Shooting the Rapids - Chapter Four
Title: Shooting the Rapids
Author: Sio & Maura
Rating: NC-17
Length: 13,600 / 105,220
Spoilers: Possible mentions of up to Season 2 finale
Pairing: Rachel/Santana
Summary: The sequel to Standing on a Precipice. Rachel and Santana have managed to survive the turbulent waters of the loss of Jesse and the shocking truth hidden in Santana’s marriage. Now two years later, new troubles arise with Shelby taking a stand in defense of her daughter against Santana’s "corruption" and the involvement of the tabloids as the couple becomes more and more drawn into the public eye. Kayla’s success in gymnastics brings interest from an unexpected direction and Santana has decided she wants to try again for a child of her own. Can they survive as a couple and help their children thrive amidst the chaos?
Warnings (highlight to read): Pregnancy, angst, children, non-con and drugging and talks thereof in later chapters
Chapter 4
It hadn't been easy - a fact that was almost annoying, but she chose to be impressed instead - Lopez's handling of security set up for her offices was a reflection on the training she'd received as one of Sue's Elite after all. Head Cheerios needed exceptional levels of training after all and if they couldn't at least match the basic level of training for a Navy SEAL... Well, then she'd just feel like a failure and that simply wasn't acceptable. So the almost annoying level of difficulty in bypassing Santana's security measures had been a pleasant reflection on herself.
She smiled as the familiar form of her former head cheerleader appeared in the glass of the office door, leaning back in the chair and propping her sneakered feet up on the desk, crossing her hands behind her head. "Well, hello there, S. About time you showed your face."
"You're like a giant, how the hell did you get through my security?" Santana asked as she closed the door behind herself and crossed the room to put her iPad and ledgers on the desk. "What are you doing here, Sue?" The Latina rolled her neck and stood back up to her full height and crossed her arms over her Armani covered chest.
Sue just smirked, "It was simple for someone of my skills, S. I merely scaled the outer wall under the cover of darkness and came in through the window," she hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the window behind her, still standing open, curtains fluttering in the breeze. "I'm surprised at you, leaving such a breach in your defenses. I would have electrified the frame, of course." She straightened, folding her hands on the desk and glancing around, "You seem to have done well for yourself, I see. I'll admit to some small measure of pride in your success."
"Thank you for that veiled compliment," Santana rolled her eyes and walked over to her desk, "Can you please get the hell off my desk?" She asked as she looked down at the gigantic woman in her chair. "You're gonna screw up my chair..." Santana made a face, she finally got that chair at a perfect amount of support.
Sue laughed, but stood, "Of course. This is your office." She paced about the office, hands neatly folded behind her track suited back as she inspected the framed magazine covers. "I never would have expected you to be behind the scenes, Lopez." She glanced over her shoulder with pursed lips, "You always were more of a in your face sort of girl. Rather reminded me of myself with how you'd go after what you wanted. Which is why," she turned to face the younger woman, her eyes roving over her, one brow raising curiously, "I must admit to being puzzled as to why you would deny that child a chance to be part of the best."
"You've obviously never seen any of my deals or the way I do business, Sue. I've always been ruthless, and I will continue to be..." Santana explained as she sat down and crossed her legs. "Which is why I will not let that girl become another of your pawns, she's special. She's smart, she honest to god loves science and stuff I don't even understand. She doesn't want to be a cheerleader, she doesn't want it. That's why I wont let her even think about doing something that she doesn't want..."
"You're making a mistake there, Santana." It wasn't often that Sue used others' full names. She liked to reserve it for dramatic effect. "I can make her a real star. Give her the opportunities to achieve her," she gestured randomly with one hand, "nerdy endeavours without being mocked by her classmates. No one mocks a cheerleader, or did you forget that?" She placed both hands on the edge of the desk and leaned close, "I can give her the opportunity to go to top schools in this country, or, let's be honest, any other. Can you say the same? Can your little girlfriend?"
"Yes." Santana said simply, "I can assure her that she can go to any school she wants if she wants to. She's brilliant, and she will be able to go anywhere she wants." She was assured that she would be able to insure her children's future. "I have an obscene amount of money and if you taught me anything, it was that if you have enough power and money you can do anything." Santana smiled at Sue. "Trust me on the fact that i can do anything at this point."
