," he paused, "and then I'll join you."

Quite suddenly, she lost the ability to speak. So she simply stepped over to him, leaned on the arms of his chair, and kissed him thoroughly. His hand caressed her bottom as she walked away to the bathroom, leaving him to clean the kitchen as quickly as he was able.

He paused outside the bathroom door. He took a moment to be grateful once more for his new life. He knew without a doubt that he could walk into this bathroom without needing permission. And his wife, gloriously naked in the bathtub, would greet him with a smile, telling him without words that she'd been waiting for him.

Which was precisely what happened. He rolled up his sleeves before kneeling next to her. She reached up a hand to lovingly caress his earlobe. He kissed the inside of her wrist before he reached for the sponge. Leaning her gently forward, he reached for the sponge and began washing her back.

She sighed and rested her head against her knees. It was heaven, feeling his attentive hands on the sensitive skin of her back. He washed her back with the sponge, then used the soapy bubbles to slide his fingers along her muscles, rubbing and pressing the moans out of her.

Her breasts ached and the throbbing between her thighs was becoming so strong that she had to press her thighs together to assuage the pain of it.

There was a world of things he wanted to do to her, to try with her. He found it difficult to imagine that there was a time in his life when there was anything more important than discovering what this woman liked. He pressed her back to lay with her head resting on the edge of the tub. He soaped his hands generously as she watched him drowsily. His hands were slick with soap when he firmly fondled her breasts, the tops of their pale globes just out of the water. Gasping, she flung her hand out of the water to grasp his shoulder.

Smiling, he left one hand on her breast and trailed the other down her chest and belly to caress the inside of her thigh.

"I want to feel you," he said. He was fairly confident that she would say yes, but the female body was very new to him, and he wanted to make sure that there wasn't some unknown reason to withhold his touch.

"Yes. Please," she murmured while trying to position herself closer to his hand.

Blindly, for he couldn't see through the soapy water, he carefully moved his fingers, listening and watching for her responses. She moaned low in the back of her throat when he traced her outer labia with one finger. When he slid closer to the top of those lips, she would lift her hips with a whimper, making him explore the area more deeply. There was a small, tight knot of flesh that made her yelp when he passed his fingers over it. He smiled in triumph when he found it. Until that moment, he hadn't been entirely sure that his old friends had been telling the truth about its existence. He concentrated his efforts there for the moment. He found that direct, firm pressure on it made her brow furrow, but when he would press on the side, she would nearly sob. And after several minutes of this attention, he began passing his fingertips lightly over it, first slowly, then with increasing speed. Her moans and cries drove him on. While he was an incredibly quick study, he looked forward to the time when he would be able to see the area he was attending clearly.

If he hadn't been wearing a shirt, her fingernails would have drawn blood at his shoulder. Afraid that he would stop, she felt that it was vitally important to say,

"I – I'm going to –"

"Yes," he whispered, almost groaned. "Come for me. Now."

She screamed her climax just as he bent his head take her nipple into his mouth. She had to thrust her hand under the water to clutch desperately at his wrist, begging him to still his hand.

After endless moments, her eyes fluttered open. When she was able to focus once more, she directed her loving gaze to him.

He kissed her cheek before stating gravely,

"That was the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed. And I am a fool for not asking you to marry me the first day I met you."

Still feeling as though she were floating back down to earth, she held his cheek in her palm.

"I love you, Charles. Please don't be sad for one solitary moment. Everything," she sighed and closed her eyes, "is as it should be."