Gavin shook his head more emphatically as Bella spoke.

"Nope. I seem to recall a naive "New York romance" with a guy who became an FBN agent. Don't think you'd ever given me more details. But that's fine. Tonight's not the night."

Gavin had to stop himself as Bella changed her clothes. Forcing himself to sit in a chair, he did allow himself an occasional glance.

"Why couldn't the people you mentioned be together?"

She caught him looking at her once the dress was on, and he gave her a distracted shrug as he stared.

"What? Sicily?"

In a rush she said, "Frank was married still.  His wife was Lucy's best friend.  Said best friend Nikki Swango had come up with her in the Cosa Nostra and eventually became her Don.  Well, Lucy was on the trip trying to help Frank get Nikki back... and while she was doing that... she and Frank fell in love."

"She later got a telegram from Nikki telling her the details of why she split from Frank and once it was clear she had her Don's blessing ... well, Frank and Lucy fucked like rabbits in spring in the Sicilian countryside... really one hell of a story."  

She put on some lipstick then stepped back to admire the color.

"As for the other, I had Charlie Pavanno make a delivery to the DiCaprio family in Catania, and I should make sure it got there alright.  Since it's not terribly far from where we're going I was hoping we could make a day trip of it.  That and I'd like to see some of my own family's ancestral lands.  If you're not opposed?"

Fucked like rabbits in spring in the Sicilian countryside...

"You're a poet, you know that? And hey, if it was Charlie, he would've handled things and made sure it was fine. And of course I wouldn't mind that. We'll have plenty of time to travel around, I think."

She chuckled.

"Nothing compared to your sister when she's drunk, trust me."  She winked.

"I'm sure Charlie handled it... but still, there are some things that are important enough to see with your own eyes and maybe there's a little mystery to be solved too."

She walked over.

"You sit in that chair sneaking peaks at me like that for much longer and I might be tempted to wear you out before dinner... and that would be a shame if dessert comes to the room tonight."

She held out her hand.

"Also ... I was hoping that maybe I could draw you on this trip.  Not naked though, unless that's what you want?  I mean I could do two of them.  It's just... all the sketches I have of you are from memories.  I would like something that's really you.  Something we could hang on a wall and not have to hide from Aurora."  She chuckles and takes his arm as he leads her out of the room towards dinner.

Gavin chuckled as he stood and took his wife's hand, walking outside and headed down to dinner.

"Sure, happy to have you draw me if that's what you want. I'll support all sorts of arts on this trip. While we eat... tell me about your family, the history, these 'ancestral lands' you mentioned?

"Wow, that's a big topic."  She smiled.  "My father said that the Luciano family came to Sicily in the time of Rome.  Now I don't know if that's true or not, but there it is.  So, some two hundred years before the birth of Christ?  Crazy to think about really.  I don't know who the first of our family there was but the first to make a name for himself was a man named Augustus.  Augustus was a fisherman - in fact, the three fish on his gun go back to this story."

She smiled.  "As the story goes the village Augustus lived in his whole life had been held by a number of invaders throughout the years.  At the time Romans held it and they didn't trouble the people too much ... until they came to collect grain to feed their soldiers and taxes to fund their expansions around the world.  Augustus' family largely stayed out of the eye of the Roman Soldiers who came to the city because they fished the waters near their home and did not grow grain.  But, Augustus was a young man and he was in love with a woman, Maria Santini, whose family DID grow grain and so eventually shit came to a head."

"The leader of the Romans put the screws to the girl's family and when her young brother attacked a Roman soldier, they killed Maria's father who was begging for his son's life, took his grain, and his daughter.  Augustus had enough.  He marched into town and demanded Maria be released.  He was, of course, mocked as a nobody fisherman and told to go away.  Augustus told the soldiers he was there trying to help them.  They had, after all, brought a curse down upon themselves and if they weren't careful... well, bad shit would happen."

Bella paused long enough to order her dinner, a lamb dish with fingerling potatoes and a slice of chocolate cake for dessert.  

