Cal stretched out on their bed, tucked one arm behind his head to give a bit more leverage and held his book in the other. Well it was Gillian's book really. A romance, yes, but not a 'Mills and Boon' women's porn romance with zero plot and flimsy characters and nipples on the cover. Cal had to admit, the book he was reading right now, was actually really well done and it was about a married couple in New York; the female lead was a cop. The book had a suspenseful case but the main point of it all was to show the development between the couple. It was masterfully, intelligently crafted, and deep enough to get even Cal thinking, but with sex scenes; fantastic!

He could hear Gillian in the bathroom, brushing her teeth and preparing for bed. The boys had gone down an hour ago, both of them together. Lewis was six now and wee Owen had celebrated his first birthday months ago but was also only twelve months old according to his adjusted age, so... whatever that meant in terms of birthdays. It was bloody confusing; he was either one or he wasn't.

The boys had been sharing a room since Owen was sleeping through the night, or at least, sleeping through a large block of time. He had grown out of the apnoea relatively quickly once he got home, but even now, he still had the breathing monitor, just in case. Gillian still was not quite ready to let go and they'd had a few close calls which justified it; two of them when they'd attempted to go monitor free. Even if it didn't go off, the monitor's presence didn't do anyone any harm. Cal could admit maybe he wasn't quite ready to let go entirely either.

Cal heard the click of the bathroom light going off and saw the door open out of the corner of his eye. He glanced up, as if he needed to double check just exactly who that was, and then looked back down at his page. He looked up again quickly and stared. The book fumbled from his fingers. He sat up a little. "Wow," he managed.

Gillian was in a very short, black, satin negligee. Around the trim of her thighs and breast was pink but she was too far away for Cal to see the exact detail. What he could see though, stole his breath away for a second and all he could do was stare. Gillian approached slowly and climbed over his torso, to sit over his hips. She gave him a slight smile and leaned down and gave him a soft, sweet kiss. When she pulled back she leaned her hands on his chest, resting her weight there. Cal immediately checked out as much of her as he could. Cleavage galore. Tanned thighs. Rosebuds, that's what the trim was, little pink rose buds.

"Am I missin' somethin'?" Cal murmured.

Gillian took a deep breath and she got serious and Cal realised that while the appealing apparel was to get his attention, which it had, it wasn't necessarily for anything sexual, it was just to get his attention, which it had. "I want to talk to you about something," Gillian started carefully.

"Right," Cal looked to her eyes while he raised his hands to her thighs. Her flesh was warm and soft. He was going to have a hard time concentrating; pun intended. "Hang on," he tipped her to the bed. She let out a protest before he leaned over her and kissed her deeply, their legs tangling. Her fingers gripped his shirt and arm and she kissed fiercely. Cal smoothed a hand down her side, over the silky material of the lingerie, to her hip and then thigh, as far as he could reach without relinquishing her mouth. Then he moved it up again, back over her stomach to her breast. A leg hooked over the back of his and Cal wondered if he was wrong, that this was what she really had intended. Nope, he remembered, she said 'talk', so he eased off the kiss and pulled back and reached for the sheet on the bed to cover her up. She looked up from the pillow, amused, and waiting for him to explain. Cal, once he was satisfied what she was wearing was not going to distract him, although he was going to be freaking thinking about it anyway, shifted back to rest on his elbow. "What were you sayin'?"

Gillian smiled again, her eyes were shiny and her cheeks a little flushed. She still had fingers in his shirt and she let go of it completely, smoothing out the creases over his sternum. "Do you know how long we've been together?"

"Um," Cal thought for a second. Tricky question. He raised his hand slightly, "Don't tell me." He thought again... If they had been married seven years now then that meant... "Ten years," he summed up. He blinked. "Wow really?"

Gillian nodded. "Yeah."

Cal leaned down to kiss her again. "Did I miss an anniversary?"

Gillian shook her head. Cal shifted so he was lying on his stomach, propped up on his elbows. They had hooked up at Christmas but not really decided to be together until Emily's birthday the following January and their first official date had been another month after that. "No, no specific anniversary. But we've been together ten years now."

"That's..." Cal started, stumbled. "Wow," he offered sincerely.

"Yeah," Gillian agreed with another slight smile.

"Should I be apologisin' I didn't notice?"