Sue's eyes narrowed, "Even take care of miserable excuse for a former husband? Yes, I know about that. And I know of Streisand's part in the affair as well. It's one of the few times I've felt a strange sort of kinship with the hobbit. She clearly understood the need to physically defend what she regarded as hers in any manner possible. I applaud her. But do you possess the faculty to ensure he is destroyed to the point that he will not be a threat?"
Santana froze and tried very hard to keep her face stoic. "He's in jail." she said her voice wavering a bit, "He will continue to stay in jail and that is good enough for me. Now tell me, Coach, what do you want? Other than my child and my family moving back to Ohio... what can i do for you?"
Sue took a seat on the couch, crossing her legs and stretching her arms along the back as she regarded Santana. "Actually, I don't want that at all. If you haven't noticed, alumni who leave do not return to Lima. I know Streisand's fathers still live there though, so if the girl elects to join my prestigious team, then there is no need for you to return for the four years of her Cheerios' career. What I want is to know why you didn't come to me when you lost the little girl. You married scum. Which is understandable and why I never tied myself to anyone but myself via matrimony. I truly have no use for such patriarchal nonsense and was rather surprised to learn that you, of all of the Cheerios, had subsumed. I'd always had such hopes for you to rise above such things as I myself had."
"I have done well for myself, I've done better than you even with my stumbles." Santana replied, "Despite all the shit that happened to me in the last ten years, I've found love. I've found someone who loves me and was willing to protect me from my ex-husband." She cracked her neck and looked at the woman. "Why the hell would I come to you with the death of my child, Sue? Have you ever shown me compassion in the entire time you knew me? So please, tell me why I would tell you that my child died?"
"I haven't shown you compassion?" Sue raised a brow and snorted, "I saved your little glee club on more than one occasion. I protected you, S. Do you honestly believe you would have kept from being expelled for half of the stunts you pulled without my running interference behind the scenes? You weren't as impervious as you liked to believe. Believe whatever you'd like, Sandbags, but you were like a daughter to me. The three of you were the children I never had. All I wanted to do was help you succeed." She nodded, "Now, perhaps my techniques were not as accepted by the mainstream as I would have hoped - children are positively coddled these days - but that doesn't mean I didn't do my best to be like a mother to you."
Santana's jaw clenched down, "Like a mother to me?" She laughed cynically as she looked at the blonde, "Sue, you would rather eat your young than nurture them. You were not a mother figure to me. I hated you in high school. I hated how you taunted me, how you picked on Brittany, how you kicked Quinn off the team and banished her from being able to engage with us when she got knocked up. I hated how you kept me down for years, how the minute I finally gained enough weight to actually develop breasts you decided that you'd tell the world I got a boob job instead of letting it be known your master cleanse didn't work. I never looked at you like a mother, Sue. Mothers love their children no matter what, not use their secrets and insecurities to make them bend to your will." Santana stood up and leaned over her desk and growled, "If you even try to convince my child to join Cheerios, or fuck even go near my family I'll sue you for harassment and for being a sexual predator towards children. I'm sure the cops would still be able to find the cameras in the locker rooms... am I wrong?" She stated with a raised eyebrow.
Sue laughed, "Cameras in the locker room? Lopez, I believe you're mistaking me for Jewfro. I have no need for such things when I have cameras situated strategically around the school and spies infiltrated into the Cheerios every year who would never fail to report the slightest violation. While I may have a certain level of arousal at catfighting, I have no desire to watch the prepubescent-like bodies of my charges. But if you think I never loved you or Q or B, then you are severely mistaken."
"I pushed you because I wanted you to be strong enough to survive in this world," she added, pushing up to stand in front of the desk again, "I gave you the strength you needed to survive that miserable wretch of an ex-husband - who, I might add, will not be seeing the light of day until the very end of his extensive sentence, if then."
Santana sighed, "I would prefer that you not mention him..." She cleared her throat trying to find her strength to not fall into the emotional pit that normally came with any thought of her former husband or her life before Rachel. "He is none of your concern. I... I would prefer if he was never mentioned again. It's just too much for me, for Rachel and for the kids... just respect that okay?" Santana cleared her throat and looked away trying to not show weakness in front of the one woman who could tear her down.
