A/N This is the rated M chapter.

When the kiss ended, Adrian stepped back and turned from Natalie, his hand at his brow, the nervous gesture both familiar and endearing to her.

"Are you okay?" She asked softly to his back.

He was silent for a moment as his index finger worried the spot above his eyebrow. Was he okay? He paced away from her into the family room and then back in a matter of seconds, where he took her hand and squeezed it. "I'm more than okay. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I really would like to do that again, so if you…" she didn't get to finish before Adrian's mouth captured hers. He put both hands on her face, and his mouth slanted over hers as the kiss went further this time. Natalie whimpered in pleasure as Adrian, emboldened by his own desire, Natalie's Citron Pressé, and the sudden memory of how kissing worked, deepened the kiss. Natalie pressed herself to him intimately, and his hands moved to hold her even closer. When this second kiss ended, it was Natalie who looked down shyly and took his hand in hers.

"Still okay?" she asked.

"Definitely," he replied, equally shy but thoroughly elated.

This time, he pulled her with him when he headed to the family room. Natalie followed and grabbed a towel off the pile by the back door. Her bathing suit was still damp. No matter what Adrian thought and felt, her persnickety Mr. Monk still lived inside him and would hate a damp bathing suit on the couch. As a matter of fact, so would she.

He pulled her down to sit beside him as soon as she'd spread the towel on the couch.

"Natalie, that party was wonderful but made me realize something."

"What's that?"

"No matter how much family and how many friends I have now, the only person I need is you." Tears sprang to her eyes instantly.

"All I will ever need or want is you, Adrian. I've been feeling so many things for you for so long."

He answered, "When we were forced to move in here together, I knew it wouldn't be horrible because I wanted to spend my time with you. All of my time. Even when I am asleep, I want my time to be with you, and knowing you were so close to me made it easier to get some real rest, although I have to say it also ruined my sleep a little." He smirked then and stroked her cheek.

"Where do we go from here?" she wondered, knowing what she wanted, curious if he was ready.

"Well, despite what I want, I think going a little slowly might be wise right now."

"That does sound wise… but not too slow, right?"

"No, not too slow," he replied, gently kissing her again.

After, Natalie took a deep, steadying breath and said, "Okay. I'm going to go shower and put on some clothes. Do you want to have a snack after? I think the caterer put everything away the way you like it. I showed him where the storage containers were and how to arrange them."

"Yes, then we can catch up on what we missed today, and talk about whatever else comes to mind." She smiled at him. Would it always be like this, she wondered. The need to tell him everything on her mind, everything that had happened in his absence from her side? She sighed and rose. Then, impulsively, she bent to kiss him again to ensure she could. She'd meant it to be quick and sweet. Instead, it turned deeply passionate very quickly. A soft sound of need escaped Adrian, and he pushed her away briefly, smiled at her, pulled her back to him, and held her closely, burying his face in her hair.

"That was okay, right?" She asked hesitantly. "I meant kissing you just because I wanted to."

"Yes. Perfectly alright. Although, I fear it will be difficult to contain myself around you now." Her lips curved upward and her heart raced.

"I know. We're probably going to need some ground rules. Some… guidelines."

He pulled back again, and looked her in the eye, "We'll talk. Go shower and change. I'll get a snack together for us."

Natalie took the speediest shower of her life but moisturized every inch of her skin. She had someone who wanted to touch her now, she thought with giddy joy. She dressed in hip-hugging, butter-soft sweats, a scoop neck tee shirt, and a hoodie that matched the sweats. She came into the kitchen clean, excited, and expecting a feast. She was disappointed. Adrian wasn't there.

"Natalie?"

She followed his voice to the family room. He'd spread a plaid blanket over the coffee table, opened that very nice bottle of French champagne that the Stottlemeyers had brought them, and had a variety of the canapés on different plates waiting for them. A flameless candle flickered on the table. He was sitting on one of the oversized throw pillows. Another was awaiting her. Natalie surveyed the romantic tableau with pleasure and came to sit with him without making a sound.

He handed her a glass with bubbling gold liquid dancing in it and raised his own glass, "To finding your heart's desire right in your own backyard!"

"I'll drink to that!" They clinked their glasses carefully and sipped the cold, bubbly brut.

They carefully fed each other finger foods, with forks, of course, although Natalie murmured fingers would be sexier, and Adrian nearly choked on a mini quiche.