"So where was I?  Oh yea, the curse.  He makes up this bullshit story about taking captive the daughter of a man you've killed and how it's really a good way to piss off the ancient spirits that protect Sicily.  He tells them that if you kill a man you MUST see that the daughter has enough money and goods to take care of herself for a year and a day ... or be cursed.  I mean this isn't anything rooted in any truth so far as anyone knows, the point is Augustus is clever as hell.  A great con man."

"Of course no one believes him until shit starts happening.  Wagon wheels break.  Food & even alcohol goes bad.  And lastly, the grain gets wevils.  All of which Augustus uses locals to help him pull off.   Eventually the soldiers start to believe this crap and they are near turning on their commander.  The commander calls in Augustus and asks him how they can set things to right while also not pissing off Rome.  Augustus tells him that first he must do as he should have to start with ... give Maria's family what they need to survive a year and a day without their patriarch.  However, since they've already pissed off the spirits of Sicily, they have to give back to the land.  He tells them they need to bury fish into the earth to make it rich for planting in the coming year.  300 hundred fish should do, he tells them."

Bella laughs and drinks her wine.

"So here's the Romans sending Maria home with goods and money and where the hell are they going to get 300 fish?"  She smiles.  "By the time the Romans leave with the wheat that was left unspoiled and their taxes, Maria's family had money enough to be well off for some time to come and Augustus had the sort of cash he needed to ask for Maria's hand in marriage - with a promise to look after her family.  Which, because of how he impressed all the people of his hometown, eventually grew into him becoming a Chieftan... a Don."  she smiles.

"And so it was Don Augustus Luciano went on to live to a very old age, with many sons and daughters, and was the first notable member of our family and the three fish on our family crest represent the importance of not just might to our family... but cunning as well."

The food was set down in front of them and Bella paused to eat some.

"Rome..."

Gavin sighed.

"And I can't trace my family back past my parents. Maybe I should take a trip to Ireland and do some digging. But that's a hell of a story you've got there. I thought you guys just liked fish..."

He grinned, tucking in to his own dinner. Although Bella noticed he didn't eat as much as normal. On nights when he was really focused on "work", of any sort, he always tried to stay a little hungry. Still, he finished his first glass of wine and poured another.

"No, I suspect the Byrnes don't have much of a past. As to what sort of future they'll have... I suppose that's up to us and Aurora."

"We've done good so far."  She said softly.  "No one who knows you, your sister, or me can say we wasted a bit of the opportunity we were given in this life.  We've all done good for ourselves and, I like to think, others too.  And who knows, the Byrnes might have a great past in Ireland.  You only know one story and trust me... there are more than a few Luciano's who weren't known for the good things they did.  Hell, look at my dad.  What do you think he'll be remembered most for, if he's remembered at all?  I suspect he'll be known as the man who nearly ended the great peace by shooting the mother of it... his own wife.  A man who was so greedy that 'everything' wasn't enough for him."

She shook her head.

"So yeah, we could be doing a lot worse I suppose."

Bella popped a potato in her mouth.  She wanted to make sure she had energy in case they found Faith waiting for them in the room tonight. 

"Eating light I see?"

She smiled. 

"Should I write off any hope of you spending some of your energy spinning me around the floor a few times since you've got the look of a man preparing?  I mean... I don't want to wear you out."

With a wink she ate another potato.

Gavin drank respectfully and silently as Bella talked about her father before shrugging and grinning as she changed the subject.

"Well, I don't want to feel sluggish tonight. Happy to take a spin with you. On this trip, my goal is to give you whatever you want- and hopefully it happens."

When they were finished, Gavin extended a hand to Bella and they made their way to the dance floor.

He would have scoffed at the suggestion, but in another life where he was born to a different father Gavin might have been a dancer instead of a hunter. Perhaps not Fred Astaire, but one of the men accompanying him. In addition to his natural grace, he'd spent decades honing his body into a tool- a weapon- moving fluidly and perfectly however it was commanded. He'd initially learned as a young man for the sole purpose of seduction, but he did enjoy dancing with his wife. Also seduction, but still.

