Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding GWTW

Author's Notes: Thank you for all the reviews and feedback.

Chapter Fifty-Five

Rhett was walking back upstairs with his champagne bottle inside the ice bucket when Clarence materialized. The angel said, "I can leave you alone for an hour."

"Great."

"But while I am gone there is a chance that Marvin will plant an evil thought in your head."

"I'm not going to be thinking of anything, but Scarlett."

"Marvin might plant an evil thought about Scarlett."

"Afterwards, can't you check and see if Marvin has implanted any thoughts in my brain."

"Yes."

"Then come back in an hour."

Rhett hurried up the stairs with the speed of a boy of twenty not a man of forty. As he entered their suite, there was Scarlett in her nightgown. It wasn't sexy. It wasn't transparent, in fact he couldn't see anything through it. It went all the way to the floor. And it was shapeless. Nonetheless it was the sexiest outfit that Rhett had ever seen.

As Rhett set the ice bucket down, he said, "The champagne has to chill for at least thirty minutes."

"Whatever will we do while we wait."

"I don't know about you, but I am going to get reacquainted with your body. In fact, I am going to learn all about your body. Neither one of us is pretending to be a lady or a gentleman this time."

Rhett kissed Scarlett in a deep and passionate way. He pressed her up against him. His body responded. She pulled back and smiled at him. She said, "We have all day and all night. In fact, we don't have to leave this room for the next three weeks."

"No, we are going to New Orleans. We are going to cleanse the city. We are going to have fun, but not with my gross, low-life friends. I will only let the best kind of people associate with you."

"Thank you. Kiss me."

For the next thirty minutes there was a lot of kissing. A lot of touching. A lot of moaning. A lot of groaning. A lot of calling out for the Lord. A lot of calling out of the other person's name. And a lot of 'I love yous.' When Rhett and Scarlett were lying there catching their breaths, both were thinking, 'Wow!'

When Scarlett could speak, she said, "That was fun."

"That was an understatement."

Scarlett burst out laughing. Rhett laughed with her.

Rhett and Scarlett drank their champagne. They laid in the bed and talked the rest of the afternoon. They had relations one more time. Finally, it was time to go to supper. They got dressed and went downstairs. They had planned on going to the Busy Bee Restaurant, but when they got to the lobby, they realized it was raining hard. Too hard to go outside.

Instead, Rhett and Scarlett chose to have supper in the hotel restaurant. It didn't matter where they went to eat, they were happy. The truth was the food could have tasted like sawdust and the couple would not have noticed.

After an enjoyable meal, Rhett walked Scarlett to the privy. If she had to urinate in the middle of the night, there was a bed pan in the room. As Rhett was standing outside the privy waiting for Scarlett, Clarence materialized.

Clarence said, "I think Marvin has given up on torturing you."

"Good."

"When do you want me to disappear again?"

"When you feel uncomfortable."

"All right."

Scarlett came out of the privy and looked around. She said, "Who are you talking to?"

"Myself."

"Hurry up. It might start raining again any minute."

"Acting like a wife already."

"Huh?"

"Bossing me around already."

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Rhett and Scarlett were on the train to New Orleans the next morning. Rhett had gotten them a private car. The train left the Atlanta train depot at seven AM and was due to arrive in New Orleans at seven AM the next day.

Rhett and Scarlett's honeymoon was like their last honeymoon only in the fact that both trips were to New Orleans. They did go to some social events, but Rhett never left Scarlett's side and Scarlett never wanted him to. Scarlett did play whist and she enjoyed playing it, but as soon as she could tell Rhett was ready to go, she was finished playing cards. There were a couple of times Rhett had to leave her, but he always looked so embarrassed when he did, she couldn't get mad at him. He would whisper, "The money is just so damn good."

Scarlett would smile and say, "I have a brownstone to decorate."

Every night and every morning was a breathtaking, erotic adventure for both of them. Scarlett was more open to letting Rhett's hands roam more freely over her body. She was getting better about letting her hands roam over his body.

Rhett once again had bought Scarlett clothing. She didn't buy as much as she had last time because she was not buying items just to be buying items. She also had not worn black for the last year.

Rhett had to encourage her to buy more clothing. He had taken it upon himself to order her all sorts of nightgowns although most were indecent to wear. She would wear them because she wanted to make her husband happy this time.

When Scarlett had seen the nightgowns, she said, "What is the point of you buying all these nightgowns?"

"Because you won't walk around naked."

Scarlett threw her hairbrush and Rhett caught it. He said, "Let me brush your hair."

Scarlett smiled at Rhett and said, "All right."

While Rhett and Scarlett were in New Orleans, Marvin had decided to check up on his cock roach. As Marvin was always lecturing his fellow demons, one cannot take anything for granted. He was shocked to see how well the couple was getting along. They were acting like they were in love. He had to stir up some mischief. He considered whispering evil thoughts in Rhett's ear, but decided against it because even Goof body knew he could discover if Marvin had implanted bad thoughts in Rhett's brain. Instead, he would have to implant the thoughts into Scarlett's brain. Goof body could not access Scarlett's records because she was not assigned to him.

Marvin knew Scarlett was insecure because of hers and Rhett's past. He considered finding Peggy and getting her to whisper evil thoughts in Scarlett's head. With arrogance and an overblown ego, Marvin decided he could do just as good a job as Peggy. Maybe even better.

