On Sunday afternoon, when they'd arrived back in New York City and the limo had taken them all home, the only thing Adam wanted to do was wrap his arms around his wife. If possible, he 'd prefer her naked and dreamy-eyed but he'd settle for her clothed and snoring too. He always knew when she'd been out on the town with her girls because any time Lindsay had any kind of booze when she went to sleep it off she snored like a gutted boar.

The very idea he was looking forward to going home to his very hungover snoring wife - no almost-wife, he told himself - proved to Adam just how much he loved Lindsay.

As quietly as he could, Adam unlocked the door of the apartment in Waverly Place and dragged his suitcase behind him. He could only shake his head when he saw the trail of clothes from the kitchen to the bedroom. Another habit of Lindsay's when she'd been partying with her friends was to come home and start stripping off in the kitchen so by the time she landed in bed she was down to just her perfume.

He left his suitcase by the kitchen table and moved silently as a ghost towards their bedroom, following the low humming buzz; Adam shoved open the door and could only laugh. Lindsay was indeed hungover, sawing them off like a champ while she lay sprawled like a starfish on the bed and as predicted, she was wearing only her engagement ring, earrings and her nail-polish. Very pretty nail-polish, he noted, as he removed his own clothes so he lay naked beside her on the bed. Adam stroked his hand over her hair, studied her face as her lush mouth gaped open while the most horrendous noise escaped.

With a careful touch he stroked the smooth, soft flesh of her back and sighed softly. It was all Lindsay needed, apparently, to be rousted from her deep slumber. Her face wrinkled up like a child's, cranky at having her naptime disturbed, her hand coming up to touch her face. When it bumped into Adam's shoulder, she used all of her energy to peel open her right eye and squint.

'Adam? Baby that you? You're really you and not a dream?' she whispered in a hoarse voice.

'I'm me, real as real gets, my love,' Adam whispered back.

'I dreamed you were here, but you weren't you, you were...' Lindsay trailed off, somehow found the wherewithal to twist to her side and open the other eye. 'You were like some big movie star or rock star and just came by to give me an autograph.'

'No groupie sex?'

'You said I was too good for groupie sex.'

Adam laughed softly, then let his gaze track down to her belly, where she had a wad of gauze taped over her belly-button. 'That's it?'

'What's it?'

'That.' He poked his fingertip lightly at her tummy and wasn't surprised when she winced a little. 'Still tender?'

'A bit, yeah. And before you ask, I want the first time you see it to be our wedding night, my love.'

'Okay. Hey I forgot something.'

'What?'

'This.'

Lindsay's very tired insides fluttered when her husband - whoops, her almost husband - laid his lips against hers. It helped with the hangover; she didn't get headache hangovers just she felt like she'd had her head wrapped in cotton before sticking it in a toaster oven and felt achy all over. She sighed deeply and moaned into the kiss, felt her body respond against his. She loved how he made her feel, so sexy and desirable with just a single kiss like that. There was nothing on earth like it; Lindsay hooked her leg over his hip and arched towards him.

'Oh, baby,' Adam groaned in reflex, his blood beginning to bubble madly. 'Lindsay, you sure you feel up for this?'

'Yeah, I do, and I know you do too. And if you didn't, I have a little story that would fix that right away,' she replied dreamily.

'Why don't you tell it to me,' he suggested; he rolled them so Lindsay was on her back beneath him. Adam loved Lindsay underneath him when they made love, so she could look into his eyes and know just like she had from the first night they'd made love that she could trust him with her body and her heart. 'Then I'll be even more...up.'

'Mmm, okay.' Lindsay closed her eyes, turned her head to the side so he could plant a trail of kisses up and down her neck. 'So we went to a strip club with female performers, right?'

'Mm-hmm.'

'Well, there was one girl we saw was built a lot like me. Big boobs, wide hips, tawny skin, and the way she looked when she did her thing, all I could think of was doing that for you. Giving you your own private show one-on-one like that, watching you get all hot and bothered while you watched me put my hands on my body made me so hot Adam, I...' Lindsay trailed off, put her mouth against his ear to murmur the words in a way she knew would make him hard as iron. 'I couldn't help myself.'

'What couldn't you help?'

'That night when we went back to the hotel, I had to get out the little toy I got on Friday night from the fantasia party and get myself off and wishing the entire time it was you.'

Adam closed his eyes and groaned as all the blood in his body raced into his groin and made him stand straight up. 'Damn, Linds, you're gonna make me come here and now, and that's no fun for you.'

'No, so why don't we fix that?'

It was all the incentive Adam needed. He crushed his mouth to hers in a fierce kiss, hands squeezing and cupping her breasts, teasing her nipples into taut little peaks. He streaked down her body to capture the right one with his lips, his tongue flicking over her and making her moan deeply. The flood of heat between her thighs made him feel like a king, and he managed to tear his mouth away from her body to say to her in a breathless rush, 'Lindsay, you want to be on top?'

'No, I want you to fuck me, Adam, I...just fuck me, please,' she replied in the same desperate tone.

Adam shifted them, his palms on her thighs as her hand moved between their bodies to help him inside. He was just far enough in when her hand fell away and she thrust her hips upward; he filled her to the hilt, slammed hips against hips deep and slow. It was the kind of sex he knew would clear her mind and make her all but scream for him when she came. His eyes never left her face as he moved inside her, each stroke he gave she matched; she was tight as a vise around him, telling him he was so good, so good baby and to never stop.

Lindsay arched her back, hands fisting in the sheets as she felt the orgasm wing into her body, her mind all but evaporating when she shuddered in release. Moments later she felt his breath stop and start, stop and start as he moaned her name once before he came with her. She put her hands on his chest to feel the gallop of his heart beneath them; she loved the feeling of his heart racing away like that because she could get him that turned on. It was such a powerful feeling, but even better than that was this - spent and sated, her man cuddled against her breasts, his hands holding her close to him as they both tried to get their breath back.

'Well,' she murmured, 'that's one way to be welcomed home.'

'I'll say. Hey Linds?'

'Yes Adam.'

'I didn't hurt your belly, did I?'

'No, not at all, I...' Lindsay paused, not liking the sudden rolling in her stomach. 'I...'

'Lindsay?' Adam was on his knees in a flash as he saw her go very still. One look at her face and he was pulling her to her feet, running her across the hallway to the bathroom. It wasn't a moment too soon as he watched her pitch forward to her knees in front of the toilet, and finish getting the rest of her hangover out of her system. 'It's okay baby.'

'You sure?' she whimpered before hurling once more.

'Yes, I'm sure,' he replied and found a hair tie to pull her hair back. 'Consider this practice for when you are bed-ridden with morning sickness.'