Sue sighed, straightening and crossing her arms over her chest, "You have no concept of just how much I respect that fact, Lopez, or the things I have set in motion to ensure that little preference of yours will be carried out as thoroughly as possible. Now, your daughter - though why you insist on calling her that when you have no legal ties to her is beyond me - has a great deal of potential and you are restricting her by completely eliminating an avenue of success without even considering it."
"First of all, she is legally my child now. Rachel and I signed the papers over the weekend with my lawyer." Santana pointed out with a small smile, she was honestly happy with the turn of events, that the children could now depend on her for more than just finances; that she was a parent. "Secondly, Kayla likes doing gymnastics, but she does not like competing. She, out of all the children, does not want the spotlight. She does not want all eyes on her, so I doubt the Cheerios are right for her. She just wants to be a kid, believe me when I tell you that and leave her alone."
"She is?" Sue actually looked surprised for a moment, "Well, congratulations are in order then, I suppose." She regarded Santana apprasingly for a long moment, "You've changed, significantly, since high school, Santana. I never would have expected you to join forces with Streisand and I most certainly never would have expected to see you looking something that I would almost consider to be disgustingly happy at the concept of becoming the parent of three children who aren't biologically yours. You surprise me."
"Yeah well, me and Rachel have been together for like three years... We're planning on having a child together, so making everyone legally bound to each other only made sense." Santana explained, "Sue, understand that Kayla will never be a Cheerio and you are more than welcome to stay in my life..." She said softly, looking up at the older woman.
For a moment, Sue's eyes seemed to soften as she regarded the woman. "I suppose that is your final decision, then? Leave the girl be or be pushed out of your life just as much as I was pushed out of Q and B's lives?" Her lips twitched slightly in a frown of almost sadness before narrowing back to her familiar scowl, "I suppose if I'm not needed or welcome, then it would be best for me to remove myself from the situation, wouldn't it. Well, all I wanted to do was offer the kid a chance to follow in your footsteps, but I see now that you regret ever walking with me." She nodded - and if there was a trace of suspicious dampness in her blue eyes, she failed to acknowledge the weakness that would cause it, "Very well."
Santana rolled her eyes and walked over to Sue. "Dear god, you're worse than Rachel." She laughed slightly, "Just because Quinn and Brittany are idiots, doesn't mean I am. All I said was Kayla doesn't wanna be a Cheerio." Santana moved her head to the side, "I never said I didn't want you to be around, just back off the kids."
Sue narrowed her eyes, cocking her head slightly to the side, "Very well. I won't directly attempt to interest them in cheerleading, but I refuse to not discuss it if they come to me!" Her lips twitched slightly in something like a smile, "I'll even go so far as to promise to not attempt to subvert my promise in the same manner Streisand's mother did her similar promise to the hobbit's fathers."
Santana looked confused for a moment. "Um... okay?" she said, not really sure what the older woman was saying. "I think that would be okay."
"Good." There was an actual smile hinting about the cheerleading coach's lips, "I would hug you, but I don't want to muss my clothing." She straightened her track suit's top, "This is Armani after all."
"Right. I must have missed their fashion week showing of ‘Gym Teacher' chic." Santana rolled her eyes and she shook her head. "It's been nice seeing you, please feel free to use the door to leave unless you really wanna scale the wall again."
"Again?" Sue scoffed, "I never use the same route twice. It's too predictable. Well, I have more future Cheerios to recruit, so I'll be leaving. Oh, and Santana?" She paused in the door, glancing back with a smirk, "I would recommend investing in a better air freshener in here if you're going to insist on doing nasty things with Streisand. It smells like debauchery and lust in here."
Santana just laughed softly and shook her head as she sat back down and logged back into her computer.
Rachel hadn't much wanted to stay home that day, but with Mina getting everything ready for her and Ajay's youngest son's tenth birthday party, she couldn't really expect her to watch her children as well as her own when they got home from school. Especially not when all three - and Alex had been especially excited to get his own invitation - of them had been invited to join in the festivities, leaving her time alone with her girlfriend - a rare commodity but one she cherished. But Ajay had already collected the three rascals - with a promise to bring them home safely the next morning - and that left her to curl up in an old college t-shirt of Santana's in their bed with her iPad to wait for her lover to come home.
She pondered the screen, carefully typing in information on a third page as she flipped between the two previous. Santana had shown her the two potential donors she'd narrowed it down to the day after admitting she'd been looking and she'd been spending much of her free time carefully compiling pro and con lists for both of the two men ever since. This was going to be their baby and she desperately wanted everything to be okay.