Besides, Goof body was not around for some reason. If Marvin went to get Peggy, Goof body might return while he was gone. If Goof body saw him, he would tell Rhett, which would make it easier for Rhett to not get mad at Scarlett for not trusting him.

While Rhett was orally stimulating Scarlett, Marvin whispered in her ear, "I wonder how many other women he has done that to. He probably did it all the time with Belle."

Scarlett jerked herself away from Rhett and screamed at him, "Don't do that. I am not one of your whores."

Rhett felt his temper rise and he said loudly and sharply, "What the hell?"

With those words Marvin knew he had caused trouble for Rhett. Marvin didn't know why Scarlett had not declared her love, but if she had Marvin would know because he would receive notification that the contract was voided.

Scarlett said, "Don't do things with me that you did with Belle."

Rhett clamped his mouth shut. He could not let the ugly and hateful words out that he had lashed out at Scarlett far too often. He managed to stop himself from releasing the words. He placed his face in the coverers to keep the words inside. He took deep breaths and calmed himself down. He couldn't think straight if he was mad. His anger had got him into enough trouble with Scarlett. He thought, 'Where in the hell had that come from.'

With Rhett's face still pressed into the covers, he smiled. He knew exactly where in hell it had come from. It had come from either Peggy or Marvin. It didn't matter who had implanted the thought in Scarlett's head, Rhett had to reassure her he would never do that again and make her forget about his sexual history. Whichever demon had whispered into Scarlett's ear had found the perfect route. Scarlett's insecurities. It was understandable she had insecurities considering their past.

When Rhett raised his head, he looked straight at Scarlett. He said, "Let's talk about what you are feeling and thinking." Scarlett didn't answer, but just continued to stare in the opposite direction with her nightgown pulled down and not only were her legs crossed, but so were her arms. Quite the frigid picture did she display. He smiled. He had his work cut out for him. He continued, "In our past lifetime, there were so many nights after I would leave you at Hamilton House that I was cursing myself for my actions at the Fire House."

Scarlett didn't respond or answer. Rhett kept on talking. He said, "Yes, I let my temper get away from me and not only did I hurt you with my words, but I sent you out into the streets of Atlanta desperately looking for three hundred dollars."

"Yes, you did, but what does this have to do with Belle and the other whores?"

"Let me finish and you will understand. I couldn't have told you about my love then, but I could have reassured you that I would loan you the money to pay the taxes on Tara or if I didn't get released in time, I would buy Tara for you at the sheriff's auction. At that time, I knew my partners in crime would get me released before I got hung."

"Go on."

"When I came to Frank's store that afternoon, I was going to ask you to marry me."

"I knew it."

Rhett smiled. He continued, "So because of my temper and my lack of confidence I had to watch you carry another man's child. A child that should have been mine." Rhett paused.

Scarlett just waited. Whatever Rhett was going to say was taking him a lot of time to build up the courage. He said, "After we had spent a delightful evening together, I had to go home to my cold bed while you went upstairs and spent the night with Frank. I never like thinking about you with your first two husbands, but unbidden those thoughts often enter my head. During our first timeline, thoughts of you and Mr. Wilkes would often pop into my head also. The only thing that calmed me down was remembering Mr. Wilkes would never be physically unfaithful to Miss Melly."

Sharply Scarlett said, "And I would physically be unfaithful to you!"

"Yes, you would have. You were that besotted with the man."

"I would not!"

"Scarlett, I know you never did. I would sometimes wish you would because I think that would have broken his spell on you. Later when you realized he wasn't all that honorable I think you would have finally seen he had feet of clay."

Scarlett got the reference and smiled at Rhett. She remembered that day at the mills when the only thing she was thinking about was whether Ashley was going to kiss her or not. To her shame she knew she wouldn't have stopped him from kissing her or probably anything else. Much less hostile, Scarlett said, "He never even tried to kiss me."

"The point is that I have to force thoughts of you and other men out of my head. Before we were married, yes, I did have a lot of fun with the whores in very many different ways. Once we were married, I only had relations with Belle, and we only did it in the missionary position."

"What?"

"I will explain later. Do you want to know why that is?" Scarlett nodded. Rhett continued, "Because that was the only way you would do it, therefore I had to do it that way so I could pretend I was with you."

"After our night together, you knew then that I knew of different ways."

"And I couldn't achieve an erection, so it didn't matter. Sweetheart, I want us to have fun together in our bed, but if you don't want me to do all the ways I know to bring you pleasure I won't. I don't want our time together to be a chore either."

"I don't either. I will try not to let bad thoughts enter my head."

"Thank you, Sweetheart. Just for the record, I never did that to Belle."

"Never?"

"Never. In fact, I have never done that with a whore."

"Then how did you get so good at it?"

"That is a story for another time. Just suffice to say I would never put my mouth in that extremely unclean area."

"You put your penis…."

"Remember me telling you that I always wore a condom with the whores even Belle."

"Condom?"

"A device to prevent me from getting diseases."

"I remember now. If you use it, it can prevent me from getting with child."

"Yes, but let us not talk about that now. Shall we continue?"

"Yes, come kiss me again."

"Certainly."

Rhett knew it was going to take all of his sexual skills to get Scarlett to have a good time that night. She did have a good time, but not a great time. He was happy with that achievement. He didn't have a great time either, but he was happy to be with her intimately. When she snuggled into him, he felt they were once again at peace. She wanted him close.