Gillian gave him a purposeful frown. "Have I ever cared about that kind of thing?"

"Hm," Cal mused but nope, she was correct, she didn't tend to berate him for not paying the closest attention to that. He had never missed a wedding anniversary though and she certainly would kick his ass if he did. "So," he leaned in to kiss her briefly again. "Is this in honour of our ten year milestone?"

"Sort of," she gave him a slightly coy grin and Cal knew sex was definitely back on the table. Undoubtedly. After the talking. "I was thinking, do you remember when we first started dating? We'd have sex all the time?"

Cal gave her a bemused expression before nodding that, yes he did remember that.

"I don't want for us to get ten years into our marriage and be having sex once a month."

"Oh good lord," Cal blurted.

Gillian raised a hand to stay him. "This," she gestured to her body. "Is more like a pre-emptive strike. We used to have sex all the time and..."

"That's harda with kids," Cal cut in.

"Let me finish," Gillian retorted lightly. "We used to make effort."

"Do we not make effort anymore?" Cal asked concerned. Was there some fundamental flaw in his marriage he didn't know about?

"Would you stop and let me talk?" Gillian berated.

"All right sorry," Cal backed off.

"When you're first with someone and it's new and exciting you make all this effort with all the little things to make it special."

"That's cos you're tryin' to get into the otha person's pants."

Gillian glared. "And once you've been married for ten years those things are basically all gone. I know from experience."

Cal suspected she had also been reading up on the subject; this sounded like a semi-rehearsed idea. But he could concede she had a point. His first marriage had succumbed the same way. He started to understand what Gillian was saying.

"I don't want that to happen a second time; with you and me. I would have sex with you everyday if I could."

Cal gave a grin and she returned it. She reached up a hand to his ear and smoothed it between the edge of her finger and the pad of her thumb. "It's not always possible," she added. Cal nodded. "But... I don't want to fall into a sexless marriage; I don't want our marriage to suddenly become a chore."

"I'm with you," Cal butt in again. "I know what you mean. Just a little bit more conscious thought."

"Yeah," Gillian seemed pleased that he understood. And probably, most certainly, that he was agreeing with her.

"Can definitely do that," he smiled.

Gillian returned it. "Ok." She smoothed her hand to his cheek, stroking the skin beneath his eye softly. Cal watched her, amazed, more than anything, that he had been in a relationship with this woman for ten years. Ten years. It warranted a small amount of disbelief. Pleasant disbelief. And in three more years they would have been married for ten years and that was monumental. There was a time when Cal had been sure he had blown it forever. "What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinkin', do you count those six months we were apart?"

Gillian suddenly reached up and hooked her arms around his neck, pulling him down against her. "No. Absolutely not." She placed kisses against his head as she embraced him. Was it ironic that she had left him to have children, only to find when she actually had them, she was with him anyway? "Were we ever really apart then?"

That was an interesting point.

"You mean cos we still worked togetha or cos you couldn't keep your hands off me?"

Gillian laughed. She let him up a little so she could see his eyes. "I'm not even going to..." She shook her head and brought his mouth in close so she could kiss him. He immediately leaned in nearer, pressing his body closer to hers. His hand came to her waist, squeezing a little as they kissed. He pulled back to throw away the sheet and give her another appreciative once over. "Definitely wow," he told her again. She was back to working out, working on losing the baby weight now Owen was older and she had a small amount of alone time. Making a big deal about how fantastic she looked was a smart move. Cal decided he would join her before he got too squishy around the edges himself (he never did have time for that gym he had promised); plus it was one way they could spend time together.

Gillian gave him a grin and pulled him back in for another kiss. Cal hummed a little, then broke away to kiss down her neck. Gillian slipped her hands down his waist, tugging at his shirt to pull it up and over his head. Cal went back to trailing kisses lower down her chest. He hummed again. Then started singing: "It feels so real, lying here, with no one near." He whispered his lips against her skin. "Only you."

Gillian shifted her hips against him. "You have a beautiful voice Cal," she murmured.

"Thank you," he told her warmly, finding his way across her skin to the swell of her breast.

"Keep going," she encouraged.

Cal wasn't sure what in particular she was referring to so worked his tongue against her nipple, making her back arch and then murmured against her skin again: "Hold me closer tiny dancer."