Nibbling on the back of her stylus, she flipped between the pages again. Donor A seemed almost perfect... except he was approaching seven foot tall. Exceedingly tall for the pair of them. The other was only 5'10", but she still fretted. She wanted to know if they'd been scanned for the various diseases prominent in the Ashkenazi population - she didn't know how Santana could bear it if the child developed something as awful as Tay-Sachs or Canavan. She knew she was likely being irrational - they were genetic diseases after all and she was fairly certain Santana wasn't a carrier for any of them - but she couldn't help but worry. She was nearly at the point of wondering if possibly Santana should pick someone who wasn't of her ethnic heritage at all for the child when she heard the front door opening.
"Santana?" She called out, reasonably certain it was the other woman, "I'm in the bedroom."
Santana came into the bedroom and quickly stripped out of her work clothing. She didn't bother to put anything over her panties and bra as she crawled into the bed. "Hey, baby," She kissed Rachel's head, "Did the munchkins head to the party already?" She asked as she flopped down next to her girlfriend and stretched.
Rachel laughed, setting aside her iPad and snuggling close to get a proper kiss from her girlfriend, "Ajay picked them up with a promise to keep them all night long about an hour ago. It's just you and me tonight."
The darker girl smirked, "Awesome." She smiled, "Cuz, having kids around really makes our sexing a lot quieter than I'd like." She winked and slipped her arms around Rachel's waist. She moved over to kiss Rachel more when her knee hit Rachel's iPad. "Baby, if you want electronics in bed all you gotta do is ask." She nipped slightly at Rachel's lip.
"Actually," Rachel spoke softly, her eyes falling closed with a soft whimper at the tug on her lip, "I was comparing the two donors you'd narrowed your choices down to." She let her hands slip over her girlfriend's sides, loving the feel of the soft, warm skin and how the smooth muscles moved under her hands, the slight roughness as her fingers encountered Santana's bra, "I want to make the best choice when it comes to the donor for our baby, Santana."
"Mmm." Santana said as she let her lips move to Rachel's neck, "I think that I like that idea. But you know that you are the final choice and your pro and con lists are gonna make you take forever to make a choice."
"Not for," Rachel gasped as Santana hit her favorite place on her neck, "forever. I just want to maximize," she whimpered softly, "the chances for a healthy child that's as much like - ah! - both of us as possible!" Her hands slid along the edge of smooth skin and slightly rough cloth to the clasp on her back, fingers fumbling it loose. "My lists are a perfectly ac-" she couldn't help a low moan as Santana nipped at her pulse point, "acceptable to discover that."
Santana pulled her bra off and tossed it onto the floor before returning to her spot on the other woman's neck. "Your lists are very good." She smiled, sucking gently on Rachel's neck. "Have you come up with a decision yet?" She asked as she rolled over onto the smaller girl's hips and straddled her.
Rachel's hands slid over Santana's stomach to cup her breasts, squeezing gently as she smiled up at her girlfriend. "Almost," she murmured, "I'm leaning towards Donor B. He's small like us, unlike the nearly Finn-like giant of Donor A." She rolled Santana's nipples between her thumb and forefingers, loving the feel of them hardening under her touch, the slight pebbling of her aureoles. She licked her lips, watching her hands, "Have I mentioned lately that I am completely and utterly in love with you lately? Because I am."
Santana's head rolled back slightly, her long hair reaching down her back as she rocked her hips unconsciously as Rachel manipulated her breasts. "Donor B is good, but Donor A plays piano, drums, clarinet and sax..." She whimpered, her lip moving to rest between her teeth. "And Donor B only dances."
"I don't mind a child who only dances as long as I'm not reminded of Finn by their sheer height every time I look at them," Rachel chuckled, sitting up as best she could to take one of the nipples that had been tempting her into her mouth and sucking, rolling her tongue around the tip as she looked up at Santana with a smile. Pulling away after a moment with a soft pop, she licked her lips with a smile, "Besides, Donor B is also a small but attractive athlete... like you, love." She let her lips close around the thus far neglected nipple, her hand rolling the breast she'd just left, nipple delightfully hard against her palm.
"S-sounds," she whimpered, looking down at her girlfriend as she lathed her nipples with her tongue, "like you made, fuck, your decision." She licked her lips and moved to run her fingers through Rachel's hair. "You want donor B."
