His hand was still trembling a little as he cupped her face and hesitated slightly before kissing her slowly, lingering as he caught her bottom lip gently in his teeth. He was doing the very best he could to show her ... well, he wasn't entirely sure what he was trying to say except for wanting her badly, but then she already knew that, but he wanted her to know, wanted to show her just how incredibly sorry he was that he'd fucked it up between them. It didn't matter how often she'd told him that she'd got over it, that she knew he was sorry and that she believed him when he told her that it wouldn't happen again, there was still something there that said she didn't altogether trust him, trust in them. She was tough, or that was what she wanted everyone to believe, including him, but he knew just how vulnerable she was and that it was down to him.
Molly touched his wrist and then tightened her fingers around it so that he closed his eyes at her touch, eyelashes fanning out on his cheeks as he worried at his bottom lip with his tongue and teeth and then moved his hands to tangle them in her hair, paddling the fleshy tips of his fingers against her scalp and dropping little kisses on her eyelids, and then her cheekbones until finally he moved the hand she wasn't holding onto and cradled her face, his eyes still closed as he dotted butterfly kisses on the corners of her mouth. His pulse jumped and began to race under her fingers when she responded and moved slightly trying to capture his mouth to deepen the kiss, doing her best to tell him that he mattered, that this whole relationship mattered to her in ways that she couldn't find the words to tell him.
"How am I doing?"
"Not bad, pulse is a bit iffy, but I think you'll live"
"Lovely ... I bloody hope so"
He swallowed hard and lifted his chin, throwing his head back and closing his eyes again as she began to fiddle with the buttons on his shirt, her tiny fingers fumbling with the buttonholes as she tried to undo them, so that he gulped and swallowed convulsively at her touch and then moved his hands to rest his weight on them when she finally managed to get the first couple undone and kissed the skin she'd exposed. It felt agonisingly slow to him, he wondered whether he would be better off sitting on his hands to stop himself brushing hers away and undoing the rest of the bloody things himself but managed to concentrate every bit of his considerable will-power on holding off and not pouncing. When she'd eventually got them undone and had pulled his shirt open ready to slide it off his arms she suddenly stopped and kissed a trail down his body, and then instead of carrying on taking his shirt off, turned her attention instead to trying to undo the button of his jeans, but the erection currently straining against his fly made it impossible for her to get the top button undone and the more she tried, the more she touched him, the more impossible it got.
"You gonna get these jeans off or what?"
"I'm going to have that printed on something then I can look at it when I'm not with you... when I'm in some hell-hole somewhere" He coloured slightly at way his comment changed the expression on her face, he hadn't meant to sound as if he was being sleazy, but rather than trying to explain what he had meant, he hastily turned his attention to putting his hands where hers had been ... and then struggled with the button himself the same way that she had before having to admit defeat "Wait a minute, I'll have to get up"
Her face immediately broke into a wide smirk as she put a hand out to help him pull his shirt off, throwing it on the floor and then just watching and giggled softly, her face alight with laughter at the difficulty he was having in getting the fly buttons of his jeans undone.
"What's funny? There's nothing funny ... stop laughing ... and don't you dare..."
"What? Don't dare what?"
"Say something about ... being too hard"
"Would I?"
"Yup"
His look of amusement was followed rapidly by a look of extreme discomfort, judging by the wince that crossed his face, when he finally managed to get a hand inside his jeans to adjust himself enough to get them off so that she stopped laughing, her grin slowly fading from her face. It was her turn to just stare. He was wearing the black stretchy trunks that she always found incredibly sexy, and which were now seriously bent out of shape at the front, and as always she got a bit of a shock when she saw him without his clothes masking his body. At how lean he was so that she badly wanted to just put her hands on him and to run them over his arms, his shoulders, his chest, she wanted to trace the faint smattering of dark hair and the skin that felt like satin where it was stretched over the defined muscles of his chest, muscles that were a testament to the hours that he spent running and getting fit, at the livid scar that was still very visible on his stomach, but most of all she wanted to tell him that she loved him just the way he was and to please not lose any more weight.