The band was playing something light, and the Byrnes moved around the dance floor effortlessly, Gavin's hand resting on Bella's lower back, bare due to the dress. The dress in particular caught a couple looks and comments from the familiar faces they'd spent their time was earlier, but they quickly winked and moved on. As the music and dancing slowed, Gavin sighed and looked down at his wife.

"This is a nice trip... I really hope I don't need to break into a jail and jump out of a plane this time..."

She shook her head.  "No one is going to jail this time and if one or both of us do, then I think we need to seriously rethink our vacation options in the future."

She laughs.

"I suppose this is a bad time to mention I had a few parlor games of my own in mind?"  she smirked.  "Elias and I use to go on this riverboat in Detroit... man, I hadn't thought of it in years.  Anyway, we'd do this challenge and each of us targeted on a person on board and lifted one thing from them.  Then at the end of the night, we'd compare and see who got the most valuable object.  Whoever did, won."

She shakes her head.

"But seeing as that might get one of us put in cuffs if we were to fuck it up, I can see where maybe we shouldn't risk it.  Though... it was a fun little game."

Gavin flashed a wolfish grin. 

"Well, you might wind up in cuffs regardless."

Bella's eyes widened a touch, color rose in her cheeks. 

"Well... that would be different, now wouldn't it?" 

She kissed Gavin gently.  "Have I become Pandora?  Unleashing all manner of things into our relationship?"   

She waggles her eyebrows.  

"So let's see, the first five years or so of our relationship was very standard... the next ten we'll hit all the oddities you read about in those tell-all magazines they sell in gentlemen's clubs, you know the ones no one ever believes are real letters.  Then what?  Travel the world looking for exotic and rare pleasures?  OH!  There you go... there's your pirate's treasure we can sail the seven seas searching out."

Her smile was so bright that it outshone the lights in the room.

"You know... I have to admit it though.  I just don't think we'll ever top that night in Chicago.  As horrible as that night was in so many ways; you and me in that park was the very best of my whole life." 

She lowered her voice. 

"I've never felt more wanted, more desired in every possible way, as I did that night.  We've come close before ... but nothing has ever held a candle to you that night.  It was lightning in a bottle.  I couldn't describe what it was exactly that set it apart, it just ... was."

She looked into his blue eyes and admitted, "I very nearly didn't call you that night." 

She drew a breath, knowing how deep this particular rabbit hole goes, "Everything I have... everything, is because I chose you.  In every other scenario - Elias, Will, My Father, trying to become a Godfather on my own ... if I had chosen any other path but the one my heart wanted most, I wouldn't even be alive right now."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, "No matter where we go from here, no matter how long we live, I hope you always know YOU - WE are the very best choice I have EVER made."

Gavin grumbled.

"I wouldn't say very standard. The first time we had sex we were 30 stories in the air... but I get your point. And I don't disagree with you about Chicago. That was when everything changed for me."

And then I boozed and screwed my way through Chicago for 48 straight hours, but we'll leave that part out when we tell the kids. Actually, we'll leave out most of it. He looked at her seriously.

"I'm glad you called. And you don't know the future- you can't say that you wouldn't be alive."

He grinned.

"But... I can pretty confidently state that you wouldn't have had as much fun."

"The first time we had sex... you make it sound like WE had sex."  She shakes her head.  "I sometimes think it was more like you... helped me to love myself again.  You woke me up.  You broke me away from the monotony of platitudes and pity stares and told me it was okay to be happy even if the whole world knew I was right to fall the fuck apart."

The color continues to paint her face, her eyes glistening, her lips wet as she talks about their past sexual exploits, "I was ready to be used by you - hoping to feel something or nothing at all really and then you were there helping me to be selfish."

She smiled deviously.  "You're good at making me think only about myself and forget everything and everyone until I just... oh, fuck it..." 

