Sherlock quirked an eyebrow at her. "Do people always engage in foreplay for this length of time?"

"If they really like each other and want it to last, yes," she said.

He seemed to consider her words. "Well, then. By all means, Molly Hooper."

She moved to his neck, slowly nibbling, kissing, and licking up towards his chin. When she reached it she planted a few more kisses, then slid her mouth hard from his chin to his collarbone. She was rewarded by a small moan.

She rained kisses down upon his face, his forehead, his smooth cheeks, his closed eyes. Her fingertips learned every curve, every angle as they followed her lips. She then slid down, stroking his throat while she traced his shoulders with her tongue.

"Molly…" he whispered.

Whatever he'd intended to say next was lost as she slid her mouth over and licked a nipple.

His response was fierce and immediate. He caught his breath again, more harshly this time, and his nipple hardened beneath her tongue. He slid his hands over her back, caressing her, feeling around the edges of her bandages. If it were anyone else Molly would have been self-conscious about that. But this was Sherlock. He knew more about wounds and scars than anyone else she knew. He wouldn't be put off by them.

She repeated her actions on his left nipple and got the same response. She gently bit it, then alternated breathing on it with sucking air away from it. He arched beneath her and moaned.

"Molly," he whispered again, voice unsteady and breathless

"Hmm?"

"That… feels…"

"Yes?" she asked, transferring her attention back to the right nipple and doing more of the same.

"It feels what?" she asked a few seconds later.

"I…" Sherlock swallowed. How could he put it into words in a way that she could understand?

"Should I stop?" Molly asked.

"No! No," he repeated, less forcefully. "I.. it just…"

"Makes you at a loss for words?" she said, smiling to be sure he knew she was teasing.

"It feels… fantastic…"

"Oh?"

"You know very well it does," he said, and she lowered her head again. "Molly, I…"

She heard something new in his voice, something akin to amazement, and rose up. "Sherlock?"

"I didn't know," he whispered, enfolding her in his arms and running his fingers through her hair. "I didn't know it could feel this way."

Molly smiled. She said nothing because there was nothing to be said about it. Instead she slowly moved down, her hair sweeping his chest, and drew him into her mouth.

His hips jerked and he moaned.

His reaction gave her a rush of excitement and arousal. He was being so open, so unrestrained in his responses it amazed her, gave credence to his earlier words, words that seemed to have been spoken a lifetime ago. And she knew his joy: the pleasure he had felt by giving her pleasure. Molly would never have imagined him capable of all the passion he was showing now, the utter abandonment to her touch. But the proof was here, beneath her hands.

She continued, using her hand and lips to incite him to frenzy. His breathing came in shallow pants: he twisted like a marionette. And she was the puppet master, pulling the strings of his desire, controlling him completely. She felt him quivering and would have continued her sweet torture to its natural conclusion, but he suddenly sat up and pulled her away, lying back down and cradling her head on his shoulder.

She could hear his breathing, still erratic: she could feel his heart thumping hard in his chest.

"Sherlock?"

"I'm all right," he whispered.

"Then why did you…?"

He peered down at her. "Because, Molly, if you had kept that up for about ten more seconds, I would have lost all control."

"And that is bad… why?" she asked with a chuckle.

"Because then I wouldn't be able to join with you physically, thereby negating the purpose of this activity."

Molly laughed. "Purpose of this activity? Sherlock, this isn't paint-by-numbers!"

"I simply meant… I would have been spent. And that isn't what I want."

She nodded. "I'm sorry: I should've thought of that…"

"It's nothing to be sorry about, Molly. What you did felt… well; let's just say that I would like to experience it again sometime soon, hmm?" she laughed, and Sherlock smiled. "So don't feel regretful. It should be quite obvious that I enjoyed it."

"Yes, it is," she replied. "I just want to give you what you gave me. I want this to be special…" she laughed. "I sound like a teenager!"

"It is special," Sherlock said softly. He brought her up to meet his kiss, then spoke again, quietly but intensely. "It is special, Molly. In every way."

She nodded. She wanted to say something more, but it seemed that anything she could say had already been said. And even if it hadn't, she wasn't certain that she could trust her voice at the moment. It didn't matter: this was a moment outside of time when words would have been an intrusion.

Sherlock pressed her down and moved his hands to her thighs, gently parting her legs even as she opened them wider of her own accord. He kissed her, twining his tongue with hers, gasping as he felt her hand snake down to encircle him and caress his organ, making him hard and aching again in seconds. She wrapped her legs loosely around his waist, using her hand to guide him to her sex, waiting and eager for him.

Their eyes met and locked as he gently eased into her.

Sherlock moaned. She was so hot and wet against him. She felt like a warm bath in the center of Heaven. Molly tightened the grip of her legs a bit, holding him to her as she took his face in her hands. He pushed himself fully into her, taking care to be certain he wasn't hurting her, and felt a surge of desire as she cried out in pleasure. She tilted her hips upward and the added friction made him gasp.

All the voices, all the normal chattering his mind did within itself were stilled. There was only one thought, one desire: Molly.

Molly couldn't believe how good he felt. She had never enjoyed sex this much before. Now she knew it was because she hadn't felt for those men the way she felt for Sherlock. This was the most amazing thing she'd ever known. She didn't think of them as being two separate people. They were two halves of a whole, too long kept apart and now joined again.