After eating their fill, Natalie said, "You've had an awful lot to drink today, Adrian."

"What do you mean?" He asked, puzzled, and looked at his barely half-empty champagne glass.

"This and the Citron Pressé."

"Oh, That wasn't just your lemonade!?"

"It was my lemonade, spiked with Tito's vodka."

"Oh boy, tomorrow morning should be interesting."

"Well, you should drink water before bed and maybe take Advil."

"No pills."

"Okay."

"Let's talk about something else."

"What do you want to talk about?"

"Us." He leaned over and kissed her then.

"You have no idea how long I've wanted there to be an 'us' and how I've wished for you to say those words!"

"Tell me!"

"I'm a little embarrassed."

"You should never feel embarrassed with me, Natalie. What is it that we haven't been through together? Don't be silly, sweetheart."

"That is true, but we haven't been through this particular emotion, these feelings." She lowered her eyes briefly, then raised them back to Adrian's. "I've loved you…. No." She shook her head firmly. She started again. "I've been in love with you," she amended, "for a very long time. I think the day I realized it was when I thought you had died during the whole Sheriff Rollins thing. But it may have started before that, but I knew you'd never…" and with that Natalie's eyes filled with tears. She sniffed them away and continued, "So I dated, hoping to get over you, work through the feelings… but I never did. I know now I never will. I love you, Adrian."

"Oh, Natalie. I caused you to suffer and hurt. I'm so, so sorry. I've felt all kinds of things for you, too, over the years, but I was guilty, confused. Angry at myself, angry at you, angry at life. Always angry about what had been taken from me. I couldn't see this amazing gift that had been sent to me just when I needed her most. I will never make that mistake again. I will never stop telling you how I feel about you. I love you, Natalie. I will love you for the rest of my life."

Natalie melted into his arms at his words. He kissed her temple and handed her a quickly jotted note.

The note read, Before we go any further, I want to sweep for new bugs. I don't want anyone listening to us…in private moments. I'm going to ask you to dance. Say yes.

They kissed for a few moments, and then Adrian said, "Do you want to dance, Natalie? I'd like to hold you in my arms."

"Oh, I would really love that, Adrian."

He stood, went to the new stereo, and tuned it to a satellite station of love songs. He'd studied the manual for hours. He learned everything he needed to know and practiced using it. He knew which buttons to press to make speakers work inside and outside the house. He signaled her to follow him, and they searched for new bugs. They didn't find any. Adrian dropped the bug sweeper into the box at the bottom of his closet and finally pulled Natalie back into his arms. He looked into her eyes and was overwhelmed by what he found there. He knew he was truly home at last.

"Natalie…" Adrian whispered against the silky column of her neck.

"Hmmm?" she murmured as she delighted in his lips on her skin and his hands working her sweatshirt off her shoulders.

"Remember what I said about going slowly?"

"Yes…"

"Do you think you could forget such a dumb thing ever came out of my mouth?"

Natalie threw back her head and laughed her silvery, full-throated laugh, delighted by Adrian's obvious desire and impatience.

"I think I can forget you ever suggested the word slow. But, really, why do we need to go slowly? This is the slowest courtship in the history of the world. I think nine years is long enough to wait for love, don't you?"

"I do indeed."

Assertively, he reached for the hem of her t-shirt and pulled it over her head in one smooth motion. Then he ran his hands through her hair. "I've wanted to do that for so long."

"What, take my shirt off?" she chuckled as she leaned back into the caress of his fingers in her hair.

"Yes, I guess, but run my fingers through your hair. I love how it is right now. This length, this shade of blonde. So gorgeous. It's been driving me crazy not to be able to touch it for quite a while." She smiled and blushed at the compliments as she tugged at his blue polo shirt, pulling it from the waistband of his khaki trousers, then over his head.

"Every time you come home from a run, all sweaty, with your clothes sticking to you, it's about all I can do to keep myself from pulling them off you and jumping into your arms."

"Ew, Natalie, really?" He scrunched up his face.

"Really, you look so tempting, all sweaty and out of breath…."

"You, my sweetheart, are weird."

"What? You don't think you'll be all sweaty and out of breath tonight?"

"That's…uh… different," He panted as she planted kisses on his chest. It had been so long since he had been touched by another human on his bare skin. He was starving for her, literally.