Bella stopped dead in her tracks and kissed Gavin.  It wasn't a polite, public display of affection she'd given a moment ago; it was a lusty, desperate, passion filled kiss that was wholly inappropriate for public consumption.  It was the sort of kiss that happened with the whole of one's body, not just the tongue and lips.  It was hands groping, core body writhing, heart racing, and breathy.  It was multi-sensory in that it was a kiss that was more than felt or tasted, it could also be heard.

A few scandalized noises erupted from some more uptight guests on the ship, a few giggles as well, and one or two people seemed to find it awe-inspiring in that they appreciated a married couple still loving each other enough to fall into such a display that was normally reserved for younger - fresher lovers.

There were only so many moves one had as options when one was being passionately kissed... Gavin quickly rejected all of them and simply kissed her back. He grinned.

"Want to take a walk? I think I'd like to call it an early evening, regardless of whether someone's waiting for us or not."

The door came open, Gavin backed into the room still kissing his wife.  Bella made note, no chairs.  They were alone.

The moment the door to the room shut behind them, they began pulling off garments and accessories.  Gavin's jacket hit the floor in a crumpled pile and he began to work off his shoulder holster.  Bella reached between her legs and threw off her garter and knife. Both gently clattered to the floor.

Next, the zipper on the back of Bella's dress came free audibly and Gavin slid her arms out of the top of it while she worked the buttons on his shirt.  A moment later she was throwing it to the side and lifting Gavin's undershirt over his head pausing her kisses only for the instant it took the underclothing to come free.  Without looking she threw it to the side. 

They took a few more steps towards the bed, Bella whimpered as if her clothing could not come free fast enough.  

Gavin all but ripped the hooks on her bra open and as she was freed, Gavin finally broke away from her lips.  She drew a shuddering breath as her husband continued to lower her dress to the floor and paid attention her bare breasts.  Bella stood taking in the feel of him, the sound of him and anticipating what was coming next as she lifted one leg and then the other.

That's when she saw it.  The lamp.

She'd left a sign on the door requesting no maid service.  It as a matter of security and safety as much as anything.  If a maid was going to come in and pick up after them, it would only be after she took certain items and secured them. 

Kassandra was sick as a dog, seasick - the poor dear, so there was no way in hell she'd left the thing on.  

And she KNEW she'd turned that thing off before leaving today.

And since Faith wasn't in the room... someone had been in the room.  Maybe, possibly, they still were.

"Gavin?"  She gasped, realizing her warning sounded too much like a lover's urgings only after her husband redoubled his efforts. 

"Damn it..."  She groaned - AGAIN he didn't seem to get it.  

"Wolf!" She said more assertively, the barest hint of worry in her voice, enough to cause him to stop.  Their eyes met and before Gavin could utter a word, he'd read the expression on her face and knew something wasn't right.  

"I didn't leave the lamp on."

Gavin had knelt down and grabbed his gun as soon as he'd processed what his wife was saying. After a few moments where the Byrnes starting quietly searching, they heard a muffled voice from the bathroom.

"UHHHHH... PLEASE DON'T SHOOT"

Gavin aimed carefully before replying.

"I won't... (maybe).... come out slow, with your hands up."

The door to the bathroom opened slowly and Simon Bentley emerged, holding a bottle of champagne over his head, with his other hand open and in the air. Bella yelled first.

"Simon?! What the fuck?!"

"I... I was hired by a Miss Tara Byrne to keep an extra eye on the two of you... I'm not really a fighter... but I'm very observant and I was supposed to tell you if I noticed anyone paying too much attention to you so you would be aware... I did so on the note on your table over there... and I was also supposed to deliver you this bottle of very expensive champagne..."

The man blushed, turning his face away from Bella.

"I really thought you'd be out later... I'm very sorry... please don't hurt me... may I please leave?"

"If Tara hired you, what's the password?"

"Password?"

Gavin's grip on his gun tightened. Simon's eyes grew wide.