Without either of them saying another word he began to stroke the bare skin of her back underneath the West Ham \zmHamtop and then caressed her ribs with long slim fingers, lightly tracing them one by one until he finally moved down to her hips and pulled the top up and over her head, dropping it on the floor to join his shirt and jeans and leaving her standing in front of him, naked except for a tiny scrap of black lace knickers.
"What happened to the shorts?"
"Dunno, can't find them, most likely bloody Bella's nicked 'em ... Why? don't you like me moody knickers?"
"Oh yes, they're gorgeous, you look gorgeous ... you are gorgeous, I can 't believe how lucky I am to be here with you" Molly could feel the blush creeping up her neck and into her cheeks as she fought a sudden and overwhelming urge to cover herself with her hands; she had no idea why she should suddenly feel all shy, this was Charles for fuck sake so it wasn't like he hadn't seen her like this before, but she felt self-conscious for some reason, maybe because of the expression in his eyes "Moody? What does that mean?"
"Nan give them to me didn't she so that means they're most probably nicked from somewhere or other"
"What? They're stolen? You're telling me that you're wearing stolen property? In that case you'd better take them off or, I've got a better idea, I will"
Hooking his fingers into the thin sides of the offending 'moody' knickers and sliding them slowly down her legs without breaking eye contact with her was the catalyst for them to clutch at one another and to fall back onto her mother's bed, kissing frantically as though they couldn't get enough, his hands were sliding over her breasts, thumbs rubbing her nipples and then down her ribs as the friction of her thigh against his groin had him quietly groaning and pressing himself against her. Groans that got significantly louder as she slipped her hands inside the top of his trunks and slid them slowly down over his hips.
"We can't, you make too much noise, you'll wake the bloody house up and they'll all hear you, they'll know ..."
"It's not me that makes a lot of noise, it's you" He leaned forward again and smirked as he nibbled at her ear and then kissed round her neck towards her chin, kissing and nibbling gently at her throat and then laughed at the tiny whimpering noises that were escaping from her mouth "Okay we won't if you don't want to, if you're worried about being here in your parents' bedroom, but we can be quiet, you know, we can make sure they don't hear, anyway I'll bet they're far too busy downstairs ... playing Scrabble or whatever it is they're doing"
"Me Dad can't spell"
"Whatever they're playing, they're pretty bloody quiet"
He began to dot kisses down her body again, ignoring what they'd just agreed about not going any further, kissing and softly biting at her nipples as she arched herself against him and then kissing down to her hip bones and carrying on until his stubble was rasping against the soft skin on the inside of her thighs ... his hot breath was punctuated by little kisses as he moved back up to her mouth, 'shssing' her as she made involuntary little whimpers and begging noises that she hadn't known she was making.
His first thrust was hard, much harder than she was used to and harder than she'd expected so that the top of her head hit the headboard with a loud thud and the headboard banged hard against the wall.
"Sorry, oh god I'm sorry"
"Don't be" She giggled "Just do it again ... I mean, not like that, I mean you know what I mean, just don't stop ... we'll get on the floor if the bed bangs against the wall, but don't stop"
He moved with a slow and steady rhythm that was driving her so quickly to the edge that within a few minutes she was deliberately trying to delay the personal explosion that was building inside her and threatening to overwhelm her ... and then it would be over. And right at that moment she didn't want it to be over, not ever, she wanted it to last forever.
"Stop it, stop ..."
"I'm not doing anything"
"Yes you are, I know you are"
As he spoke she looked up at his face just in time to see him look at the ceiling and clench his teeth, almost as if he was praying and that was the moment the rolling thrust broke her so that she was biting at his shoulder and gripping him as tightly as she could, her body twisting and squeezing and shaking with pleasure that was boiling over as he started to shake in release and stopped moving, holding his breath as he came apart with his head buried against her neck. Neither of them had made a sound. His melting brown eyes suddenly seemed shy as he lifted his head and looked at her steadily without speaking until she raised her hand and stroked his cheek and he started to whisper against her neck.