Rachel let up on Santana's breasts so she could speak, continuing to massage them with her hands the way she knew her lover liked best, "Donor B does have all the criteria for an optimal donor." She nipped at Santana's collarbone, "As well as offering a full genetic screening to ensure our baby's safe from the more unfortunate parts of my heritage." She pinched at the nipples under her hands, biting hard enough to mark the top of Santana's left breast. "I admit, I was decidedly worried about that until I noticed the note on his profile offering it. Donor A doesn't."
Santana moaned and nodded, "Sounds perfect." she leaned down and kissed Rachel with fervor as she pushed her girlfriend back. "I want you to be happy with the sperm donor." She smiled and nipped her lip. "I just want you to be happy."
Rachel was more than willing to let Santana push her back down to the bed, smiling up at her. "I am happy," she whispered, leaning up slightly to capture her lips again. "You're here, I love you, and you want to have a baby with me. I don't know how I can possibly be happier right now."
Santana slid down the bed and rested between the other woman's legs. She smiled and ran her hands up the smaller girl's thighs as she pressed kisses where the old shirt exposed smooth skin. "I like when you wear my shirt." She smirked, tugging it up a few centimeters and pressing more kisses to Rachel's thighs.
"I," Rachel moaned softly, her legs spreading almost unconsciously for her lover, "I like wearing your shirt. It," she whimpered, her back arching slightly, hips canting up towards Santana, "it makes me feel close to you when you're gone."
Santana ran her tongue against the hem of the shirt, she looked up and smiled as she moved up and found the smaller woman's panties and dragged the fabric down her thighs with her teeth. Rachel whimpered and arched her hips up to facilitate Santana's removal of her underwear. Her hands slid down her own thighs to tangle in her lover's hair, nails scraping gently against her scalp.
"Oh god," she groaned, one hand leaving Santana's hair to run up her body, drawing her shirt up so she could cup one of her breasts in her hand, lightly pinching and rolling her nipple, "Santana, please don't tease. You don't know how badly I've wanted you since you kissed me awake and left me wanting all day. Please just touch me..."
Santana licked her lips slowly, watching her girlfriend as she toyed with her own breasts. "Of course, baby." She smiled, as she parted her girlfriend's thighs and leaned in and dragged her tongue slowly up the cleft of Rachel's slit. She moaned as she encountered the profuse wetness pooling between the other woman's lips and she moved to swipe her tongue again, and again as she ran her fingers up and down the woman's legs.
Rachel whined and rolled her hips. "Santana, please! I need you, love." Her skin was starting to feel like it was on fire wherever Santana touched and she could barely think past the pounding of blood in her ears and the pulsing heat pooling in the pit of her belly.
Without any warning, she slid her tongue into the woman's channel as she moaned at the taste of her lips and tongue covered with Rachel's essence. She rolled her tongue and slid her fingers up to gently tease her clit as she fucked her slowly. Rachel moaned and arched her hips, both hands having slid up to massage her breasts as her hips rolled with Santana's tongue sliding in and out of her body, Santana's shirt a band pressing against the tops of her breasts.
"Oh..." she moaned, the inhibition that kept her relatively quiet when the children were home gone, "Oh God, Santana! Fu-" Her eyes clinched as a particularly strong wave hit her, "Fuck! Yes! Santana, yes, please!"
Santana quickly replaced her tongue with two fingers as she moved her lips up to the quivering nub and took it between her lips as she began to suck softly. Her fingers moved slowly, on every third thrust curling to hit the rough spot deeply hidden inside her girlfriend's core. She sucked slowly and let her tongue write out words on her girlfriend's clit as she did so.
Rachel groaned and writhed, barely able to cling to the edge as her girlfriend played her body. Her legs wrapped around Santana's shoulders, heels pressing against her back as her hands became rougher with her breasts, pinching and rolling her nipples, tugging them. She was beyond words, nearly beyond consciousness. She teetered on the edge of orgasm, every brush sending her closer to falling over the precipice, but she held on, wanting desperately for the moment to last as long as possible. Her muscles were quivering with the effort she was putting into holding off her orgasm.
Santana pulled away, licking her lips as she sped up her fingers. "Fuck, baby." She whimpered as she continued to push her fingers deep into her girlfriend. "You're so sexy," She bit Rachel's thigh as she continued fucking her, "Tell me what you want, Rae." She growled as she doubled her speed.