"I... goodness... I... please... DOGCATCHER!"

Gavin grinned as he lowered his gun.

"Simon, get the hell out of here. Now."

Simon did not need to get told twice as he hustled toward the door.

"Simon?... leave the champagne."

Placing the bottle on the table and lowering his eyes again, Simon exited and closed the door behind him.

The door shut behind Simon and Bella instantly doubled over laughing so hard her whole body shook.  After the dread and fear that something serious was wrong, that their lives might be on the line, it was an absolute hoot to learn that this wasn't a threat... it was family.  It was just one more reason to smile.

She fell onto the bed laughing.  

"Well... that was fun."  Her laughter slowed.  "You wanna crack that bottle open so we can try to rescue what's left of our nerves.  Christ!  I honestly thought it was a fucking... gah!" 

She shook her head.

"Nope.  Just letting that go." 

She sighed.

"Can you imagine how we must have looked?"  She began laughing again. 

Gavin chuckled as he placed his gun down and checked the note on the table. Lifting it, he smirked.

"According to our extra pair of eyes, Faith Bacon has been paying a suspicious amount of attention to us. Something we'll have to beware of, apparently."

Bella saw him lift the bottle of champagne as he turned out the light. She heard his voice approaching before her eyes could adjust, and she heard the champagne bottle pop open.

"Now, I don't think this was Tara had in mind, but I'm going to see just how much champagne I can lick off you before tomorrow."

When dawn broke, the sheets were ruined, the bottle was empty, and both Byrnes were snoring contentedly.

Bella took one last look at the suite and picking up her suitcase, she smiled pulling the door closed behind her.  Gavin was a few steps ahead of her and headed down the hallway, a spring in his step and a grin that seemed chiseled onto his face.

Gavin and Bella stood in the hallway outside their door, knowing tomorrow they'd be in Italy's docks.  Faith had not come to their room yet which meant unless she'd backed out on the deal, she was waiting for them inside.  Bella found herself nervous.  She'd been in the arms of both of these people before and so the planning phases of this 'gift' felt like it wasn't something that would bother her... but now, here with Gavin, she found herself with equal parts excitement and fears.

Gavin, for his part, had maintained his stance that they didn't need to go forward with this, but Bella suspected it was out of 'doing the right thing' more than what he really wanted.  And, if she was honest, she didn't want to back out. She wanted to do this - but some part of her realized then she'd never had to measure DIRECTLY up to another woman in front of Gavin before.  What if Faith, with her beauty and all her courtesan talents, made Gavin question how much he limited himself by settling down with her... no... settling ON her.  There was a world of women and untold pleasures out there and Gavin had turned away from them all for her.

No pressure.  HA! 

"We can..."  Gavin began again in a sincere tone, but his eyes were the giant orbs of a child ready to receive a bit of candy.

Bella smiled at him and kissed her husband, reaching her hand out to open the door.  

The sun shone down on the Italian port, warm, the smell of the city and the sea blended.  Kassandra was all but running for solid land and Bella couldn't blame her for how sick she'd been for days on end.  If she'd known the woman would be so adversely affected by the cruise she would have suggested bringing one of her other bodyguards.

Slowly the crowd moved towards the gangplank and Bella looked casually for Faith, but she knew she wouldn't see her.  Some things, it seemed, never changed.  Putting a hand into her jacket pocket, she felt the note & feather the blonde had left for her to find this morning on the nightstand.

I've missed you Hot Rod, let's not go this long apart ever again.  

I'll be praying for your family and look forward to meeting with you in Vegas in three months. 

I hope we both get the happy news we're waiting for by then.  

xoxo

~F

ps:  Tell that husband of yours he's one lucky guy.  

Fresh bedding.  Clean room.  The maid had come and gone hours ago.  Everything was where it should be except two chairs set just inside the door leaving room turning the open floor space into something of a stage.  