"I just want to make you happy, you are all that matters to me, you do know that don't you?"
"Yeah, I know ... and you do, I am happy..."
"How much of you have I got Molly?"
"All of me ... it's just ..."
"Just what? I don't blame you if you don't trust me, or if you're not sure about how you feel? Go on please, be honest, tell me"
"Nah, it's not that, it's none of that, I thought I'd just showed you how I feel, I really thought you knew ... but I just wish it was all you know, like ... simple ... all sort of okay with everyone else"
"Has something upset you? Someone?"
"Nah, well... me mum said she thinks you're lovely but that you're much too old for me, think she thought you was dunno, about forty or some'ing, she was dead shocked when I said you wasn't and that it's only nine years, but she's sort of convinced herself that I'm your bit of rough and that you'll get fed up of me one day and move onto some posh bird that's more your age ... some blondie with legs up to her bloody armpits ... like Rebecca I s'pose" She pulled a face as he snorted with disbelief "I'm worried that everyone will ... well, that it's what people will think, I mean, you won't will you?"
"Lovely ... Of course not, fuck they must think I'm a capricious little shit"
"I'd tell you if I knew what one of them was"
"Someone who ... easily changes their mind when someone ... or something they think they want more comes along"
"And you're not?"
"Of course I'm not, I want you, I don't want anyone else, and anyway Marge would come after me and cut my dick off"
"Shit, did she threaten you?"
"No, well yes I suppose she did in a way, she told me I'd have her to deal with if I upset you"
"Shit ... meet the bloody Dawes family, east end mafia's got nothing on us"
Molly decided not to share her mother's other pearl of wisdom on the grounds that the idea would scare the shit out of him, pretty much as it had her. Belinda had begun with her usual mantra of how he'd make a really good dad until Molly pointed out that she said that about every bloke, she'd most likely say it about Jack the Ripper. Her mum was obviously living in the bleeding past if she thought getting yourself knocked up, sort of accidentally on purpose as she'd suggested, would make him stick around if it was time for him to move on. She didn't tell Belinda that Charles was already a dad; she didn't want to tell her anything about Sam ... or Rebecca. She didn't really need to know anything about any of that, even though Sam was incontrovertible evidence that life didn't always work out the way Belinda thought it did.
-OG-
He'd slept like the proverbial dead and was warm and comfortable but hadn't got a clue where he was when he came to with a start at the sound of one of the Dawes' children, possibly Martin, having the most glorious meltdown outside on the landing. The noise had him wide awake in seconds, while Molly slumbered peacefully next to him obviously immune to the racket and to the smell of bacon cooking which was making him very aware that his stomach was rumbling with hunger.
The first indication that she was no longer sleeping through the racket of the child screaming his head off and someone yelling at him to shut up while a door slammed shut, and "Fairytale of New York" was playing at full volume, was the way she shuffled across the few inches of bed that separated them to grind herself into his lap where he was spooned round her and then giggled quietly, making his morning erection even more insistent. He immediately forgot all about being hungry for bacon.
"Your tummy's rumbling, you 'ungry?"
"Nope, breakfast can fuck right off, I'm very comfortable here ... thanks very much"
He moved his arms round to cuddle her from behind, his hands lifting her breasts while he used his thumbs to make her nipples stand out like pebbles, and began kissing her neck under the waterfall of her hair as he pressed himself against the cheeks of her bum and began to move downwards, his intentions clear "Oi, what you doing? Nah, sorry we can't, we really can't, not unless you got a condom hiding somewhere, I'm 'ere with you in mum's bed and me pills are back at yours, should have taken one last night as it is, so it's condoms for us, sorry"
"I'll be careful"
"Course you will ... look, just stop it will you ... "
"Mum says you gotta get up and take Martin out to build a fuckin' snowman, you was the one that promised the little sod and it's not fair if I have to do ..."
