I felt his breath against my neck as I drifted away from my dream and into the land of the awake, struggling to force my eyes open as he stirred beside me. A slow puff of air came out of his mouth in a yawn, mouth against my skin. "Baby'scryin'," he murmured, voice low and muffled, "I'llgether ..."

I nodded, eyes slowly falling asleep again as I felt him get up slowly towards the bedroom that held our daughter, his feet padding down the hardwood of the freshly stripped floors. He believed that hardwood was more welcoming in a hallway when selling a home, making it look more inviting than carpet. I, however, disagreed, but bit my tongue and let him do what he felt he needed to do. I felt the sleepy smile form on my face as I heard him sing a little lullaby to Kira, he making the words up as he went. She was cooing, speaking only the language of a baby.

We closed on the new house today. Within the next few weeks, things would drastically change and we'd be living in a new home. A new home that would hopefully be the end of the stakeouts in front of our house, of the constant chaos of being in and out (he had already begun building the studio in the new home) and hopefully would bring a better feeling of security and warmth.

"Poor little toot fell asleep halfway through my second verse of the lullaby," he whispered, the bed shifting under his weight as he crawled from the foot of the bed to where I was. I smiled at his nickname for our daughter, grunting as I felt his weight lie on top of me, opening my eyes as I met his dark gaze above me. "But poor little daddy is awake," he pouted, the slow grin creeping on his face as I laughed. "Not funny, mama," he murmured, burying his face into my neck and gently kissing the tender skin. "It's been nine weeks, Lily; nine weeks of not being able to feel you."

I bit my lip, eyes fluttering closed as I felt him grind against me. "Jace -"

"Oh, what you do to me ..." His voice trailed off as I felt his hands against my skin, sliding up underneath the t-shirt that I had stolen from his belongings. "Nine weeks," he murmured again, gripping the fabric, pulling me closer to him. "Can we not wait this long again?"

I chuckled, pushing myself upward so that he was on his knees facing me, gripping his shirt as I pulled myself up and against him, searching his eyes. "If you plan to not have anymore children with me, then it's a done deal."

He grinned, his hands holding me at the waist. "If the promise of our children is that they are as beautiful as the one we have, I may just have to suck up those recouping periods and take care of myself." When I laughed, he shrugged, still holding tight to me as he frowned. "But it is better when there's someone else there to lend a hand ... pun intended."

"Oh, you poor baby," I chuckled, pulling at his shirt and freezing when his hand gripped my wrist. "Jace .... ?"

"Are you okay with this?"

Wordlessly, I pulled his shirt up and over his head, removing mine and pressing up against him. "I've been okay with this for a long, long time."

He pulled me against him, holding tightly as he breathed deeply into my hair. "How long have you been?"

"How long have I been, what?"

At first I didn't think he heard me, the slow, steady rhythm of his breathing against the back of my neck and the rise and fall of his chest against mine feeling like a slow dance with our entire bodies in synch with one another. His hands released my back, fingertips gracing my skin before they cupped the back of my neck and head. "How long," he asked, now moving his mouth by my ear, provoking the goosebumps that had been slowly rising to the surface to appear, "how long have you wanted me?"

Still holding tight to his shoulders, I inhaled his scent and smiled. There was no place else in this world that I would rather be than at that moment with him. I turned my head, placing a kiss just beside his ear and said softly, "I've wanted you since the moment I met you."

He pulled away then. The slow, sexy smile of his creeping across his face and upward into his cheeks as his dark, murky blues suddenly turned into bright, beautiful ones. His hands cupped my face, pressing his lips against mine gently, barely touching. "Wanna know a secret?" His lids were slowly lowering, watching as I licking my lips slowly, dangerously close to his mouth. "Something I haven't told anyone ever?"

"Mmhmm, tell me."

"I went to a psychic once," he divulged, chuckling as it escaped his lips, "even though I didn't believe in that kind of stuff. It was probably like, six years ago. I felt down on myself with the group basically disbanding and I really had no idea of what to do, what direction to take. I felt like my life was just ... there. Stagnant and repose, is what I think I called it. Heather told me about this psychic she had gone to in my hometown and although I told her I'd never, ever go to check out this person who basically gave my sister this boost that she needed, that it was not something I preferred doing. I didn't want to hear someone's fairytale of my life; my luck being the fairytale would have ended up being some sort of horror story instead."

But of course, boredom had hit home some months later when I had come home for Thanksgiving. I went for a drive and could not clear my head and I remember driving past the building so many times before I thought, 'what the hell. Maybe I'll get some laughs from it' and finally decided to come in. The moment I sat down, she was eyeing me up. Then she begins to talk and I felt like it was a joke. She told me that she could see in my face that I was a musician, my calling being a songwriter and a producer. Okay, what the hell, I was already both; I already did a lot with those two things, on top of being a performer. She's going on and on and on about this music-thing and I'm thinking, "okay lady, what else is new? I knew I wasn't as well-known as Justin, but I was recognizable. People knew who I was. I was JC fucking Chasez and I made more in a month in that group than she did her entire year. She asks me what brought me here and I shrugged and told her to enlighten me with what she saw for me in the future. Then she says that my future is already written in my eyes and that it has never been so easy for her to read into that like it had been for me. And do you know what this woman told me, Lil? Do you know what she told me?"

I chuckled, the incredulous look on his face priceless. "What did she tell you, babe?"

"She told me," he said, voice loud as if he were declaring something, "she told me that my future would appear within the next year."

"Oh ... kay," I said, not really getting his point.