Bella and Gavin look at each other and walk into the room.  Gavin locks the door behind him.  The moment they sit down, Gavin takes Bella's hand in his and holds it between both of his own.  It's a comforting gesture but from the moment the music begins to play from the bathroom where she has been getting ready, his eyes are forward - alert and eager for what's to come.  As much as Bella wants to see Frances' dancing, she had dreamed of this reaction for so long that she can not look away from Gavin.

Many times before she'd witnessed Gavin delight in her appearance, make remarks or gestures that were suggestive of his desirous thoughts or give her the 'come to me' eyes that suggested her clothing wasn't long for the world ... but this, this was something different altogether.  He was so still she could only compare it to the few times she'd seen Gavin waiting to take a shot on a man.  Muscles tensed and frame held just so, mercilessly staring down his prey.  But the expressions on his face, the way his lips parted and drew breath and his eyes bright and wide, was only comparable to the expression worn by Matteo their very first time.  A fierce desire mixed with uncertainty and a thrill that could never be repeated. 

And with that thought she realized, no, she had seen it somewhere else before ... Chicago.  Her heart quickened and she was glad he wasn't looking at her to see the uncertainty she knew she could not be hiding.  That was her look!  She never wanted another woman to see it on Gavin's face, that energy she didn't even know how to describe.  She looked at him, up and down from top to bottom, and realized that all parts of him were reacting.  Faith hadn't even stepped a foot into the room and he was already aroused.

A car was waiting to take them to Stella's home.  She loathed the idea of getting into a car on such a beautiful day after having been on a ship for so long, but there would be time to enjoy the countryside once they were at their destination.  So, she and Gavin put their bags into the trunk and climbed into the backseat together sliding together not because there was a lack of room, but because of a strange closeness that had grown out of the events of last night.  It wasn't anything they'd spoken about but it was undeniably there.  Head placed on his chest, one hand on his thigh and another on her own belly, she breathed in the fresh air that came through the open windows and let herself take a cat nap.

Bella had expected horns, bawdy, bold sounds - but she had been wrong.  The sound was sweet, a gently flowing melody that was a sharp contrast to the ideas of lust that she'd formed in her mind about this moment leading up to it.  She'd seen Faith dance before, seen other women do that style of dance which her friend was famous for so she'd known that there was typically a naughty humor about it, a lack of sincerity that made it feel (in a word) cheap and it drove men wild. 

Faith was none of that.  

Bella's pulse quickened with memories of comforts and pleasures she'd not yearned for in many long years.  While it was clear Faith was barely dressed behind her fans, the silhouette cast by the bedside lamp on the wall wasn't pornographic, instead, it felt like watching Michelangelo paint.  The precise lines, the tensing muscles flowing fluidly from one shape into the next, made her body bend in suggestive ways that would make a priest question his choices.  

Gavin sat forward in his chair as she came closer.

Her skin appeared as soft as the large feather fans that swirled about her.  Her lips glistened, moist from gloss, parted ever so softly as she came nearer to them.  And as she expected Faith to touch him - to thrill him in some unspeakable way, her fans brushed past Gavin ever so, like a siren floating just out of his grasp.  His grin widened impossibly as Faith's sinewy body writhed around her.  Then she was using the fans, gesturing to Bella with them as she backed away, begging her to follow with her movement and her eyes.

Gavin gave her hand one final squeeze and then, he released her.

The car pulled over.  Bella woke in a warm beam of sunlight, draped across Gavin still.  There was nothing on either side of the car, only rolling hills with only a tree appearing every now and again to break up the monotony of the endless fields of gold.  The two of them got out and the driver produced a basket and blanket for them explaining in Italian that it was a picnic lunch.  There was still quite a drive to Stella's and they would be best take in the countryside and enjoy some food before they continued onward.  Kassandra took up watch eating a sandwich as she and Gavin made their way out into the tall grass to enjoy the day.  Looking at him, looking at her, it was impossible not to remember those eyes from the night before.