She barely managed to pry her eyes open and gasp out an answer, "T-tell me you love me and... and," her hands cupped her breasts, pushing them up, "suck my tits..."
Santana groaned as she moved herself off Rachel to take off her panties and slid herself back in between Rachel's thighs. She manoeuvred them so Rachel's core was pressed against hers and she began to rub back and forth against her with soft grunts. She leaned up and kissed Rachel, making sure that she could taste the abundant essence spread across her lips. "I love you," Santana whispered, her lips brushing Rachel's as she spoke. She kissed down Rachel's neck until she hit the bunched up top. She moved below it and roughly took a nipple into her mouth and sucked hard.
Rachel couldn't stop the wordless cry that burst from her lips as she fell over the edge or the way it descended into breathless gasps of her lover's name. The orgasm exploding through her, leaving her muscles quaking and almost weak as she continued to move as best she could against Santana. She could feel the warm moisture of her climax flooding between them, combining with Santana's essence and slicking their skin as she moaned into her girlfriend's mouth, somehow catching her lower lip between her teeth and tugging.
Santana smiled as she held onto her and held her as she shook. "You're so hot." She whispered against the sweating woman's neck and kissed gently as she continued to shake. "I love you so much." She whimpered, running her fingers through Rachel's sweat matted hair as the woman came down from her high.
Rachel panted against Santana, clutching to her as the lingering vestiges of her climax shuddered through her. "I love you too," she murmured against tanned skin, "and, if you'll allow me," her fingers slipped down from her shoulders to trace patterns over the sides of Santana's breasts, "I would like to show you a little of just how much I do." One hand slid down the smooth plane of her lover's abdomen to tease the top of her mound as she nibbled and sucked gently over Santana's pulse point.
"Y-yeah." Santana stumbled, her hips rocking slowly against Rachel's core again. She hated feeling like a guy, only getting her girl off to come herself, so she tried to not give into her pleasure when Rachel was recovering... but when Rachel offered, her resolve collapsed. She moaned softly as she looped her arm around Rachel's neck and continued to rock slowly.
"I love being able to do this," Rachel whispered against her neck, fingers slipping between them to rub at Santana's clit, "being able to bring you to climax after you've ignited me. Being able to," she caught her lip between her teeth as she carefully wiggled her hand between them until she could slide two fingers into her lover, carefully sliding in and out while trying not to put too much pressure against her own exceedingly sensitive core, "make love to you while my body still trembles from what you've done to me..."
"Oh. Fuck." Santana whimpered softly as she rocked her hips into Rachel's hand. She slowly rode Rachel's fingers as she rested her head against Rachel's. She fought to catch her breath as she kept her eyes locked with her girlfriend's as she started to clench around her fingers. "N-not gonna last long." She said softly as she tried to hold on to lucidity and not give into her orgasm.
"That's okay," Rachel whispered, smiling against her neck before nibbling on her earlobe, "I love how you look when you come for me. So beautiful." She pressed a kiss to the corner of her jaw, almost gasping as their breasts rubbed against each other as she pumped carefully in and out of her lover, curling her fingers to drag over her g-spot with each stroke. "Come for me, Santana," she breathed in her ear, twisting her wrist awkwardly to be able to stroke her clit with her thumb as she slid a third finger carefully into her and picked up the speed of her thrusts a little.
Santana squeaked as her body went into overload with pleasure. She clutched onto Rachel as she shook violently in her lover's arms. "Fuck..." she whimpered as she nuzzled into Rachel's neck and clenched around the woman's fingers. Santana was almost always silent in bed, but her actions weren't dejecting since her orgasms almost always left marks on her lover's body. Santana's hands clutched into Rachel's skin, leaving a trail of red marks down her back as she came hard. "Rae!" She breathed out softly.
Rachel moaned into her neck, doing her best to continue moving her hand through Santana's orgasm. She knew she was going to have bruises - faint, but definitely there - in the morning from Santana's grip on her, but the fact just made her smile. It wasn't that she liked being hurt but being aware of just what the cause of the tiny aches was made each little twinge as they healed another reminder of how much she loved her fiery lover. "I love you so much," she whispered into her neck, wrapping her free arm around her back to hold her close as she eased them back down to the bed.
Chapter Five