“Lily, there is a mass amount of clothes on the floor in our room and an even bigger mess in Kira’s room …” his voice trailed off as I heard him come down the hall towards the guest room, shutting the monitor off as I turned in my chair, looking at him casually.  “Do you care to fill me in on what’s going on?  I see this mess and I immediately fear the worst from you.  Again.”

I frowned, jutting out my lip.  “Stop thinking so negatively and go sort clothes for me, all right?  I’m working on something.”

He arched an eyebrow, confused.  “You threw all our clothes, plus our daughter’s clothes everywhere just so you could work on something on the computer?”

I chuckled.  Okay, so my mind wasn’t really working the way I wanted it to.  “I’m writing, okay?  I was in the midst of sorting all the clothes that we never wear and I got inspiration.”  I watched as he smiled to himself, shrugging in defeat.  “Just go; I’ll be in in a minute, all right?”

“Okay,” he said, leaning forward and placing a kiss to my lips gently.  “Kira in her room?”

“Sound asleep for the last half hour or so.”

He nodded, leaving the room as I turned back to the computer, hitting the power switch to the monitor on once again.  Bliss was only days away.  Not only was JC turning thirty two in four days, but in two days, he and I would be boarding a flight to Maui, Hawaii for a much needed (and very belated) honeymoon. 

And not one spent on a boat for a day and a half where for forty percent of the time, I was angry at him for some stupid, unjustified reason.

I grinned as I looked at the photo in front of me, it looking almost modest in its architectural features until the gallery was viewed and you actually caught glimpse of paradise within a home that was less than minutes away from the mountains and the ocean (which could be seen from the master bedroom). 

All reservations had been set; I even hired a massage therapist to come on the day of his birthday and a personal chef to cook his favorite meal.  The house was every bit of private and I planned on using that privacy to my advantage: it had been five days since Kira and I had reunited with JC and not once had he and I been able to get intimate.  There had always been something coming up or between us (Rob calling nonstop, Kira getting a cold, he going through some of his own PMS dealing with the Rob situation …) and he and I had little time for each other.

For ten days, I was going to change that.

“Lily, are we still going to dinner with my paren – what’s that?”

I felt his presence behind me as I continued to look at the photos, grinning widely as I pointed to the screen.  “That’s our home for ten days starting on Wednesday night.”

“Our home?  Wait, what?”

I laughed, turning and looking at him and grabbing his hand, getting up and making him sit on the computer chair, sitting down on his knee as I continued to click through photos and guest reviews.  “The Hale Mauka Makai is reserved in the name of Joshua and Lily Anne Chasez starting August 6th until August 16th.  We are spending ten days, including your birthday, in Maui.”

“Maui,” he said softly, eyes glued to the screen as he continued to look at the photos, “Hawaii?”

“Yes, that is where Maui is located,” I chuckled, “ten days.  You and me.  Alone.  Beaches, privacy and all the time together we need away from everything.”

“But what about Kira?”

I smiled, leaning up against his chest and resting my head on his shoulder as he took over the mouse, continuing to click through photos.  “Kira is staying with Charlotte and Jeremy.  Thus why all the clothes are everywhere; I’m trying to find decent clothes to pack for her … and for us.”

“Ten days, huh?”

I chuckled, getting up as he pushed away from the computer desk, staring at me intently with hooded eyes from his seat.  “Yeah, ten days of just you and me and all the passion and intensity you can imagine.”

He got up from his seat, stepping into me and leading me backward with just his body, pressing me up against the wall.  “A birthday present, perhaps?”

I smiled, nodding as I watched his tongue dart out and lick his lips painstakingly slow.  “Ten days of presents –“

“And naughty lingerie?”

I laughed, seeing the hopeful look on his face.  “And naughty lingerie … if my not-the-same-as-before body fits into it, still.”   

“Even if it doesn’t, it’s not like it’s gonna stay on long, anyway.”  He gripped my hips, pressing me into the wall as he kissed my neck gently.  “Have I ever mentioned that I love the summer?”

I paused, flustered by his off-beat comment.  “… Why?”

He laughed, pressing into me as he lifted one of my legs, hitching it onto his hip as his hand slid down my exposed leg, cupping my ass while gripping the lace of the hipsters I wore.  I felt my eyes drop closed at the contact of his stiffening erection against the barely there material that was now in view at the angle he held me, his free hand slowly teasing the hemline of the underwear at my lower stomach.  “Because you wear sundresses,” he murmured, eyes dropped as they watched his fingers, “and they just as much of a turn-on to me as your lingerie is.”

I felt the slow smile form on my face as his words solidified in my head, opening my eyes and reaching for him, pulling his mouth to mine and kissing him roughly.  I cried out when I felt his hand slide beneath the fabric, gently caressing my heat, fingers raking against my skin.  Arching, I pressed harder into him, biting his lip and pulling him even closer, hands frantically working at the buttons of his shirt.  Of course, worked up and frustrated, I broke the kiss, heaving erratically as I tried to catch my breath, his hand still connected to my heat.  “The shirt needs to come off.  Now.”

He grinned, giving me a dark look as a finger slid into me, he arching it in a beckoning gesture.  “You do it,” he said lowly, making a slow rhythm with his finger as another was added, daring me to make a move.  “Take my clothes off, Lily Anne; get rough with me.”

I felt my head involuntarily drop back as colors burst against the back of my eyelids, his fingers just the right amount of rough and just the right amount of gentle.  “Jace –“

“Do it, Lily,” he dared again, stilling his movements as I lifted my gaze to his, an eyebrow arched.  “Get me naked.”