"What the fuck? Bella ... don't you ever fuckin' knock? Fuck off, go on just fuck right off, you can't come barging in like that and ..."
"Get up then"
Her arrival in the bedroom without prior warning had necessitated an extremely hasty readjustment of the bedding and had left Molly scarlet with mortification and fury, embarrassed as fuck as she hid under the duvet and felt Charles shake with silent laughter as he hid his face in the back of her neck.
"Has she bloody gone yet? Jesus I'll swing for her and what the fuck did mum think she was doing, sending her up 'ere to get me?"
"Yep, she's gone, you can come out now" He pulled the duvet back from over her head and kissed the tip of her nose, his whole body still shaking with laughter "Lovely ... she's left the door wide open so I think we'd be better off waiting till we get home where there's no danger of your sister charging in"
"Stop laughing it's not bleeding funny" Molly swung her legs out of bed and started looking for her West Ham top on the floor, then gave up and unhooked her mother's old dressing gown from the back of the door, before stepping over the child who was still screaming his head off on the landing "I'll go and get you a bacon sarnie ... and probably Bella's head on a stick" She turned back and scooped her little brother up off the floor before popping her head back round the door.
"I can hear Nan downstairs, so the bacon's most probably moody" She giggled "Do you still want some?"
-OG-
Despite the CD still playing at maximum volume on a continuous loop, breakfast was a relatively quiet affair once Belinda had given Bella hell for telling lies in an attempt to get out of doing as she was told and taking Martin out to play in the light covering of snow. Bella eventually went with a lot of huffing and extremely bad grace, but had taken them all with her as she continued to moan loudly insisting that she didn't give a flying fuck what her mother said, she wasn't going to the bloody park and that it had been their Molls who'd promised so she should bloody well do it. Belinda was left in an agony of embarrassment so that she'd apologised over and over to Charles who kept on saying that it couldn't matter less, and Molly was left wanting to shout at her to never mind saying how sorry she was to him, what about her?
-OG-
There was no sign of Bella or the rest as he unlocked the car so it was beginning to look likely that she'd taken them to the park after all and that her performance had been just that, a performance. The snow was already disappearing fast to a greyish slush although the sky was heavy with more to come and Charles had expressed a wish to get going and get back before it started again and made driving conditions difficult, so he'd pecked Marge and Belinda on the cheek making Belinda go all pink and flustered and had been assured of a warm welcome back at anytime. Her mum had cracked a little joke about him maybe bringing Molly with him, which Molly wasn't sure she found very funny, it felt a little too close to the truth for that. There was no sign of Dave anywhere and no-one mentioned him, so Charles didn't either...
"Home?"
"Yeah, could do with a bath, I'm minging, how come you're not ... you always smell bloody amazing even when you should be all sweaty and horrible, how fair is that?"
"I don't and you're not minging, tell you what though, I could do with brushing my teeth, my breath must stink"
"Well, now you come to mention it ..."
"God, sorry" He smiled "Molly, have a look in the glove box there's some chewing gum in there, oh and there's something in there for you, I was going to give it to you yesterday but then I wasn't sure, so I thought I'd wait a bit longer ..."
"I was only joking, you're not stinky ... think it's me ..." She was giggling as she flipped open the glove box but stopped instantly and turned to look at him, eyes huge as she took out the little gift wrapped box and held it, turning it over and over in her hands "What is it?"
"Open it and find out"
"Yeah, I will, but ... what is it?" She looked at him with a beseeching look on her face "Tell me ... or you open it for me"
"No, just open it, come on Dawsey ... look ... " He frowned making a deep furrow appear on his forehead "There's no need to look like that, it's not going to bite, I promise"
-OG-
A/N: And so on to Bath and New Year ... Thank you for your reviews and I'm sorry for the wait, I can't do any of the bedroom stuff with an audience wandering in and out, I have to wait till I'm on my own because he has this habit of appearing behind me and reading over my shoulder ...and I get horribly self-conscious – everyones a critic !