Sherlock began to move against her in a slow, easy rhythm. She rocked in time with him, caressing his back, his shoulders, running her fingers through his wild tangle of curls. All that time, Molly watched him. It seemed more important than anything in the universe at that moment to know how he felt, to see that he was feeling the same pleasure that she was. And he gazed back at her, as though he was doing the same thing. That, too, was new to her. She'd always kept her eyes closed during sex. But Sherlock made her want to look at him, to bore her way into his very essence, to join with him on every possible level.

Molly felt something gather speed inside her, something powerful and all consuming. Her fingers clenched the smoothness of his back, her hips moved harder, her back arched as the pleasure came crashing down upon her in waves, radiating outward. She was spilling over, exploding into infinity, a release too strong to be restrained. She clutched him as she came, buried her face in his neck, then flung her head back and cried out his name in amazement and ecstasy.

She had never orgasmed during sex before. Never. She'd given up on it ever happening. And now it had. He had given her that.

When Sherlock felt his, felt her explode against him, he thrust into her with a hard, fast movement, once, twice… and that was all that was needed to send him over his own edge. Everything that he'd kept back and denied for so long demanded he yield, and he obeyed, holding her close as he moaned, feeling his body ignite in an endless stream of pleasure that washed over him so strongly he drowned in the rapture only to resurface and go under again and again, until finally his flesh quieted and he became aware of both of them shaking and slick against each other.

He'd always thought sex was unhygienic and messy. And he was right.

It was, however, also overwhelmingly fantastic.

He carefully slipped out of her and gathered her to him, pressing dozens of tiny kisses all over her face, murmuring nonsense words that somehow seemed to make sense to them both. Molly laughed, a breathless, exhilarated sound, grabbed his chin, and planted a kiss on his mouth. He fit her against his body and tucked her head onto his chest. For an endless moment they simply held each other, saying nothing because nothing needed to be said.

Try to experience sex with your body and not your mind, the Woman had said.

Check. She had been right. Those moments had been indescribably pleasurable.

It's so good, Sherlock. You've really been missing out… you'll be a shaking, moaning mess, wrapped around Molly like a sleek cat, Moriarty had said.

Check. He had been right. It had been good. And wasn't it utterly convenient how Moriarty had arranged for him to be in a situation where he would be forced to continue doing it, free from having to fight how it made him feel?

Moriarty had done more than wander through his mind palace and smash the china. He'd demolished some of the rooms and built new ones, then compelled Sherlock to go stay in them and see how pleasurable they were. And there was no point in lying to himself: they were pleasurable. Molly was pleasurable. And not just sexually.

Moriarty had known this could happen. Because he was him and it had happened to him. And if Sherlock hadn't have been so busy denying it for the past week, he'd have seen it himself.

Not that it mattered now, that it was too late. In this instance, being wrong was good. Moriarty wasn't going to complete the game until he got what he wanted. It was up to Sherlock to find clues and make deductions. And let himself fall in love with Molly.

Sherlock glanced at his watch. He still had four hours of freedom from Moriarty to enjoy. He wasn't going to spend any more of it thinking about him.

"Molly?"

She looked at him and smiled. "Yes?"

He brushed her hair gently away from her face and gazed at her earnestly. "I would like to do that again. Soon."

Molly laughed. "When is soon?"

Sherlock pondered. "Now?"

"Now?" she asked in amazement.

"Well, perhaps in ten minutes?"

She giggled. "Have I created a monster?"

"It is entirely possible." He kissed her, running his fingertips over her cheek.

They lay together in silence again, enjoying each other's closeness and warmth.

A/N: Well, sweeties, I hope you enjoyed the conclusion of the sexy!

A few words: I didn't want to do a "Sherlock Holmes: Virgin Sex God" type fic, because I don't care if it IS Sherlock Holmes, you still need experience with a particular partner to learn. I DO see him as being passionate and using his deducing to gain knowledge, and that is how I wrote him.

This chapter is dedicated with all my sherlolly love to my reviewers, in chronological order from last chapter: Clockwork Mockingbird, somethinginthewayful, celeryy, beautyqueen24, PurpleYin, Emcee Frodis, ber1719, Murmeltierchen, musangel88, Mione W. G. coloradoandcolorado1, Henr233e, Jonquil96, wholockedfan13, BeatnikFreak, SexyKnickers, Dizzybunny, conchepcion, Angeleene, BritMel, Petra Todd and CumberChelz. And to all of you have reviewed in the past and are reading: THANK YOU!

And now for the announcement.

I'm going to have to take a hiatus from the fic.

Now before anyone goes to chase me with the riding crop, let me explain.

Work has picked up for me, and so has school. And I'm writing a book. And I'd rather like to find a bloke and start dating again. These things take time and have to be my priority. I'm a part time ghost writer and full time graduate student and this is my future.

And also important: I have not plotted all the details out yet from here. I know the outline of the plot, I know how it will end and I've written pages and pages in my head for the last few chapters. But I have to work the rest of it out properly, coz I'll not shame Moffat, Gattis, or myself by writing half-arsed fic.

If you like this story, please add it to your alerts so you don't miss out when I do begin work on it again!

And I HOPE that will be in 1-2 months.

I really do want to thank you all: I was nervous diving into sherlolly but you have all made me feel so very appreciated and liked with your reading and reviewing.

I am sherlolly on Tumblr if you want to follow me.

I do plan to write oneshots in between, so look for those.

All my best,

nocturnias/sherlolly