Neil knew what was going on with me, though.  He always knew.

Without a word, he paused at the bottom of a huge staircase before scooping me up in his arms.  He carried me up that marble staircase and brought me to a room with a four poster bed made up with a plush white duvet.

He laid me back onto the soft, fluffy down cover and hovered over me, his eyes flickering over my face, reading me, understanding how hard it was to let go of regret.  He must have regrets, too.  I knew he had them, and that they were the reasons he forgave me for mine.

“I know what you need, Cherry,” he told me, as he descended.  “Let me take care of you.”

His soft lips kissed, and his warm tongue licked away every tear on my face, until any sad thought that weighed upon my conscience was set aside for that moment.  He stripped me out of my clothes slowly, piece by piece, until I was totally naked and he could trail his hands and mouth over me.

Until no part of my body was left untouched.  Until he’d given me too many orgasms to count.  Until he’d made me feel reassured of my place with him, in Scotland.  Yes, my man knew me well.

He left the bed and stripped out of his clothes.  Less slowly than he’d undressed me.  He was ready for me, well before his trousers landed somewhere on the floor.

When he returned, I sat up and pushed my hands on his chest, forcing him back down into the softness of the bed.  “My turn.”

He smiled at me, his lips still glossy from what they’d been doing to me for the past glorious minutes, as realization dawned on his handsome face.

I got comfortable and took his thick cock in my hand, stroking up and down the velvet skin that sheathed the rock hardness underneath.  I wrapped my mouth around the head of him and drew deeply, sucking to the back of my throat until I couldn’t take him any farther.

“Oh, fuckin’ fuck yes…” he growled, as I went to work on his beautiful cock.

And it was beautiful.  Neil in the throes of passion was breathtaking to me.  I wouldn’t say no to a picture or two if he ever offered.  Golden male beauty with muscles honed to perfection, tight and straining beneath me, because of what I did to him.  From what I’d made him feel.  With all the love I could give to him with my whole heart.

I sucked him to the brink, until I was waiting for his release of semen to land in my mouth, when he pulled completely out of and away from me.

“No, I want—” he whispered harshly, before repositioning himself and lifting me under my arms.  He hauled me back onto his lap, set me down onto his cock, and thrust inside me violently.  He took control of his orgasm, as his mouth claimed mine, just as roughly as his cock had just claimed my sex.  “Cherry, Cherry…Cherry—I love…YOU,” he chanted against my lips.

His hands gripped at my hips almost painfully, keeping our bodies fused together, his cock buried deep inside me even after he’d laid back into the softness of the bed, and brought me with him.

After we settled down from the rush, he pulled the duvet over us to keep off the autumn chill.  I moved to rearrange my body but he gripped my bum and kept us connected. “Stay like this with me.”

I touched his face and held it.  “Why?”

“Because I want to be in you.”

“Why?”  I had my theories about what he was doing.

His eyes looked to the left, betraying his untruth.  “I love being inside you after.  I love you.”

“I love you too, and I think I know what you’re trying to accomplish.”  I rested my chin carefully on his sternum so I wouldn’t hurt him.  “It’s probably not going to work though.  You know I’m on the pill.  You’ve seen me taking them.”

He sighed slightly, his expression giving up in defeat, that I had routed out his motivation for coming inside me, instead of letting me take him in my mouth.

“Well, I hope they fail at some point, because you’re the only woman who’ll ever be mother to my kids.”

When I admitted to my caveman plan to knock her up so I’d never lose her again, she smiled.  My Cherry Girl knew me so well.

“You don’t have to get me pregnant to keep me.  I’ll stay either way,” she said sweetly, before resting her cheek to my chest.

I stroked up and down her back and pictured her and me with our future children.  There should be a few, I thought.  Boys and girls that looked like her, and never had to know a life without loving parents who were there every step of the way, helping them to grow, and become good people.

“I’ll still work on it, thank you very much,” I said.  “I have a plan all sorted out, Cherry…and, as you’ve learned—” I coughed and muttered the words, “self-defense training classes” under my breath,  “—I take my plans in regards to you very seriously.”

She giggled and snaked her hand down to my ribs for a jab.

“Oh, that’s gonna get you something for sure, beautiful girl,” I to her, as I rolled her beneath me.

I kept my promise to my Cherry Girl.

Over and over again.

* * *

Six weeks later

“HAPPY NEW YEAR.”  The unanimous cries of guests rose up and then it got quiet as couples greeted each other with kisses to ring in the New Year.  I didn’t care about any others, though.  Just one person held my attention.

And my heart.

The party had everybody in high spirits, because the announcement had been made about BSI gaining the contract to secure the Royals at the London Games next summer.  And it was a momentous accomplishment for the business.  But, I had something even more momentous on my mind for that moment.  The focus of which had everything to do with my Cherry Girl, who looked mouth-watering as usual.

She wore a chocolate-brown lace dress that hugged her shape in a way that should probably be illegal.  Her sky-blue shoes and jewelry, the colour she loved so much, contrasting beautifully.  Her unique cherry-colored hair, arranged on one side, in a long wrap of curvy waves.  I’d have my hands buried deep into it later.  When I got her home and her pretty dress was nowhere in sight.

As she sat on a window seat cushion looking like a princess, she held my face in her delicate hand and returned my kiss.

“Happy New Year, Captain,” she said.

“Happy New Year to you, beautiful girl,” I answered against her lips.

My chest bones felt as though they were going to fracture from the fierce pounding of my heart.  I hadn’t believed I would ever do what I was about to do…in such a public manner.  But, I did.

I went down to the floor on one knee and took both of her hands into both of mine.

A look of surprise came over her face, and then, a quick gasp as she became aware…

“Elaina…I’m going to ask you something.  It’s a question I meant to ask you six long years ago and I did not.  Now, for the second time in our lives, I am prepared to ask the question, and this time, nothing will stop me.  You need to know something I’ve never told you about, because the time has come for you to hear it.”  I pulled her hands up to my mouth and kissed them both.  “You’ve always made me feel as though the reason I was born…was so I could find you, love you, and that you could love me in return.  I believe that with all my heart.”

Her eyes filled with tears as she listened.  Waiting on me patiently, as was her way.

I pulled out the heart-shaped, sterling-silver box I’d seen her eying in the antique’s shop in Washington D.C. and bought, just because I thought she liked it.  It reminded me of her.  Precious metal, finely wrought into a delicate design, but beautiful, bearing great strength to withstand the tests of time.

I held the box out for her, and then popped the clasp that opened it.