The music had ended.  Bella didn't know how long ago, she had honestly lost track of thinking much of anything once the kisses began and it had gone on so long that her lips were already weary.  At some point in it all she had begun to lose clothing.  Who initiated it was hard to say.  It had occurred so slowly that Bella felt as though she'd had a spell cast upon her.  The feelings, the aroma of Faith's arousal, the way this soft body which was so different than Gavin's firm muscled form fit perfectly into her own, it just felt right.  It was something she hadn't allowed herself to reflect upon since a time before she met her father - a man who would never understand the intimacy between she and Faith.  An intimacy born out of a primal need for human contact and compassion.  A need his & her own mother's absence had created in her soul.

As Bella felt Faith's knee slide between her thighs coming ever nearer to touching her, an ardent moan escaped her lips.  She hadn't thought much about the noise when she made it, the sound was born of emotion and pleasure, it was born of desperate desire.  It was at this point the creaking of the chair reminded her that she and Faith were not alone and that someone had been watching them this entire time.

Bella turned her head to see a stripping Gavin cross the space between the chair and the bed, with a whole new look on his face.  A smoldering ember burnt behind his eyes and it wasn't Faith his eyes were locked upon, but her. 

Gavin poured wine for them both, cut cheese and bits of hard salami, and smirking fed her grapes.  "I should probably cut back on the drinking."  She said before he put another bit of food past her parted lips.

"If you want... or you could talk to the doctor about what he thinks is best." His eyes looked pointedly down at her midsection and a wolfish grin slowly grew.

"What are you thinking?"  She asked but she supposed she knew.

"Do you think..."

They'd been trying a lot, but neither of them had dared to talk much about.  The doctor said it could be a while or it could happen right away, there was just no way to know.

"I mean... if I wasn't so damn tired," He admitted, "...we could try again right here."

Bella laughed.

"I can think of worse places to make a baby."  He added.

She opened her mouth for another grape.

"Last night was..."  She started to say.  

Gavin smiled.

She smiled back and looked down blushing.  She thought she should say something to express all she was feeling, but as so often happened, she realized it wasn't necessary.  The shared feeling wasn't imagined.  They were closer than they'd ever been and God willing, the product of that love would be the child she so badly wanted them to share.

Gavin ever so gently put a hand on Faith's arm and the woman, wordlessly, moved to the side allowing Gavin into their bed.  As he entered Bella's line of sight and she opened up to receive him and reached her hands upward to touch him, his eyes seemed to come to life.  They were blazing now with feral greed that she'd not been able to witness visibly that night in Chicago.  He braced himself upon the bed with one hand and in the other took hold of her before a smirk grew on his face.

"Say it."  He whispered bending down to kiss her neck.

At first, she had no idea what was talking about but as he taunted her, refusing to grant her what she desired most of all, prolonging her sweet agony as she gyrated beneath him in futile attempts to guide him towards her, she knew.  It wasn't just her mind that had gone back to that night in Chicago... Gavin was thinking of it too.  Perhaps it was the newness of this experience, new like their love had been that night, or the long tease which had made them both so eager for one another?  Whatever had brought this on, there had only been one thing she'd said that night before Gavin had cast out the better angels of his conscience and claimed her there in that park...

She found herself breathlessly chuckling against his scarred skin which lay atop her own.

His fingers tangled into a fistful of her hair, holding her still as he claimed her mouth not with gentle kisses as Faith had done, but in a way that left her breathless and quaking under him when he pulled back, blue eyes locked on hers, growling, "Say it."

"Pl-"

Her words cut off by a groan of pleasure and - strangely relief.  The feel of him was nothing compared to the realization that when offered one of the most beautiful women in the world, Gavin's first desire was, and would always be, for her to want him as much as he wanted her. 

While the night's pleasures had been numerous and varied, in her mind, none ever compared to the first.  

The wind picked up just then and she turned herself to face into it.  She closed her eyes and listened to it blowing through the grass, enjoying the feel of her hair flying free behind her and Gavin beside her.  

If God had made a more perfect day, a more perfect moment, she'd not yet seen it.