"On June 2, 2004, you walked into my life."

"Jace, she could have meant your music, your career -"

"She meant you, Lily. You were my future."

"There's no way in knowing that's what she meant," I laughed. "C'mon, now, JC; she could have meant anything. She could have meant that you figured out what you wanted to do with your life other than music, found your calling -"

"Unless my calling was a beautiful girl who was unsure of herself and put others before herself, then I think it was you."

"Ha, ha, JC -"

"Lily," he said softly, holding my face as he cut me off, "it has always been you."

I gripped his shoulders, tears forming in my eyes as I pulled down down with me, he holding his body above mine. "You're just saying that to get me to sleep with you, aren't you, Chasez?"

"I'm pretty sure that has already happened over and over and over and over and over ..."

"I get it."

"and over and over and over and over ...."

"Jace, stop, I get it."

"and over and over and over again."

"I think you missed a few 'over's'."

He scoffed, "A few?"

My breath caught in my throat as I felt him hook the waistband of my panties with his middle and index fingers, lowering the fabric off of my legs once and for all as his own boxers followed suite shortly after. I felt his warmth against me as I closed my eyes, head tilting back as his mouth closed in on my collarbone, gently nipping it and then licking to soothe the bite. "Jace, please."

He lifted his gaze, from my skin to my face, that sexy smile still evident. "Please what, baby?"

I locked my ankles at his hips, pushing him against me as I groaned. "C'mon, Josh ..."

"C'mon, what?"

I opened my eyes, glaring at him. "You know, for as horny you have been for the last nine weeks, you could at least hurry this process up a bit."

"Oh, someone is a little hot and bitchy."

"You would be too if you're inches away from getting some and the person is just teasing you."

He laughed against my skin, the vibrations tickling my entire body. "Oh come on, baby; you know that this one isn't going to last for long since it's been a while. I was just trying to extend it's stay a little longer ..."

"I don't give a damn about extension," I snapped, "make it a short visit and get me off already before I have to take matters into my own hands! Please!"

"I love it when you talk dirty to me, baby," he grinned, kissing me hard on the mouth before I could respond, gasping when I felt him slowly enter me. "It's not gonna last long," he murmured, his body already tense as he tried to control himself,"I've wanted you so bad for so long that it's just a release being able to ..."

"I don't care," I murmured, gripping his biceps as our hips met in a rhythmic action, "there's more time for a lenghtier visit in the coming hours ..."

He laughed, shaking his head against my shoulder. "You have thrown way too many connotations in the last few sentences."

"More thrusting, less talking," I grinned, reaching for his head and pulling his mouth towards mine, kissing him deeply as he continued to rock against me. I fell away from his mouth slightly, feeling the familiar hitch in my chest and warmth in the pit of my belly as he began to thrust faster, closing in on his climax a lot quicker than mine, though it not following too far behind. "Jace," I moaned, gripping his neck as he nodded, knowing where I was getting at, "please ..."

His mouth dropped back to mine as I felt his release, he still thrusting as I reached my own about a minute later. He was right: it had been way too damn long.

"May not have been my best, but it was still fucking fantastic," he chuckled as he leaned against me as he rolled to his side of the bed, body still lying naked atop of the sheets. "I think I'm getting too old for this."

"You're never too old for this," I laughed, tugging on the blankets underneath him, waiting for him to lift his body up even slightly to get his body warmth against mine. When he had done so, it was almost as if it were on a power movement, my body curling against his the moment he had got underneath the sheets. I lay my head on his chest, placing with the soft hairs that spread near his belly button as his fingers lay spread across my upper back, gently rubbing the moist skin every few moments.

"I love you," he said softly as I closed my eyes, listening to his heartbeat through his chest, "more than I could ever imagine being able to tell you. I love you and that baby more than I have ever loved anyone else."

"I think it's safe to say that you love your daughter more than your wife," I smiled, my voice just above a whisper. I was becoming drowsier and drowsier as the seconds ticked by ...

"I love my daughter because she is the light of my life," he said softly, "she is part of my own being. I love you a completely different way."

Before I could even open my mouth to ask him what he had meant, he answered for me. I could not help the wide smile that spread across my face with his words.

"You are the one woman that brought that light into my life. No one else could have given me Kira. You are my safety net when I fall and my bungee cord to lift me up after that landing. You are the very air I breathe and the only thought on my mind when I go to sleep at night and the first thought when I wake up in the morning. You brought me where I am and there is no other woman that could have done that. You aren't afraid to fight with me and you aren't afraid to fight for us. That is why I love you in a completely different way."

"Well in that case," I laughed, lifting my head up and kissing his chest where his heart lie, lying back down after, but this time bringing my body further up and lying on his shoulder, face buried in his neck. "Jace?"

I felt his head move so that his mouth was at my forehead, placing a tender kiss to my skin. "What, Lily Anne?"

"I love you, too."

I felt him smile against my skin and no words were said after that moment. We both let the silence take over, each person holding on to the one thing that mattered most (with the exception of Kira, who definitely should not be held in the state of undress that we were in). He turned on his side so that I was now lying on mine, arm draped across my hip as he pulled me flush against him, fingers again moving against my skin.

"I meant what I said, Lily," he whispered as I slowly eased back into dreamland as his finger danced an imaginary pattern across my skin, his breath warming me to the core. When I hummed a response, his grip on my hip tightened, mouth pressed against the back of my neck. "It has always been you and I will do whatever I have to to keep my future safe."

And I believed him.