"No, it's not," she countered as she reached for his belt. The belt slid smoothly through his pant loops and fell with a clatter to the floor next to his shirt. He didn't care. He simply reached for Natalie and held her close as she deftly undid the button and zipper on his new flat-front Ralph Lauren trousers, which she'd purchased for him. She slid the soft material slowly from his body, and he kissed her temple, cheek, and lips as he stepped from them. He reached for her bra and quickly unclasped it; as sexy as it was, as alluring as she looked in it, he yearned to feel her skin on his.

The music had followed them from the family room to speakers they'd had installed all over the house, so Adrian danced her towards the bed and his new pillow top mattress. He pulled aside the blanket and sheet with one hand, laid her reverently back on the bed, and began kissing each inch of her, in his very particular, orderly way. When he reached her breasts, he caressed one and took one nipple into his mouth. Natalie moaned her pleasure and arched her back to get closer to him. Then, he switched his hands and mouth and continued pleasing her this way. He stopped momentarily and looked into her green eyes with a burning desire she'd never seen in anyone's eyes directed towards her. Being the focus of his attention was both sexy and intoxicating. He never missed one of her sighs or moans and gave her more of what she liked. He was planting tiny kisses on the firm expanse of her abdomen as he gently grasped the waist of her sweats and peeled them off her body along with her panties.

Now she lay totally exposed to him, totally vulnerable, and all he could do was run his hands over every inch of her supple skin, and then when he looked into her eyes for permission, he touched her intimately for the first time.

Natalie gasped the moment his fingers found her wet center, and she struggled to increase the contact between his hand and her body. Simultaneously, she reached for his waist and pulled the pliant edge of his underwear away from his body. He hesitated in fear and in excitement all at once but relaxed when she whispered. "I love you, Adrian. I want you so much. Let me touch you."

His hand briefly left her to remove his own underwear and socks, and then his hand and the rest of him returned to her fully nude, fully exposed, fully unguarded to another for the first time in decades. Natalie reached for him and pulled his body over hers, so his first intimate contact wasn't her hand but all of her against him. He reveled in the sensations of skin touching skin, her warmth meeting his, her supple limbs wrapping around his, her kisses raining on his neck, and her murmured words of love and flattery soothing his fears and worries away.

Finally, she reached between them as they lay on their sides, touching from their noses to their toes, and took him firmly in her hand. It was his turn to gasp as her fingers closed around him and gently stroked, fondled, and caressed. Words failed him, and the only sounds he could make were keens of pleasure. However, in her particular way of "just knowing," Natalie knew when he'd had enough, and soon she rolled to her back and pulled him on top of her. Legs spread, she guided him to where he would find entry to the most secret part of her, and as they joined, they each had clarity. This was what they'd been searching for. This was what they'd each been meant to find. They fit like puzzle pieces, heart, mind, and at last, body.

Adrian began to move in an ancient rhythm encoded into the DNA of humans, and Natalie quickly followed his lead. It was loud. It was satisfying. It was perfect. When Adrian came in rich, deep pulses filling Natalie in a way she'd never felt filled before, her orgasm nearly caused her to swoon. The power and joy were combined to create an experience she wouldn't soon forget. Maybe this was what it felt like to get your heart's desire, at last, was her final coherent thought for quite some time.

Time passed, and the enormity of their climaxes depleted their energy and sensibility for several long minutes. Adrian was still buried deep inside Natalie, and he continued to feel the tiny aftershocks of her pleasure, so he didn't want to move. He didn't want to miss a moment of this first time. He did, however, want to kiss her, so he moved enough to angle his head so he could kiss her with all of his heart.

"I love you, Natalie, not just for this, although this… this was incredible. I love you in ways I will never be able to put words to…," and he kissed her again.

A tear escaped from one of Natalie's eyes. She was right. This was what it felt like to get your heart's deepest desire. "I love you too, Adrian. With everything inside of me. I will love you forever."

They fell asleep so entangled and caught up in one another that they didn't even get up to shower, change the sheets, or cater to any of Adrian's other compulsive habits. They were all forgotten for the time being in the simple bliss of love.

𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ𝕸ɳ

An uninvited guest had watched through the fence slats as the party and its aftermath proceeded. Gritted teeth and a snarl met the kiss secretly observed with binoculars through the family room blinds. When the uninvited guest lost sight of their quarry as the couple moved deeper into their home, they left their perch in the backyard of the neighboring house and snuck back to the hybrid. Something had to be done about this developing situation…and soon.