I paused, biting my lip as he slowly backed off, sliding his hand away from my already completely soaked panties and holding his hands up in defeat.  “Wait –“

“If you don’t wanna do it, that’s fine,” he said, giving me a smile as I stepped forward, toying with the hem of his shirt.  It happened to be one of my favorite shirts he wore.  “I know you like to get a bit rough now and then, but if it’s not now –“ he stopped, eyes widening as my fingers gripped either side of the shirt, ripping it away from his body and hearing buttons hitting random areas of the room in gentle taps.  I may have loved that shirt, but what was underneath was so, so much better.

“If I don’t wanna do it,” I laughed slightly, it now my turn to push him against the wall as I raked my hands down his bare chest and to the button of his jeans.  “You wanna know what the biggest turn on for me is, JC?”  I looked up at him; his eyes dropped to what my hands were doing, slowly unfastening the jeans and loosening them around his already pretty narrow hips.  “Do you really wanna know?”

He licked his lips again, finally bringing his gaze up to mine and nodding quickly.  He could barely keep his eyes from rolling to the back of his head as I gently grazed the sensitive skin of his shaft, releasing it from the confines of both his jeans and boxer-briefs as they dropped to the floor.  “What is it?”

I dropped to my knees, running my thumb over the head and licking all of the pre-cum off of it.  “You,” I said softly, opening my mouth and taking him in slowly as he released a shaky breath, hearing his head hit the wall.  Pulling away again, I licked him gently, blowing at the skin before looking back up at him.  “You, in every aspect of the way.  You could be lying in bed passed out with drool on your pillow and I am contemplating ways of jumping you.”

He was speechless as I leaned forward, licking and gently humming against him, wrapping my hand around him and sliding it up and down with the motions of my mouth, trying to contain the grin forming as I felt him thrust in time with my mouth movements, his hands gripping my hair to try and contain himself. 

“S-stop,” he said shakily, tugging at my arm and pulling me to a standing position, breathing deeply.  “I’ve gotta touch you,” he said softly, mouth lowering to my neck as his hands went to the bottom of the dress, lifting it slowly up and off my body.  His hands rubbed gently up and down my sides as he continued his assault on my neck, slowly sliding to the front of my body and cupping my breasts through the fabric of the bra.  “God,” he murmured, letting his teeth rake gently down my skin, lip grazing the sensitive flesh of the top of one of my breasts.  “There’s no one else out there for me,” he murmured into my skin, hot breath puckering my nipple as his tongue darted out, tasting it gently, “just you.  It’s always been you.”

I gripped the back of his head, holding it there as I felt him push my panties down off of my hips and to my feet, he standing up and looking at me, grinning before lifting my entire body up, wrapping my legs around his naked hips.  He groaned as he felt my wetness against his lower stomach, pressing his mouth against mine as he lowered me to the guest bed, mouth never leaving mine as I felt his dick brush against my entrance, a low moan escaping. 

He pulled away momentarily, blue eyes searching mine as he held himself up with both arms on opposite sides of me.  I don’t know what it was, but his simple look cause a slight hiccup of emotion to rise from my stomach and out of my mouth in the form of a slight sob, reaching up and running a hand through his hair and gently playing with the side of his face where slow crow’s feet had begun to form, his face still as handsome as ever.  I still saw the hurt in his eyes, no matter how much he said he understood and accepted whatever I had to say; how did you make that up to a person when they weren’t in the wrong?  “I’m so sorry,” I said softly, his gaze softening as he leaned into my touch.  “I never meant to hurt you.  That’s the last thing I would want to do …”

“I know,” he said softly, “that’s the good thing about you, Lily; I know you don’t apologize unless you mean it.”

“And I do,” I frowned, seeing the emotion riddling in his eyes as he blinked hard, “I do love you.  There’s no one else for me but you, too …”

“I’d hope not,” he grinned, turning his head and kissing my open palm that had been caressing his face, “otherwise, I’d be shit outta luck, huh?”

I shook my head, gripping the side of his face as I grew more serious about the matter.  “It’s only you.  You carry my heart, remember?”

He leaned down, placing his forehead against mine as he adjusted himself at my entrance.  “I remember,” he agreed, dipping his hips slowly as he entered me almost painfully slow, “I carry it in my heart.”

I cried out as he thrust harder the next time, gripping him tightly at the shoulders.  The sweat had already begun to form in the valley of my chest, forming from being so worked up for so long.  He leaned his body into mine, turning us over so that I was on top and holding onto his hips.  “Jace –“

“I don’t know about you, but I don’t know if Maui can beat this view,” he cracked, hands sliding up my body and holding onto me tightly, thrusting in time with my own.   I rolled my eyes as he tickled at my waist, pulling me down to him and kissing me deeply, thrusting his tongue into my mouth.  I was reaching the breaking point; feeling the familiar twist in my belly and franticness of my thrusts as his seemed to speed up slightly, too. 

The waves of pleasure began to crash around me, crying out his name as I collapsed against him, he rolling me back onto my back as he continued to thrust, riding out the waves as he slowed, thrusts becoming sporadic.  He fell gently against my chest, resting his forehead on the solidness of my breastbone, kissing my skin gently.  “I love you.”

I smiled, reaching down and weaving my hands through his slightly damp hair and scratching at his scalp. “I love you, too.”

Within moments, our daughter, bless her little heart, began to cry, almost as if she had planned it all along.

Like JC had said before, she has impeccable timing.